Stupid Mistake

mar_k

Has anyone made a stupid mistake whilst maintaining their bike?

I have! just now which has resulted in me losing some skin on my finger.
I have just given the bike a thorough clean, I removed the brake pads as there was loads of grit and muck between the pads and the disc.
On fitting it back up a spun the wheel slowly ( no idea why I did that ) then attempted to fully close the QR catching 2 of my fingers between the disc and caliper.
It bloody hurt and has taken a fair amount of skin from my finger.

Lesson learnt! keep hands and fingers away from moving objects.

I feel like a right pratt! such a silly mistake to make.


Anyone else made a similar stupid mistake?
Share your story so I no longer feel as stupid

Anonymous

Not one involving injury though someone I know did something similar with the spinning disc I think.

Stupid one for me was just simply forgetting the BB cup thread direction, trying to undo and been tightening it up all along, and even got to the point of serious force with a breaker bar and all sorts to "undo" it. Well and truly seized on. I'd done it before and knew the threads went different ways, but just plain forgot this time.

specialeyes

Done the finger in the rotor too. :oops:

diy

Cut a brake hos with a chop saw, forgot it was braided. Nearly lost my fingers when the saw stripped the braiding out in a flash and clogged the saw.

mar_k

diy wrote:

Cut a brake hos with a chop saw, forgot it was braided. Nearly lost my fingers when the saw stripped the braiding out in a flash and clogged the saw.

That sounds messy!

specialeyes wrote:

Done the finger in the rotor too. :oops:

Glad its not just me then, lol It hurts doesn't it?

Long_Time_Lurker

Where do I start?
Badly measured handlebars - hacksawed 2 inches more from the right side than the left.
Tried to fix my gears - ping as an internal spring flew across the yard, never to be found.
And the 3 times that I have touched the brake rotor after going down a hill :x

EyesintheSky

Same here with the Disc and rotor, I still haven't got my full fingerprint back, and yes it does bloody hurt!

Don't want to wash the blood off the rotor, it's a souvenir of my stupidity 8)

1mancity2

No one can be this stupid!!

When I was a kid riding my bmx thought my chain had come off, put my hand down and whoosh round it went with the chain and ring resulting in three yes three finger ends hanging off, ahh happy days.....

ilovedirt

I've heard the finger in disc rotor story many a time... why would anyone put their fingers near a moving disc rotor?!

I've rounded bolts through being a bit cack handed, managed to contaminate brand new pads through not cleaning the caliper properly after bleeding brakes, nothing too disastrous springs to mind...

EyesintheSky

ilovedirt wrote:

I've heard the finger in disc rotor story many a time... why would anyone put their fingers near a moving disc?!.

I originally thought the same, you just get caught out with your guard down!

mrmonkfinger

Have done the bottom bracket wrong thread thing once, although I just rounded off the external cups and had to remove them using "ingenuity" (i.e. careful grinding).

Not on a bike, but I poked a screwdriver into my hand once when a flat blade slipped off something. Lesson being, use the right screwdriver, and get your hands out the way.

Chopped the top of thumb off, aged 10, playing with an I.C. model plane engine. Much tears. Parents stuck thumb back on toot suit with a big plaster and the thumb is still here...

Maybe I should sell that chainsaw.

diy

As a kid on an areal runway/rope slide. I wanted to go faster so put my hand in front of the pulley wheels to pull on the rope and.. yes it was going much faster than I thought, I ran over my fingers with the pulley which was the same pulley holding me on the rope. In hind sight it should have taken my fingers right off.

delcol

wish i could blame this one on when i was a kid but the truth of it is it was only just over a year ago in 2010.

doing some bike tinkering bike in stand backwheel spinning and i decide i can stop it by using my finger and thumb as a brake,, yep i tried to stop the backwheel by pinching it with my finger and thumb.. followed by a violant torrets outburst and then some blood..
not to mention the many times i squeezed the brake lever while the wheel aint on the bike.

mkf

during a bike strip and rebuild i fitted the brakes the american way.only realised after i went over the bars

diy

Its odd, because the do the same in europe too, which must be very confusing for anyone who rides a motorbike too.

IBISMojoHDamon

diy wrote:

As a kid on an areal runway/rope slide. I wanted to go faster so put my hand in front of the pulley wheels to pull on the rope and.. yes it was going much faster than I thought, I ran over my fingers with the pulley which was the same pulley holding me on the rope. In hind sight it should have taken my fingers right off.

Sh*t the bed, I bet that was painful.... :shock:

1mancity2

diy wrote:

As a kid on an areal runway/rope slide. I wanted to go faster so put my hand in front of the pulley wheels to pull on the rope and.. yes it was going much faster than I thought, I ran over my fingers with the pulley which was the same pulley holding me on the rope. In hind sight it should have taken my fingers right off.

How the hell we still have fingers I don't know saying that I have got part of my first finger on my left hand missing, but thats another story.....

Markmjh

got a lovely burn on my shoulder many moons ago after a long decent and picking up the bike to go over a fence! Wheele rim went straight onto my shoulder :-(

ilovedirt

1mancity2 wrote:

diy wrote:

As a kid on an areal runway/rope slide. I wanted to go faster so put my hand in front of the pulley wheels to pull on the rope and.. yes it was going much faster than I thought, I ran over my fingers with the pulley which was the same pulley holding me on the rope. In hind sight it should have taken my fingers right off.

How the hell we still have fingers I don't know saying that I have got part of my first finger on my left hand missing, but thats another story.....

