[Urban_Nomad]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Why has this thread gone silent again...where are all the usual suspects.

On this very trail below, post this section, I had a pretty bad nasty fall and wrecked my arm. Lesson learnt, hopefully.

https://Youtu.be/cFcfNQNJtLA

I unfortunately had a bit of a crash (diesel on road) and was off the bike for over a month. Started riding a couple weeks ago, mostly Motocross. Its almost like learning to ride again. Cleared a tabletop yesterday so I guess that's progress

What do you mean "wrecked your arm"? Fracture? Hope you are well

I would yet again urge you to get on a smaller and more dirt worthy machine and leave the 390 for road work and / or touring

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

I unfortunately had a bit of a crash (diesel on road) and was off the bike for over a month. Started riding a couple weeks ago, mostly Motocross. Its almost like learning to ride again. Cleared a tabletop yesterday so I guess that's progress

What do you mean "wrecked tour arm"? Fracture? Hope you are well

I would yet again urge you to get on a smaller and more dirt worthy machine and leave the 390 for road work and / or touring

Sorry to hear about that.

I have been down three weeks. I may have wrecked some ligaments on my over palm area because of using my arm to brace my fall. Icing has helped heal a great deal and pain has been reducing substantially. However a friendly physio advises another 3 weeks of zero hand movement and icing. So Dec is out.

Smaller dirt worthy machine has to wait until next year or the year after even...totally out of funds to push this hobby anymore at the moment. Will probably stick to lighter trails for a while and focus a bit more on travel enduro anyway.

However if i can lay my hands on a streetable impulse, i could push my luck a bit. Finding one is quite rare however. I don't think i can stretch even for a used xpulse here. Plus the use case of only exploring dirt trails close home is a bit of an annoyance. All in good time i hope.

[Urban_Nomad]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I have been down three weeks. I may have wrecked some ligaments on my over palm area because of using my arm to brace my fall

totally out of funds to push this hobby anymore at the moment. Will probably stick to lighter trails for a while and focus a bit more on travel enduro anyway

Sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you recover soon

I hear you man, this hobby isn't cheap. After my crash, I've been contemplating getting new boots preferably with a hinge and better ankle protection. But the cheapest POS MX boots you can buy are an eye watering 14.5k. Want a hinged boot? Be ready to shell out 35k

For a friggin boot?!! I'm not even prepared to talk about knee and neck braces. Dont think I can take the emotional trauma

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by Urban_Nomad

Sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you recover soon

I hear you man, this hobby isn't cheap. After my crash, I've been contemplating getting new boots preferably with a hinge and better ankle protection. But the cheapest POS MX boots you can buy are an eye watering 14.5k. Want a hinged boot? Be ready to shell out 35k

For a friggin boot?!! I'm not even prepared to talk about knee and neck braces. Dont think I can take the emotional trauma

I am amazed you are even contemplating it. After all the mx you have been doing. Personally i think hinged mx boots are needed even for adv riding. Regular adventure boots are flip flops.

I have already wrecked my ankle ligaments twice. Both times were 2 months in a cast and then 2 months of physio. My leg muscles were completely wasted.

I was wearing hinged plastic sidi boots on this ride and the bike collapsed over my foot trapping me on a rut. I used my free right leg to kick the bike off me to free my left trapped leg. I could feel the weight of the bike on my foot. I think i escaped quite lightly. I was not wearing my elbow armour and paid s heavy price since i instinctively used my arm to brace my fall.

What is your foot size. My Sidi x3 enduro/mx boots are unfortuantely too big for me, and i have to let them go at a size EU46 used thrice or so.

Mx boots are expensive, but are far far cheaper than surgery, months of downtime, physio classes, and lost riding time. I have already lost 3 weeks and now am staring at 3 weeks more, and then we start physio to get my full range of motion back.

I was also wearing my leatt knee guards. Without these, I probably have busted knee caps as well.







Knee braces are crazy expensive. So are neck braces. I have decided to cut back to light enduro and hone some of my skills first. I had a klim jersey, which has cordura panels. I still bled under neath because of the impact. A regular Jersey would have shredded to bits along with my arm.

[ebonho]

Moral of the story.

Dirt is a young man's game.

Young as in late 30s to max mid 40s.

After that post a crash it takes longer and longer to just get up and out of bed. Or even change sides.

Cheers, Doc

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by ebonho

Moral of the story.

Dirt is a young man's game.

Young as in late 30s to max mid 40s.

After that post a crash it takes longer and longer to just get up and out of bed. Or even change sides.

Cheers, Doc

Arre i am late 30's. I think we are getting ourselves way over head at our ages honestly, with zero prior experience. If i had started riding dirt bikes when i was 15, its a different story. But starting at this age is unfortunately many recipes for different disasters

Good thing is i have some understanding of dirt now. I never wanted to get into competition mx anyway.

[ebonho]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

Arre i am late 30's. I think we are getting ourselves way over head at our ages honestly, with zero prior experience. If i had started riding dirt bikes when i was 15, its a different story. But starting at this age is unfortunately many recipes for different disasters

Good thing is i have some understanding of dirt now. I never wanted to get into competition mx anyway.

So you're still not at the age when you wake up early morning for a piss and post crash lie on your bed flat on your back for 10 minutes trying (hoping) to see if the urge passes and you do not need to do the complicated and painful maneuvers required to ambulate upright and hobble to the John?

You're set then!

Cheers, Doc

[nitinkbhaskar]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

A regular Jersey would have shredded to bits along with my arm.

