moxfyre

I have been reading your site for about a year and learned a lot of my bike mechanics knowledge from it. I've yet to find any bad advice on it, and had many times when I wished I followed your warnings more closely.

neil0502

I've actually learned more on rec.bicycles.tech than anywhere else. One of the most prolific contributors is a guy from Colorado that Bicycling Magazine named one of the ten best wrenches in America, Peter Chisholm.

Between Peter, Sheldon, and about a dozen others, you'll learn a hell of a lot by watching r.b.t for a couple of months.....

bostontrevor

Indeed. When I cut off my finger in my drivetrain, all I could think was, "Oh DAMN! I can't believe I just DID that! I've even been warned about it!"



From Sheldon's site, added in the last few months and not my hand, raising the question who else was stupid enough to do this?

I'm told you can tell long-term trackies by the number of fingers shorn short.

operator

Ouch, what exactly happened?

bostontrevor

https://www.zweknu.org/blog/index.rhtml?s=cat@18
Start at the bottom and work your way up.

moxfyre

Yargggh, that's awful man I'm really sorry. I am glad that I really took that advice to heart when building my fixie, I have kept my hands way the hell away from any moving parts.

2manybikes

Wow! I take it you were cleaning your chain or cog with the drive train spinning? That's unbelievable, sorry about the finger. Good Luck with that.

orguasch

that's a big "big ouch"

Dougmt

HOLY $H!T !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I was just gonna eat lunch 'til I saw that.... I checked out your blog... damn dude that's instense!!!!!!! There's something to be said about rear derailleurs ehhh? :-)
man... I still got the willys
How long did it take you to realize you downsized your finger?
Doug

bostontrevor

Exactly the case. Just doing a little routine maintenance. Heh.

bostontrevor

Well I was wiping down the chain and the paper towel in the photos got away from me. I reached after it and heard/felt this POP!!

I froze.

I looked at my hand and where it was and thought, "hmmm, that's probably not good." At first I thought I'd just sort of mangled the finger. There was just so much grease involved that I couldn't see--a good deal of my surgery involved several bottles of saline to try to get it clean enough to work on.

I think I might have been at the hospital when I fully realized that I'd actually cut off the end of my finger.

neil0502

Ooooooh, Dawg.

My heart goes out to you. That there . . . I say that there . . . is some serious s**t.

You cool with me using hand005.jpg as my wallpaper for a while? Need to be *quite* sure that *I* don't to just that. Aaaaiiiiyyyeee...!

Heal fast, adapt well. Ride strong.

Oooooooh.......

bostontrevor

The image? Go for it.

Chicago's bike coordinator (or whatever the exact office is called), T.C. O'Rourke, has promised to buy me a beer if I ever make it to Chitown, on account of my battle damage.

2manybikes

I am very, very, sorry about what happened. This is really horrible.

Maybe a little bit of good can come from the fact that you put pictures up. Maybe you have saved a couple of other forum members fingers.

I hope it heals as well as possible.

cascade168

more on severed fingers .......

from the Foreward of Zinn's "Art of Road Bike Maintenance" -

"At first, this knowledge seemed to come back at us, such as the time I broke a carbon fiber seat on the slopes of Mount Evans while on record time, or the time before pursuit nationals when Colby (Pearce) cut off his thumb while cleaning his chain for the 50th time."

When I first read this, I knew that it's important to pay attention to the whereabouts of my digits when things are going round and round. It's now even more obvious to me that this is not an uncommon occurence. Be careful out there.

operator

Jesus.....christ.

bostontrevor

Eh.

It looks worse than it is. As far as cutting off body parts go, I got off pretty light. It makes it a little more difficult to dig things out of my back pocket or tying my shoes. On the other hand, I can stick my finger up my nose and it looks like I'm picking my brain. Great at parties!

Raiyn

A rare treat indeed.

Thylacine

I had a crash on the roadie last weekend and coped a chainring in the ankle.

What has that got to do with Sheldon Brown? Absolutely nothing, but it sure makes for a great visual. Maybe Sheldon should put a section on his website "How to treat greasy wounds". I would like to add that Betadine makes quite a nifty degreaser.

Raiyn

Not a damn thing. I agree the Bike injury first aid guide is a great idea though

Rowan

You mean you had other appendages in the vicinity?!!!!!




Quote taken totally out of context, of course.

spinbackle

You need to start a "Heinous Injuries" thread and introduce it with that pic. That's an awesome trophy injury. So what if you did it off the bike and not actually riding it. There's a pretty good collection of "bicycling-related injuries" section at MTBR.com but I think we should have a thread here (if we don't already have one) devoted to pics and maybe a short story accompanying them. Remember...lots of gory pics please!

And I guess I don't have to tell you not to pick your nose or other orifices with that finger?

valygrl

Eeeuuww this brings back some nasty flashbacks. A friend of a friend chopped 2 fingers working on his motorcycle, in the chain. I got my pinky chopped in a rockfall in Yosemite. Blech.

xylx

"He's just a guy"
"blasphemy" ?? Beyond.

Try the maharishi of mechanics, the pasha of pedalling , the bhudda of biomechanics, ganehsa of gear ratios, saviour of seven speeds, raja of rolling resistance, Thor of threads.

Praise Sheldon Brown, may he live forever, or at least until Shimano perfects the shaft drive automatic transmission.... now there's some #(*@&$%$ blasphemy.

ofofhy

All the machinists I have ever worked with have always sworn that grease had healing powers.