Bike vs rabbit?

[Ben T]

I gather bike vs badger is more than likely not to end well for the bike, but if you run over a rabbit, what's the chance of staying upright? Anyone had experience?
Would it kill it outright or would it survive?

Front wheel came within about 4 inches of one tonight at about 16mph.
Loads of them on sustrans path, just curious as to if I'm endangering myself cos they have absolutely no sense.
They run along and can't seem to decide which side verge to dive into.

Obviously I'd rather not kill one, for it's sake, but I'm more bothered about self preservation.

[jsabine]

I saw the title and instantly came up with three different interpretations of it - glad to know it's not that the eponymous poster has had an off.

[Peter]

Ben, I worry about all sorts of animal encounters, especially riding trails and old rail tracks and also because I don't know the best way to humanely kill an injured animal.  If I see them in time, I ride really slowly, but I expect you do that, too.

[Kim]

We've all seen that squirrel vs carbon fork picture, haven't we?   

If you've got a sensible number of spokes that probably won't happen, so it probably comes down to whether you lose control from a sudden steering deflection or skid on the freshly splatted guts. 

I doubt anything fleshy is going to do well after being run over by a 100PSI road tyre, assuming a direct hit.  TBH, the rabbits that don't have a sensible diving-for-cover instinct tend to be the ones that look rather unwell to begin with.  Pheasants, OTOH, are suicidally stupid and I trust them even less than I trust plastic bags.

[benborp]

With a plastic bag I reckon there's a fifty/fifty chance. They're sort of whimsical in their malevolance.

Cyclist seeking homing pheasants? They're coming straight at ya. Fortunately they are inept and not fitted with a proximity fuse.

I've had one bike written off by a bag encounter at 30mph and I've smelt feather at sixty.

[Kim]

*peers at last month's derailleur and spokes bill*  Anybody want a lightly perforated Tesco bag?

*recalls plucking pheasant feathers out of the grease on the suspension fork stanchion after the climb of Watership Down*

*winces at the muntjac bruise*

*mourns for Sonic The Badger*

*continues to avoid the Aston ASBO Geese*

*maintains perpetual state of terror where horses are involved*

And the welt from the horsefly bite sustained on Wowbagger's Folly is still itching.


All wildlife is out to get us.  All of it.  *spits out flying ant for emphasis*

[benborp]

https://youtu.be/tL39kzxivoo

[Basil]

Don't forget the head butting sheep.

[Kim]

Don't forget the head butting sheep.

I've never had a sheep attack me while cycling, though I've had some be perilously slow at getting out of the way.  Something to look forward to, I suppose.

I've also been suspiciously lucky with cows.  The worst they've done is slobber all over my handlebars.

[Wowbagger]

Mrs. Wow and I had a close encounter of the tandem front wheel kind with a grey squirrel whilst we were descending at not inconsiderable speed towards Tiger's Island a few years ago. The tandem did not divert one iota. The squirrel, on the other hand, did. Very rapidly.

I don't think we ran over a bit of it that was vital to the immediate sustenance of life, but we didn't see said squirrel again to ask it how it felt.

Many more years ago I ran over a bit of cat late at night on a solo machine. That didn't cause me to divert either. I suspect that there is something going on here in which the rider:livestock mass ratio matters, but there are too mamy variables, like the diameter and pliability of the bit of livestock that comes into contact with the wheel.

[Ben T]

If I see them in time, I ride really slowly, but I expect you do that, too.

Well, tbh...no, hence the thread, really - if I rode really slowly whenever i saw one, I would be riding really slowly for most of about 7 miles.

I do see the odd pheasant but they always tend to be predictable - they first run away in the same direction I'm travelling, and then pick one side or the other, and if they don't like either, realise they're going to have to make the effort to actually fly amidst much huffing and puffing and clucking.

Rabbits, it seems like they're quite fit and agile enough to get out of the way, but they seem to be chronically indecisive. They change their mind just as they've reached the verge, and decide that it would be better to go into the opposite verge. Then when they get to that verge, they think, oh, in fact the first verge would have been better.
When (small) birds are pecking roadkill in the path of your car, they stay pecking it for as long as they think they can get away with but fly off  at the last minute, but they pretty much always fly off in time. I trust them to just because they always do. But I'm not sure whether the same can be said for rabbits, is the darting from side to side thing just the game they play or could their indecisiveness be fatal?

The only animal I have ever 'run over' was when I was about 14 doing a paper round on an old mtb, and a dog came careering out of a house, fortunately missed my front wheel completely but got run over by just my back wheel. Which means it may have had a nasty cut from the chain/chainring. I stayed upright, but was quite shaken. I don't know how injured the dog was if at all, I never stopped to find out, but obviously not enough to prevent it running off which it did.

[Ben T]

Many more years ago I ran over a bit of cat late at night on a solo machine. That didn't cause me to divert either. I suspect that there is something going on here in which the rider:livestock mass ratio matters, but there are too mamy variables, like the diameter and pliability of the bit of livestock that comes into contact with the wheel.

