On the Mend: Emma McFerran

The high-flying sport of FMX is an unforgiving one, as Emma McFerran knows too well. The Aussie sensation has spent a tortuous four months on the sideline after recovering from a shocking injury in Europe, and is finally readying herself to return to riding.

We caught up with Emma  as she was putting the finishing touches on her re-built bike on the Gold Coast.

The injury:
In April I was over in Germany, I’d just finished Nitro Circus and started riding myself. I was practicing for some upcoming shows I had in Europe. I was just jumping and came up short and bounced over the bars and broke my femur. It was a pretty tough experience, being injured in Germany, where there was nearly no English which made it really hard in hospital for seven days. They operated straight away and put in some metal from my hip to my knee. I’ve still got that now. 

The recovery:
It’s been a tough, long recovery. Heaps of physio, rehab, just learning to lift my leg and build back muscle. It has made me think lots. I really just want to get back on and try harder, try to make up for some lost time. My crash in Darwin took probably the same time to heal up from. But this has definitely been the hardest to come back from. It wasn’t as simple as just breaking your leg, when they operate through your hip you lose all that movement and muscle. It was a lot of work.

Returning to riding:
I’m ready to get back on the bike now, I have planned to start riding motocross for a bit and get some bike time and build up some strength and skills back. From there I will start back on freestyle. I actually want to move back up to the Gold Coast and get as much riding in as possible. I’d also like to do some shows of my own back here in Australia; it has been a while since I’ve been back. And I’ll be doing some tandem FMX with my brother as well.

The KTM:
I haven’t spent a lot of time on it as I'd wanted to obviously, but yeah, I love this bike. I’ve just bought this bike back in Australia and working to get it ready to ride again. I’d been on a 250F for so long and this is a 350, it’s a big change but I love it. The electric start on the KTM is awesome. I think the 350 is probably perfect for jumping, it’s the right power. 450 seems a bit too much, and the 250 is probably not enough, especially with the indoor shows and the really tight run-up.

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