Author Topic: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!! (Read 5634 times)

bikebitzofvt · « **on:** May 01, 2011, 06:58:36 AM »

Folks, I've been riding for almost 30 years and wrenching for 26. Went to MMI, worked at dealerships for 15+ years. I've changed thousands of tires over the years - on the floor, on a Coates 220, on the regular pneumatic tire machine. In that time I've never had a serious injury while wrenching - until last night, that is... I was changing a rear tire on a Seca 2 (fix-up project to flip for more $$ in K7 warchest), had the wheel off on a stand, rock hard old Cheng Shin tire... got the bead broke in my bench vise. Popped a tire iron in, started prying with the 2nd one. It slipped, 1st iron flew out and hit me in the face. I ended up needing 5 stitches, and cracked a tooth!

The freaky part is if the iron had hit 2 inches higher up I would no longer have an eye.

I guess the moral of the story is just a reminder to be careful!!!

mrrch · « **Reply #1 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:06:25 AM »

OUCH!

Kevin400F · « **Reply #2 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:14:34 AM »

Safety glasses are always a good idea when doing any kind of shop work.

fmctm1sw · « **Reply #3 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:27:37 AM »

I've had many nicks and cuts and burns. One of my more memorable ones though was spraying a bottom end real good one time with carb cleaner. Just moments later I blew it with compressed air not realizing all the carb cleaner was pooled up where I couldn't see it. Yep, right in my eyes...

benjamin550 · « **Reply #4 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:31:30 AM »

Quote from: fmctm1sw on May 01, 2011, 07:27:37 AM

I've had many nicks and cuts and burns. One of my more memorable ones though was spraying a bottom end real good one time with carb cleaner. Just moments later I blew it with compressed air not realizing all the carb cleaner was pooled up where I could see it. Yep, right in my eyes...

Done that before. It SUCKS.

bikebitzofvt · « **Reply #5 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:43:22 AM »

I'm cursed to wearing glasses all my waking hours, and buy ansi rated lenses for them whenever it's time for new ones!

bikerbart · « **Reply #6 on:** May 01, 2011, 09:12:47 AM »

I was rebuilding my carbs,had a glass of water and a glass that I emptied the floats into and guess what,I took a nice big gulp of gas.You NEVER want to do that.I puked and tasted gas for the next 2 days.absolutely horrible.

camelman · « **Reply #7 on:** May 01, 2011, 09:22:31 AM »

Youch! I don't have any current injuries, but I think all the chemicals I've inhaled are going to turn me into Gilbert Godfried in about 20 years.

Didn't someone post a pic of what happens when cleaning your chain while the bike is on the center stand and the transmission is in first gear?

Camelman

73hutch · « **Reply #8 on:** May 01, 2011, 09:23:22 AM »

a friend of mine was taking the shocks off a bike. the frame dropped when the 2nd one was off. cut off half his finger. i ALWAYS think twice when doing that to a bike now.

Hush · « **Reply #9 on:** May 01, 2011, 09:45:01 AM »

I saw my younger brother greasing his Stinger 125 chain one day and being big brother and wishing to show my cred (I was 18) I explained that grabbing a handful of grease and letting the chain run through it while the bike idled in 2nd gear was best. Well little bro grabbed too hard and his fingers went through the sprocket, I quickly loosened the rear sprocket and got his mangled fingers out (all covered in grease) and did a quick trip to the hospital.
Not sure if Mum ever forgave me for that one?

