I just finished trimming the lawn, and I am wiping the grass shrapnel from my legs, when I noticed this bruise/scab, that looks like a bite from an insect. From the looks of it, a mighty big insect. Then I find another, just 1 1/2 inches away. And another on the other leg.

Then it dawns on me.... Those are my pedal bites.

Ouch! I took a pedel to the shin a few months ago when i fell off my rollers. Very painfull. I can still see the bruise, 4 months later.

Hehe, I have MANY scars on my legs from a couple years of dirt jumping. Pedals are very non-forgiving If there was no hair on my legs to cover the white marks scattered all over my shin, I would have pretty ugly legs

But seriously, legs are very non biker-friendly. All of the muscle and "padding" is on the back of the leg, and the bone is right there unprotected to be eaten up by the pedals.

-bs

As I write this, I have two small scabs about 3-1/2" apart on my left shin. I bought some cheap soccer shinpads after some major carnage a few weeks ago (platform pedals with pins) but I didn't really want to wear them. I think I will start now.

Pedals seem to be attracted to shins. My right shin has barely any feeling left in it, and my left currently has 3 scabs on it. I find that the only time I hit my shins are either going up hill, or riding very technical. Wet conditions are uaually the cause. I invested in shin pads for any of my technical urban riding, or wet conditions. I noticed many guys doing trials where them too.

I now have a healed scar on my right shin from a pedal scrape, and a couple of chain gouges that look like a vampire bite, not terribly deep, and a bruise on my left shin from a pedal klonk.

I have bigger problems, though. I klonked my left knee on the corner of the bed a couple of days ago, right in that spot where it just KILLS. However, it's still really sore at the top of my knee cap, and cycling for a couple of days seems to have aggravated it and I'm now worried I will be joining Jan Ullrich on the permanant disabled list! ANyone have any idea how long this takes to go away? SHould I take a couple of days off or what? I'm taking the day off today anyways.

wabbit, I have hit my knee very hard from jumping, and it was sore for a good week. Just take it easy and it should get better, if it doesn't then definately have it looked at. Needless to say, I'm investing in some knee pads

-bs

I was just starting a ride and actually thought I was
clipped in and slipped off pedal which being what they
are, jumped up and bit my shin. Still have dark red scar
6 months later.
Wabbit, just relax and watch the Giro again, otherwise you
will end up like Jan. Give yourself some time to heal.

Marty

Got my bike off the chairlift today, went to pedal up to the start of the DH race and I slipped a pedal....back of my leg all bloody

yuch, and I think I have problems... just depressed, the weather is finally nice after a month of crap and I don't want to miss too much of it. I wish I wasn't such a ****z! I didn't mind taking a day off, and tomorrw we're expecting thunderstorms, so I think I'll go to the gym and work on the upper body.

I know that you folks may consider me an newbie interloper, but this thread reminded me of my worst shin damage. While it happened on two wheels, it was on the powered variety. My wife and I both used to have motorcycles, both road bikes. Hers was a kick-start bike.

One beautiful Saturday, we were both out riding and the weather ahead looked a bit threatening. We decided to run for home. I turned in into a gravel driveway to turn around. My wife was scared to death of gravel and she stalled the bike. She kicked it a couple of times and it just wouldn’t fire. In my macho haste, I jumped on her bike to show her how it was done. I went up just as high as I could and came down.

I missed the lever. It me in the middle of the shin. Exquisite!

Now I was bruised but I still had to start the stupid thing. I could barely put enough pressure on the lever to turn the bike over. I did manage to get it going, but boy, it hurt! We rode home, parked and covered the machines, and I couldn’t say a word. I couldn’t admit that I hurt myself. I limped for a week. Oh, well. Sorry for the digression.

My current injury is a lot better, but still sore on the spot where I klonked it. It hurts only if I bend the knee, such as squatting or a deep bend. I am still questioning if I could go on a ride or if that would make it worse again and then I'm off for god knows how long-- what a dilemma! We're finally getting nice weather and I don't want to miss anymore.

What about a chainring insertion injury? 6 perfectly triangular scars dug deep into the calf.

Thats real pain

Hey chainring...amaze your friends and stupify your enemies and tell them your chainring attack is a sharkbite scar. At least that's what I tell the curious little boys around here. I wear that one with pride, although it taught me a good lesson: if you don't want a chainring tattoo, you gotta degreased that puppy REGULARLY!

