Pete,
I , have followed bent accident injuries on this NG for about 5 years, and seen about 5-6 posts
reporting serious leg suck injuries. I have come close to leg suck a couple of times at speed, and
done it a few times on an off-road bent riding single track at very low speed with no serious
injury. One of the most horrid leg suck injuries I read about happened to the CEO of the ill fated
Backbent company while riding a Blackbent prototype just before they went into production. He was
riding in tennis shoes with no clips and dropped a foot and crashed. He had a slow recovery and it
probably did not help the success (not) of the venture.
Here is my take on the risks.
1) Seats that have metal side rails like Haluzak, Lightning, Longbikes, etc. have the greatest
potential for serious injury because your leg can be trapped inside the rail with nowhere to go
but under the bike.
2) Seats with bottom cushions like RANS, BikeE, many Visions, Easy Racers, etc. have less serious
injury potential because it is likely that a dropped leg will deflect to the side. This can knock
you off the bike (with resulting serious injury or death) but it is still preferable to scenario
#1 described above. I dropped a foot on a BikeE once on a fast descent and it knocked me almost
off the bike before I regained control and came to a stop. I was very lucky, it happened so fast
that all of my reactions where automatic. I have been very careful about leg suck since then.
3) I personally feel safest vis-a-vis legsuck on euro hard shell seats because more abdominal
muscles come into play to control and stabilize your legs from an accidental drop while riding
and because they have no seat rails.
4) Practice a couple of accidental foot drops while stationary to see what it feels like. Train
yourself to avoid ever feeling like that while moving on your bent. See what sort of movments set
you up for foot drop and be aware of them. Wear ankle protectors, AXO company makes a good item
called "Ankle Biters".
5) Good luck. Control your speed. Leg suck is a serious concern, but it is only one of the many very
bad things that can happen to you whilst riding any bike. In the last 5 years, I have personally
seen far more bad accidents resulting from upright riders doing botched "bunny hop" maneuvers.
One guy actually had his clips accidently release and was vaulted over the handlebars while his
front wheel dripped into a pothole. Ouch!
Cheers, Derek
"(Pete Cresswell)" <
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