Yeah, that's what I was wondering really. I seem to think if it was horizontal, i.e. heading fron one verge to the other, that would be better for the cyclist than if it was heading in the same direction as the cyclist - cos I perceive the most rigid part of the body of it (apart from its skull, which is probably relatively small) to be its spine. If you hit it vertically, your wheel is parallel to its spine and it would deflect either right or left, but if you hit it horizontally, you would probably just sever its spine and not deflect. That would also have the benefit that it would probably be more likely to kill it stone dead instantly rather than cause any suffering.

[Peter]

Sadly, I suspect it's rarely as straightforward as a clean kill.  I hit a squirrel once, as it ran directly across my front wheel.  There were no visible marks on it but it took a good minute to die, after continuing to the side of the road.  It was this which made me wonder about humane dispatch.  I didn't come off, but even a squirrel caused a hell of a whack, though no damage to the front wheel.  I once tried to help a cat which had been hit by a car.  It was huge and very heavy to lift.  If you'd hit that on a bike you'd be off almost certainly.  Unfortunately, I don't think anyone can know how to predict rabbit behaviour or its effect in every circumstance!  We are the unnatural ones, using cycles.  Evolution hasn't had time to deal with us yet!

Stay safe.

[bumper]

I hit  a rabbit a week ago. I was doing well over 30mph on a sharp left hand bend. Tried to lift the bike but wasn't fast enough. The front wheel just clipped it but the rear wheel definitely killed it, it made a thud/crunch sound. Wheel and spokes are still intact.

I regularly have close encounters with badgers, I'm sure hitting one of them would be an off. They're heavy lumps. If you get too close to them they'll try to bite you and make a growling noise like a dog.

I love riding at night, you see lots of wildlife that isn't out during the daytime. It's just not nice when you end up killing it.

Sheep are the thickest things on four legs, they see you coming then run right across in front of you, then zigzag then run a mile or two in front of you before deciding to get off the road.

[Mr Larrington]

I've only had a Close Encounter with a bunrab once, and that was on the Trice.  It leapt out of an overgrown verge, headbutted the front wheel and, I presume, slunk off home with a headache.  No ears, fur or branes adhering to the wheel anyway.

As Kim observes, wildlife is dangerous, but at least in BRITAIN we are pretty unlikely to be taken out by a wallaby failing to observe the Green Cross Code, as once happened to my chum Glenn.  While descending a hill at R17 on his Optima Baron he was surprised to find a wallaby in his lap.  The ensuing crash was, I'm told, painful, bloody and expensive.  The errant marsupial did not stick around to exchange details and Glenn was in no fit state to go looking for it, though I think the insewerants money helped pay for an example of the slab of soot loveliness that is the Velokraft NoCom.

[L CC]

We've totalled squirrels but dodge cats, foxes, badgers. Rabbits have to take their chances. I reckon hares are the tipping point where we may not just plough through.
The other side of the coin is that I'm quite comfortable putting a rabbit's head firmly under my heel or a short sharp thwack against a wall, especially if I see signs of mixi.

[Veloman]

For me it was descending rather quickly toward Dinas Mawddwy on BCM.

Rabbit 0  -  1 Veloman

Straight over it and "crunch crunch" as wheels must have broke it's back.  Consider myself luck as it could have been through the spokes.

[cycleman]

I gave a squirrel a headaches with the rear wheel of the trice .it stopped between the front wheels  and learned about trikes 

[321up]

The best way to miss a rabbit is to ride like a fox.

[Mr Larrington]

The best way to miss a rabbit is to ride like a fox.

On an Airnimal?

[spesh]

When it comes to rabbits, all you need is the ability to count:

And the LORD spake, saying, "First shalt thou take out the Holy Pin, then shalt thou count to three, no more, no less. Three shall be the number thou shalt count, and the number of the counting shall be three. Four shalt thou not count, neither count thou two, excepting that thou then proceed to three. Five is right out. Once the number three, being the third number, be reached, then lobbest thou thy Holy Hand Grenade of Antioch towards thy foe, who being naughty in My sight, shall snuff it."

 

[Mr Larrington]

(FX: phone ringing)

The Reader: Hello...hello?  Python Police?  I wish to report a crime!

[Adam]

I once had a rabbit dart out from the verge and pass between my wheels. 

As I looked back, thinking both I and the rabbit had a lucky escape, I saw the rabbit  sat in the middle of the road, but then a car came along and squashed it.  So not so lucky for the rabbit after all.

[rabbit]

I went over a rabbit with both wheels at 25 mph on the MTB.  Went back to make sure he was dead (not dying in agony) and he was no where to be seen.  I hope he made it through, but I have a horrid feeling he probably died a horrid death from internal bleeding and pain.   

Hit a badger with the van once.  He ran off like it was barely a scratch. Hope he was OK too. 

[Mr Larrington]

I came very close to hitting a badger in the motor-car while doing 100 mph on a downhill stretch of unlimited autobahn at audax o'clock.  At night all cats are grey, as are badgers, and autobahnen.  I should not like to have hit it at that kind of speed.  A massive braking, swerving and swearing moment ensued.

"What the fuck was that for?" asked Miss von Brandenburg after disentangling herself from the sun visor and before going back to sleep.