Don't forget about those little frayed bits that you may cut off before putting a cable end on. They drop on the floor and hurt if you kneel on them or if you're not wearing any shoes they get stuck in your foot.
How 'bout you grab that wispy little innocuous titanium stringer, it looks just like aluminum foil, surely it's not going to leave you with a dozen stitches.
The brake rotor one hits home for me. I was cleaning my bike and was well aware of the dangerous pinch point. Even just with a slight rotation in the wheel, the rotor gobbled up my cleaning cloth and pulled in my finger tip with it. The rotor sliced the tip of my finger, cut THROUGH the finger nail, and bounced off the finger bone. Luckily I could get stitches and didn't lose any finger bits or feeling in the finger. That's how I learned that it's possible to get your fingernail sewn back together with stitches
@@Sandhills_nature_hobbies oof I feel for you! My incident was a few years back now and I've certainly learned my lesson. Can't be too careful working around any moving parts now.
Have had similar aligning a brake while tired and not being that careful, except the wheel was spinning pretty fast, disc went through my ring finger, through the bone and left the end of the finger hanging off, was pretty bad but needed finger nail removed and surgery to reconstruct the finger end, end of the finger has never felt the same since but it looks normal with no scars :)
In the industry we call all of those "Near Miss" incidents. Just because someone didn't get hurt doesn't mean they couldn't have been hurt and we have the opportunity to learn and adapt our approach to the work/job to avoid having an actual Hit/Injury event.
On my first disc brake bike, after a particularly good fall, I went to straighten my bars by straddling the front wheel and twisting the handlebars. 10 years later, I still have remnants of the imprint from my rotor branded into my calf.
I watched a few drops of DOT 5 fall on a painted floor, faded the paint pretty fast, after awhile it bubbled the paint, wear gloves & goggles when using that stuff
I'm happy that you started with disc brakes vs. fingers lol. I cut off the tip of my thumb while working on my bike. I also was truing the wheel and accidentally put my thumb in. It cut 75% of the way through and cracked the tip of my thumb bone. They had to put stitches through my fingernail with a fish hook looking needle and I lost some feeling. Definitely avoid this!!! I've also burned myself on hot brakes. So I am much more cautious with the brakes now lol
Had a friend who after a 9 mile downhill on the Plunge in Kern River, CA tried to grab his brake rotor, to clear debris out of it and permanently tattooed his palm in the brake rotor design
I did the same to my thumb , but setting a caliper. Top of my thumb was just held on with a wee flap of skin. Didn't really hurt though , just like hitting your thumb with a hammer , more a dull thump. Got congratulated on my first aid by the nurse , so I count that as a win.
My worst injury was when I was bikepacking. I have a 2x11 drivetrain and the chain was in the inner position in the front, had to do something with the bike, dont even remember what and it started falling down. Mind you, I had like 30 kgs of stuff on the bike. So when it fell, I tried to stop it from falling , leg went on the other side of the bike between the wheels and the front chainring squeezed into my shinbone. Got lucky cause i had no infection or anything and didnt even go to the hospital, but I had to clean the wound for about a month while cycling to southern Italy. And now I got a nice souvenier from my first bikepacking trip, along with a puppy I found on the streets 😅
Add on to letting air out of your suspension when servicing: watch out for presure in the oil chamber I got a shock used for cheap and since it wasn't serviced in a long time I went and thaugt of letting air out first and when I got to open the oil chamber I just opened it and the upper part of the sock flew across the room . I tried to clean the oil up as good as I could but there's still a mark of it on the ceiling.
@5:50 also when removing a seized chain ring, be aware of where gravity and the force with which you're hitting will send it. A stock 3x steel chainring with integrated cranks came down right on a vein near my ankle. I knew i had f'd up, but when I saw the squirt and my sock filling up, I really knew I just learned a valuable lesson😀
Can confirm brake disc of doom. We're #1/2! I was cleaning the bike upside down and the wheel was spinning slowly from the hose spray. Left it spinning as I was cleaning the frame and BANG! the three stages were "Oh man that hurts"....."oh crap I'm bleeding"....oh Jesus IT'S MOVING! Sucker could flap around like a muppet head. 5 hours in the ER, x-rays, three stitches. 10 months later it still feels weird. It crushed the bone but that healed. They even saved the finger nail, although I had to go through the dead cut one falling off. WATCH OUT FOR DISC BRAKES!
I've never hurt myself working on my bike, but I've seen some real injuries working on cars. Probably the most significant was when I had to take my coworker to the hospital after he tried to disassemble an AC system without discharging it first, and blasted himself in the face with 200 PSI of toxic refrigerant. Stay safe y'all!
Remember that one of your pedals is left hand thread. A number of years ago I was breaking down my mountain bike to package it for a flight. I thought one of my pedals was just SUPER tight. I put a trolley jack handle on my 15mm wrench to get some extra leverage... pulling towards my face (duh) I snapped the wrench and hit myself in the eyebrow with the jack handle with all my strength...nearly passed out, bled a decent amount and still carry the scar....
I would also like to mention that if pedals are threaded into a crank - ALWAYS tighten them. That is to say, don't get side tracked and say "I'll tighten them later" because if you go out to test ride the bike, that finger tight pedal will likely come off and if you are standing up on the pedals you can come down on the top tube very hard or even inadvertently turn the bars as you go down and core sample yourself. Have had it happen and made sure to check pedals on any bike someone else built before I test ride.
Always be careful when servicing forks, because sometimes there is pressure where it shouldn't be. I was servicing a relatively old fork with a Motion Control damper, when I noticed that there was pressure built up in the damper and it was pushing out the shaft. I started to unscrew the compression damper assembly, as there was no other way to vent the pressure. When it stopped hissing, I assumed there was no pressure left, but the suspension oil was probably sealing the threads, because when I continued, it shot the whole compression damper out, left a little dent in the ceiling and made a mess. I was fine, if I had been a little less careful, it could have ended badly. I had read all the manuals, but it wasn't mentioned anywhere that there could be pressure in damper side of the fork.
This was great. General shop/tool safety is a critical life skill that translates into many other areas. My first lessons in safety came not from bikes, but from cars. My father was a mechanic and **constantly** hounded me to "watch my hands" when doing anything. Thankfully I've never seriously injured myself, but I've busted my fair share of knuckles punching metal when not being careful. Basically, I try to ask myself: "where are my hands going to go if my tool slips?" and let that guide how I choose and position a tool, apply torque (and how much), etc.. Also, be very wary of spinny things. They will hurt you before you realize what happened.
I always say that 2 or 3 mistakes have to align to get truly injured. We have the rules in place so that we may only ever make one, and occasionally make 2. If you get negligent and unlucky that's where bad stuff really happens. Planning what you are going to do and just thinking about it a bit helps significantly. Basically anything moving that isn't designed to be perfectly safe (nerf stuff for instance) is going to have a decent chance to hurt you.
The Torx fastener point is a good one - I inflicted my worst injury in a vehicle workshop on myself because a big TX slipped. It applies to all fasteners more broadly, and the special tools we get for bike stuff. Ask yourself how much force you're putting into (say for example) a cassette or BB tool, and where that force is going to go if it slips. Also, be careful lifting a bike up into a stand. Inflicting an injury on your shoulder or back is a royal PITA, and will stop you riding.
You should basically either be transferring force far away from the object or perpendicular to the face. If your tools are solid and the machining is solid you will never have any problems. Stubby screwdrivers and ratchets are more useful in more situations as a beginner but they are more dangerous in the long run if you get serious about building/rebuilding anything.
3:15 oh boy, got my first fullsuspension bike this week and as you said, during setup I pinched my fingers between the frame and the linkage… it was more humiliation than hurt, but from now on I‘m gonna be pretty careful when fiddeling on my bikes suspension👍
Depending on what I'm doing, I wear mechanics gloves not just rubber gloves (some repairs require fine motor skills that you lose when wearing the gloves). Lots of scraped knuckles while working on cars finally got me to wear them.
