lonesomesteve

I'll be registering on the 3rd, but whether or not I'll be able to complete the qualifiers is still up in the air since I did this three weeks ago:

Marcello

Note to self: No broken bones before completing the qualifiers. And no broken bones after the qualifiers either, if possible.

Steve, have you done any ACP brevets this year? The rando season in the NW is pushed so early that there are only two 200k left, one of them my Oregon night time 200 this Saturday, and then the one that is part of the SIR brevet week in the middle of next month. And the brevet week 300 is the only other ACP 300k left. I am not sure if BC rando have any other 200-300k qualifiers scheduled. If at all possible, I would try to get at least one of the shorter qualifier done. There are plenty of opportunities for 400-600k brevets up until the middle of June. To qualify without a 200-300k brevet you will need to replace them with two 400-600k brevets, which is doable but more challenging, especially if you had to be off the bike for a while.

lonesomesteve

Unfortunately I broke my wrist a couple weeks before SiR's 200k which was going to be my first brevet of the year. I'm tentatively planning to ride the 300k in two weeks on the back of a tandem, but that may be pushing it too much. I'll have to wait and see how it feels.

I made a little chart of all of the OR Rando and SiR brevets and it will be definitely be tough if I can't ride that 300 in two weeks, but there are a couple of different ways to make it work. I'm still a long way from giving up. Thank goodness the rules allow replacing a shorter brevet with a longer one.

Yep, got the cast as well as a metal plate and some screws holding it all together, and I have aerobars set up on the bike that's on the trainer. It's my left arm, so I won't be road-safe until I have a decent grip on that front brake. I think I'll probably take your advice and use the aero bars once I'm back on the road. I just need to wean myself off them in time for PBP.

Homeyba

At least you can use aerobars on all the brevets before PBP. That'll help a lot! You're not using STI's on your bike are you? Why not switch your brakes so your front brake is on the right side?

BTW, that's a nasty spot for a break. Good thing your not still growing!

lonesomesteve

Yes, a nasty spot and nasty timing, but I just keep reminding myself it could have been worse (head, neck, back, ankle, etc.).

I use downtube shifters. I think the biggest challenge there will be supporting all of my weight with the left hand while reaching down to shift with the right... or reaching for a water bottle, food out of the handle bar bag, etc. I've thought about swapping the brakes but I'm a little afraid I'll kill myself by instinctively grabbing the wrong brake too hard at the wrong time. But I'll keep it in mind as an option.

Sorry, I didn't mean to hijack this thread with my personal woes. I'm still planning to pre-register on the 3rd so I'll report back on how that goes.

Homeyba

Why don't you start another thread. "How do I do an SR series with a broken arm!" I think it would be very useful. I know others who've had similar situation. I rode RAAM with a broken elbow!

unterhausen

I split off the other thread with a more informative title.

I'm sure there are people with experience on this subject

StephenH

When one of the local guys broke a collar bone several years back, he did two 200k rides on the back of a tandem to keep his R12 going. I suspect that worked better for him than it would for me.

I don't know if a recumbent would be any easier to handle one-handed.

I was riding on a charity ride a couple of years ago, and noticed the guy riding in front of me had kind of an awkward pedal stroke. I caught up with him and saw he just had one arm. He was just holding the handlebars at the center. You might have to work on arm strength a while to manage that.

Steamer

Well, yes, a recumbent trike for sure. Recumbent bike, hmmm.. probably not much better than an upright. Maybe worse since riding 2-wheeled bents no handed is quite difficult. But on a trike one can even get all of the controls set up on one side - both brakes, both shifters. I know of a fella who lost the use of one of his arms completely and he does very well with his single arm on the trike.

Although they are great machines, I have found recumbent trikes to be quite a bit of extra work over long distances compared to just about anything involving just two wheels. Marcello does just fine, but he's apparently a much stronger rider than me.

StephenH

I was just thinking the recumbent would get the weight off the arm; I don't know how the brakes and all are set up otherwise.

Come to think of it, I have no idea how the 1-armed guy I saw worked the brakes and shifting.