I'm still wondering how long it will take before this klonk gets better. Has anyone ever had exactly this kind of klonk- where you hit your knee on something in that really painful spot and it hurts like hell? I klonked it a week ago and haven't been on a bike since friday. It really only hurts when I bend, like a deep knee bend, and only really on the spot where i klonked it. But it seems to be taking forEVER to get better and I'm getting to be very gloomy. What on earth could make it get better aside from not cycling?

try moist heat at the spot, maybe some ibruprofens. I 'd get myself to a jacuzzi if I could! Other than that...try to keep sane but back off on the riding if it's aggravating things. Knees are pretty complex thingies...give it time or you may regret it later. Now if I coulld only follow my own advice when it comes to injuries!!
Might also be a good time for doing a little cross training!

Good advice, sounds pretty sane and sensible. I hope I don't sound like a whiner or complainer, which I am but anyways, LOL. It's not like road rash, it's just so STUPID. In addition, I klonked the same knee, but in a different spot last night- went to the bathroom in a restaurant, and the door to the stall opened INWARD. It made it impossible to navigate and the door knocked me on the inside of the knee, yet another bruise but this one minor. How totally stupid! However, I've found that arnica is great for bruises and pedal klonks- it really works! As for cross training, I did go to the gym since the weather has been kind of iffy, and it gives me a chance to do other stuff, but no leg weights for me!

Hmmmm I usually walk mine off, and in about 10 minutes , all the unbearable pain is gone. There is only a little pain afterwards, barely noticable. Is your knee swollen? Even if it apears fine, try icing it when you get a chance.

Injury free at the moment here. I've klonked my shin a few times thoug, and I've pulled the chainring trick too. Just a couple of the many pains of cycling!!!

No, Urbanking, not swollen at all. It's just sore on the upper side of my kneecap and in the area around it. However, it seems to be slowly improving. I've hated taking time off but the weather hasn't been great anyways- rainy and humid.

I always whack my shin when I try to put my pedal in its lowest position to push off on as I swing my leg over the saddle to take off. It seems I miss the pedal on the way around and it keeps going until it hits my shin. Metal platforms are the worst. I had my foot slip off a pedal once when I stopped too fast, and it went into the screw on the side of my fenders. I ruined my sock with blood and I still have a divet like scar 5 years later.

About the knee, I would take it easy--ienly ride on flat ground where you can control the pressure you put on it. I think a doc would say use ice and ibuprofen. Keeping it moving is probably good for it.

Yes, it seems to stiffen up when I'm sitting or when I wake up, but it's improving, mind you the humidity doesn't help. It's hard to ride on a TOTALLY flat road around here- to get onto our fave ride we have to go up and down a couple of slopes, but not like the Swiss alps or anything. It looks like another day of storms tomorrow, so I'm off the bike for another day- it's been almost a week, I'm going insane!

wabbit, in case anyone by now is thinking you sound like a walking hazard let me tell you a quick story about my last accident to make you feel a bit better. My favorite saddle was a Terry Pro Splitz ("was") until about this past January. The bolt that holds the clamp assembly onto the rails sheared off and,of, course, my saddle left. What then happened goes something like this (it happened so damn fast I'm only guessing, but I don't dare look for witnesses out of wounded pride): the saddle flipped nose-to-the-sky and dumped me straight down onto the rear wheel, and from there straight to the road--where it got gravity abuse a second time. Just let me assure you there is a good reason they call it a crack. I can only guess what it would have felt like if it hadn't been winter and I wasn't wearing my thermal tights! Needless to say, both my a$$ and my saddle were shot all to heck and I STILL had to get my self home. I managed to ride standing the last three miles, and I walked like a gunfighter for about a week. There were actually TREAD marks on my tush when I got brave enough to check things out and I guess I did indeed fracture my coccyx.
So don't feel bad,ok? Ice and heat, ice and heat. That's all you can do until it's better.

LOL, I'm laughing so hard at that story, but it does sound horribly painful. A few years ago my SO had an accident as well and smashed his tailbone and had to walk around for a week like Groucho Marx. What can you do- not like you can put it in a cast or something.

Just in case anyone cares, I've recovered from my klonk enough to go on rides. It still is stiff in the mornings after a ride, but I can now do decent rides without pain. I did 65 k yesterday. From what I can see it's an inflammation of the quadricep tendon, probably from the trauma of the klonk. I was going to have it checked out but figure they aren't going to tell me to do anything but what I'm already doing. It's just one of those things that takes a while to entirely go away. In the meantime I actually do have a real pedal klonk on my calf. Boy, it's great to be back on the bike! What with watching the Tour and going on rides, my entire life is about cycling. It's great!