Author Topic: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!  (Read 5647 times)

0 Members and 5 Guests are viewing this topic.

Offline bikebitzofvt

  • Enthusiast
  • **
  • Posts: 182
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!!!
"If it ain't broke you aren't riding it hard enough!"

77 CB750K7, 77 KZ1000B

Offline mrrch

  • Hot Shot
  • ***
  • Posts: 652
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #1 on: May 01, 2011, 07:06:25 AM »
OUCH!
my build

1977 CB750K WITH 1976 CB750F ENGINE

Offline Kevin400F

  • Hot Shot
  • ***
  • Posts: 600
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #2 on: May 01, 2011, 07:14:34 AM »
Safety glasses are always a good idea when doing any kind of shop work.


Offline fmctm1sw

  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,042
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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...     
« Last Edit: May 03, 2011, 12:31:27 PM by fmctm1sw »
Quote from: 754
Dude is that a tire ? or an O-ring..??

Quote from: inkscars
This is not a pod thread
This is not a #$%* on my vacuum gauges thread
This is a help or GTFO thread.

1973 CB350F
1973 CB350G
1975 CB550K
1983 GL650I
1973 CB750K3 (http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=92888.0)
1984 Kawasaki KLT-250 (AKA 3 wheeler of death)
1994 Honda TRX300
1999 Honda TRX250

Offline benjamin550

  • Enthusiast
  • **
  • Posts: 132
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #4 on: May 01, 2011, 07:31:30 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.

Offline bikebitzofvt

  • Enthusiast
  • **
  • Posts: 182
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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!
"If it ain't broke you aren't riding it hard enough!"

77 CB750K7, 77 KZ1000B

Offline bikerbart

  • Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,579
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.
its better to regret something you have done,than something you havent.Except playing with explosives.

Offline camelman

  • Man... Myth... Legend
  • Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,899
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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
1972 350f rider: sold
1972 350f/466f cafe: for sale
1977 CB400f cafe:sold
1975 CB400f rider: sold
1970 CB750 K0 complete bike: sold
2005 Triumph Sprint ST 1050 rider

We've got to cut it off... and then come down on rockets.  (quoted from: seven minutes of terror)

Offline 73hutch

  • Enthusiast
  • **
  • Posts: 206
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.
78-550k
72-cb100
63 c100
75 xl350
84 gl1200

Offline Hush

  • Finally they realise that I am an
  • Really Old Timer ...
  • *******
  • Posts: 6,761
  • "Lady, I've heard it all before"!
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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? :D
I think the thing I most like about motorcycling is the speed at which my brain must process information at to avoid the numb skulls who are eating pies, playing the ukulele, applying make-up etc in the comfort of their airconditioned armchairs as they make random attempts to kill me!!!!!!!

Offline BeSeeingYou

  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,913
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.

Offline crazypj

  • I'm brill, me
  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 4,467
  • first 100,000 miles. 1977 CB550F
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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 ;D.
 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)
« Last Edit: May 01, 2011, 10:08:42 AM by crazypj »
I fake being smart pretty good
'you can take my word for it or argue until you find out I'm right'

Offline trueblue

  • A person who has had many interesting experiences, some of which are true, is known as an
  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,124
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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. 
1979 CB650Z
Nothing can be idiot proofed, the world keeps producing better idiots.
Electronic Guages for your SOHC 4

Offline xsmooth69x

  • Master
  • *****
  • Posts: 1,621
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #13 on: May 01, 2011, 04:28:05 PM »
holy batman!  :o
1975 CB550 (FINISHED?!?!?)
first motorcycle ever!!! ow and i dont know how to ride it either :D

raw rust rice venti quad shot cafe racing latte project aka my build..... http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php?topic=88853.0

black and white equation godzilla chalkboard 
1972 cb750 - next in line for some <3

Offline 72 yellow

  • Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,218
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.  :o

Offline Old Scrambler

  • My CB750K3 has been in 39 States & 5 Provinces
  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,810
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #15 on: May 01, 2011, 05:59:26 PM »
Is that why they call them spoons?
Dennis in Wisconsin
'64 Triumph Cub & '74 Honda CB750 Bonneville Salt Flats AMA Record Holder (6)
CB750 Classic Bonneville Racer thread - http://forums.sohc4.net/index.php/topic,135473.0.html
'63 CL72 Project(s)
'66 CL77 Red
'67 Triumph T100C
'73 750K3 Owned since New
'77 750F2 Cafe Project
2020 ROYAL ENFIELD Himalayan

Offline 70CB750

  • Labor omnia vincit improbus.
  • Really Old Timer ...
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,805
  • Northern Virginia
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.
Prokop
_______________
Pure Gas - find ethanol free gas station near you

I love it when parts come together.

Dorothy - my CB750
CB750K3F - The Red
Sidecar


CB900C

2006 KLR650

Offline MRieck

  • Really Old Timer ...
  • *******
  • Posts: 10,566
  • Big ideas....
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.
Owner of the "Million Dollar CB"

Offline lone*X

  • Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,126
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.










« Last Edit: May 02, 2011, 02:00:52 PM by lone*X »
Lone*X  ( Don )

75 CB550K1  
VTX1800C for two up cruisin.
Several others have come and gone but whose keeping track.
52 years on two wheels and counting.....
"The best safety feature of any motorcycle is the one God put between your ears.  It's also the least utilized"

Offline crazypj

  • I'm brill, me
  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 4,467
  • first 100,000 miles. 1977 CB550F
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #19 on: May 01, 2011, 10:00:48 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
« Last Edit: May 01, 2011, 10:04:54 PM by crazypj »
I fake being smart pretty good
'you can take my word for it or argue until you find out I'm right'

Offline trueblue

  • A person who has had many interesting experiences, some of which are true, is known as an
  • Old Timer
  • ******
  • Posts: 3,124
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #20 on: May 02, 2011, 04:11:17 AM »
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.
1979 CB650Z
Nothing can be idiot proofed, the world keeps producing better idiots.
Electronic Guages for your SOHC 4

Offline damagedduck

  • Full Member
  • *
  • Posts: 56
  • have you kissed a pitbull lately?
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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..
If i really cared--would it show?

Offline flybox1

  • My wife thinks I'm a
  • Really Old Timer ...
  • *******
  • Posts: 14,301
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #22 on: May 02, 2011, 06:52:48 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.  :o 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  :D

'78 750K (F3 engine) PD42b's, Modified airbox w/K&N  filter, 40/110 jets, 1 needle shim, IMS@ 1 turn out. Kerker + Cone 18" QuietCore

Past Bikes
1974 550K0 (stock), 1973 CB350F (stock), 1983 Yamaha XS400K (POS)
77/78 cool 2 member #3
"Knowledge without mileage equals bullsh!t" - Henry Rollins

"This is my CB. There are many like it, but this one is mineā€¦"

Offline dylboss

  • Enthusiast
  • **
  • Posts: 216
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« 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.

« Last Edit: May 02, 2011, 07:22:56 AM by dylboss »
Current

- 1972 CB750 K2 - Brier Brown Metallic
- 1973 CB750 K3 - Flake Sunrise Orange
- 1974 CB750 K4 - Flake Sunrise Orange
- 1976 CB750 K6 - Candy Antares Red

Previous
- 1978 Honda CB550K
- 1972 Honda CL350 Scrambler
- 1972 Honda CB450
- 1998 Suzuki TL1000R
- 1993 Yamaha FZR 600

Offline 72 yellow

  • Expert
  • ****
  • Posts: 1,218
Re: Worst injury working on your bike??? Here's a pic of mine!!!
« Reply #24 on: May 02, 2011, 12:18:41 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.