Great tips Seth. After 30+ yrs wrenching on MTB’er, I JUST took a fingertip off doing the manual caliper adjust, just like you said. It’s extremely dangerous.😮 Bridging the open spaces with thin aluminum might be safer and help dissipate heat better. Ok boys, there’s your next $million dollar idea.👍😉
Thanks for pointing these out Seth! I made the brake rotor mistake only once and I will never adjust my caliper with the wheel spinning again because of it. I used to assemble bikes at a bike shop which always included installing and adjusting the front caliper. all it took was a bit of speed from the wheel and a split second of not being aware of my fingers position and it split my finger in two. I nearly lost the tip of my finger but luckily did not break the bone and only lost the fingernail. The finger still has some nerve damage from this. Since then, I made a point to tell anyone new who started building bikes about this danger and to not put their fingers near the rotor when it was spinning. Just like power tools: all it takes is a minor lapse in judgement and you can end up with a permanent injury. Glad you are making people aware of the dangers of bike maintenance!
This is a great video! Another one I’d add is to be careful not to touch the disc brake rotors after a long descent. I’ve done this once and the rotors burnt my fingers and through my gloves due to the amount of heat generated by braking!
That heat represents all the dinner you ate converted into muscle power pedaling uphill converted into heat which is lost energy! Mean old downhill, and mean old brakes.
This brings back memories!! A friend cut half a finger off with the chain and sprocket on a BMX. In the early days of disk brakes, I've also caught my fingers in them. I remember when the Hayes disk brakes just came out and no one really knew how to bleed them. We had a tech trying to bleed the brakes and the hose came off the bleed nipple while he was squeezing the syringe. He ended up taking a full syringe of DOT fluid in the eye.
Worst case I had? just retuning my brakes as a kid, went at a slow speed to test thefront and back induvidually and see how responsive they were after fiddling - even at such a slow speed, the front brake sent me straight over the handlebars and would've sent my skull into the road; I'm thankful to this day I'd left my helmet on while i was fiddling around because it would have been bloody otherwise 😅
My chain jumped a few teeth or off the inner chainring about 20 years ago and I jammed the rear of my ankle into the outer chainring 😅 Still have a 5cm scar. I bought a new chainguard after that..!
Shop mechanic here - letting the air out of your fork is more important when servicing your air spring. I’ve forgotten that before and holy cow does that thing come out fast. 100psi behind an aluminum rod is something to behold - I’m lucky to be alive. Also on pedal removal - have the bike upright, rotate pedal in question to forward position, put tool on pedal also pointing forward. Put foot on pedal with all your weight on pedal. Pull up on tool HARD. Not only does this ensure your fingies are nowhere near anything that you can punch but there’s a TON more force and makes removing stubborn pedals very very easy.
As with tubeless tyres, when overpressuring, they might make loud bang so do inner tubes when not seated properly. Higher the pressure louder the bang :D I changed the inner tube of a road bike and didn't put a little air in the tube nor checked if the tube seated properly in the tyre... So at about 7 Bar the tyre blew :D. The blow was so loud that me and one of my then colleagues heard whistling sound several hours afterwards :D So remember: always put a little air into the new tube when replacing inner tubes :D
Hi Seth! Just wanted to confirm that I didn’t let all the air out of my fork once and the cap did explode of the top of the fork at near to terminal velocity! 😂
Working in a bike shop, I would regularly get poked with frayed cables. Once, my thumb swelled up and throbbed for 3 days. Sleep was impossible, it hurt so much. I had a red streak (sepsis) that ran 1/2 way up my arm. I was young and dumb, but I wish I'd understood how serious it was. Fill out the L&I forms and go to the doctor.
My little brother (4 yrs old) turned the wheel of a 29 and put his finger between disk rotor and frame... the worst day i could remember, he almost lose his nail matrix. Luckly he recoreved pretty well and now he know this is dangerous. Nice advice Berm! thanks for sharing
Worst experience I got when working on a bike was when a frayed cable poked my eye, felt the pain for a few days and I was very lucky it didn't hit anything major, keep safe everyone!
The mosto useful hack I can share: when you have a simple L-shaped Allen or Torx, against a really stubborn bolt, don’t try hulking it out, instead use a regular seatpost, I recommend 27.2, at the end of the tool to give you more leverage, it makes the job infinitely easier and can be used for far more than MTB or Cycling issues
I've done pretty much all of these things to some degree over the last 20 years, mostly when I was like 14 lol. One thing to be mindful of is that some air shocks and forks have multiple reservoirs (connected by tiny channels that can clog), and occasionally you'll empty the main and there will still be high pressure in the res. Cycle the shock a few times when letting the air out. Also, for the underinsured, keep super glue in the shop for relatively minor, clean cuts that should have stitches- it's the same thing they would use if you went to the ER.
Experienced bike enthusiast here. Even still, I detonated my tire literally days before you posted your old video. I blew off the cassette 20 feet and the pawls out of the hub. Sounded like a bomb went off. It unseated a DH casing tire with cushcore in the blink of an eye!! It was violent! Many doubted it could cause that carnage until I showed them your video a few days later 😂😂 What a coincidence. What a memory.
While working on my bike I had it in the repair stand, clasped in by the seat post. I did not realize the clamp that kept the bike from rotating back and fourth needed to be tightened. Standing behind the bike, bending over slightly, I took my rear wheel off and the bike, now heavier in the front, took a nose dive. The part of the frame where the seat stay meets the chain stay hit me sqaure in my front tooth. This was a heavy, steel bike too. Thankfully it didn't knock my tooth out, or loose. It hurt just enough for me to learn my lesson. Tighten all the clamps on your repair stands fellas!
Former mechanic: frayed cables in the fingertips and under the nails, metal slivers, poked a hole in my thumb nail (mandatory ER visit) when a bolt broke free and I hit a rear rack, permanent scars on my knuckles while "reminding myself" to keep the chain on the biggest ring when working on a crank, so many pinches on random things that led to blood cleanup (pieces sliding together, like a loosened gooseneck stem), blew a tire off a rim trying to set up an old rim with a "make it tubeless setup" (never again) and lost my hearing for like 30 seconds and had a fluorescent pink hand for a few hours due to the impact, and many cuts, amongst the things I've forgotten. I like to think of scars as DIY tattoos.
I may or may not have stuck my hand in my disc brake out of “curiosity” (lack of common sense) when I was in middle school. let’s just say I will NEVER do that again 😂
A few years ago I had a oops... I had biked into work that morning and about halfway in I could hear the pads rubbing on the disk. At lunch I flipped my bike upside down in my office and spun the wheel and was listening and looking to see what was going on. It looked like the pad wasn't seated all the way for some reason and I went to push it in. Well that was about the time a speed hole in disk on the SPINNING wheel came by and lifted my fingernail up like the hood of a 69 camero. It didn't feel good... To this day, when I sneeze it feels like that nail may fall off.
I work in a shop and one of our mechanics blew a tubeless road tire off the rim at around 100 psi. It rung through the whole shop. No one got hurt, but definitely had some potential damage.
love the videos! one suggestion is that maybe you could post raw riding videos. no commentary, just you being you. A lot of riders I know are impressed with your abilities on the bike so it would be entertaining to watch. Not to mention free content if you decide to ride. Again keep up the good work, I assume it must be challenging to juggle between family and 3.5M strangers across both channels.
Wow, good thing you mentioned the risk of injury due to the rotors! One time I was being careless while adjusting a client's caliper at my dad's shop and stuck my pointer finger in but as a matter of luck, the disc didn't cut completely through. It got stuck in the nail right above the bone and only some meat was left hanging. I got away just with some stitches!
Excellent tips. I used to wrench for a local bike shop in the late Nineties and had my share of repair related cuts and bruises. I forgot to let the air out of a Cannondale Headshock and let me tell you there was no warning. Just BANG and a face full of oil. Never made that mistake again.
I've been following you since 2016. Never have I ever been not entertained by any of your videos. Always enjoyed them and I'm usually learning something. Maintain your excellence and peace out.
In my experience center lock rotors are worse to take off than 6 bolt. The BB tool is super shallow and puts your knuckles really close to the spokes, plus if you run dt Swiss wheels with bladed spokes it’s even worse. I have a few scars on my knuckles from taking off both styles of rotors.
thanks for this video a workshop is a dangerous place (especially for fingers ) and we all need to be remember from time to time as a bike mechanic i will advice people - to be care full with disc cleaner, that shit dry your skin very badly and some chain cleaner could be bad a well - be care full with spokes when the whell is spining, they are not as sharp as a disc but they hurt - even if you got a derailleur, if your finger get between the chain and tooth it will hurt but most important of all test the bike before really riding it, take it for a spin around the block and finish by a bunny up, to see if you don't forget to tight something
Honorable mention to spokes. I was in the park with a vintage bike when the shifting got messed up. I lifted the bike off the ground grabbing it from the chain stay, i spin the wheel to check the shifting and because the barrel adjuster was on the derailleur, I went for it and almost caught my fingers between the spokes and jokey wheels. So be aware of the spokes!!!
