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@Rio
You know you've seen all those horror stories on Sheldon Brown's website about people who get their fingers caught in fixed gear chains... Well let me tell you a story...
I was at my dads, I had taken a day in lieu and was looking forward to a long weekend in the countryside. I had received my brand new second hand SRAM Rival calipers in the post that morning and was getting very excited about finally being able to match up with my omnomnoms.
With that in mind, after dinner, when the old man was snoozing and there was nothing on the box, I decided to go and tinker in the yard. I figured, there's no point in putting new parts on a dirty bike, so I took my faithful Fuji apart and cleaned it piece by piece.
No problems there.
I don't own a bike stand, so I was going old school, upside down, resting on the bars and seat tube. My dad has a gravel drive so I found some old bits of fence to work on, to save scratching the frame, and give me a more stable work space.
Still, everything is going swimmingly. I couldn't be happier, it was a warm evening with a cool breeze, and I was enjoying being able to hear bird song and silence, instead of car horns and sirens.
I'd put the front wheel on. I'd put the back wheel on, and after wriggling it about a few times to try and get the best chain tension, which is a first for me, cos I'm normally reet shite at that, I'd got it bang on, it was perfect, I was feeling very happy with myself. So, crouching behind my back wheel, with the bike upside down, I went about checking the tension was more or less even. The crank was at the 12 o'clock position, and it was much easier for me to pull back, than push forward, and as I was pulling back with my right hand, my left hand, which was checking the tension, also drifted back... Oh.
I can't quite remember it happening, but I remember looking down to see my ring finger mangled between my brand new sprocket, and my equally as new chain, and I was stuck.
Now, I don't remember anything in particular, just; "That's not right. You're a twat. We need to fix this." So I reached around for my spanner, and grudgingly undid the wheel to gain some slack, and pulled the chain off my finger, and my finger off the cog. The sprocket had gone through my fingernail like butter on a hot day, and sliced the nail from side to side, opening up on the flesh side. All throughout, I just managed to look on with a mild curiosity and bemusement, as I walked up to the back door and called to the rents, "Don't panic, but I think I've chopped my finger off, we might have to go to the hospital.."
While they were faffing around, deciding which hospital to go to and whether I needed ice or not, or trying to find a book to read, I put the bloody pieces of my bike away, gently cradling the tip of my finger against my palm so as to minimize the risk of it wobbling about and tearing off completely.
After a preliminary check just to see how bad it was, they sent me to get an x ray, and it turned out that I had crushed / broken the tip of my finger, so that was good to know. I was pretty oily as well, so they cleaned it out with a toothbrush, but with the anesthetic, that was ok. The BEST bit though, was when the Dr took the top half of my nail off, and pulled the bottom half out as well. That was the only time during the whole experience that I felt pretty grim, I'd been riding high on adrenalin up until then, but seeing a man yank and twist and pull at my fingernail was a bit too much, so I huffed and puffed as much of the gas and air as I could and I was as high as a kite for the duration. Which was great. And then they sewed the two halves back together, and kindly put the nail back where it came from.
All wrapped up and bandaged and ready to go, I said goodbye to the A and E Department at 3:30 am, tired, but grateful not to have lost more than a bit of blood.
The next day I put my bike back together and cleaned out all the blood from my rear hub / sprocket / everywhere. I put my rear wheel back on, got the chain tension just right, and went for a ride to test my new break.
Tl;dr. Chopped finger off. Had it sewn back on. Blood.
Anyway, hopefully I'll see a bunch of you at the Dunwich Dynamo, can't wait!
If you're not squeamish, check out the pics. nsfw.
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14359403790/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14522962776/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14542686491/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14545154952/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14546093275/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14566214543/
https://www.flickr.com/photos/125788362@N07/14544586514/