BeSeeingYou · « **Reply #10 on:** May 01, 2011, 09:45:43 AM »

I have this habit honed over the years so it is like an instinct. Whenever I pick up a tool/get up on a ladder, etc it runs through my mind....what is the worst thing that could happen as I do this. Can't remember the last time I hurt myself that required medical attention and I work with power/construction tools every day.

crazypj · « **Reply #11 on:** May 01, 2011, 10:06:45 AM »

Not sure about worst (broken toe hurt like hell, steel toecap boots don't cover little toe

Most recent, 16th April (two weeks yesterday)
I was thinking it was a stupid idea just before blade caught and ran into my finger

0.025" wide, 2" dia @~7,000rpm

.
I've epoxied it up at present, now I finally got all the bits out

Going to be a while before it grows out.
I really haven't hurt myself much in 42+ yrs of working on bikes (including several years in dealerships)

trueblue · « **Reply #12 on:** May 01, 2011, 02:18:30 PM »

Touch wood I have had no major injuries working on bikes, but I have had a couple of good ones while at work. I'm a diesel mechanic by trade and one day I was using a cold chisel to remove a bearing from a shaft, the 3lb lump hammer I was using glanced off the side of the chisel and hit the side of my left hand and instead of hearing a comforting ting of the 2 bits of metal hitting together I heard a sickening crunch as the bone in my hand snapped in half. That was one of the worst, I have also torn a ligament in my shoulder, been knocked out by an apprentice who dropped a rather large spanner on my head while I was laying under a car and there have been quite a few other minor injuries and a hell of a lot of near misses over the years.

xsmooth69x · « **Reply #13 on:** May 01, 2011, 04:28:05 PM »

holy batman!

72 yellow · « **Reply #14 on:** May 01, 2011, 04:50:28 PM »

About 35 years ago I was using that old green tire sealant that came in a plastic squeeze bottle. I was squeezing really hard (in a hurry), the bottle blew apart spraying me in the eyes. Lucky for me I was working at my parents house and was able to find my way into the house with my semi-glued shut eyes. My dad drove me to the hospital to endure several eye fushes. Never used that stuff again.

Old Scrambler · « **Reply #15 on:** May 01, 2011, 05:59:26 PM »

Is that why they call them spoons?

70CB750 · « **Reply #16 on:** May 01, 2011, 06:12:33 PM »

Oh,that sucks, be glad your eye is safe. I just got recently hit with a bungee in my right eye,for few days I thought I will never see much with the eye again.

MRieck · « **Reply #17 on:** May 01, 2011, 07:56:10 PM »

I guess I'm lucky as age has left me half blind and I always have to wear glasses. The need has saved my ass on several occasions.

lone*X · « **Reply #18 on:** May 01, 2011, 08:31:01 PM »

Fortunately no major injuries. But I have knowledge of what happened. A while back I was removing a couple of rock hard Conti's off a set of GL1000 rims. I thought I was being very careful and trying not to damage the aluminum rims. Same thing happened as you had, bead popped back into the rim and flung a tire iron my way. Luckily it hit me in the shoulder and only smarted for a short while. Time for a change of tactics with these old hard tires. Taking the advice from someone here on the forum, I took a pruning saw to the tires, cut a wedge out of both tires to just above the edge of the rim, put a large c-clamp on to the side of the cutout to compress the tire so I could get at the bead. My HD Bolt cutter snipped the beads in half without effort and the tires literally fell off the rims. Only took about 15 minutes for each tire and NO PRYING! That Pruning saw made short work of that hard rubber.

crazypj · « **Reply #19 on:** May 01, 2011, 10:00:48 PM »

Quote from: trueblue on May 01, 2011, 02:18:30 PM

Touch wood I have had no major injuries working on bikes, but I have had a couple of good ones while at work. I'm a diesel mechanic by trade and one day I was using a cold chisel to remove a bearing from a shaft, the 3lb lump hammer I was using glanced off the side of the chisel and hit the side of my left hand and instead of hearing a comforting ting of the 2 bits of metal hitting together I heard a sickening crunch as the bone in my hand snapped in half. That was one of the worst, I have also torn a ligament in my shoulder, been knocked out by an apprentice who dropped a rather large spanner on my head while I was laying under a car and there have been quite a few other minor injuries and a hell of a lot of near misses over the years.

