I feel for that guy.

I never put my fingers near sharp, large, heavy, powerful moving things...

As most know, any current engine that is fuel injected and ECU controlled has its idle RPM watched and monitored by the ECU. If there is a load that drops the RPM below desired idle speed, the ECU will increase throttle until the idle speed is maintained. This is why, for most manual cars, if you are on completely flat ground, you can slowly let the clutch out without touching the gas pedal and the car will eventually get going.

That being said, the amount of power some of these things produce at idle can be quite extraordinary, even at minimal throttle inputs. Add that in to the fact he was more than likely in first gear (lots of gear reduction resulting in a lot of torque), means that even though his bike was idling, that wheel was being spun with quite a bit of force.

I feel bad for the dude...that's a sh!tty way to learn.

One for the Darwin awards....

I've done silly things before too, but it never ceases to amaze me how many people think cleaning or working on a running engine/ piece of machinery is a good idea; sometimes you have to, but for God's sake keep your hands away from the spinny-roundy bits... :/

Darwin awards are only if the guy manages to remove his genes from the gene pool (usually death, but I've heard of a few situations where a living guy has won since he was...uhhh...neutered).

>_<

Fair-dos...

Arrghh .. that's gotta hurt!!