Warning To Newbs Like Me - Disc Brakes Eat Fingertips

[onza pro series guy]

Not good but I knew someone who had 20" mod front freewheel and the chain came off while he was riding so he desided to try and put it back on still moving.. his glove got caught and his finger went in between the freewheel and chain he lost 1/4 of his finger..

what a complete and utter retard. Why didn't he stick his genitils in there and save the world from the risk of him passing on his moronic DNA?

[SamKidney]

Damaged my thumb joint in a similar chain related incident. Wasn't as retarded as trying to refit a chain whilst on the move though haha.

Had been practicing 'squeekers'/ fake nose manual things and went over the front end, rear end swung round and I went to catch it with my hand to stop it hitting a car. Rear wheel was still rotating, accidentally grabbed the chainstay and my thumb was pulled into the rear sprocket. Wasnt across my thumb, but along it, so around 4/5 teeth of the sprocket sunk into it, as well as the top of my thumb being slit open by the chain. One tooth hit my thumb joint, and it's given me grief since. Not unbearable, just annoying. Been told its nothing serious though, which is all good.

[dezmtber]

these look to be the safest ones around really, but not great for trials as the rivets could come loose.

[Pazu]

Megadez these are interesting rotors, good researching. The interior hub segments look to be of anodized aluminum, must be much lighter than traditional rotors.

[dann2707]

You type beautifully. I'd be happy if you narrated my life through your keyboard. It's so flowy.

Can I see your finger please.

[Dan_Trials]

You seem to be suggesting that mechanical safety measures lead to carelessness. I would have to agree to disagree on that one, I do not think that there is a measurable correlation. Do you have an example of this to cite?

I'm not targeting mechanical safety measures as such, but just more so this cotton-wool-wrapped society we are heading towards. Helmets, gloves, seat belts, roll cages, eye protection and so on are all good (and I often think necessary) safety precautions as they prevent injury in an unpredictable environment and/or situation. What I am talking about is having to print 'Caution - contents may be hot' on the cup or lid of a hot drink. There are countless other examples like this, unfortunately my mind is blank right now so I hope that one gets my point across. What I am angling at is that more and more these days it seems to be made easier for people to be stupid and get away with it because there is some sort of 'safety measure' in place so they can go along not looking, not thinking, not being self aware and fall in to the habit that they can do that because some one else has put in the effort to allow for their stupidity. Another example could be the misspellings or misuse of 'there, their, they're' etc. If people got beaten with a cane every time they used the wrong one I bet they'd learn a lot quicker! When I were a lad (oh god, showing my age now!) you didn't have to be told common sense things because from an early age you were messing about with fire and explosives and seeing what would burn and what would explode and what hurt the most and what degree of trouble you were in when you got home by going out and doing it and learning from your mistakes.

[Pazu]

You type beautifully. I'd be happy if you narrated my life through your keyboard. It's so flowy.

Can I see your finger please.

LoL! :bow: Thanks for the kind words, I think... And certainly you may.

It is what it is. Stuck back together, nicely! The yellowed bit is from guitar, this is my fretting hand as I'm a lefty.

**WARNING TO THE SQUEAMISH**

There is a seriously gnarly image of a torn up finger, coming up in this thread. You have been warned!!!

Edited August 17, 2012 by Pazu

[Pazu]

I'm not targeting mechanical safety measures as such, but just more so this cotton-wool-wrapped society we are heading towards. Helmets, gloves, seat belts, roll cages, eye protection and so on are all good (and I often think necessary) safety precautions as they prevent injury in an unpredictable environment and/or situation. What I am talking about is having to print 'Caution - contents may be hot' on the cup or lid of a hot drink. There are countless other examples like this, unfortunately my mind is blank right now so I hope that one gets my point across. What I am angling at is that more and more these days it seems to be made easier for people to be stupid and get away with it because there is some sort of 'safety measure' in place so they can go along not looking, not thinking, not being self aware and fall in to the habit that they can do that because some one else has put in the effort to allow for their stupidity. Another example could be the misspellings or misuse of 'there, their, they're' etc. If people got beaten with a cane every time they used the wrong one I bet they'd learn a lot quicker! When I were a lad (oh god, showing my age now!) you didn't have to be told common sense things because from an early age you were messing about with fire and explosives and seeing what would burn and what would explode and what hurt the most and what degree of trouble you were in when you got home by going out and doing it and learning from your mistakes.

I see what you mean. I actually agree with you on this, thanks for clarifying. The things that we got away with as kids, as part of our ordinary learning experience, modern kids would be arrested for, and their parents as well. We learned hands-on, without the pressure of modern society's microscopic observation. Anyhow I see the validity of your point.