I discovered rear shocks that have t been serviced in years DO NOT ALWAYS FULLY DEPRESSURIZE. At least I didn't have to drain the oil and use a pick to remove the rings... When I unscrewed the can, the oil blew out into a fine mist and rings popped off the piston head. I was also rewarded with ringing ears and whacked fingies.
The one that kept getting me was back when I had a Schwinn StingRay. The forks are at a really shallow angle (chopper-style) and it has this big metal plate on the fork. If you grab it under the fork mount (where you commonly grab a normal bike from) when the wheel tips one way or the other, that plate will come around and slam right into your finger. The amount of times I got myself with that while converting it to electric before I converted it back and sold it.
I know someone that lost the tip of their finger to a chainring on a single speed, someone that lost half of their big toe during a wreck, and I've personally had a finger go round the ring on my track bike but luckily the chain was loose enough that no permanent damage was done! A fixed gear is definitely the most dangerous though, once it's spinning it does NOT want to stop. One thing that seems dumb but does happen is touching the rotor after coming down a trail. Buddy of mine had a semi permanent shimano stamp on his thumb.
You're right about taking the battery out. My Flyer E-bike has a highly sensitive sensor. The moment I place my foot on one of the pedals, and let the weight of my foot rest on the pedal that is facing forward, The motor engages. That will only happen when the crank is facing forward. I know that most E-bikes these days are protected to prevent this to happen.
Surprised you didn’t talk about the repair stand and how it can fail you sometimes. I have a cheap repair stand. While working on my bike one day, the rotation knob wasn’t tight enough (tbh it was pretty tight already) and the bike swung down and the handlebars hit me in the head. Luckily I just got a small bruise but still it hurt a lot. Lesson learned: make sure to buy a good quality stand and make sure the bike properly secured on the stand.
I hyper extended my thumb trying to break the bead off a rim one time. Tire wasn't even tubeless of all things. Customer was right there and I saw/felt the pop of my thumb knuckle and I had to carry on like nothing happened while profusely sweating in pain lol. It's all healed up and good now :)
Plenty of parts of me got hurt by working on bikes; finger in the brake rotor, almost passed out; plenty of smashed knuckles from bad tool placement; ears ringing after inner tube explosion; metal in my eye from using an angle grinder, while I was wearing safety goggles.
Oh the chainring one made me remember one of my worst injury from my childhood and a good point against 3X setups: My right feet slipped down from the pedal and went across to the other side between the wheels, I didn't go over it with the rear wheel, but the chain was on the smallest ring, so instead I just punctured my calf in a nice straight line with the biggest ring. My favourite thing is that the plastic protector that I always hated and tought it was useless was still on the ring that supposed to prevent stuff like this. That was the most I have bled ever, ruined my sock and shoe, but fortunately it was nothing serious. Amazingly after some moths-years there was no scars visible (considering that it was a deep oily wound).
Regarding the top cap on the front fork. I have definitely made that mistake. I thought the air valve was under the top cap. So I unscrewed it. I had a rockshox recon on a 2018 hawkhill 2. The top cap launched into the garage ceiling and left a dent. The wrench and socket was thrown across the garage. Quite a thump. Neighbor heard it and asked if I was ok. No injuries. But I have sliced my hand on a brake rotor in a different way. I was cleaning the rotor with a rag and acetone. Spinning the wheel and dragging the rag tightly on the spinning rotor. The edge of the rotor slices thru the rag and my hand. Took many rotations to slice thru. If you are paying attention or shuffling the rag there would be a much lower risk.
Some of my close calls have been when Im working on the bike and the kids get excited and come over to see what's going on and want to spin the wheels or turn the peddles while it's one the stand. I love that they get engaged but a finger in the spokes or a disc brake would be real bad. Best way I've found is to just slow down, work with them and put your schedule on hold and be ok monitoring and helping them explore. safely.
Thanks, always think what happens if the tool slips, or the bolt shears, make sure your hand does not go crashing towards a chain ring or cassette. Always use quality tools in good condition, I have seen many cheap tools snap or round off, and then you slip. So far I have both eyes and all fingers, but plenty of gravel rash and other scars from hitting trees etc.
I know its an extra step, but seating your tire BEFORE putting sealant in it is usually a good idea. Then add it through the stem with the valve out using a syringe. I know all you old pros just like pouring it in the tire, but I am not willing to take the chance of getting painted like Seth did... Also using a clamping air chuck with a remote trigger is a plus for distancing your hand while filling.
The Bain of my exsistance is my hand slipping around bladed spokes. I have numerous places on my knuckles from where I needed to remove a disc rotor on a bladed spoke wheel and when the bolts crack loose my knuckle will occasionally catch one of the spokes Or I have to do cup and cone adjustments on a vice with similar results. Not fun. I also agree with pedal removal as well. I use repair stands and still sometimes bash my hand/knuckle from time to time. Hasn't happened in a long while fortunately.
Cut off my finger last year in a rear brake rotor in the shop....the thumbnail hit home. Literally exactly what happened in the first B-roll 🤣 Big early 2000s 203mm rotor, reached around to manually close the caliper before I had hooked up the cable. Now I make sure I do the brake cables first instead of the shift cables
had a very budget bike stand just set it up and I pushed the cam down onto the top tube of my bike! When the cam snapped down my finger was in the mechanism! I lost a chunk of skin the size of a dime that day... now id also add watch your fingers arround cams and even the small ones on a seat post or any QR system.
So in the past. I was trying to align my caliper on my ebike. I was sick of turning it by hand and just set the bike on cruise control while hanging to align the rotor. Finger slipped , went in the rotor . In a split second , 3/4 of my finger was sliced off with the meat hanging off the bone. Didn't hurt at first but GOD DAMN the burn after like 15 seconds when reality set in. Thankfully I went to the hospital immediately and managed to get it stitched back, albeit I no longer feel anything at the tip of that finger but its still good to have it .
When cleaning or lubricating a fixed gear drivetrain, rotate it by moving the wheel, don't crank it and let it spin. Plenty of momentum to pull your fingers into the chainring!
The first thing you mention - the disc rotors - seem so obvious but I can't agree more. Once I was in a hurry for a ride and was putting tubeless on, finishing up with a spin of the wheel to get the milk spread. Turned around to put the tools down and back to pick the bike while accidentally putting my finger in the front rotor. Almost cut the top of my finger. There was blood everywhere. I wrapped it up with a boxxer short and had to go for a beer to chill from the stress before deciding on checking on it haha
Seth, great reminder message. I too have blown a tire off the rim. Destroyed the rim and tire and left ringing in my ears for days from the explosion. Tire sealant everywhere which is near impossible to clean. Stupid mistake by me and a painful reminder to pay attention at all times when working on your bike.
Don't forget to install the cotter pin after servicing your brakes. After hitting a drop near the top of the trail, had no rear brakes. Riding down a steep hill at high speeds with only front brakes is sketchy.
A loooong time ago... I refreshed the gear cables. And since I am a tidy guy, I rolled the old cables up, so they don't take up so much space. While rolling, I didn't notice, that one of the cables was partially damaged and one of the wires was sticking out. I managed to pull that wire about 1 inch into my hand. Took some months to heal due to all the grease getting into the wound. Nasty nasty...
I have had an air cap fly off hard enough to make a bang and put a small dent in my drywall. It was on a relatively recent Manitou mattoc comp (2019 or 2020 model year I think). I let most of the air out with a shock pump but apparently there was still some residual. Now I know you're supposed to let the rest out by depressing the valve pin with a small tool after you get the majority out with a shock pump. I'd guess it depends on where the o-ring is situated. If it's still sealing in the air when you reach the end of the threads you get a bang.