I was a 'site service engineer' for a plant hire company (construction equipment)
You ever remove track pins on excavator?
I was holding drift while foreman was bashing it.
12lbs hammer slipped out of his hand, (short handle sledge hammer)
luckily it was 'only' the handle that hit me on the head

trueblue · « **Reply #20 on:** May 02, 2011, 04:11:17 AM »

Quote from: crazypj on May 01, 2011, 10:00:48 PM

Quote from: trueblue on May 01, 2011, 02:18:30 PM
Touch wood I have had no major injuries working on bikes, but I have had a couple of good ones while at work. I'm a diesel mechanic by trade and one day I was using a cold chisel to remove a bearing from a shaft, the 3lb lump hammer I was using glanced off the side of the chisel and hit the side of my left hand and instead of hearing a comforting ting of the 2 bits of metal hitting together I heard a sickening crunch as the bone in my hand snapped in half. That was one of the worst, I have also torn a ligament in my shoulder, been knocked out by an apprentice who dropped a rather large spanner on my head while I was laying under a car and there have been quite a few other minor injuries and a hell of a lot of near misses over the years.

I was a 'site service engineer' for a plant hire company (construction equipment)
You ever remove track pins on excavator?
I was holding drift while foreman was bashing it.
12lbs hammer slipped out of his hand, (short handle sledge hammer)
luckily it was 'only' the handle that hit me on the head

Track pins are always fun, but amazingly I have never injured myself doing them. My old boss and I were removing spring hangers from the chassis of a Hino truck about 12 months ago, and to get the rivets out of the chassis we had to drill them then heat and quench them to shrink them enough to get them to move, we had a pin punch in the hole that was drilled in the rivet and a divet machined in the end of a lump of round stock, about 1 1/2" round and 2' long, to hold the head of the punch, he was holding the drift and I was swinging the hammer, we had removed about 15 rivets in total from the chassis that day without a hassel, when we got to the last one the punch wasn't sitting in the divet properly and he kept grabbing the pin punch to recentre it on the drift, I told him to not do it, anyway he said to me don't worry about it just hit the #*$%ing thing, so I did, the rivet flew out, the pin punch went straight through the hole in the chassis and his finger was in between the chassis and the drift with a 15lb sledge hammer up its arse, it was the first time I have ever seen a finger squash like a rotten tomato, it wasn't pretty. Everytime he mentioned to me after that about the time I crushed his finger I just reminded him that I told him to make sure his finger wasn't in the way.

damagedduck · « **Reply #21 on:** May 02, 2011, 05:50:25 AM »

my last one was 3 1/2 weeks ago,me & brother-n-law were unloading 2 P.O.S cb550's that i just bought for $55.oo we're unloading the last one & it was walking towards the edge of the 6 1/2 ramp/full size chevy truck/ i popped off & said i don't care if it falls off the ramp----
well it did,while kicking the ramp out & on to my foot,DAMN! right across the top of my foot..40lbs of alumi-ramp,i limped for 3 weeks,so yesterday we were uloading 2 more. i was on my guard,
they said you learn from your mistakes--well i should be a freaken genius by now..

flybox1 · « **Reply #22 on:** May 02, 2011, 06:52:48 AM »

Quote from: camelman on May 01, 2011, 09:22:31 AM

Didn't someone post a pic of what happens when cleaning your chain while the bike is on the center stand and the transmission is in first gear?

Camelman

yeah....i remember that hand-carnage! gsxr forum iirc.

carb cleaner in the eyes.

now i wear clear safety shades.
numerous hand wrist and forearm header burns. now i wait for my bike to cool before wrenching and always wear mech golves....but i still get that nice smell on my hands like i actually DID something useful

dylboss · « **Reply #23 on:** May 02, 2011, 07:20:15 AM »

Not while working on my bike, but riding 70MPH into gravel pit at New Hampshire Motor Speedway WITH full gear on.

72 yellow · « **Reply #24 on:** May 02, 2011, 12:18:41 PM »

Quote from: 70CB750 on May 01, 2011, 06:12:33 PM

Oh,that sucks, be glad your eye is safe. I just got recently hit with a bungee in my right eye,for few days I thought I will never see much with the eye again.

