CYCLING: While riding along a busy street, I had a breakthrough epileptic seizure. Before losing consciousness, I managed to ride up on someone's lawn, crashed into a tree and got a concussion, bruises, and temporary memory loss. Fortunately, I'm glad I was wearing a helmet that day. I've long since recovered.

NON-CYCLING: One night in college, I had an epileptic seizure outside my dorm room. I fell face-first to the linoleum tile floor and smashed my two upper front teeth. Thanks to dental surgerry, I have been able to take care of the dental issue. I also take medications to control epilepsy much better.

Cycling,attacked by two dogs.Over 200 stitches to close the wounds.

Other,ran over by semi truck in the fog.9 days in a chemically induced coma,3 months in the hospital,9 months recovery.

Grade 3 shoulder separation; front tire went flat in the middle of a turn.

My 19yo son, broke his collarbone in a bike crash. He was taking a curve too fast and ended up going over the handlebars. The big issue is that he is attending an art college this fall and he broke his right collarbone. He is right handed. Argh...

wow,cyclists are a resilient bunch are'nt we ,let's not forget testicular,brain and lung cancer -a low chance of surviving at all then winning the tour de France seven times on the trot

Cycling- A skinned knee when hit from behind by in inattentive rider. My rear wheel gave its life protecting me.

Non -cycling - I'd guess a seperated shoulder. Though a recent hyperextension of a knee comes close. Perhaps the hyperextension was worse. I was done right away. The seperation didn't stop my from finishing ut the Rugby tournament I was involved in.

cycling head on to the sidewalk
was doing a bunny hop up, and missed 1 wheel
still have a tiny scar next to my eyes for show.
i was like 2 face in batman for 2 weeks in school

non cycling.... too many to remember... LOL

We should start a club!

...hurts like hell don't it?!

cycling - really nothing serious. some roadrash as a kid.

otherwise, skiing - broken leg.

nothing hurts like a broken heart


... just sayin'

Cycling: 1) Fractured wrist while trying to avoid hitting a drunkard who staggered in front of me while I was riding at high speed on a bike path. The injury required surgery and the implantation of a plate and several screws. 2) "Came a cropper" a couple of weeks ago while riding in Portugal and cracked a rib. Tried to carry on, but the pain took all of the fun out of the tour, and I abandoned the ride a couple of days later. Good thing I was wearing a helmet as my head slammed into the pavement.

Non-cycling: 1) Was held up in the Miami area thirty years ago by two men. One of them shot me with a .38 pistol for no reason (I'd offered no resistance). The bullet traversed my lung but missed my heart. 2) I was attacked from behind by a crazed, knife-wielding neighbour here in Spain as I was leaving the garage with my bicycle a couple of years ago. Suffered a knife wound to the buttocks.

Torn ankle ligaments from a nasty spill on a patch of ice late last year. Kept me off the bike for 10 weeks.

Three fractures to the pelvis, two fractured ribs, and one fracture to the clavical. All one occurance involving an altercation between my bike and someone else's car. No damage to the bike. I can't even imagine how the bike got off without a scratch.

Bike: road rash and bruised ego
Non-bike: partially cut a tendon in my finger with my machete last month. 2 stitches.

SHEEEE-IT!

Cycling, smashed lip and cracked tooth, Motorcycling, Concussion and smashed elbow. 30 years later, it's starting to give me some aches.

On a cycle: tough call, I split my chin open riding my trike when I was around 3, tried to ride it down a short set of steps. Have scars from the stitches in my chin 32 years later. As a teen, I ate it going downhill on my 10 speed, was wearing flip-flops, foot went into front spokes, hit the forks and I went over the handlebars. The pain was excruciating. I chewed my big toe to #$%$ and broke it too, bruised myself in a bunch of places from that one, too.

Not cycling: I'm notoriously clumsy but lucky, I've never broken a major bone but I've broken several toes. My most recent nasty injuries were either that day last summer when I got hit by a cyclist (oh the irony) then I fell down a flight of stairs on my rear end...on the same day. I missed up my rotator cuff, bruised my @$$ so bad I couldn't sit properly for a week and had a nasty bruise on the side of my forearm that had a huge lump on it. I had the ugliest bruises for weeks after that. I missed a day of work, too.

About 3 years ago I fell down walking down a hill, there was dirt worn away from the edge of the sidewalk and I stepped there and rolled my ankle really bad, down I went and because it was downhill, couldn't save myself from hitting hard. I was overweight at the time, too. Bruised and scraped up my knee, shredded my ankle and bruised/chewed my elbow. I had to get a tetanus shot (I was not amused by that) and my ankle wasn't right for years. It used to ache sometimes.

I was amazed at how badly you can chew your body up just taking a dive walking.

Cycling: Last month I landed on my face - one stitch in my nose, other lacerations.

Non-cycling: In 1985 I dove into shallow water, fractured C7. Off work for three months, no long term effects other than reduced range of motion since C6 and C7 are fused.