I was once drilling out a stuck seatpost bolt. Thing was stuck BAD, so I drilled through the screw from one direction, but couldnt get all the way through, so I went at it from the other side, without noticing I was using my thump to brace against the seatpost clamp. The drill bit hooked into the screw, which now had a super sharp and hollow point, and drilled the screw straight into my thumb. Stopped on bone but took a nice core sample of the thumb.
I have another fun one. Removing the cassette when it sits a bit tight. Grabbing underneath the biggest sprocket and just pulling or even leveraging your fingers against the spokes. That's a great way of ramming the cassette into the base of your thumbs when it finally comes loose. Happened to me twice. Cassette sprockets are really sharp and there was a lot of blood.
Moments after my first fullsuspension frame broke at the seat tube, my middle finger was hit by sharp-edged aluminium with 250 PSI. As I loaded the broken frame into my brothers car, I must have compressed the suspension a little bit, allowing my finger to slip into the space between the now two seat tubes, and then to be caught by the rebound. Let's just say, my finger has a bumpy shape up to this day!
Once, when working in a bike shop, I was auditing a bike we built for a customer when I noticed the rear rotor was rubbing. I trued the rotor, re-hung the wheel, and gave it a quick spin after attaching it to the bike. Unfortunately, my left thumb DID NOT clear the rotor, and one of the rotor struts sliced its way into my thumb, splitting my thumb in half at the tip. When the rotor hit I didn't make a sound, I just jerked my hand back and stared dumbfounded at my thumb while the blood dripped down to my elbow. My nail had been cut in half from the tip to the nailbed and thanks to the blood and adrenaline I had no clue how deep or bad it was. I simply walked up to one of my coworkers with my hand wrapped in a bloody rag and with a serenity only shock could explain asked if they would grab a worker's comp form from the office and drive me to an emergency clinic. Thankfully, I hadn't spun the wheel that hard and although the bone had fractured it was not a terrible break and it did not manage to cut all the way through the bone. Been very careful around spinning rotors ever since...
Dude, I caught my finger in the rotor doing a brake adjustment. I was doing exactly what you said. I was just moving the wheel back and forth, and I have done it a 1000 times, but I was just in auto mode, and my finger went right in. Glady, just had a black and blue finger and a little lost skin.
A big one for me was from my own frustration. I got angry and threw an entire fully inflated rear wheel. It bounced back and I took the sprocket tooth right in the top of my finger. Far from a pleasant experience. 9:56
What i do to remove tight pedal/(corroded thread may i add) is just use my legs and weight. Put the tool in place, hold the brakes and unscrew that bad boy with all my weight. I find a place to tilt myself on, hold both brakes and put the tool opposite of the pedal then put all my weight on the pedal i will unscrew and just smash/kick the tool downward with my other leg. This unscrew most stuborn pedal. ...and come to think of it i should probably give some maintenance to my pedals hahaha. All grease in it is dry and bearing are slack. Edit: Yeah... i just tried, it's so stuck my weight was barely turning the screw.
It's always very nice that someone's been through countless painful experiences so that the audience can learn from them. It's just too bad it had to be you and not the majority learning.
So from my perspective of a 12 year bike mechanic with easily a few thousand fork services under the belt, I was expecting the top cap to slowly vent the pressure. The dangerous part is the snap ring on the bottom of the upper tube which holds in the entire air spring assembly. If you pull out that snap ring while it's pressurized, you're getting a gnarly welt at best and a trip to the er at worst.
Cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is essential for brake bleeds/replacements, but I've gotten in the habit of cleaning discs anytime I use oils/lubes on my bike. Had a bad experience where my ebike's back brake got some crap on it from my chain or something and I was barely able to stop from 20mph. Cleaned it with alc afterwards and fixed the issue.
i’m a bike mechanic, and i’ve blown my finger apart on a rotor a few times, the first time it was that i didn’t know, then i started to get too comfortable and would just do it by mistake, so make sure you keep the same caution always
injuries I've gotten working on my bike. got my finger pinned between the chainring and chain and took a chunk out, slammed my knuckles into the chainring when swapping pedals, accidentally grabbed my bike by the chainring when it slipped in the stand and cut up my palm... conclusion, Chainring is dangerous. Luckily I've avoided the classic finger in the spokes, finger in the disk and other such classics.
I once changed my pedals. To not hit my knuckles on the chainring or the frame, i did it the following way: i fixated the bike under me, leaning partly over it from the side with the bike in an upright position, pedals level and loosening the back pedal from the back while balancing the momentum with the other hand on the front pedal. So far, i think i wasn't totally wrong for someone that wrenches on the bike not enough to justify owning more than the bare minimum... The problem was though, I slipped and smashed my knuckles against the concrete floor... Nothing major though, just a few bruises and the need for a beer ^^
I once putt on tubeless tires with and industrial, large capacity compressor, with broken manometer which we only found out after the fact... I was lucky the ripped tire bed hit me only on my knee and left a line there. Also got ringing in my ears for 3 days. I estimate i put around 8-9 bars in 29x2.4 tire. Surprisingly the rim survived and was ok. Since then i wear safety googles when i seat tires.
On of the mechanics I trained had a habit of putting tools on the ground... bit him one day when working on his bike at home... stuck his foot on a drill and missed a few days of work. Morel of the story... try to never put your tools on the ground. Even placing a cookie sheet on the ground to put your tools on will keep you from making a miss-step.
When working on disc rotors I should get out my mechanix gloves, got it thanks! Worst I got hurt was on my car trying to take the shock apart. Broke a allen key off into my finger had to go get it stitched up, toom months to get feeling back. I wish I was wearing those gloves that day.
I've done the hand into the chainring thing while working at a bike shop. it was a road bike and needed some old pedals swapped with new ones. It had a 3x chainring and I didn't think to shift into the largest chainring. once that old pedal (which was giving me a hard time) broke loose the force send my palm right into the largest chainring. The puncture wounds in the hotdog looked exactly like mine and when I saw it in the video my brain instantly felt that pain in my hand again for a brief second. I had 2 nicely spaced stab wounds with grease and dirt all in it just like the hotdogs in the video, and it didn't bleed for the first few minutes. it was my first real eye opener to take care of my hands cause I couldn't do my job very well for a few weeks after.
![Felix "Unfair" | [Stray Kids : SKZ-PLAYER]](http://i.ytimg.com/vi/Oswujxm2Ag0/mqdefault.jpg)
The lingering agony of sticking yourself with frayed cables deserves more recognition
Or stepping on small fragments of them with bare feet.
I got one under the nail…
I solder mine for potential reuse later for a simple repair.
@@AnomadAlaska I use shrink tubing for mine, but soldering is a great idea.
Don't forget about those little frayed bits that you may cut off before putting a cable end on. They drop on the floor and hurt if you kneel on them or if you're not wearing any shoes they get stuck in your foot.
As a CNC machinist, I learned very quickly that anything that moves or spins CAN AND WILL cut you.
They will try to kill you. So don't let them!
I feel like anything in the cnc industry can, and will cut you! 😂
Spinning metal does not care about you or your feelings.
I run aircraft rotors on old cnc lathes. They stop for nothing.
How 'bout you grab that wispy little innocuous titanium stringer, it looks just like aluminum foil, surely it's not going to leave you with a dozen stitches.
The brake rotor one hits home for me. I was cleaning my bike and was well aware of the dangerous pinch point. Even just with a slight rotation in the wheel, the rotor gobbled up my cleaning cloth and pulled in my finger tip with it. The rotor sliced the tip of my finger, cut THROUGH the finger nail, and bounced off the finger bone. Luckily I could get stitches and didn't lose any finger bits or feeling in the finger. That's how I learned that it's possible to get your fingernail sewn back together with stitches
*_SHUDDER!_*
I did exactly the same thing a few months ago. It was spectacularly painful.
@@Sandhills_nature_hobbies oof I feel for you! My incident was a few years back now and I've certainly learned my lesson. Can't be too careful working around any moving parts now.
Have had similar aligning a brake while tired and not being that careful, except the wheel was spinning pretty fast, disc went through my ring finger, through the bone and left the end of the finger hanging off, was pretty bad but needed finger nail removed and surgery to reconstruct the finger end, end of the finger has never felt the same since but it looks normal with no scars :)
Haha, same happend to me.
