Anyone else made this dumb mistake?
 

I have more bikes than pedals, so I move them around regularly. Today, the crank side pedal was a bit tight, so I set the crank to vertical so I could just push down on the wrench to get all the torque I needed.

I applied progressively more force until it naturally came loose all at once sending my hand right into the large ring -- wound up burying some dirty teeth nice and deep in my hand.....

yes

I almost did that last week when taking pedals off. I promptly moved the chain to the big gear.

dabbling in part time mechanics and metal working, i feel your pain. especially around bench grinders. it's amazing what shapes of metal can get stuck into you when you stop paying attention.

now for fun, repeat that mistake but wait until it's about 20F outside. 10x times the agony. hope it heals well!

Once, while dismounting a motorcycle tire in 30 degree weather, the tire iron slipped and I punched the sprocket. I'm more careful now.

Been there. I used to switch between my roadie and my track bike. After the chainring problem, I purchased another set of pedals.

yep

Oh yes - been there. I would invest in at least one more set of pedals. It's just not worth the hastle and PAIN to swap them out. :)

... Brad

If you think that is fun, wait until you break a chainwhip.

+ whatever

Have a nice scar on the inside of my wrist from doing that. Butterfly bandages come in handy at times.

Here's a tip: Use a hammer to tap the wrench rather than muscle to loosen it. Way easier and no knuckle rash risk.

alcohol and super glue....sorry to hear about your mishap....I haven't done that yet, but I'll be thinking about it next time I working on pedals!

Or, turn the crank to 3 oclock, put the wrench on the pedal so the wrench points back towards the BB, stand on the wrench (but keep your ankles away from the CR just in case)

Ouch!

This is one thing I have never done. I hope this works out better than the time in college when I said that I had never broken a bone. You can guess what happened within a week.:(

Two pieces of really good advice: 1)Get enough pedals for all your bikes. 2)Put the chain on the big ring when removing pedals. Taking pedals on and off a lot can help erode the precision of the thread fit, which is the single most important factor in keeping fastners together (the engineers at John Dere came up with this).

Yes, on numerous occasions (once doing what you were doing). The worst was when I discovered a flat on my rear wheel and when pulling the wheel off, got distracted and pinched my knuckles between the dropouts and the sprockets. I got blood all over the tire, sidewalk and my tools. What's worse is that I didn't check the cause of the flat (hole in my rim tape) and the new tube immediately went flat! I had to take the bus to the bike shop to get all the parts I needed--with a blood stained jersey, gloves, toolkit and bus pass.

and lots of grease on the pedal threads so they come off easy.

I recently got my finger caught between the chainring and the timing chain on our tandem , so I feel your pain.

Pcad has made every dumb mistake at least twice.

Thats nothing, I have sprocket scars on my left cheek. The white cheek that is...

OK. I've got to hear the story on this one.

Yep, was putting on some stupid plastic platform pedals on a trek 1500 for a customer to test ride.
Simple enough job, was holding the axle with a pedal spanner spinning back to tighten away, and my right index finger (stupidly pointing out) got caught between front derailleur and big chain rig. ouch.

Also, just cut a knuckle 10 mins ago as I was trying to loosen some tight SPD-SL's from my road bike to swap some SPD's on for tomorrow's commute.

Several times but I always keep the chain on the big ring so I've never actually cut myself, just gotten my hand nice and greasy.

I also usually use a cheater bar (a pipe) to increase the torque which solves that problem and far more.

Nothing like taking the skin off the knuckles to demonstrate your knowledge of profanity to all around.

It's not a bad idea to push a wrench with an open hand when close confines or nearby chainwheels make the loss of skin a possibility. Easier for the wrench to slip but keeps the skin where it belongs.


:beer:

yes. it hoits.