Tips & Guides Retroactively obvious word to the wise…

FastEddieB

Member
Local time
4:25 AM
Joined
Aug 23, 2022
Messages
36
Location
Lenoir City, TN Mineral Bluff, GA
On a ride yesterday with a friend my chain jumped to the outside of the front chainring and jammed. It’s happened once before and I think I’ve got that fixed.

But yesterday I got off the bike and was fiddling with pedals to get the crank in a position where I could un-jam the chain. Suddenly the bike lurched forward. My first thought was why would my friend push hard on my bike like that? I managed to keep the bike upright, but did lurch hard enough that my Apple Watch asked if I had fallen. Also somehow managed to get a small cut on my right calf.

So, what happened? I was in PAS 1 or 2 and must have turned the pedals just enough for the cadence sensor to start boosting. Lesson? Before you futz with your bike by the side of the road, make sure the bike is OFF, or at the very least at 0 PAS. Lesson learned, but I could see how not doing that could lead to a pretty awkward and embarrassing injury. Word to the wise and all that!
 
Thanks for sharing that and I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse!

I've been in the R/C hobby for a number of years and one "law" is that you NEVER work on the vehicles with the battery connected. People have snapped fingers or worse in the drivetrain of a few different R/C vehicles and they don't have nearly the torque of an eBike. I could easily see a powered chain snipping a finger right off if you were unlucky enough to have it in the wrong place.

In terms of your hands an eBike could basically be considered to be a dull chainsaw.
 
Good points! I had not considered how one could get a finger lopped off. Most Conservative Action? Switch the damn thing off before messing with it.

Still, with a hub motor providing the push, as it did yesterday, the chain and chainring should and did freewheel. Lucky me. Mid drive? I can easily envision mangled or lost fingers if a pedal had torque applied to it accidentally while messing with the chain or sprockets. OUCH!
 
Good points! I had not considered how one could get a finger lopped off. Most Conservative Action? Switch the damn thing off before messing with it.

Still, with a hub motor providing the push, as it did yesterday, the chain and chainring should and did freewheel. Lucky me. Mid drive? I can easily envision mangled or lost fingers if a pedal had torque applied to it accidentally while messing with the chain or sprockets. OUCH!
Yes I was mostly thinking about a mid-drive. But if your chain had dropped down behind the cassette and wedged in I could see it "clutching" and moving with the wheel too. UGH, the whole notion is literally giving me shivers (LOL).
 
Thanks for sharing that and I'm glad you didn't get hurt worse!

I've been in the R/C hobby for a number of years and one "law" is that you NEVER work on the vehicles with the battery connected. People have snapped fingers or worse in the drivetrain of a few different R/C vehicles and they don't have nearly the torque of an eBike. I could easily see a powered chain snipping a finger right off if you were unlucky enough to have it in the wrong place.

In terms of your hands an eBike could basically be considered to be a dull chainsaw.
So true......I know a guy here who lost a finger sharpening a chainsaw chain.....he failed to remove the battery before working on his electric saw.
 
Back
Top