Homeyba

The tandem is a great option. Just make sure it is set up properly so that you can ride without putting too much if any weight on that arm. You should be able to ride for extended periods with no hands on the bars.

I broke my elbow on a crash just 85 miles from the start of RAAM. It wasn't nearly as bad of a break as yours. I just broke 1/4" of the tip off of it. It's actually still floating around, kind of fun to freak out little kids with. I had so many other injuries including 80+ stitches that it was hard to tell what hurt worse. The aerobars though were a life saver. Vibration will be an issue so you'll need to do everything in your power to mitigate any vibration. Make sure you have that hand as immobilized as possible. If you can rest it in some aerobars and supported with the cast you should be ok. I was given vicodin but I never used any pain killers on the bike. I was too worried about being able to control the bike if I was doped up. If you get the aerobars and aren't used to being in them you'll need to practice. You should be able to ride with your bad arm in the aerobar pad and easily reach your town tube shifters. It will probably be a better platform for that than not having the aerobar.

I've seen a number of one armed cyclists, including one on the Death Ride so I know you can do it if you make the proper accommodations

As far as broken collar bones go I think it really depends on how badly it is broken. I personally have never broken a collar bone but a very good friend of mine did, less than two weeks prior to PBP no less. His broke the bone in at least three pieces and there was no way he was riding no matter how tightly it was wrapped. Unfortunately for him his trip to France ended up being a rather depressing trip.

lonesomesteve

Unterhausen, thanks for starting the thread!

I think I may explore the recumbent idea a bit more. I'm currently in a cast below the elbow that also gives my fingers some mobility so I may be able to handle a recumbent, though it's hard to know for sure since I've never been on one before. The one thing I really can't do at this point is support any weight with my wrist.

The other thought I had was aerobars on the back of a tandem. Is that even possible? I know stoker cockpit space is pretty tight on most tandems, but with some cheap aerobars, a hack saw, and a little creativity... has anyone seen that done before?

Unfortunately my experience with tandems and recumbents is pretty much non-existent.

Homeyba, you are one tough bastard if you finished RAAM after that crash. Wow.

Homeyba

We've used that set up on our tandems. Take a straight bar and a set of two piece clip on aerobars like Syntac's. The straight ones, not the curved C-2's. Attach them on the ends of the straight bars. I don't know if you can see them very well in this pick but they are there.

vik 

https://www.randonneurs.bc.ca/schedule/sch_main.html

The Vancouver Island SR series hasn't started. First 200K is this Saturday.

seenloitering

The season comes late in Ontario too.
https://www.randonneursontario.ca/

There's also a Devil's Week this year that has a 200k, 300k, 400k, and 600k in the same week or week and a half - I want to say in May, but I honestly can't remember all the details. If you email someone at the above club they'll fill you in on the dates and so forth. There might be clubs closer to you that have something similar. There are clubs in Alberta and Quebec that have late seasons as well.

StephenH

We have folks coming in here from time to time to do brevets due to warmer weather or whatever. There might even be a tandem seat available, I think it depends on your personal charm and a number of other factors. We have ACP brevets in April and May.

It occurs to me that on a stoker seat, you could conceivably rig an aero-bar-type rig where your arms are basically crossed instead of splayed out, if that makes sense- right hand on left side, left hand on right. It wouldn't be "aero", but it's behind the captain's back anyway. Turning your arms at that angle is comfortable, but I'm not sure if it would stay comfortable for hours and hours.

lonesomesteve

Thanks, Homeyba. That picture helps. It looks like the aerobars are spread fairly wide apart, sort of surrounding the captain, right? I'm going to be meeting with my tandem captain this weekend to set up the tandem on a trainer and play around with riding positions. We'll give your setup a try.

Vik, Thanks for the BC Randos schedule link.I hadn't gotten around to checking their schedule yet. It looks like there are a couple options there that could help.

seenloitering, It looks like I've got quite a few options closer to home between OR, SiR and BC. I'll have to save Ontario for another year.

vik 

Good luck! I'll have enough trouble riding my brevets this year with no injuries to contend with!...