For sure. The worst part was spending 2 days with patches over both eyes. Total darkness. Don't ever want to repeat that.

seanbarney41 · « **Reply #25 on:** May 02, 2011, 01:08:29 PM »

Quote from: dylboss on May 02, 2011, 07:20:15 AM

Not while working on my bike, but riding 70MPH into gravel pit at New Hampshire Motor Speedway WITH full gear on.

ran out of run-off drag racing?

One time I was doing some carb tuning on my cb350 twin...it was something that needed the engine warmed up so I rode around for about 5 miles. When I got back to my garage I immediately set to work so that the adjustments could be made with the engine fully warmed. I crouched down witha screw driver in hand and lost my balance and started to fall backwards...I quickly dropped the screwdriver and grabbed the bike to keep from falling...oh no...not the header!...ouch

bikebitzofvt · « **Reply #26 on:** May 02, 2011, 01:28:09 PM »

Thanks y'all for sharing! Needless to say I'll be adding an extra dose of caution to all that I do for the next little while !!!

dylboss - was that at Loudon? Racing or track day?

Just *carefully* unloaded my 2 newest additions to the stable - 78 gs400 & 83 CB550SC. Managed to get 'em back on the ground without any mishaps!

madmtnmotors · « **Reply #27 on:** May 02, 2011, 05:58:11 PM »

I tend to wear safety glasses more often now than when I was younger. About 20 years ago I was working at my poorly lit storage unit, had a 750 engine sitting on a small cable spool. Removed the cylinder head followed by the cylinders. As the cylinders came free one of the cam tensioner components fell to the floor at my feet. I set the cyliders to the side and bent over to retrieve the wayward part.

You know, when you are looking straight down at those cylinder studs, they don't look quite so long, especially when your focus is on the floor below. Just as my outstretched arm reached the fallen piece my eyes reached the newly exposed ends of those cylinder studs. I literally thought I had gouged both my eyes out. Managed to escape with scratched corneas. The cornea is comprised of five layers and I managed to scratch through four of those layers in my left eye. No ill effects to this day, and I'm now fairly religious about wearing safety glasses. I am very thankful to still have my vision intact. Riding without it is hard to imagine....

Spanner 1 · « **Reply #28 on:** May 02, 2011, 08:53:09 PM »

Does riding mower count ?

... not even working on it !
My buddy wanted a loan of my riding mower and the little 6 ft. trailer it fits on. My buddy not being a mowing 'expert' like me (

), I offered to ride the 12 H.P. beast up onto the trailer for him.
Backed up ( as you do ) to get a 'run at it ' up the ramps and the effing trailer ( not 'home' on the hitch ball ) reared up , jumped forward, hitch rammed the tailgate of his Pathfinder producing a lovely big dent and a footlong bare metal scratch..... by this time I had reacted by slamming the throttle forward in the mistaken idea of trying to move forward on the trailer to put weight on the front and so drop the hitch socket down away from the bodywork. Yeah, that worked great , hitch dropped alright and bounced off the rear bumper and now were doing a 'wheelie' and the fricken' hitch rams thru' the back window ! THe 'wheelie' sends me knees over head and the riding mower lands upside-down on top of me with the steering wheel pinning my chest to the ground !
No one hurt , but what a disaster.... if I only had it on video, you'd laugh yer ass off

conseann3ry · « **Reply #29 on:** May 02, 2011, 09:19:55 PM »

Bleeding the brakes on my buddy's pickup.
"I'll tell you when to hit the pedal"
"Hit the pedal!?"
Stream of brake fluid pressure washes right into my eye. Thought I was going to lose my eye or something, once I got to the ER though they said brake fluid is fine for the eye, radiator fluid as well, just an irritant. I was lucky.