Always make sure when you are done repairing your bicycle, to tighten up all the bolts
Literally just remembered I'd only hand tightened my chainringbolts
One of my many #1 Rules is; "Never walk away from a loose bolt."
Learned that as a kid. Did a wheelie and the front wheel came off.
@@sstrazzi a youtube comment may have saved you from getting injured how do you feel?
Oh the gods of twisted pattern, forgive me for i have sinned, and fallen into an abyss of "..i gotta testride this sucker now!"
I love the scale from park tool to whistlindiesel!
Lol😂
Wonder where MORR falls on that scale.
Yeah I laughed out loud. 😂
@@ototso9281same
Whistlindiesel has the world's biggest squatted truck yet he hates squatted trucks. I don't get that channel
One great safety tip is when using a wrench, it's always better to pull then to push. Saves your knuckles if you slip.
And if you have to push, do it OPEN handed. That way you don't bust a knuckle if something slips! 45 years mechanic.
Unless it's towards your face. Never punched myself in the face with a 1-1/8" wrench before...three times...
This ^^
In the industry we call all of those "Near Miss" incidents. Just because someone didn't get hurt doesn't mean they couldn't have been hurt and we have the opportunity to learn and adapt our approach to the work/job to avoid having an actual Hit/Injury event.
What if you just avoided a near miss could still have had a near miss??
@@joehalisky7921 yeah, so use it as an opportunity to tighten up instead of just waiting for the inevitable to happen
On my first disc brake bike, after a particularly good fall, I went to straighten my bars by straddling the front wheel and twisting the handlebars. 10 years later, I still have remnants of the imprint from my rotor branded into my calf.
Safety glasses are a must when working with anything under pressure. This includes hydraulic brakes and suspension. DOT 5 in the eyeball is no joke.
I watched a few drops of DOT 5 fall on a painted floor, faded the paint pretty fast, after awhile it bubbled the paint, wear gloves & goggles when using that stuff
Whenever you hear someone refer to fingers as "fingies" you know they have a baby at home😆
I'm happy that you started with disc brakes vs. fingers lol. I cut off the tip of my thumb while working on my bike. I also was truing the wheel and accidentally put my thumb in. It cut 75% of the way through and cracked the tip of my thumb bone. They had to put stitches through my fingernail with a fish hook looking needle and I lost some feeling. Definitely avoid this!!! I've also burned myself on hot brakes. So I am much more cautious with the brakes now lol
Had a friend who after a 9 mile downhill on the Plunge in Kern River, CA tried to grab his brake rotor, to clear debris out of it and permanently tattooed his palm in the brake rotor design
I did the same to my thumb , but setting a caliper.
Top of my thumb was just held on with a wee flap of skin.
Didn't really hurt though , just like hitting your thumb with a hammer , more a dull thump.
Got congratulated on my first aid by the nurse , so I count that as a win.
@@mx1742 same
Magura hydraulic rim brakes anyone? Idk some BMX rider.
Same here, but it was a pinky…
My worst injury was when I was bikepacking. I have a 2x11 drivetrain and the chain was in the inner position in the front, had to do something with the bike, dont even remember what and it started falling down. Mind you, I had like 30 kgs of stuff on the bike. So when it fell, I tried to stop it from falling , leg went on the other side of the bike between the wheels and the front chainring squeezed into my shinbone. Got lucky cause i had no infection or anything and didnt even go to the hospital, but I had to clean the wound for about a month while cycling to southern Italy. And now I got a nice souvenier from my first bikepacking trip, along with a puppy I found on the streets 😅
Add on to letting air out of your suspension when servicing: watch out for presure in the oil chamber
I got a shock used for cheap and since it wasn't serviced in a long time I went and thaugt of letting air out first and when I got to open the oil chamber I just opened it and the upper part of the sock flew across the room . I tried to clean the oil up as good as I could but there's still a mark of it on the ceiling.
IFP chamber I'm guessing
@5:50 also when removing a seized chain ring, be aware of where gravity and the force with which you're hitting will send it. A stock 3x steel chainring with integrated cranks came down right on a vein near my ankle. I knew i had f'd up, but when I saw the squirt and my sock filling up, I really knew I just learned a valuable lesson😀
Can confirm brake disc of doom. We're #1/2!
I was cleaning the bike upside down and the wheel was spinning slowly from the hose spray. Left it spinning as I was cleaning the frame and BANG! the three stages were "Oh man that hurts"....."oh crap I'm bleeding"....oh Jesus IT'S MOVING! Sucker could flap around like a muppet head. 5 hours in the ER, x-rays, three stitches. 10 months later it still feels weird. It crushed the bone but that healed. They even saved the finger nail, although I had to go through the dead cut one falling off.
WATCH OUT FOR DISC BRAKES!
Pretty much what happened to me, 2 years later and it still feels kinda weird but improving
Been there , took a while for the nerves to recover.
I've never hurt myself working on my bike, but I've seen some real injuries working on cars.
Probably the most significant was when I had to take my coworker to the hospital after he tried to disassemble an AC system without discharging it first, and blasted himself in the face with 200 PSI of toxic refrigerant. Stay safe y'all!
I'm just happy to see the pup get a treat in the name of safety.
Remember that one of your pedals is left hand thread. A number of years ago I was breaking down my mountain bike to package it for a flight. I thought one of my pedals was just SUPER tight. I put a trolley jack handle on my 15mm wrench to get some extra leverage... pulling towards my face (duh) I snapped the wrench and hit myself in the eyebrow with the jack handle with all my strength...nearly passed out, bled a decent amount and still carry the scar....
I would also like to mention that if pedals are threaded into a crank - ALWAYS tighten them. That is to say, don't get side tracked and say "I'll tighten them later" because if you go out to test ride the bike, that finger tight pedal will likely come off and if you are standing up on the pedals you can come down on the top tube very hard or even inadvertently turn the bars as you go down and core sample yourself. Have had it happen and made sure to check pedals on any bike someone else built before I test ride.
Always be careful when servicing forks, because sometimes there is pressure where it shouldn't be.
I was servicing a relatively old fork with a Motion Control damper, when I noticed that there was pressure built up in the damper and it was pushing out the shaft. I started to unscrew the compression damper assembly, as there was no other way to vent the pressure. When it stopped hissing, I assumed there was no pressure left, but the suspension oil was probably sealing the threads, because when I continued, it shot the whole compression damper out, left a little dent in the ceiling and made a mess. I was fine, if I had been a little less careful, it could have ended badly. I had read all the manuals, but it wasn't mentioned anywhere that there could be pressure in damper side of the fork.
This was great. General shop/tool safety is a critical life skill that translates into many other areas.
My first lessons in safety came not from bikes, but from cars. My father was a mechanic and **constantly** hounded me to "watch my hands" when doing anything. Thankfully I've never seriously injured myself, but I've busted my fair share of knuckles punching metal when not being careful.
Basically, I try to ask myself: "where are my hands going to go if my tool slips?" and let that guide how I choose and position a tool, apply torque (and how much), etc.. Also, be very wary of spinny things. They will hurt you before you realize what happened.
I always say that 2 or 3 mistakes have to align to get truly injured. We have the rules in place so that we may only ever make one, and occasionally make 2. If you get negligent and unlucky that's where bad stuff really happens. Planning what you are going to do and just thinking about it a bit helps significantly. Basically anything moving that isn't designed to be perfectly safe (nerf stuff for instance) is going to have a decent chance to hurt you.
The Torx fastener point is a good one - I inflicted my worst injury in a vehicle workshop on myself because a big TX slipped. It applies to all fasteners more broadly, and the special tools we get for bike stuff. Ask yourself how much force you're putting into (say for example) a cassette or BB tool, and where that force is going to go if it slips.
Also, be careful lifting a bike up into a stand. Inflicting an injury on your shoulder or back is a royal PITA, and will stop you riding.
You should basically either be transferring force far away from the object or perpendicular to the face. If your tools are solid and the machining is solid you will never have any problems. Stubby screwdrivers and ratchets are more useful in more situations as a beginner but they are more dangerous in the long run if you get serious about building/rebuilding anything.