Worst was actually cycling -- dislocated shoulder from OTB.

I'm glad I wore a helmet that day, tho. The bike bounced off my head.

Cycling: nothing worse than minor cuts, road rash, and bruises.

Non-cycling: broken & dislocated elbow in jr high school, requiring surgery and 2 pins to put it together. Doc said I'd never get full use of it, but I proved him wrong - except that doing push-ups inflames it too much, so I gave them up 30 years ago.

About 10 years ago I was riding in grass that was somewhat tall....It wasn't THAT tall, but it was enough to cover a storm drain that wasn't covered, fenced, or marked. I fell about 2 feet, went over the handlebars, hit my head on the ground, and landed on my back...the bike was still ridable (although scratched) so I started back for home in a lot of pain.

Well stupid me and my shortcuts off of the path....just a small ditch that I didn't see in time caused me to go over the handlebars again...

Both MTB related... but I don't ride much road beyond commuting.

1) Riding over a ladder bridge, crossing a dry stream bed, one of the rungs on the bridge broke (which after further inspection at a later date was rotted) causing my bike to come to an immediate stop. I, however, continued forward over the handle bars catching them with my knees. So I went into the dry stream bed face-first with the bike close behind. As I hit the ground with my right shoulder, the rear end of the bike swung around and the rear tire slammed into the back of my head. I laid there for a good ten minutes trying to collect myself. I walked it out. Ended up with a mild concussion and cuts/bruises.

2) I was at the end of a long ride and powering up a trail that was cut into the side of a steep hill. I was almost at the top of this rather steep incline when my legs gave out and I realized that I wasn't going to make it. I had just started riding clipless (yeah, you know where this is going) and I tried frantically to unclip. I was like a fly on flypaper. I went over to the right and ended up rolling down the steep hill about fifteen feet with my right foot still attached to the bike. I had a huge bruise on the inside of my right thigh, all of my knuckles were bloody (how this happened I don't know), and I had a deep cut on my left arm from what I think was the chain ring. I sheepishly rode it out and drove myself to the hospital.

Good times, I miss mountain biking.

Non-Cycling:

Severely broke my right elbow. I slipped in some hydraulic fluid and fell off the top of a military helicopter I had been working on.

I also burned both my feet in a chemical fire, wasn't as bad as Machka's, but I do have permanent scars and won't ever go barefoot in front of other people. I became tired long ago. I had an ex-girlfriend get mad at me, because I wore socks to bed, and she liked to play footsy when she was feeling randy.

Cycling:

Broke three ribs and seperated a shoulder in one crash.

Another time I suffered a mild concussion after ditching a jump that had gone wrong while mountain biking. I didn't hit the jump square, which launched me directly towards a stand of trees. I had two choices, hit a tree or hit the ground, I chose the ground, it looked softer.

I don't even remember hitting my head.



OWCHHH!!!

I had a tendonitis problem a while back in both of my achilles, it was from walking too much. I could barely even walk when it flared up.

Cycling: Front QR on my Cannondale wasn't tightened properly. Was doing about 15mph when I jumped off a curb, while commuting to work one morning and the tire came out of the fork. My face hit the handlebar, and then I fell over and came to a stop using the left side of my face as a brake.

Results: 3 stiches across my nose, six in my lip. A chipped tooth, road rash all up the left side of my face/neck, and dealing with a swollen shut eye for a day and a half.

Worst part was having a work buddy not believe me when I called in sick due to a "bicycle wreck". Funny what a picture text message can do to change someones mind.

Wow, I am a lightweight compared to most of you:

Non-Cycling: Broken hand and nose during college frat party fight in 1980. Was working as a bouncer for our frat party (OK, I was drunk as well) and a few guys started getting rowdy and tearing up the joint. I laid out one and had another by the throat against a brick wall about to clock him when my (bigger) frat brother pulled me away since he was afraid I would have hurt the guy. Ended up punching the wall instead, breaking a few hand bones. Gave the other guy and his buddy a chance to gang up on me and bust my nose. The pain wasn't bad but my nose didn't heal straight and they had to break it again a few weeks later to reset it. Unfortunately the small Asian doctor didn't numb me well enough beforehand.

Cycling: just the occasional numb-hands and "numbnuts".

Cycling: My first four races as a junior ended in pileups, so I had beef jerky growing on my left leg through most of my junior year in highschool. The worst one was an unbroken slab from hip to ankle with an embedded piece of asphalt-shrapnel that got mildly infected before ejecting the stone.

Non-cycling: Shattered $600 motorcycle helmet on a boulder and had double-vision for 11 nervous days thereafter. Doc said, "It'll either heal on its own or it won't but there's nothing we can do."

Tally so far: 10 broken bones, 1 concussion, 0 stitches, 2 back surgeries, knee surgery pending

A man without scars is a sad, sorry animal.