Homeyba

I don't remember exactly what model of mtn bike handlebar they were but they were quite wide and the aerobars were mounted on the very ends. The aerobars do wrap around the captain so it does make it a little more difficult for the captain to get on and off. The aerobars were something like these:

You can put quite a bit of padding on there and it's a very natural position. You should be quite comfy on there. btw, if you get stuck and need to do a brevet down here in sunny CA I'd be happy to throw you on the back of my Calfee!

lonesomesteve

Seems like it should be easy to find some cheap used flat bars around. The aero bars I currently have are a bit different than the Syntace bars, but I think we can probably make them work.

The Seattle Randos 300k is in a week and a half. Thanks to this thread I'm feeling a little better about it than I did a couple days ago. I really appreciate all the advice and encouragement. I'll keep you all posted.

Rowan

I can't help with the broken arm experience, but I can relate after a major dislocation of my shoulder... then rode a 300 randonnee about 10 days later. I had to either lift my hand on to the handlebar or start at the stem and walk my hand around to the hood. At least, that was at the start. By the end, I had just slightly more mobility.

I was quite rando fit in those days, including core strength, so I don't remember road vibration being an issue. HOWEVER, jerky movement of the handlebars was. About 40km (IIRC) from the finish, in the middle of the night, a possum sauntered across the road in front of me. Naturally, I jerked the bars to avoid the animal, and the pain in my shoulder was enormous. I yelped, loudly. My riding partner who was about 200 metres behind, didn't know what was going on!

How is your cast set up between your thumb and index finger. It seems to me that in a normal riding position, that part of the cast would probably be useful for taking some of the load.

I do have a warning for you and using aero bars. If you can, get out for a decent ride beforehand and check that you can cope with the change in position. It's likely that your horizontal saddle position will be somewhat different, along with even your saddle height, and the fore-after adjustment. I suppose the question that may short-circuit these issues is: How much riding do you do on your drops on the single?

And just hope and pray that your captain isn't prone to gastro-intestinal issues when riding fast!!!

LWaB

My first brevet (300) was ridden with a friend, 'Animal'. We rode round in just over 13 hrs, he on his extra-padded aero bars virtually the whole way round. The forearm cast stabilising the arm broken a couple of weeks earlier didn't seem to trouble him too much.

lonesomesteve

Over the past couple weeks I've spent a few hours on a trainer with aero bars. I have a different saddle on the trainer bike (Selle San Marco Regal) that I think is better suited to the low position than my usual Brooks B17. So far so good, though an hour at a time on the trainer is nothing like 12 hours on the road.

That's great to hear, though the nickname "Animal" has me a little worried.

Homeyba

Rowan makes an excellent point about your position. It will change where you are sitting on the seat. Some minor tweaks may be in order. Be extra watchful for the beginnings of any possible sores. I've come prefer riding in that position. I can ride for days in the aerobars. Even if I am doing a brevet that doesn't allow aerobars I still ride with my forearms on the bar tops. I even switched my handlebars to flat top bars with extra padding on the tops. It's just more comfy for me.

lonesomesteve

I successfully completed the first of my four qualifying brevets yesterday. I ended up jury rigging an arm rest from some aero bars sideways, and only on the left side. Definitely not the most orthodox set up, but it worked quite well. Basically it let me rest on my left forearm with my right hand either on the hood or in the drops. I was also able to put my left hand on the hood, but that was still pretty painful so I didn't do too much of that. Here's what the cockpit looked like:



This was a fairly tough 300k with about 9,000 ft of climbing. Having been off the bike for the past month and a half may have presented a bigger challenge than having my arm in a cast. But thanks to a great captain on the tandem and good luck on the weather we made it through with smiles on our faces for most of the ride.



My cast comes off this Tuesday. I can tell my wrist is going to be stiff and sore for a while yet, but I have four weeks until the 400k. Hopefully that will be enough time to get comfortable on a single bike again.

Edit: Oops almost forgot to post the picture of the cast. As proof, ya know.