3:15 oh boy, got my first fullsuspension bike this week and as you said, during setup I pinched my fingers between the frame and the linkage… it was more humiliation than hurt, but from now on I‘m gonna be pretty careful when fiddeling on my bikes suspension👍
Depending on what I'm doing, I wear mechanics gloves not just rubber gloves (some repairs require fine motor skills that you lose when wearing the gloves). Lots of scraped knuckles while working on cars finally got me to wear them.
Great tips Seth. After 30+ yrs wrenching on MTB’er, I JUST took a fingertip off doing the manual caliper adjust, just like you said. It’s extremely dangerous.😮 Bridging the open spaces with thin aluminum might be safer and help dissipate heat better. Ok boys, there’s your next $million dollar idea.👍😉
My new Shimano XT 4 piston brakes that I got last june have the exact rotors you’re describing!
It would be more surface area for heat dissipation but it would weigh more
Thanks for pointing these out Seth! I made the brake rotor mistake only once and I will never adjust my caliper with the wheel spinning again because of it. I used to assemble bikes at a bike shop which always included installing and adjusting the front caliper. all it took was a bit of speed from the wheel and a split second of not being aware of my fingers position and it split my finger in two. I nearly lost the tip of my finger but luckily did not break the bone and only lost the fingernail. The finger still has some nerve damage from this. Since then, I made a point to tell anyone new who started building bikes about this danger and to not put their fingers near the rotor when it was spinning. Just like power tools: all it takes is a minor lapse in judgement and you can end up with a permanent injury. Glad you are making people aware of the dangers of bike maintenance!
This is a great video! Another one I’d add is to be careful not to touch the disc brake rotors after a long descent. I’ve done this once and the rotors burnt my fingers and through my gloves due to the amount of heat generated by braking!
That heat represents all the dinner you ate converted into muscle power pedaling uphill converted into heat which is lost energy! Mean old downhill, and mean old brakes.
This brings back memories!! A friend cut half a finger off with the chain and sprocket on a BMX. In the early days of disk brakes, I've also caught my fingers in them. I remember when the Hayes disk brakes just came out and no one really knew how to bleed them. We had a tech trying to bleed the brakes and the hose came off the bleed nipple while he was squeezing the syringe. He ended up taking a full syringe of DOT fluid in the eye.
Worst case I had? just retuning my brakes as a kid, went at a slow speed to test thefront and back induvidually and see how responsive they were after fiddling - even at such a slow speed, the front brake sent me straight over the handlebars and would've sent my skull into the road; I'm thankful to this day I'd left my helmet on while i was fiddling around because it would have been bloody otherwise 😅
My chain jumped a few teeth or off the inner chainring about 20 years ago and I jammed the rear of my ankle into the outer chainring 😅
Still have a 5cm scar.
I bought a new chainguard after that..!
Shop mechanic here - letting the air out of your fork is more important when servicing your air spring. I’ve forgotten that before and holy cow does that thing come out fast. 100psi behind an aluminum rod is something to behold - I’m lucky to be alive.
Also on pedal removal - have the bike upright, rotate pedal in question to forward position, put tool on pedal also pointing forward. Put foot on pedal with all your weight on pedal. Pull up on tool HARD. Not only does this ensure your fingies are nowhere near anything that you can punch but there’s a TON more force and makes removing stubborn pedals very very easy.
Seth is so entertaining 😂
As with tubeless tyres, when overpressuring, they might make loud bang so do inner tubes when not seated properly. Higher the pressure louder the bang :D I changed the inner tube of a road bike and didn't put a little air in the tube nor checked if the tube seated properly in the tyre... So at about 7 Bar the tyre blew :D. The blow was so loud that me and one of my then colleagues heard whistling sound several hours afterwards :D
So remember: always put a little air into the new tube when replacing inner tubes :D
Hi Seth! Just wanted to confirm that I didn’t let all the air out of my fork once and the cap did explode of the top of the fork at near to terminal velocity! 😂
Working in a bike shop, I would regularly get poked with frayed cables. Once, my thumb swelled up and throbbed for 3 days. Sleep was impossible, it hurt so much. I had a red streak (sepsis) that ran 1/2 way up my arm. I was young and dumb, but I wish I'd understood how serious it was. Fill out the L&I forms and go to the doctor.
I learned the brake rotor thing the hard way a month ago. Thankfully I didn't get too hurt. My finger nails are still screwed up though.
My little brother (4 yrs old) turned the wheel of a 29 and put his finger between disk rotor and frame...
the worst day i could remember, he almost lose his nail matrix.
Luckly he recoreved pretty well and now he know this is dangerous.
Nice advice Berm! thanks for sharing
Worst experience I got when working on a bike was when a frayed cable poked my eye, felt the pain for a few days and I was very lucky it didn't hit anything major, keep safe everyone!
Omg that's like my worst nightmare!
Ouch! I got a single wire of a frayed cable in my skin like a stainless steel splinter. Boy that hurt.
I got a flake of aluminum under my fingernail once it hurt so bad
The mosto useful hack I can share: when you have a simple L-shaped Allen or Torx, against a really stubborn bolt, don’t try hulking it out, instead use a regular seatpost, I recommend 27.2, at the end of the tool to give you more leverage, it makes the job infinitely easier and can be used for far more than MTB or Cycling issues
This is basically a “I’m doing it so you don’t have to” video 😂
I've done pretty much all of these things to some degree over the last 20 years, mostly when I was like 14 lol. One thing to be mindful of is that some air shocks and forks have multiple reservoirs (connected by tiny channels that can clog), and occasionally you'll empty the main and there will still be high pressure in the res. Cycle the shock a few times when letting the air out. Also, for the underinsured, keep super glue in the shop for relatively minor, clean cuts that should have stitches- it's the same thing they would use if you went to the ER.
The ballistic gel hand looks like anakins Hand and from the end of Star Wars episode three doesn't it! 🤣🤣🤣🤣
Experienced bike enthusiast here. Even still, I detonated my tire literally days before you posted your old video. I blew off the cassette 20 feet and the pawls out of the hub. Sounded like a bomb went off. It unseated a DH casing tire with cushcore in the blink of an eye!! It was violent! Many doubted it could cause that carnage until I showed them your video a few days later 😂😂 What a coincidence. What a memory.
Seth: "I don't think I have a bad safety record."
Also Seth: "Let me show you the numerous ways I've been hurt."
While working on my bike I had it in the repair stand, clasped in by the seat post. I did not realize the clamp that kept the bike from rotating back and fourth needed to be tightened. Standing behind the bike, bending over slightly, I took my rear wheel off and the bike, now heavier in the front, took a nose dive. The part of the frame where the seat stay meets the chain stay hit me sqaure in my front tooth. This was a heavy, steel bike too. Thankfully it didn't knock my tooth out, or loose. It hurt just enough for me to learn my lesson. Tighten all the clamps on your repair stands fellas!
I’ve never seen him so safe
Former mechanic: frayed cables in the fingertips and under the nails, metal slivers, poked a hole in my thumb nail (mandatory ER visit) when a bolt broke free and I hit a rear rack, permanent scars on my knuckles while "reminding myself" to keep the chain on the biggest ring when working on a crank, so many pinches on random things that led to blood cleanup (pieces sliding together, like a loosened gooseneck stem), blew a tire off a rim trying to set up an old rim with a "make it tubeless setup" (never again) and lost my hearing for like 30 seconds and had a fluorescent pink hand for a few hours due to the impact, and many cuts, amongst the things I've forgotten. I like to think of scars as DIY tattoos.
I may or may not have stuck my hand in my disc brake out of “curiosity” (lack of common sense) when I was in middle school. let’s just say I will NEVER do that again 😂
A few years ago I had a oops... I had biked into work that morning and about halfway in I could hear the pads rubbing on the disk. At lunch I flipped my bike upside down in my office and spun the wheel and was listening and looking to see what was going on. It looked like the pad wasn't seated all the way for some reason and I went to push it in. Well that was about the time a speed hole in disk on the SPINNING wheel came by and lifted my fingernail up like the hood of a 69 camero. It didn't feel good... To this day, when I sneeze it feels like that nail may fall off.
@@triley9587 😬ouch
😂😂
I work in a shop and one of our mechanics blew a tubeless road tire off the rim at around 100 psi. It rung through the whole shop. No one got hurt, but definitely had some potential damage.
love the videos! one suggestion is that maybe you could post raw riding videos. no commentary, just you being you. A lot of riders I know are impressed with your abilities on the bike so it would be entertaining to watch. Not to mention free content if you decide to ride. Again keep up the good work, I assume it must be challenging to juggle between family and 3.5M strangers across both channels.