Woah !!
Couple of days back I was wondering why you are not active on the adv 390 thread with your ride pics.

That looks like a really tough fall. Recover soon mate.

On a side note - have booked a beginner session with big rock dirt folks during Dec end. Shall start posting on this thread soon.

[drt_rdr]

Sorry to hear about your crashes, guys. Here's wishing for your full recoveries soon.

Here's something to consider as far as offroading goes though. Thicker gloves rob you of feel and fine control. The heavier the body armor (especially if you wear full jackets and pants), the more taxing it's going to be to move around on the bike, especially if you happen to ride tough terrain for hours together. And Indian weather(atleast south indian weather) adds a lot to the discomfort if you're not moving fast enough.

Personally, I prefer better control over the bike (which means some compromises in choice of armour) than the illusion of safety that big fat gear provides while taking away fine control from you.

I mean is it even worth wearing thick gloves if it numbs the feedback from the throttle grip and levers? Is it worth wearing full jacket and pants if the heat inside can distract you from the actual riding and exhaust you faster?

I've got thin gloves, armoured shirts and shorts (from which I may remove a couple pieces of armour depending on the ride) with breezy cotton t shirts and loose pants over them, and a backpack with built-in back protector for whatever it's worth. Elbow and knee guards are non negotiable for me though. Maybe I need to give my hiking shoes a good think over too. I hate my fullface helmet too but I'm keeping it for now.

All said, I'm no competition rider and usually ride comparatively lighter bikes, so take my word with a pinch of salt. I guess I've also been quite lucky with my crashes. Nothing worse than a few gashes and sprained and sore muscles so far (considering I've gone out hillclimbing in tshirts, lungis and chappals sometimes). I've had way worse injuries shopping for vegetables.

[ast.ggn]

Going by the stories here, I feel comfortable watching videos on youtube now. No more fast trails for me unless I save enough money for complete armour. Get well soon @RedLiner. Urban Nomad is already back on track.

[Red Liner]

Originally Posted by drt_rdr

Sorry to hear about your crashes, guys. Here's wishing for your full recoveries soon.

Here's something to consider as far as offroading goes though. Thicker gloves rob you of feel and fine control. .

I wore acerbis enduro trail gloves and they offer zero protection as does any trail glove. You will see it in the picture below. No elbow armour because i felt it restrict movement on the trail and here we are. With that soft armour in place i think i would have been bruised way less.

I have a leatt chest/back/shoulder integrated roost armour. Nice and light. Over that goes the klim jersey. Then we have knee armour and you see what happened to that. Round it off with mx boots.



I think my revit gloves may have softened the blow better.

Your hiking boots on a fall like mine would have meant you are writing this from the confines of a hospital room after ankle reconstruction surgery and lots of nails and screws. However light your bike is, the rock on which you fall and the gravity which drops the bike on you doesn't change.

After having experienced bad injuries, i would rather go with the protection.

I kind of landed on my chest, braced by my left arm, my left leg pinned under the bike.

[drt_rdr]

Gear setup looks good (maybe a bit too warm). Just saying if the gear I wear is comfortable enough to not compromise too much on control over the bike, chances of me falling off it may be lesser... provided I know what I'm doing and keep away from doing stupid things for which no amount of gear will be enough. Not implying you did stupid things though... but did you? . I'm guilty of a few.

I hear you on the trail gloves. My klim dakars have held up in fair shape through multiple scrapes on tar, and over gravel, mud and rocks. But the impact protection is poor. Still, I'd rather have a thin and airy pair of gloves than not be able to properly feel out what's happening with the front brake for example. It depends on what you prioritize on your rides I suppose. For me, the enjoyment I derive is from control over the bike. It doesn't make sense to dull that and increase my reaction times for the sake of hypothetical safety during some one-off event.

I mean my armored shirt and shorts weigh about 3-4 kgs, maybe a bit more, knee guards about a kilo, and helmet approx 2 kgs, backpack with tools and other junk inside would be another 3-4 kilos or more. So I'm lugging atleast 9-10 kgs extra weight that already has an effect on certain reactions like standing up, swaying back and forth, side to side etc unless I do some weight training. I personally don't want to handicap myself even further.

Speaking of reaction time, you mentioned being bucked off the bike downhill as the cause of your crash. Were you standing up or sitting down on the bike at the time? Sounds like you fell during a turn.

Yeah, I should upgrade from my hiking boots but I'm in the same boat as Urban_Nomad. It pains me to invest 20k for a decent pair when I could be riding for an entire year with that.

[petrolhead_neel]

Originally Posted by drt_rdr

Gear setup looks good (maybe a bit too warm).

The Leatt 4.5 Pro that Red Liner is wearing is surprisingly airy and comfortable. It's what I have as well, and so does Urban_Nomad. Definitely recommended.

Neel

[Red Liner]

For all those still considering mx boots, give this video a watch.

https://youtu.be/sBocQvsIDFA

This guy wasn't even riding the bike. Thats how fragile our feet are.

I have a hairline crack on my little finger. Will post my xray in a bit lol.

[Urban_Nomad]

Originally Posted by Red Liner

I am amazed you are even contemplating it. After all the mx you have been doing. Personally i think hinged mx boots are needed even for adv riding. Regular adventure boots are flip flops

Array I do wear mx boots - acerbis X pro V something. I meant something with a hinged ankle like the sidis you mentioned.

I wear a size 43 44 depending on boot brand so a 46 would be too big on me I think