The Brain Bucket

I had the honour of chatting to Kelly Kawasaki from Rumble On, here’s what we discussed:

Extract from Rumble On:

Why did you start your account?

I started @TheGirlOnABike when I was bed-bound after my third surgery following the accident. It was the first on my hip and decided that I needed something positive to channel my energy into. I wanted to find others battling life’s challenges and see if we could help each other. Since that day I have continued to share my journey, but not just the happy days you expect people to share.

I feel social media can be so toxic with all too perfect ‘unreal’ lives projected. I work hard to be real and honest and show the rough and tough days too. There are down days, the days you have to find all your inner strength to even just get out of bed. Life can be brutal and I hope my energy helps others.

What is the best life lesson you’ve learned from owning/riding a motorcycle?

That anything is possible if you put your mind to it and train. This really applies to my hard enduro side of riding where I’m often sat on my bike eyes wide looking at some horrific terrain ahead. But breaking it down into 16 foot sections at a time, working on my technique and fighting on, it’s possible. For me, with a slightly reconstructed body, I’m more determined than ever to prove to myself that I can!

A secondary lesson is about looking after what you have. If you look after your bike, maintain it, clean it, and keep it ready to ride, it’s amazing what you can achieve together. But when neglected, things can go wrong, and having something fail out in the wilderness or mid-race, purely because you ‘didn’t bother’ to sort it earlier is insanely frustrating. Look after the bike and it looks after you [mostly, it still tries to throw me on the ground frequently.]

Your love affair with motorcycles started before your bicycle accident, how did you get into riding?

Surprisingly to many, I didn’t grow up with motorcycles and I wasn’t a small kid braaping around at an early age. I was into the world of four-legged friends and was obsessed with horses.

For the rest please head to Rumble On here:

Check out my other media placements here.

I’m a huge user of Compex products in the management of my on going pain and it was a an honour when Compex asked to talk to me about my journey, here’s what they wrote:

Extract from Compex:

With a world facing some unprecedented times, here at Compex we’re determined to share good news and with International Women’s day, what more fitting topic than celebrating women’s achievements. There are countless women out there, particularly those who enjoy the benefits of our products, but today we would like to introduce Vanessa Ruck.

Vanessa Ruck aka TheGirlOnABike
After being hit by a car while cycling in 2014, Vanessa’s world was turned upside down. Enduring an ongoing rollercoaster of recovery, with 7 surgeries including a reconstructed hip and shoulder, life as she knew it changed. However, while some might have given up on a life of extreme sport, Vanessa discovered a new love for motorcycles. Having tackled the fear of the road, she’s an off road enduro, adventure and Harley rider, and is determined to make the most of every day. She’s out there in the mud getting sweaty doing off-road riding on a mission to prove than anyone, even slightly reconstructed people and females, can do it too.

With a body that will never quite be the same again Vanessa has used a range of Compex products throughout her journey. “With considerable surgical invasion, building muscle strength back, or even just maintaining some of what I still had, was really quite tricky.” Vanessa told us how any joint movement would exasperate the pain around the joint that needed to rest and heel, but she was determined not to face unnecessary muscle degeneration. She started to use the SP 4.0 to stimulate her muscles. Enabling her to lie still in bed, hip relaxed but muscles working. She next progressed to the SP 8.0 to give more flexibility to use it in life situation’s; “I use to walk around the office with it on under my clothes, switching it on for up to 6 sessions through the day. In an office based environment I didn’t want my rehabilitation to be impacted” and the 8.0 allowed Vanessa to stimulate healing, muscle strengthening and pain relief while working.

For the rest please head to Compex here and you can get Compex discount code “VRCOMPEX” 30% off more here:

Check out my other media placements here.

I had the honour of chatting to Ollie Rooke at Adventure Bike Rider, here’s what he wrote:

Extract from Adventure Bike Rider:

If you’ve ever scrolled through adventure biking photos on social media, chances are you’ve come across images of Vanessa Ruck, aka The Girl On A Bike, ripping up the trails on various mud-splattered motorcycles. But behind the action shots and infectious smile that she shares with her thousands of followers online is a story of grit, determination, and a refusal to give up on a motorcycling dream. Ollie Rooke caught up with Vanessa to discover the incredible story behind The Girl On A Bike and to find out how the Adventure Bike Rider Festival inspired her.

It was a bicycle accident of all things that got Vanessa Ruck into motorcycling. She was cycling home from work one night when a car ran a red light and knocked her flying. After being rushed to hospital, doctors failed to properly identify her injuries and sent her home. It was a fateful decision that would have painful repercussions and change the course of Vanessa’s life.

She says: “Back then I was fit, I was athletic, and I was healthy but that all changed when I got on my bicycle after work. If I fast-forward to now, I’ve had seven surgeries including a reconstructed shoulder and hip. They couldn’t have been more wrong that night at the hospital. I was actually sent home with bruising! 

“When I finally got treatment, my recovery was a bit of a rollercoaster. They’d tell me I was doing alright but then I’d hurt and I knew it wasn’t right, so I’d go back and do more tests and they’d spot something else that they’d missed. Then I’d be back in for more surgery.”

Despite enduring several years of reconstructive surgeries and painful rehabilitation, Vanessa admits, perhaps surprisingly, that she wouldn’t change anything because it was that accident that led to her pursue her motorcycling dreams and the creation of The Girl On A Bike….

For the rest please head to Adventure Bike Rider here:

Check out my other media placements here.