Wow, good thing you mentioned the risk of injury due to the rotors! One time I was being careless while adjusting a client's caliper at my dad's shop and stuck my pointer finger in but as a matter of luck, the disc didn't cut completely through. It got stuck in the nail right above the bone and only some meat was left hanging. I got away just with some stitches!
Safe? No that’s not allowed
Excellent tips. I used to wrench for a local bike shop in the late Nineties and had my share of repair related cuts and bruises. I forgot to let the air out of a Cannondale Headshock and let me tell you there was no warning. Just BANG and a face full of oil. Never made that mistake again.
I know that was supposed to represent a Finger but my man parts are hurting from empathy now.
I've been following you since 2016. Never have I ever been not entertained by any of your videos. Always enjoyed them and I'm usually learning something. Maintain your excellence and peace out.
In my experience center lock rotors are worse to take off than 6 bolt. The BB tool is super shallow and puts your knuckles really close to the spokes, plus if you run dt Swiss wheels with bladed spokes it’s even worse. I have a few scars on my knuckles from taking off both styles of rotors.
thanks for this video
a workshop is a dangerous place (especially for fingers ) and we all need to be remember from time to time
as a bike mechanic i will advice people
- to be care full with disc cleaner, that shit dry your skin very badly and some chain cleaner could be bad a well
- be care full with spokes when the whell is spining, they are not as sharp as a disc but they hurt
- even if you got a derailleur, if your finger get between the chain and tooth it will hurt
but most important of all test the bike before really riding it, take it for a spin around the block and finish by a bunny up, to see if you don't forget to tight something
Honorable mention to spokes. I was in the park with a vintage bike when the shifting got messed up. I lifted the bike off the ground grabbing it from the chain stay, i spin the wheel to check the shifting and because the barrel adjuster was on the derailleur, I went for it and almost caught my fingers between the spokes and jokey wheels. So be aware of the spokes!!!
Best channel on RUclips. Seth, you make everything interesting. Thank you.
I discovered rear shocks that have t been serviced in years DO NOT ALWAYS FULLY DEPRESSURIZE. At least I didn't have to drain the oil and use a pick to remove the rings... When I unscrewed the can, the oil blew out into a fine mist and rings popped off the piston head. I was also rewarded with ringing ears and whacked fingies.
Dropped a chainring and cranks on my shin on the way out of the bike shop. 9 stitches. Good reminder to just carefully handle bike parts in general
The one that kept getting me was back when I had a Schwinn StingRay. The forks are at a really shallow angle (chopper-style) and it has this big metal plate on the fork. If you grab it under the fork mount (where you commonly grab a normal bike from) when the wheel tips one way or the other, that plate will come around and slam right into your finger. The amount of times I got myself with that while converting it to electric before I converted it back and sold it.
I know someone that lost the tip of their finger to a chainring on a single speed, someone that lost half of their big toe during a wreck, and I've personally had a finger go round the ring on my track bike but luckily the chain was loose enough that no permanent damage was done! A fixed gear is definitely the most dangerous though, once it's spinning it does NOT want to stop.
One thing that seems dumb but does happen is touching the rotor after coming down a trail. Buddy of mine had a semi permanent shimano stamp on his thumb.
You're right about taking the battery out.
My Flyer E-bike has a highly sensitive sensor.
The moment I place my foot on one of the pedals, and let the weight of my foot rest on the pedal that is facing forward, The motor engages.
That will only happen when the crank is facing forward. I know that most E-bikes these days are protected to prevent this to happen.
Surprised you didn’t talk about the repair stand and how it can fail you sometimes. I have a cheap repair stand. While working on my bike one day, the rotation knob wasn’t tight enough (tbh it was pretty tight already) and the bike swung down and the handlebars hit me in the head. Luckily I just got a small bruise but still it hurt a lot. Lesson learned: make sure to buy a good quality stand and make sure the bike properly secured on the stand.
I hyper extended my thumb trying to break the bead off a rim one time. Tire wasn't even tubeless of all things.
Customer was right there and I saw/felt the pop of my thumb knuckle and I had to carry on like nothing happened while profusely sweating in pain lol. It's all healed up and good now :)
Plenty of parts of me got hurt by working on bikes; finger in the brake rotor, almost passed out; plenty of smashed knuckles from bad tool placement; ears ringing after inner tube explosion; metal in my eye from using an angle grinder, while I was wearing safety goggles.
Oh the chainring one made me remember one of my worst injury from my childhood and a good point against 3X setups:
My right feet slipped down from the pedal and went across to the other side between the wheels, I didn't go over it with the rear wheel, but the chain was on the smallest ring, so instead I just punctured my calf in a nice straight line with the biggest ring.
My favourite thing is that the plastic protector that I always hated and tought it was useless was still on the ring that supposed to prevent stuff like this.
That was the most I have bled ever, ruined my sock and shoe, but fortunately it was nothing serious. Amazingly after some moths-years there was no scars visible (considering that it was a deep oily wound).
Regarding the top cap on the front fork. I have definitely made that mistake. I thought the air valve was under the top cap. So I unscrewed it. I had a rockshox recon on a 2018 hawkhill 2. The top cap launched into the garage ceiling and left a dent. The wrench and socket was thrown across the garage. Quite a thump. Neighbor heard it and asked if I was ok. No injuries.
But I have sliced my hand on a brake rotor in a different way. I was cleaning the rotor with a rag and acetone. Spinning the wheel and dragging the rag tightly on the spinning rotor. The edge of the rotor slices thru the rag and my hand. Took many rotations to slice thru. If you are paying attention or shuffling the rag there would be a much lower risk.
Some of my close calls have been when Im working on the bike and the kids get excited and come over to see what's going on and want to spin the wheels or turn the peddles while it's one the stand. I love that they get engaged but a finger in the spokes or a disc brake would be real bad.
Best way I've found is to just slow down, work with them and put your schedule on hold and be ok monitoring and helping them explore. safely.
Thanks, always think what happens if the tool slips, or the bolt shears, make sure your hand does not go crashing towards a chain ring or cassette. Always use quality tools in good condition, I have seen many cheap tools snap or round off, and then you slip.
So far I have both eyes and all fingers, but plenty of gravel rash and other scars from hitting trees etc.
I know its an extra step, but seating your tire BEFORE putting sealant in it is usually a good idea. Then add it through the stem with the valve out using a syringe. I know all you old pros just like pouring it in the tire, but I am not willing to take the chance of getting painted like Seth did... Also using a clamping air chuck with a remote trigger is a plus for distancing your hand while filling.
Ive been binging these videos like crazy trying to kill anxiety over a new job. Thanks Seth 🙏🙏
The Bain of my exsistance is my hand slipping around bladed spokes. I have numerous places on my knuckles from where I needed to remove a disc rotor on a bladed spoke wheel and when the bolts crack loose my knuckle will occasionally catch one of the spokes
Or I have to do cup and cone adjustments on a vice with similar results. Not fun. I also agree with pedal removal as well. I use repair stands and still sometimes bash my hand/knuckle from time to time. Hasn't happened in a long while fortunately.
Cut off my finger last year in a rear brake rotor in the shop....the thumbnail hit home.
Literally exactly what happened in the first B-roll 🤣
Big early 2000s 203mm rotor, reached around to manually close the caliper before I had hooked up the cable. Now I make sure I do the brake cables first instead of the shift cables
had a very budget bike stand just set it up and I pushed the cam down onto the top tube of my bike! When the cam snapped down my finger was in the mechanism! I lost a chunk of skin the size of a dime that day... now id also add watch your fingers arround cams and even the small ones on a seat post or any QR system.
So in the past. I was trying to align my caliper on my ebike. I was sick of turning it by hand and just set the bike on cruise control while hanging to align the rotor. Finger slipped , went in the rotor . In a split second , 3/4 of my finger was sliced off with the meat hanging off the bone. Didn't hurt at first but GOD DAMN the burn after like 15 seconds when reality set in. Thankfully I went to the hospital immediately and managed to get it stitched back, albeit I no longer feel anything at the tip of that finger but its still good to have it .
