How long before I get over the "bash my ankles" stage of learning to ride EUC?

[Guest d0n]

Ow. This sucks. Does everyone go through this when learning to ride or am I just a major clutz? 

 

[OldFartRides]

I’m still thinking I need “above the ankle pro” for trail riding. Indeed it does suck.

[yoos]

In my case shins suffered more (the top edge of the KS16 or of its pads presses against the shin very painfully), so I used some cheap shin guards (designed for soccer and a bit bulky) for the first several hours of learning. For ankles I suggest ankle guards or simply wearing high-top sneakers/boots. I always wear these guards and they earned their keep in my one serious crash. I clipped a stick with a pedal, which stopped and turned the euc. As a result my leg hit the euc (while I flew forward), leaving a glorious blue bruise the size of an eggplant. However, the ankle area (which would be the center of the eggplant) was completely unharmed - thanks to the guards. Anyway, they are really nice and quick to put on and prevent any discomfort from pressing or rubbing against the wheel. I also appreciate the Achilles tendon protection -- I can easily imagine a low-speed crash where the euc would strike this area with a pedal.

[Scottie]

1 hour ago, d0n said:

Ow. This sucks. Does everyone go through this when learning to ride or am I just a major clutz? 

I cannot speak for everyone, but that picture looks very familiar. Oh, that was my leg when I was learning.

That is a fairly common issue when learning. After your feet wise-up, it becomes a non-issue. @Ubute had a creative solution. He is a creative craftsman. Most try to find some padded high-top sneakers or boots, or some kind of athletic pads. 

[Flying W]

I think it's one of those things that we all go through. When you see another wheel on the road no matter what you know you both know what it feels like to have a wheel spin around and nail you ankle or shin bone. 

Any discomfort from just riding will go away pretty quick, a pedal strike from a doing wheel can rear it's ugly anytime you bounce off and land back on the pedals with only one foot 

[Tawpie]

Ankle badge. I wore soccer guards until I was pretty good at getting on and off… after that haven’t needed them. Until I got the MTen and that’s an angry little begger. So the soccer kit came out again for a week, now it’s back in the box until the next wheel arrives.

I do wear high top hiking boots, but that’s mostly to avoid a sprain. Not all my get-offs are graceful.

Edited July 20, 2021 by Tawpie

[Aztek]

Soft shin guards help, when worn turned to face the wheel.

There's a downside though - the wheel can't float between your legs and it adds strain to the inner side of the knees too.

[Singasong]

Skateboarders ankle guards are great. If you don't plan on riding trails you'll not need them as soon you will be confident in stepping off without getting hit, but no matter how good you get, if you ride mtn bike trails with rough ground and steep side slopes you will at one point slam a pedal into a rock or root and it will sit you down in a hurry while your wheel spins around and slams your ankle. 30 bucks at your local skate shop and it saves you a world of hurt

[jtm94]

Ouch. I never had anything like that while learning. It was just me falling on my tailbone and scuffing up my hands. Is it from the pedals hitting your ankles?

[OldFartRides]

Ya. Here’s my new egg.

[The Brahan Seer]

3 months on and I still get bitten occasionally. Depends on what you are learning to do too.

[Singasong]

What in God's name is that in the background, is it an 90s Nokia phone? Is that for real or for ironic intent? 

[Skecys]

Looks like my ankle when I was learning  Trick is not to step in front of the pedals when bailing, step off to the side or rear. Also, wear shoes that go above the ankle at first. Classic EUC "growing pains" .

[xiiijojjo]

Simply use high sneakers. I use the high version of nike airforce 1 and have literally never hurt my ankle even once in my many years riding.

[OldFartRides]

On 7/22/2021 at 12:47 PM, Singasong said:

What in God's name is that in the background, is it an 90s Nokia phone? Is that for real or for ironic intent? 

It works, but I prefer the Moto Quantico.

[PennBruce]

My solution was ankle guards:

https://www.citygrounds.com/products/the-shadow-conspiracy-super-slim-ankle-guards?CAWELAID=120088260000056207&CATARGETID=120088260000067273&CADevice=c&gclid=CjwKCAjwr56IBhAvEiwA1fuqGi06UGm0RJajLzW4yPasUNvIlcNKHc7bib9Re-ODxctp137FgZ6lKRoC4_4QAvD_BwE

I don't need them any longer but I do use them on longer rides.

 

Bruce

 

[Ubute]

On 7/20/2021 at 2:38 AM, Scottie said:

That is a fairly common issue when learning. After your feet wise-up, it becomes a non-issue. @Ubute had a creative solution. He is a creative craftsman.

I'm quite distressed at the sight of all these injured ankles. It's totally unnecessary.

Yes, I severely bashed my ankles while learning to free mount and made myself ankle armour, but discovered I didn't need them when I changed my learning method. I've never had an ankle strike again. Ankle strikes are so common among learners that it seems to me the problem is HOW we are learning. I strongly believe that trying to free mount (getting on without holding onto anything) before you can actually ride is foolish and totally to blame. If you've never ridden before and you try to jump on, you're bound to fall off again. It's like learning to dive before you can swim, you're probably going to drown.