Edited August 15, 2012 by Pazu

[Topsy]

these look to be the safest ones around really, but not great for trials as the rivets could come loose.

the safest ones. ..untill some knobhead manages to get them on the wrong way and touches the outer edge whilst riding.

What I am talking about is having to print 'Caution - contents may be hot' on the cup or lid of a hot drink. There are countless other examples like this, unfortunately my mind is blank right now so I hope that one gets my point across.

Do not fold up pram with child in it.

Do not make coffee whilst driving the camper (apparently someone did that, sued and got away with it because there wasn't a warning)

and on our milk is says: Warning, contains milk. 0.o

[dezmtber]

looks like you got lucky with your finger there pal.

the ones i have seen are far worse.

this is what normaly happens. (just thought those who dont seem to take this quite as serious as they should would like to see.

[N.Wood]

Ugh, f**k that.

Um, regarding the sticker idea... are you hoping to keep the sticker on at all times or just when maintaining the bike? If its on there all the time, I wouldn't want it coming unstuck (branch / rock / water) then jamming its self into the caliper. It'd probably just pull through / tear, but the potential is there for a 'stick in the spokes' moment.

[ah147]

Do not fold up pram with child in it.

Do not make coffee whilst driving the camper (apparently someone did that, sued and got away with it because there wasn't a warning)

and on our milk is says: Warning, contains milk. 0.o

Warning: Contains Nuts is a good one on a nuts packet.

I run an asbestos removal firm, the majority of regulations are very good but sometimes, what we have to do to fit in with a HSE inspectors interpretation of the rules is ridiculous!

The camper van one is actually "You must stay at the wheel of the camper van whilst _____ is activated"

The story goes that a man put cruise control on an American freeway and went in the back to make coffee and crashed, sued the campervan company for millions. The American courts ordered that the campervan company paid him, recalled every single campervan sold and changed it from "Cruise Control" to something else ridiculous like speed keeper or similar. Hence why I just put a line in the quote above. Cost the campervan company millions and millions and nearly bankrupt them.

[Pazu]

looks like you got lucky with your finger there pal.

the ones i have seen are far worse.

this is what normaly happens. (just thought those who dont seem to take this quite as serious as they should would like to see.

Thanks for posting, this really sets the point. In my case the wheel was barely moving at all, I can't say that it was my reflexes that saved me. Tragic for this guy!

Edited August 17, 2012 by Pazu

[Pazu]

Ugh, f**k that.

Um, regarding the sticker idea... are you hoping to keep the sticker on at all times or just when maintaining the bike? If its on there all the time, I wouldn't want it coming unstuck (branch / rock / water) then jamming its self into the caliper. It'd probably just pull through / tear, but the potential is there for a 'stick in the spokes' moment.

Excellent point. I thought also of brake cleaner or other solvents that might find their way to the brake rotor thus degrading the adhesive. That potential does exist for the wheel to get locked, though an object that might cause the mylar disc to separate, might have locked the wheel if the deflector were not present. So it could both help, and hinder. I am constantly getting sticks in the works.

What I'm going to do is, completely mylar tape my rotors with Scotch packing tape, then test for awhile to see what happens. My 10 year old son rides my bike as well, of course I showed him what I had done to myself immediately when it happened, hoping that the shock factor would make him permanently aware of the danger there...

[Topsy]

The camper van one is actually "You must stay at the wheel of the camper van whilst _____ is activated"

The story goes that a man put cruise control on an American freeway and went in the back to make coffee and crashed, sued the campervan company for millions. The American courts ordered that the campervan company paid him, recalled every single campervan sold and changed it from "Cruise Control" to something else ridiculous like speed keeper or similar. Hence why I just put a line in the quote above. Cost the campervan company millions and millions and nearly bankrupt them.

Thanks, had heard it years ago and forgot half of it

and how about putting that finger up there into a spoiler of something? Not sure everyone wants to see it^^

Edited August 16, 2012 by Hopping_Topsy

[FamilyBiker]

in a bicycle workshop ,so in ours, nearly EVERY trainee makes that experience.its a classic....

Edited August 19, 2012 by FamilyBiker

[dezmtber]

touch wood i in 9 years working in bike workshops havent lost a finger yet. not to say there isnt time yet

[ULtrialsguy]

looks like you got lucky with your finger there pal.

the ones i have seen are far worse.

this is what normaly happens. (just thought those who dont seem to take this quite as serious as they should would like to see.

How fast was the wheel spinning for this to happen? Don't know how something that bad could happen by accident. I know theres dangers to disks but completely cutting through the finger, nail and all? Scary stuff if it's true.