When cleaning or lubricating a fixed gear drivetrain, rotate it by moving the wheel, don't crank it and let it spin. Plenty of momentum to pull your fingers into the chainring!
The first thing you mention - the disc rotors - seem so obvious but I can't agree more. Once I was in a hurry for a ride and was putting tubeless on, finishing up with a spin of the wheel to get the milk spread. Turned around to put the tools down and back to pick the bike while accidentally putting my finger in the front rotor. Almost cut the top of my finger. There was blood everywhere. I wrapped it up with a boxxer short and had to go for a beer to chill from the stress before deciding on checking on it haha
Seth, great reminder message. I too have blown a tire off the rim. Destroyed the rim and tire and left ringing in my ears for days from the explosion. Tire sealant everywhere which is near impossible to clean. Stupid mistake by me and a painful reminder to pay attention at all times when working on your bike.
Don't forget to install the cotter pin after servicing your brakes.
After hitting a drop near the top of the trail, had no rear brakes. Riding down a steep hill at high speeds with only front brakes is sketchy.
A loooong time ago... I refreshed the gear cables. And since I am a tidy guy, I rolled the old cables up, so they don't take up so much space. While rolling, I didn't notice, that one of the cables was partially damaged and one of the wires was sticking out. I managed to pull that wire about 1 inch into my hand. Took some months to heal due to all the grease getting into the wound. Nasty nasty...
I have had an air cap fly off hard enough to make a bang and put a small dent in my drywall. It was on a relatively recent Manitou mattoc comp (2019 or 2020 model year I think). I let most of the air out with a shock pump but apparently there was still some residual. Now I know you're supposed to let the rest out by depressing the valve pin with a small tool after you get the majority out with a shock pump. I'd guess it depends on where the o-ring is situated. If it's still sealing in the air when you reach the end of the threads you get a bang.
I was once drilling out a stuck seatpost bolt. Thing was stuck BAD, so I drilled through the screw from one direction, but couldnt get all the way through, so I went at it from the other side, without noticing I was using my thump to brace against the seatpost clamp. The drill bit hooked into the screw, which now had a super sharp and hollow point, and drilled the screw straight into my thumb. Stopped on bone but took a nice core sample of the thumb.
I have another fun one. Removing the cassette when it sits a bit tight. Grabbing underneath the biggest sprocket and just pulling or even leveraging your fingers against the spokes. That's a great way of ramming the cassette into the base of your thumbs when it finally comes loose. Happened to me twice. Cassette sprockets are really sharp and there was a lot of blood.
Always know where your hand is going to go when that bolt finally breaks loose. Learned this more working on my car than my bike, but still.
Moments after my first fullsuspension frame broke at the seat tube, my middle finger was hit by sharp-edged aluminium with 250 PSI. As I loaded the broken frame into my brothers car, I must have compressed the suspension a little bit, allowing my finger to slip into the space between the now two seat tubes, and then to be caught by the rebound. Let's just say, my finger has a bumpy shape up to this day!
Once, when working in a bike shop, I was auditing a bike we built for a customer when I noticed the rear rotor was rubbing. I trued the rotor, re-hung the wheel, and gave it a quick spin after attaching it to the bike. Unfortunately, my left thumb DID NOT clear the rotor, and one of the rotor struts sliced its way into my thumb, splitting my thumb in half at the tip. When the rotor hit I didn't make a sound, I just jerked my hand back and stared dumbfounded at my thumb while the blood dripped down to my elbow. My nail had been cut in half from the tip to the nailbed and thanks to the blood and adrenaline I had no clue how deep or bad it was. I simply walked up to one of my coworkers with my hand wrapped in a bloody rag and with a serenity only shock could explain asked if they would grab a worker's comp form from the office and drive me to an emergency clinic.
Thankfully, I hadn't spun the wheel that hard and although the bone had fractured it was not a terrible break and it did not manage to cut all the way through the bone. Been very careful around spinning rotors ever since...
Dude, I caught my finger in the rotor doing a brake adjustment. I was doing exactly what you said. I was just moving the wheel back and forth, and I have done it a 1000 times, but I was just in auto mode, and my finger went right in. Glady, just had a black and blue finger and a little lost skin.
A big one for me was from my own frustration. I got angry and threw an entire fully inflated rear wheel. It bounced back and I took the sprocket tooth right in the top of my finger. Far from a pleasant experience. 9:56
Hey at least you didn't took a hammer to the shin like i did 😂 good ol' communist crafted hammer...
What i do to remove tight pedal/(corroded thread may i add) is just use my legs and weight. Put the tool in place, hold the brakes and unscrew that bad boy with all my weight. I find a place to tilt myself on, hold both brakes and put the tool opposite of the pedal then put all my weight on the pedal i will unscrew and just smash/kick the tool downward with my other leg. This unscrew most stuborn pedal.
...and come to think of it i should probably give some maintenance to my pedals hahaha. All grease in it is dry and bearing are slack.
Edit: Yeah... i just tried, it's so stuck my weight was barely turning the screw.
It's always very nice that someone's been through countless painful experiences so that the audience can learn from them. It's just too bad it had to be you and not the majority learning.
So from my perspective of a 12 year bike mechanic with easily a few thousand fork services under the belt, I was expecting the top cap to slowly vent the pressure. The dangerous part is the snap ring on the bottom of the upper tube which holds in the entire air spring assembly. If you pull out that snap ring while it's pressurized, you're getting a gnarly welt at best and a trip to the er at worst.
Cleaning with isopropyl alcohol is essential for brake bleeds/replacements, but I've gotten in the habit of cleaning discs anytime I use oils/lubes on my bike. Had a bad experience where my ebike's back brake got some crap on it from my chain or something and I was barely able to stop from 20mph. Cleaned it with alc afterwards and fixed the issue.
i’m a bike mechanic, and i’ve blown my finger apart on a rotor a few times, the first time it was that i didn’t know, then i started to get too comfortable and would just do it by mistake, so make sure you keep the same caution always
injuries I've gotten working on my bike. got my finger pinned between the chainring and chain and took a chunk out, slammed my knuckles into the chainring when swapping pedals, accidentally grabbed my bike by the chainring when it slipped in the stand and cut up my palm... conclusion, Chainring is dangerous.
Luckily I've avoided the classic finger in the spokes, finger in the disk and other such classics.
I once changed my pedals. To not hit my knuckles on the chainring or the frame, i did it the following way:
i fixated the bike under me, leaning partly over it from the side with the bike in an upright position, pedals level and loosening the back pedal from the back while balancing the momentum with the other hand on the front pedal. So far, i think i wasn't totally wrong for someone that wrenches on the bike not enough to justify owning more than the bare minimum...
The problem was though, I slipped and smashed my knuckles against the concrete floor... Nothing major though, just a few bruises and the need for a beer ^^
I once putt on tubeless tires with and industrial, large capacity compressor, with broken manometer which we only found out after the fact... I was lucky the ripped tire bed hit me only on my knee and left a line there. Also got ringing in my ears for 3 days. I estimate i put around 8-9 bars in 29x2.4 tire. Surprisingly the rim survived and was ok. Since then i wear safety googles when i seat tires.
On of the mechanics I trained had a habit of putting tools on the ground... bit him one day when working on his bike at home... stuck his foot on a drill and missed a few days of work. Morel of the story... try to never put your tools on the ground. Even placing a cookie sheet on the ground to put your tools on will keep you from making a miss-step.
When working on disc rotors I should get out my mechanix gloves, got it thanks!
Worst I got hurt was on my car trying to take the shock apart. Broke a allen key off into my finger had to go get it stitched up, toom months to get feeling back.
I wish I was wearing those gloves that day.
I've done the hand into the chainring thing while working at a bike shop. it was a road bike and needed some old pedals swapped with new ones. It had a 3x chainring and I didn't think to shift into the largest chainring. once that old pedal (which was giving me a hard time) broke loose the force send my palm right into the largest chainring.
The puncture wounds in the hotdog looked exactly like mine and when I saw it in the video my brain instantly felt that pain in my hand again for a brief second. I had 2 nicely spaced stab wounds with grease and dirt all in it just like the hotdogs in the video, and it didn't bleed for the first few minutes. it was my first real eye opener to take care of my hands cause I couldn't do my job very well for a few weeks after.