Author Topic: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?  (Read 19776 times)

rogerzilla

  • When n+1 gets out of hand
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #25 on: 08 November, 2010, 07:15:04 pm »
You're lucky it could run away, when a cyclist kills a cat it's reincarnated as a puncture fairy.

9 times for each claw!
Which gives me the excuse to repost this marvellous animation:

<a href="http://www.youtube.com/v/bETCusT5kNM&rel=1" target="_blank">http://www.youtube.com/v/bETCusT5kNM&rel=1</a>

Hard work sometimes pays off in the end, but laziness ALWAYS pays off NOW.

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #26 on: 09 November, 2010, 09:17:37 am »
No squirrels, but I got a pigeon on the Wylye & Ebble 200.   
Disinct "crunchy" sounds :sick: , but I didnt look back, and no faerie visitations followed

Pancho

  • لَا أَعْبُدُ مَا تَعْبُدُونَ
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #27 on: 09 November, 2010, 09:58:42 am »
I hit a pigeon with my head whilst riding a motorbike. It was like someone had chucked a brick at me. Lots of feathers and feather-grease. Didn't stop to investigate the pigeon - was too busy trying not to fall off and die.

itsbruce

  • Lavender Bike Menace
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #28 on: 09 November, 2010, 10:07:26 am »
As seen on lfgss:



On balance, I think that spoke arrangement is more likely to trap squirrels than let them bound joyfully through your wheel.
I saw the best minds of my generation destroyed by madness, starving hysterical naked: Allen Ginsberg
The best minds of my generation are thinking about how to make people click ads: Jeff Hammerbacher

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #29 on: 13 November, 2010, 10:42:44 pm »
Had a very near miss yesterday, outside Reading Gaol. The squirrel was running away from Mr. Wilde's former home, so may have just escaped, which might explain why he was in such a hurry.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #30 on: 11 October, 2014, 07:50:07 pm »
Awakening this old thread...

after seeing this... http://road.cc/content/news/133017-cyclist-seriously-injured-after-squirrel-gets-tangled-spokes-%E2%80%93-poor-animal-came

and also up around Boars Hill this afternoon, the squirrels were out in force - saw 10+, by the side of the road.  One shot out of a drive, saw me approach, and fortunately waited for me to pass.  Worth watching out for them...
Cycle and recycle.   SS Wilson

Kim

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Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #31 on: 11 October, 2014, 07:55:38 pm »
36 spoke 3-cross.  You know it makes sense.

For squirrels and suicide-pheasants, anyway.  I don't think anything will protect you from wowbadgers or low-flying deer.

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #32 on: 12 October, 2014, 12:08:30 am »
I had a near miss with a low-flying deer once. It was airborne, at cyclist height, as it jumped across the road behind Adrian Lawson, & in front of me. It was far too close. Another one had just jumped across in front of Adrian. Somewhere near Bradfield (to the west or Reading), IIRC, on a wednesday evening in summer.
"A woman on a bicycle has all the world before her where to choose; she can go where she will, no man hindering." The Type-Writer Girl, 1897

Kim

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Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #33 on: 12 October, 2014, 12:10:47 am »
I got kicked in the knee by one on a forum ride last year.  Not an experience I'm enthusiastic to repeat.

Euan Uzami

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #34 on: 12 October, 2014, 12:28:15 am »
I used to occasionally run over bees in Derby. It's their own fault if they're too fat to fly.

Basil

  • Um....err......oh bugger!
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Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #35 on: 12 October, 2014, 01:11:52 am »
Flying deer twice both times around the Woodstock area.  Wowbadgers, all the time!  Cycling back from the pub in Llandysul I often come up behind one that is just trundling, in its own time, up the lane.  Generally, they stop, look round and give me the "Wot?" look.
Admission.  I'm actually not that fussed about cake.

Andrew

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #36 on: 12 October, 2014, 07:25:23 am »
Squirrel, yep, a young one in Richmond Park. I saw it on the side of the road as I approached. It then timed its suicidal dash to perfection.

The badger 'wot?' look reminds me of when I saw my first ragondin (or coypu as you might know it) here in France. It was sat on the road and at first I thought it was a beaver, until i saw the long rat-like tail. It looked at me with complete lack of concern or interest (the talk bubble said 'meh'). Then it just wondered off into the field, no urgency at all. So cool. I tell you, they're big enough for me to be wary.

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #37 on: 12 October, 2014, 07:51:33 am »
High speed and bladed spokes.

Its the only way.

