motorcyclists don't need hamstrings!

Jorge Lorenzo has shown us that we don't need ankles <grin> to be successful
motorcyclists - and now..... I'm here to let you know that we don't need
hamstrings either!

I saw the surgeon yesterday with my MRI in hand, and he was surprised how
much strength I had in my leg, given the extent of the injury, and what's
still left attached to the bone. I suggested that strength might be a
consequence of hauling my bike around, and surprisingly, he agreed
(grudgingly, heh heh.) If I were a Brumby or a Wallaby (or even a fanatical
fitness fiend) he'd operate - but he reckons some fairly full-on physio
ought to be enough for a reasonably sedentary middle-aged motorcyclist like
moi.

The $64,000 question - "Well when can I get back on my bike, coz I can't
stand all this bus stuff and bludging lifts from people" made him grin - we
made a deal that if I continue to behave myself and don't overdo things
(which probably means staying away from wheelchairs!) I can get back on the
bike at the 4-week mark - which is THIS FRIDAY! Wheeeeeeeeeee!!!

betty

 

Good news indeed. You go girl.

Theo

 

To be fair, Mick Doohan showed that far more emphatically a full 15
years before Lorenzo...

Thoroughly believable... I was back on after my knee reconstruction
pretty much as soon as I got off crutces; two and a half weeks. Took
about a week to stop needing to use my left hand to lift the leg by
the crook of the knee in order to get the foot onto the peg.

I suppose the doctorb has already told you that once you're on the
bike, try to move the bad leg as little as possible, and use the other
one for balancing at traffic lights etc.

 

Ah, well that was long before I had developed an interest in racing - didn't
know that - thanks for pointing it out

Nah, the doctor doesn't know the first thing about riding - but I'd already
figured that one out for myself on the long ride home, the day after I
injured it!

betty

 

The whole arbitrary "4 week" thing is a little too convenient. If you
can ride the bike with the injury and you are confident about riding the
bike with the injury there's really no reason why you shouldn't just get
on it whenever you're ready. If you and the doctor agree that you've
got enough strength, waiting a few days longer, just because someone
designed the calendar with 7 days in a week rather than 5 or 8 is silly.

Nev..
'07 XB12X

 

funny you should say that, Nev <evil grin>

betty

 

You need to do bike-orientated physio Betty.
After my "biggie" I used to go down under the house and hang onto the
gas-pipe while practicing putting my little Ducati Pantah onto centrestand.
The deal I'd made with myself was that I couldn't ride it until I was
strong-enough to park it!
When I could finally achieve it without bracing myself against the pipe the
time came to conquer the agoraphobia and take 'er out.
--
Clem
(First ride I was all over the road; taking three-bites at corners and
wobbling around. I told my mate Howard and he calmly wandered over and
pushed the front-tyre almost in to the rim with his thumbs!
While I was struggling with all my centrestand callisthenics it had never
occurred to me that a 7-months-idle tyre might need a bit of air!)

 

True!
Mat Mladin did his bit to emphasise the point too.

 

Atta girl!!
How was it?

 

heh heh, ask me tomorrow morning after my ride to the physio <grin>. I
behaved myself today - what a bloody CROCK, seriously! I almost missed my
effing bus to the Mall, and had to yell out to the ppl at the bus-stop
"HELP! Pls ask the driver to wait" while I hobble-dashed about 50m so that I
wouldn't have to wait for another hour for the next effing bus. I reckon I
walked a couple of kilometres again today, just doing the home to bus-stop
etc shuffle!!! Stuff that - from now on, I ride - it's less strain!

betty

 

Thank God I don't have a centrestand! If getting a bike onto a centrestand
was a criterion for riding, I would've had to quit after the GPX <grin>.

I've been getting on and off the bike, hauling it upright, practising
leaning it against either leg, straddle-walking it backwards and forwards a
little bit - not a lot, mind you. A week ago when I tried, it hurt like
hell, so I stopped, When I tried it all again yesterday and the day before,
it was good.

betty

LOL, brilliant! I just love how touchy bikes are! Something that I really
thought about when I sold my GS500 (coz I sold it to a young bloke who'd got
his Ls a week earlier) was how little many of us actually know about bikes
when we get our Ls... and how dangerous that can be. My very first ever ride
down Clyde Mtn was by myself in the rain, and I realised that I could've
easily killed myself if I hadn't had rider friends to tell me beforehand how
to handle a bike on downhill twisties - it wasn't something we were taught
at Stay Upright. That's only one example - but given how vulnerable we all
are on 2 wheels, I think a little bit more education about such things would
be useful before we're let loose on the road. I may well be wrong - perhaps
most ppl can figure it out for themselves - but i certainly couldn't have
(remember, I needed TEN remedial lessons just to get my Ls in the first
place!!!)

betty

 

Brilliant!!!! I was as nervous as hell, getting it out of the shed.
The things that worried me the most were parking it, putting the side-
stand down and stopping at corners - but all were painless! It felt so
good to be back on that I cried.

The exercises I had to do at the physio were FAR tougher!!

Fought the urge to come home via, um, Bega <grin> or even the Cotter -
and just did a couple of extra blocks locally before sedately parking
back in the shed.

betty

 

Small but extremely important steps, Betty.

Very very happy to hear the news, that is excellent !

 

bikerbetty wrote:

Great news, Betty.

On a number of occasions I've had the dubous pleasure of saying word to
the effect of thank dog I've got a bike 'cos I'm in no fit state to
walk, and, not all of these times were because of drinking, either.

I've actually got the wife and the physio both accepting that I
sometimes _need_ a medicinal bike ride to make me feel better.

The quack couldn't handle that concept, so I've stopped going to see him.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

bikerbetty wrote:

Great news, Betty.

On a number of occasions I've had the dubious pleasure of saying word to
the effect of thank dog I've got a bike 'cos I'm in no fit state to
walk, and, not all of these times were because of drinking, either.

I've actually got the wife and the physio both accepting that I
sometimes _need_ a medicinal bike ride to make me feel better.

The quack couldn't handle that concept, so I've stopped going to see him.

regards,
CrazyCam

 

yeah, when you can't hear them proscribing..... ;-)

A medicinal ride is a marvellous thing!

betty

 

I often need a 2,000-3,000 kilometre long weekend to clear my head.

Boxer

 

OK; still some significant differences between blokes and blokerinas
fellers!
Back to square 1.

 

My quack's practise handles a lot of persons with mental illnesses (and
sometimes it gets quite eventful in the waiting-room) but the upside is that
he doesn't do any of that lifestyle-advising that a lot of doctors do.
You tell him you've hurt your arm hanging from a tree dressed as a canary
while having a cuttlefish extracted from your rectum and he'll just
prescribe a muscle-relaxant and move on.....
..... err... not that I ever have mind you.....[cough]

 

Yeah but that probably says more about the state of your head than anything
else....