I had a bad bike accident last year where they put a metal plate on my collarbone and I have to keep it until the end of 2017.
This season I find it very difficult to stay in aero TT position for more than 2 hrs and I had to switch to a road bike with short aerobars. In this way, I am very comfortable for 6+ hrs, no issue on my shoulder.
Did you have a similar experience? any suggestion to easy the aero position on TT bike?
8 years post op. It gets easier (or did for me) just takes time. Now, my collarbone area just goes numb after a couple hours.
Are you having collarbone / plate issues or shoulder issues?
If collarbone then positional tweeks and adjustment time are needed.
If shoulder issues, then shoulder stability / flexibility / ? are needed.
Are you having collarbone / plate issues or shoulder issues?
If collarbone then positional tweeks and adjustment time are needed.
If shoulder issues, then shoulder stability / flexibility / ? are needed.
well it is more complicated. i smashed my shoulder plate which doesnt exist anymore and they put a plate very deep which will not be removed. then another plate on my collarbone which will be removed
i don’t feel anything on my shoulder but i feel the tip of the plate at the end of the collarbone, attaching to the shoulder.
i have been riding a lot my road bike, doing ironman, no issue also with small aero bars
but
when i used my TT bike, after 2.5-3hrs of racing (twice this year), my shoulder+collarbone and all the area was numb and sore. My impression is because i am sitting much higher compared to the road bike and i have to put more weight on my shoulder/collarbone when I lay on the aerobars.
went to adjust the fitting to release some pressure but it is the same unfortunately.
i think i just need to wait to remove that plate and train again on TT
Same thing happened to me last year. Broke my collar bone in September and they put in a plate with 12 screws. While riding in the aero position for a long time (2+ hours), I’ll still feel some numbness in the shoulder area. After longer rides, the collar bone area around the shoulder is tender (i.e. painful to the touch) for a day or so. Fortunately it never feels like a chronic issue–more of a temporary annoyance that dissipates fairly quickly.
When it was worse, I would try to relieve pressure on my injured (left) side by avoiding using the aero bars on that side. My right side would be in the aero position but my left arm would be shifted more to the left and I’d usually be gripping the handle bar as opposed to the aero bar. Your weight is obviously not evenly balanced in this position, but it’s more aero than being upright. Any way you can increase the the distance from your shoulder to the elbow pad on your injured side could alleviate some pressure.
Do you have the plate the the hook at the end that goes in/under your shoulder joint? (Used when the break is close to the end of the bone).
I had one of those put in a couple years ago. Mine does not bother me (well, maybe a little now and then) so I left it in since I had no desire to get sliced open again. My surgeon told me before the surgery that his experience was that at least 50% of time this particular type of plate has to come out because of irritation where it is stuck into the joint area. He said it would either hurt or it won’t and there was no way to predict which camp you’d be in in advance and the only way to deal with it if it was bothersome was to remove it.
I have this type of plate and the Dr said afterwards that odds were that it would have to come out. I’ve had it in for over 2 years now. It’s annoying, but not so uncomfortable I’ve bothered with setting up a date to get it out. I’ve been ok in aero, but sometime in longer descents on the road bike working the brakes it bothers me.