Almost lost my fingers once or twice with a circular saw not exactly being careful... Not bike related though, obviously.

mar_k

some great stories here........

I was cleaning up a set of cosworth brake caplipers with a wire wheel attachment on a drill about 3 years ago,
Stupidly I was holding the caliper on the floor between my feet, I had no shoes on just shocks.
The drill slipped and the wire wheel grabbed onto my sock and wound it up pulling the drill into my foot.

Needless to say it ripped my ankle to pieces, I was in agony for a few weeks, I had loads of bleeding lines on my ankle.

The Rookie

Bike related I had an old Raleigh Hustler as a teen and it had a lamp fitted to one fork side, one day (doing 40mph according to the following car) down a hill the bracket comes loose and twists into the front wheel.......rattle rattle rattle, look down "Oh Shit", panic braking, too late the front wheel stops.....so this is what it feels like to be superman, tuck head in and land on the tarmac on my shoulders with just a T-shirt one, bracket had snapped 4 spokes and bent the next 6.........

Non bike related, been for a drive in my mates MkII Escort to try and ID a fault, stop and open bonnet, mate reaches in and just catches his arm on the hot exhaust manifold, for 5 years you could read the valve clearance data he'd just branded on his arm!

Simon

bennett_346

The Beginner wrote:

Bike related I had an old Raleigh Hustler

On a side note Hustler is an awesome name for a bike!

The Rookie

bennett_346 wrote:

The Beginner wrote:

Bike related I had an old Raleigh Hustler

On a side note Hustler is an awesome name for a bike!

Yeah, Raleigh had some great names at the time mine, Hustler and Grifter were the best, was a mid 70's "racing bike" as it was called then, dropped bars (chromed steel), gas pipe frame, steel rims and a 3sp Sturmey hub!

Simon

1mancity2

mar_k wrote:

some great stories here........

I was cleaning up a set of cosworth brake caplipers with a wire wheel attachment on a drill about 3 years ago,
Stupidly I was holding the caliper on the floor between my feet, I had no shoes on just shocks.
The drill slipped and the wire wheel grabbed onto my sock and wound it up pulling the drill into my foot.

Needless to say it ripped my ankle to pieces, I was in agony for a few weeks, I had loads of bleeding lines on my ankle.

This reminds me of a guy at work, we were joinery apprentices, fashion then was trainers with the pegs, forest hills etc.

The guy (nameless) had some samba and his mate (me) had spare pegs, so he decided to drill the sole of this trainers while on his feet, yep you guessed it whoosh right through the trainer and drilled his ankle with a 4mm drillbit.

Thing is we had to put the drill on reverse to get it out, funny thinking back but, boy did he scream!!

OllieTheWelder

Mine isn't bike related either...

It was Christmas and I was about 7 got some war hammer because I was a douche, anyway I was cutting the bits of stencil things with a scalpel and it went through that and straight into my thigh. Still have the scar years later. Funny thing was I only cried when my grandma put the anti septic spray on it.

1mancity2

OllieTheWelder wrote:

Mine isn't bike related either...

It was Christmas and I was about 7 got some war hammer because I was a douche, anyway I was cutting the bits of stencil things with a scalpel and it went through that and straight into my thigh. Still have the scar years later. Funny thing was I only cried when my grandma put the anti septic spray on it.

I used to collect and paint them as well!, won best diaroma at Liverpool store and went to the golden demon awards, still have it somewere (1988 I think)

dhobiwallah

One of my early attempts at fettling was trying to sort out my cockpit. Not having the instructions for my Juicy 3's I found some online for Juicy 5's which seemed similar and went to work on trring to sorth the lever reach.

Went in with the 2mm allen key to the adjustment screw and no matter how much I turned the lever didn't seem to move that much. Shrugged my shoulders and went for a quick blast on the bike.

As I came hurtling down a bridleway to a gate I went to brake and both levers just flopped off the bars :shock: and I had to bail before coming to a sudden halt.

All I had done pre-ride was to undo the grub screw that holds the pivot dowel for the levers in place and they shook themselves loose on a flat bit of track...

Walked the half mile to the last point where I remembered braking three times till I found both missing bits - no mean feat when the bits in question are tiny black bits of metal. Found them both though!

Later found the other screw and witnessed the lever move in and out before my very eyes :P

Satchm00

Cross threaded beyond repair a BB on a thousand pound frame? Yeah that was my stupid mistake.

El zilcho

Spanner slipped off the flat while removing a pedal resulting in me jamming my hand into the chainrings with considerable force. It was ten years ago and I still have the scar.

mar_k

Keep 'em coming people. Some rather intresting 'accidents'

NJG01

Only maintenance related one i could think of - fitted a mudguard to the front of the bike. The guard was mounted onto an expanding plastic column. Insert said column into the tube in the base of the headset / top of fork and tighten up the screw to expand the column till its tight. Then didnt think of the guard again.

Few rough rides later and during a long sweeping fireroad descent, the guard dropped out onto the front wheel. Braked very hard and immediately got to sorting out the guard, which involved removing the wheel. As I undid the QR skewer, i rubbed the back of my hand across the -very- hot disc brake. Got the wheel off, couldnt get the guard back on so that went home in the Camelbak.
Put the wheel back on and found out after i set off that in the descent and rapid breaking id nicely overcooked both front and rear brakes. Got home safely but it was interesting riding with very ineffective brakes.

I suppose thats a lack of maintenance rather than maintenance in its own right!