Ankle strikes are caused by DIS-mounting incorrectly. It goes like this: You stand astride the wheel and put your dominant foot - I'll call it your right - on the pedal. You balance the wheel by leaning it to the left while pushing down on the pedal and pressing the wheel against your right calf. Your left foot is still on the ground. You roll forwards and try to lift your left foot onto the pedal. Somehow - without ever having done it before - you have to maintain forward momentum while equalising your weight between your two feet, and steer, and keep the wheel upright, all at the same time. But because you can't actually ride yet, you fail, the wheel leans too far, you leap off and the wheel spins around in a tight circle and attacks you from behind. This is entirely because you haven't learnt to dismount yet.

Dismounting is exactly like mounting: you have to control the wheel with your dominant foot while stepping off with the other one. But because you can't ride yet, this doesn't always happen. It's okay if you don't really get moving, the wheel stays leaning to the left and you just step off with the left foot again. A lucky correct dismount. But if the wheel leans to the right - which it will do if you don't get that left foot on quickly enough to balance the weight, or you don't get it neatly on the pedal, or you can't keep straight once it's on - all your weight is still on the right foot and the wheel falls towards the right. You hastily plant your left foot back on the ground while whipping the right off the pedal before it's caught underneath. The wheel is now rolling forwards on its own, but because it's leaning heavily to the right, it accelerates and makes a tight circle behind you and one of the pedals hits your left ankle which is rigid because you are standing on it. Ouch! Expletive deleted!

Why did this happen? Because you lost control with your dominant foot. Of course you did, you can't ride yet. You're also probably trying it on grass because it seems safer in case you fall. But grass makes it much harder to maintain momentum from a start and much harder to steer at low speed and therefore more likely for this to happen. I also believe small, light wheels are more likely to attack you than bigger heavier ones. Little wheels carve much tighter circles and because they're lighter they accelerate harder while they're doing it. My V8F, beautiful as it is, is really vicious in this respect. It's also done embarrassing damage to the house when I've been foolish enough to try it indoors. My S18 is a pussy cat in comparison.

I've gone into all this at length because I wish I'd understood what was happening when I was trying to learn. The solution is obvious. DON'T TRY TO FREE MOUNT UNTIL YOU CAN RIDE. Find a hand rail and learn on that. Or a fence. Something you can hold onto while you practice getting on and off. Train yourself to ALWAYS dismount with your left (or non-dominant) foot, and NEVER step off if the wheel's leaning to the right.

The best investment I made was to install a handrail along the uprights of our carport. I live in a rural area and couldn't find a convenient fence or railing with a rideable path beside it, so I built my own. It was 17m long and I slid my hand along that, up and down for days until I could gradually let go for longer and longer and eventually could ride the whole distance. I wore grooves in the wrist guards of my gloves. At the end of each run I disciplined myself to ALWAYS make sure I was leaning a little to the left before stepping off. Only when I was able to ride the distance and dismount at the end without touching the rail at all did I start to try free mounting, but with the railing close enough to grab if I veered off to the right.

Yes, I've seen the videos of beautiful young things free mounting and riding away in their first lesson. Well I'm not a beautiful young thing. I'm 72 and unashamedly afraid of injury. A bad fall could ruin my life. I couldn't shrug off a broken arm like a youngster. A broken hip could cripple me for what's left of my life. It was a week before I could stand on the wheel for more than five minutes because my legs couldn't take it. Many people will laugh at this, but I rode 47km on this railing before I was confident to leave it behind.

This all happened in January of this year. By March I was riding 15km on bike paths. By April I realised I really preferred riding off road and bought an S18 because my knees couldn't take the hammering from the un-sprung V8F on rough ground. Here's a video of me in May riding at Cockle Creek in Tasmania, the farthest south you can drive in Australia. Now I explore logging trails on the edge of the Western Wilderness in places so remote I carry a Personal Locator Beacon. The impossible has become possible. The fantasy has become real.

https://youtu.be/bDlYX_WTLCM

 

[Singasong]

Ankle bashing happens to everyone that rides rough trails. Mtn bikes don't have to worry about pedals hitting a rock or root but that's the biggest problem for uni riders on trails. Unless you've ridden the trail before it's impossible to gauge how high each and every obstacle is, it's part of the challenge! So when your pedal jams into a big ole root the wheel can spin around before it falls over and cuts out, and like a heat seeing missile, will slam either your ankles or shins. Obviously the trails I'm referring to are blue square and some black diamond ones, and on the west coast every level of trail has some sizeable rocks and roots so pedal slams are the norm when you're riding new trails! Ankle guard are the answer, and i wear mtn bikers shin and knee guards too. I still get bruises even with them!

[Singasong]

On 7/23/2021 at 7:55 PM, OldFartRides said:

It works, but I prefer the Moto Quantico.

Looking at that Nokia brought back a flood off memories. Late 90's early aughts was quite a time!

[RayRay]

I held on to my Motorola flip-phone until 2015 (or thereabout). Loved those old phones...

I briefly used one of those little Nokia's before "upgrading" to the Nokia Lumia; (my 1st "smartphone").

I wont get into what the whole Windows Mobile experience was like; but the phone itself was well made.

I remember learning to ride euc's and dropping that phone a lot, but the Nokias at the time were indestructible.