Retro Rocket · « **Reply #30 on:** May 02, 2011, 09:54:35 PM »

Quote from: Spanner 1 on May 02, 2011, 08:53:09 PM

Does riding mower count ? ... not even working on it !
My buddy wanted a loan of my riding mower and the little 6 ft. trailer it fits on. My buddy not being a mowing 'expert' like me ( ), I offered to ride the 12 H.P. beast up onto the trailer for him.
Backed up ( as you do ) to get a 'run at it ' up the ramps and the effing trailer ( not 'home' on the hitch ball ) reared up , jumped forward, hitch rammed the tailgate of his Pathfinder producing a lovely big dent and a footlong bare metal scratch..... by this time I had reacted by slamming the throttle forward in the mistaken idea of trying to move forward on the trailer to put weight on the front and so drop the hitch socket down away from the bodywork. Yeah, that worked great , hitch dropped alright and bounced off the rear bumper and now were doing a 'wheelie' and the fricken' hitch rams thru' the back window ! THe 'wheelie' sends me knees over head and the riding mower lands upside-down on top of me with the steering wheel pinning my chest to the ground !
No one hurt , but what a disaster.... if I only had it on video, you'd laugh yer ass off

I would almost pay to see that.....

swellguy · « **Reply #31 on:** May 02, 2011, 10:19:05 PM »

While shortening a bolt with a hand held grinder recently, I had the misfortune to have the metal cutoff wheel disintegrate at high speed:

That's a cellphone self-portrait while waiting in the ER to see an eye specialist. I was wearing eye protection but now my wife insists I wear a full face shield.

70CB750 · « **Reply #32 on:** May 03, 2011, 03:13:47 AM »

That's nasty!

damagedduck · « **Reply #33 on:** May 03, 2011, 05:09:52 AM »

swellguy..that sucks.i had a cheap ass habor freight 4' cut off wheel blow apart with 2 of my kids standing in the driveway,scarred the crap out of em,& me too a chunk about 3' smacked me in the thigh just short of mister happy!the boys learned a very good lesson about saftey that day.alway check the speed rating on cut off wheels,
i was wearing safety glasses.

should have had a cup on!

wardenerd · « **Reply #34 on:** May 03, 2011, 05:20:37 AM »

I was working on my 550 and from the right side ( did I mention it was an F model) I leaned over to flip the choke , reattach a gas line and open the petcock and smelled something burning. It was my leg against the dunstall pipe. Two square inch burn right over the ten year old divot in my shin bone.

dylboss · « **Reply #35 on:** May 03, 2011, 07:58:23 AM »

Quote from: bikebitzofvt on May 02, 2011, 01:28:09 PM

Thanks y'all for sharing! Needless to say I'll be adding an extra dose of caution to all that I do for the next little while !!!

dylboss - was that at Loudon? Racing or track day?

Just *carefully* unloaded my 2 newest additions to the stable - 78 gs400 & 83 CB550SC. Managed to get 'em back on the ground without any mishaps!

Yeah that was in the bowl on turn 6 at Louden. Track day. Guy on my inside took turn wider than I expected. Couldn't recover.

MidTNJasonF · « **Reply #36 on:** May 03, 2011, 08:57:22 AM »

I have had more than a few small injuries over the years working on aircraft ramps and in machine shops. Mostly just cuts and such. I have had fewer at home in the shop with the cars and bikes but still a few.

The only recent one that required medical attention was when I decided to get a part from storage in the attic. I have those handy pull down stairs in the garage and grabbed the pull string one evening. I looked up just as the table leg that was in storage up there slid down the stairs and hit me right in the eye. I guess it had fallen or shifted and landed on the closed stairs. It split me open between the eye brow and eye lid across the width of my eye. Man that was alot of blood. Took a few stitches and a bunch of that super glue stuff to close it all up in the ER.

The scariest was the grinding wheel particle that broke loose and managed to find its way into my eye through the only gap between my face and my glasses. It was a tiny little spec of a particle but boy did it hurt. I wasted no time getting down the road to the optometrist who flushed and put some dye in my eye to look for damage. It was only a scratch and it was more scary than truly painful but I found some tighter fitting safety glasses for use when grinding or cutting.

News:

Author Topic: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!! (Read 5634 times)