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
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Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #38 on: 12 October, 2014, 10:51:12 am »
Once had a red squirl pass between front and rear wheels and I think his tail was shorter afterwards than it had been when he got up that morning.  I used wheel discs on that bike, though, so he wouldn't hav been minced.  I came close to dicing a bunrab somewhere in Gloucestershire when it attempted to put the heid on the front wheel of my Trice but I was grinding up a Cotswold at the time and thus not going very fast.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #39 on: 12 October, 2014, 01:48:59 pm »
was about a foot off a fast-moving badger late one night, was probably doing about 25 down hill and it scampered across in front of me, between my headlight beam and my front wheel.. nearly shat myself.

Otto

  • Biking Bad
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #40 on: 12 October, 2014, 02:21:50 pm »
I fractured my wrist swerving to avoid a rabbit

Mr Larrington

  • A bit ov a lyv wyr by slof standirds
  • Custard Wallah
    • Mr Larrington's Automatic Diary
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #41 on: 13 October, 2014, 10:13:08 am »
was about a foot off a fast-moving badger late one night, was probably doing about 25 down hill and it scampered across in front of me, between my headlight beam and my front wheel.. nearly shat myself.

Had that on the way to the in-laws once.  Just getting light, downhill on deserted autobahn.  Ulp.
External Transparent Wall Inspection Operative & Mayor of Mortagne-au-Perche
Satisfying the Bloodlust of the Masses in Peacetime

Eccentrica Gallumbits

  • Rock 'n' roll and brew, rock 'n' roll and brew...
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #42 on: 13 October, 2014, 01:36:59 pm »
A bee bounced off my head once when I was cycling to work. It hurt quite a lot. I wish I'd been wearing a helmet.
My feminist marxist dialectic brings all the boys to the yard.


Kim

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Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #43 on: 13 October, 2014, 01:42:55 pm »
A bee bounced off my head once when I was cycling to work. It hurt quite a lot. I wish I'd been wearing a helmet.

There's a surprising amount of mv2 in a bee.

They always seem to hit me in the face on 30mph descents.  Suspect a degree of target fixation involved.

Cudzoziemiec

  • Ride adventurously and stop for a brew.
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #44 on: 13 October, 2014, 01:52:33 pm »
I hit a pigeon on Saturday in the centre of Bath. It flew across in front of me, very low - about hub height - as I was overtaking a traffic queue, doubled back to avoid crashing into the car to the side of me and collided with my front tyre instead. It then turned round - or maybe just bounced off - still airborne, and flew straight in to the car it had been trying to avoid. I've no idea how seriously injured it was nor why it was flying so low.
Riding a concrete path through the nebulous and chaotic future.

T42

  • Apprentice geezer
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #45 on: 13 October, 2014, 01:57:36 pm »
A bee bounced off my head once when I was cycling to work. It hurt quite a lot. I wish I'd been wearing a helmet.

There's a surprising amount of mv2 in a bee.

They always seem to hit me in the face on 30mph descents.  Suspect a degree of target fixation involved.

My father had a tale of a pre-war motor cyclist colliding with a bee and just managing to stop at the roadside before he keeled over.

The most painful insect collisions I've had (apart from a wasp with sting deployed) were just below the summit of Mt. Ventoux ten years ago: the wind was whipping beetles like pebbles off the top and across the initial 10% bit of the downgrade to Malaucène. Between that and steering shimmy I had an interesting time.
I've dusted off all those old bottles and set them up straight

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #46 on: 13 October, 2014, 03:15:08 pm »
Hit a deer once.  Not sure you who was most surprised.

mcshroom

  • Mushroom
Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #47 on: 13 October, 2014, 03:57:30 pm »
I've had a couple deer near misses (just behind Kim last year, and three rather large ones hurdling the 'deer-proof' fence in  a dark Glen Isla on the Deeside Loop.

Not hit a squirrel, but have hit a sparrow sized bird while commuting home on a cyclepath. It flew out of the hedge right next to the path, and turned to fly in front of my front wheel but a gust of wind caught it. Next thing I know the bird is slung round under the mudguard and ejected back into the hedge. No idea how damaged it was after that.
Climbs like a sprinter, sprints like a climber!

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #48 on: 13 October, 2014, 04:19:56 pm »
A bee bounced off my head once when I was cycling to work. It hurt quite a lot. I wish I'd been wearing a helmet.

The time I had a bee strike I was wearing a helmet, unfortunately this just resulted in an angry bee caught in the helmet vent and me being stung on the scalp when I was silly enough to go feeling in the vent with a finger.   :facepalm:

Re: Who's run over a squirrel while cycling?
« Reply #49 on: 13 October, 2014, 04:43:02 pm »
Couple of near misses lately - squirrels and rabbits only thank goodness. That squirrel in the lFGSS picture earlier on is a bit scary though - poosibly an argument for carbon forks and CX rays.

I have hit a couple badgers and a deer in the car - always at speed and I wouldn't want to repeat the experience on the bike. You only have to think about how big a hole a deer makes in the front of a Peugeot 807 at 70mph to understand my fear.