Collarbone protection du jour?

I've never seen anything that directly protects a collar bone. However, is it actually a collar bone impact that's causing the break? Or a shoulder impact that pushes the collar bone from the outside and snapping it etc?

Broken collar bone is often from transmitted force up the arm from putting your hands out in a fall. So, broken wrist or broken collar bone? It’s a sh1tter but having done both I’d take the latter any day. Don’t think there’s any protection from it, mind. Heal well.

Yep, as above the collarbone snaps so other bones don't have to

The only way to avoid a broken collarbone is to stop cycling.
If you’ve got a bike, a broken collarbone is always in the post.
Just a matter of when.

I’ve done the same collarbone twice like you. Plated both times. Typically a break isn’t caused by a direct impact, and more from the force elsewhere - i.e. putting your hand out in the event of a fall.

IMO there is no armour that would stop you breaking it again. I believe collarbones are actually designed to break in order to prevent worse injury in the rest of the shoulder.

I think I read that some jockeys even have theirs removed as it’s so likely to break when they fall off a horse. Might be a myth though.

Good points all well made.

Not crashing it is…

I’ve done the same collarbone twice like you. Plated both times.

@prezet - What happened the second time with a plate in place? Doctor told me another accident could be bad news with my plate as screws and 12cm titanium could cause all kinds of damage 🙁 I know people who gave up riding because of it, but that'd be like giving up living for me!

@guandax The second crash made a big old mess. It pulled out the original plate, pins as well. Then broke into a couple of smaller pieces. The surgeon said he’d try to do what he could but couldn’t promise anything.

I’m the end he did an amazing job. After a fair bit of time and physio it’s feels all back to normal. I did end up having the plate removed - just in case there was a third time and I didn’t get so lucky.

@prezet - sounds nasty 🙁

I did end up having the plate removed

How was that? Been wondering if I should get mine removed.

@guandax just a simple day procedure. Felt much better afterwards - especially as I had young children who liked to sit on my shoulders and climb over me.

Thanks. I'll look into it. Did you get to keep the metalwork?

Sadly not. But I didn’t ask to either.

I had one of these about 15 years ago, ,theshoulder protection and straps were supposed to save your collarbones somehow.
Obviously I wasnt wearing it last time I broke one
Currently waiting to get the broken screw out of the plate, so wouldve been nice to keep it in one place

Don't stick your hands out - main cause, try tuck and roll. Manage not to break mine, but have needed AC joint drilling out of the bone spurs following hitting a car hard.

My ankle gave way walking along a pavement and i went down - I literally tucked and rolled into the road - (fortunately no cars) - the Mrs was like WTF.... absolute no injury, except the ankle.

Broken quite a few ribs and my spine though - road bike vs cars.

@tomhoward Twice this year! That's going some! I broke three ribs at the begining of april and still not fully over it. Still can't breath properly so don't dare go near the bike even though I wish I could, been told not to risk falling on them for at least six months. Don't think I could bare another three months like this for a long time.

Hopefully you heal quick, after breaking my collarbone into 4 last time i couldn't think of anything worse than breaking it again within a year, the whole mobility nightmare is burnt to memory, so i do get a bit twitchy on fast descents, i never put hands out or anything, i just went down at 20+ mph into the ground shoulder first.

As for the question though, honestly there is a hundred ways of breaking the collarbone, it is the weak link (be design i believe) in the whole area, from the arm upwards to shoulder to shoulder, any force going through that area, and into the collarbone can snap it.

Twice this year! That’s going some!

Twice in a year. Well, a year and 3 days to be precise.

I’m entered into three races at the Malverns at the end of august…

Raced 7 weeks after breaking it last time, so 10 should be plenty of time 😉

I was told you are soetimes better breaking the colar bone by my specialist, given the amount of soft tissue damage I suffered.

Ribs can hurt for months - I got back road riding uickly with busted ribs, but it was flat rides, no pulling. The quickest I recovered with my ribs was 6 weeks, but I broke my spine and 4 ribs - then wasn't allowed to move from the hospital bed for over 6 weeks. Ribs sorted leaving hosptial, spine not so.

What sort of recovery time are people giving their collar bones before getting back to biking at full speed? Mini greaser now looking at most of the summer off the bike after a "heavy stack" at unit23 that's broken his collar bone.

Both of mine have been from direct shoulder impacts. Both are plated. I did the first one 13 years ago and its never bothered me and the shoulder has taken a few knocks. The more recent one (2020) the whole shoulder isn't quite as good any more, probably as much to do with age as anything, and definitely feels a bit vulnerable. Also having plates both sides makes carrying certain things like kayaks more awkward. I now wear rugby under armour whilst paddling which has padding across the whole shoulder (for scrums I guess) which helps. Its only soft foam though so won't absorb a big impact. I picked up a lightweight MTB top at the EWS a couple of weeks back with shoulder protection (soft then stiffen on impact) so Ill see how that goes.

Did think I should maybe get the plates out also at some point.

Pads, mostly stop soft tissue damage. Broken bones are caused by leverage mostly.

I've broken the following in the past:-

Hand(s)
Left wrist in 4 places
Collar bone
Ribs
Pelvis in two places

The pelvis might have been helped with some kind of protection but I can't think what. Was a large impact.

Both breaks on mine took months before I felt confident to ride. Even the commute to work. Not sure I’d have been riding (let alone racing) after 10 weeks.

The worst part was the mental aspect. Getting confidence back took a long time.

Not a broken collarbone but torn ligament. Happened after an OTB on a downhill where I landed square on my left shoulder. This was on 23rd May and was told no cycling for 6 weeks. Was booked into the Batch Burner next weekend so had to cancel that.

So far am sticking to walking but I'm REALLY missing my cycling and am really snappy and irritable. Although that may also be because I've given up the booze.

Not a broken collarbone but torn ligament. Happened after an OTB on a downhill where I landed square on my left shoulder. This was on 23rd May and was told no cycling for 6 weeks. Was booked into the Batch Burner next weekend so had to cancel that.

Often worse. When I broke my wrist I had some ligament damage in the other. (Bars snapped at speed).
I actually thought I'd broken both. I asked the doctor if they could only cast one so I could look after myself.
It took longer for the wrist I didn't break to heal and hurt just as much.

Hmm, ligaments are painful. In same accident as doing my ribs I also sprained my thumb. Front wheel heavy landing and hand shot forward off bars forcing thumb back beyond where it wanted to go. I expected that to heal fairly quickly as I have done it before and it only took a few weeks but this time it is still really painful to grip things with it. If I poke with my finger in the muscle pad at the base of my thumb there is something very tender deep in there, suspect a torn ligament.

I suspect the best protection you can have is more strength and mobility and skill to handle and minimise the crash forces - I’m often amazed how hard the pros can crash without breaking anything (but sometimes they still get badly damaged by innocuous looking crashes).

I’ve also read that muscle is the best body armour. Not sure I can build enough of that over the next 10 weeks though…

Personally i just think it's down to luck, over nearly 30 years i've had some horrible falls that i get up from without any issue, whilst other less heavy falls have ended up with me getting broken ribs or the likes, there is no rhyme or reason to protecting against it, other than not falling off, even the discussions of not sticking arms out, or defensive rolls only work if you react and the environment you crash in allows it.

Maybe you should ask the surgeon to put an elastomer in there.