Broken Ankle - Wearing Cleats

[John D9395]

A mate had what we thought was a freak accident last week, came of he mountain bike at low speed, foot still in the peddle cleat as he hit the deck, the result a broken ankle, an operation, and now several months recovering.

The hospital say they see this break quite often as a result of cycling / using cleats, yet when you read the pros and cons of flats v cleats in magazines, safety is never mentioned.

Should we be all using flat peddles?

[scubadude]

John D9395 said:

Should we be all using flat peddles?

No- we should just avoid falling off.

[tobinen]

And using pedals

[TwistingMyMelon]

I would have thought just as likely to break your arm as you put it out to stop the fall!!

I had a crash in my car once, should all cars be banned?

[manmaths]

I'm surprised by that.

I've come off my road bike twice. Once hit by a car and the next on black ice. My feet detached from the cleats on both occasions. Some people keep them far too tight which might have had something to do with your friends situation.

[gazza285]

Would he have broken his ankle anyway? Hard to blame the cleat with do many unknowns.

[Pothole]

John D9395 said:

A mate had what we thought was a freak accident last week, came of he mountain bike at low speed, foot still in the peddle cleat as he hit the deck, the result a broken ankle, an operation, and now several months recovering.

The hospital say they see this break quite often as a result of cycling / using cleats, yet when you read the pros and cons of flats v cleats in magazines, safety is never mentioned.

Should we be all using flat peddles?

Perhaps if they defined "quite often" you could make a better judgement.

Whoever spoke to you may have meant something like "taking all instances of broken ankles we've seen (over a time period of X) they often appear to be as a result of the rider's foot sticking in the cleat when an event occurred precipitating the break" But if they've only seen 5 broken ankled cyclists over 35 years the stat means bugger all.

Also, these randomly bandied about nonsenses have no control experiments or high def slo mo video of the accidents from 15 angles to see what actually happened and if any of the "often" events cited are related at all so the 'evidence' is pretty much useless.

(just like the Doctors who bang on about helmets)

[Roger Irrelevant]

I've never even heard of anyone injuring their ankle due to using clipless pedals before now, let alone breaking it, so it seems odd that it apparently happens quite a lot. I suspect that it doesn't really, and the real cause of your friend's accident was just bad luck and maybe, just possibly, having the cleat tension wound up too tight. I do know a few people who have had nasty offs and resulting injuries caused by their feet losing contact with their (flat) pedals, so you can't win really!

[CoolC]

TwistingMyMelon said:

I would have thought just as likely to break your arm as you put it out to stop the fall!!

Exactly how I broke my elbow a couple of years ago.

Sounds like just straight bad luck breaking an ankle like that.

Wishing your pal a speedy recovery.

[S10GTA]

He just needs a foot helmet. That would help

[Pothole]

S10GTA said:

He just needs a foot helmet. That would help

I've heard they're good too. I've never heard of anyone breaking their ankle while wearing one, anyway!

[TheLemming]

Ive seen, had happen to friends or heard of an almost inexhaustible list of cycling injuries, covering everything from shoulders, collar bones, tendons, arms, wrista, hands, neck, head injuries, hips, gravel rash.... Ankles are a new one.
I don't think I've ever heard of someone breaking their ankle on a bike - let alone from a non releasing cleat.