[dezmtber]

the lady who lost her finger. i had turned the crank 1.2 a turn gently.

i also know my bosses mate lost his past the 1st join while cleaning his in the workstand with the wheel spinning, he was rubbing the chainstays down with a rag and lost his in a moment.

i think most riders would see the danger and not really be at risk.

but as the point is here a 10 year old isn't going to see any danger.

i would say the best way of making it safe would be to cuy out a thin sheet of metal roughly the size of the rotor you need to cover and drill out the bolt holes and bolt it into place to cover the blades.

it would be pretty simple with a sheet of tin and tin snips

http://www.screwfix.com/c/tools/tin-aviation-snips/cat831204;jsessionid=2pxYQwPF1NCvZ2bY1xS8TnZrBqLh4J51vJY5J19lMxGvx9mWyKp4!-1125716964

http://www.modelshopleeds.co.uk/catalog/product_info.php?products_id=3342

[Martin Reynolds]

it would be pretty simple with a sheet of tin and tin snips

http://www.screwfix....Kp4!-1125716964

http://www.modelshop...roducts_id=3342

So give someone some sharp metal and sharp tin snips to protect them from a sharp disc?

[F.N.G]

I wonder if this has been invented or suggested yet, I could not find it in a search. If done before, it bears repeating. Would be good for kids bikes. Here's a vid of my push test. Wouldn't be hard to tape a brake disc that was off of the hub, with a template of the circumferences involved. Clean it. Tape with overlaps across wax paper with packing tape, use the template to cut away the excess with Xacto knife. Peel away the wax paper then stick it on the outside facing of the disc. That's what I did, yes it's very crude because MY F'N FINGER IS IN A BANDAGE

I decided that I would work on my bike with my riding gloves on now... No, they are not fingerless.

That looks dangerous! I don't even want to look at it.

[Pazu]

I have BB5 brakes & on the rear there's more than .035 clearance on either side of the rotor where the target area passes through the brake caliper. I found "grey carbon fiber/glass hybrid panel / sheet 12" x 12" x.015", that has 3M adhesive backing. It's $20 though. The idea of a metal guard is good, stronger than mylar. More serious solution. Epoxy might come into an eventual guard, paint kevlar cloth disc with epoxy and stick it on the brake rotor, wipe off excess. Press it into wax paper on flat surface with a bit of weight on it to harden flat. Using epoxy would solve the problem of lots of exposed adhesive on the opposite side of a sticker, picking up dirt or whatever. The epoxy would just harden. Heavier than mylar but would still weigh next to nothing.

All fun to think about. I'll post a pic after I get around to taking rotors off and rigging something.

[dezmtber]

i was going to say sandwich a carbon or fiber glass guard on but i think tin would be cheaper

if you got a sheet of fiber glass you could just simply zip tie it to the rotor. i will go get some this week and give it a go, sho you can see what i was thinking.

another + would be it would make the rotor stiffer and less likely to bend if you hit it on a rock.

i am really liking the idea of a bomb proof rotor too. as a trials use bike

[Pazu]

So here's a rotor guard proof of concept. It is a crude first try. I learned a lot about carbon fiber cloth, and came up with lots of "better approaches" toward fabricating these, while I was doing this. It is unidirectional carbon fiber cloth and West System G5 epoxy. My circles didn't translate well from the template to the carbon fiber, and I could do with less space between the outer circ. of the rotor guard and the rotor, but my brakes seem to be mounted too close to the hub so I can't get much closer. The pads come in too close to the inner edge of the working surface of the rotor, to close up that gap completely. The epoxy is still hardening. I feel comfortable that this rotor is less dangerous than a completely exposed rotor. The guard for the rear rotor will have a cleaner look than this first one. Can't wait to test it out!

Edited August 26, 2012 by Pazu

[Martin Reynolds]

So here's a rotor guard proof of concept. It is a crude first try. I learned a lot about carbon fiber cloth, and came up with lots of "better approaches" toward fabricating these, while I was doing this. It is unidirectional carbon fiber cloth and West System G5 epoxy. My circles didn't translate well from the template to the carbon fiber, and I could do with less space between the outer circ. of the rotor guard and the rotor, but my brakes seem to be mounted too close to the hub so I can't get much closer. The pads come in too close to the inner edge of the working surface of the rotor, to close up that gap completely. The epoxy is still hardening. I feel comfortable that this rotor is less dangerous than a completely exposed rotor. The guard for the rear rotor will have a cleaner look than this first one. Can't wait to test it out!

Your REALLY serious about this?

I can fix this issue, and it wont cost you a penny.

It's simple, dont stick your fingers in there, you moron