Commuting - Hello muddah...hello faddah....

My mom called me today because she's afraid I'm going to be eaten by a bear.

Seriously.

Apparently there was a news story this morning about a baby who was attacked and eaten by a bear, and about how the numbers of bears are increasing. Since I commute home after dark, she's now added hungry bears to her list of warnings that I'm going to be raped, murdered, kidnapped, etc, etc, etc, all because I pedal my bike on country roads after dark.

I told her, ******* probably don't hang around on empty country highways hoping that a victim MIGHT turn up, but she says that's exactly where they lurk. I tell her they're after young, pretty, helpless girls, not fat, middle-aged women in cut-off sweat pants and sweaty old tee-shirts, and she disagrees.

Bears, I can't use those arguments against.

Anyone else's families obsess at them about the dangers of bicycling? :D

More importantly, can anyone give me ANY evidence of any instance of a bear attacking a cyclist? :p

My parents are always worrying about me on the cycle and the motorbike.

I'm 40 for gawdsake.

They (and my wife & friends & colleagues) keep going on about how unsafe it is and how many cyclists get killed on the road.

I keep reminding them that I haven't had a motorbike accident in the past 20 years.

I've cycled 3000 kilometres this year on all roads without a prang. In fact I've never had an accident on the cycle.

If you ride as if no one can see you. If the only assumption you make is that the other guy isn't awarethat you're there. If you cycle defensively, yet positively, its a safe, sensible way to get about the place.



We don't have bears in England

Stew

Hi Inkwolf,
I too ride country roads and I did see a black bear. However, when I stopped my bike pointed and said "Look a bear!" The poor thing was so scared it ran away! I can just hear that bear's mother saying " Now what did I tell you about hanging out on country roads! You need to watch out for those bikers!"
:roflmao:
Ride On,
Yvonne

I live in bear country and see one almost weekly on the single tracks up here. As long as you are bigger than a baby and don't go anywhere near the cubs bears just kind of stare at you and then saunter off.

Oh and don't run into one at 50km an hour. I hear it hurts.

Originally posted by Inkwolf
not fat, middle-aged women in cut-off sweat pants and sweaty old tee-shirts,

There's probably an internet web site about that.

My family's used to my biking. They still think I'm a maniac, though.

Bears I have no experience with while riding bikes. Besides I'm more worried about those other 'B' things. Things like buses and bottles.

Seriously, though, my family knows the routes I take and I call them to let them know my ETA. I've been doing it for so long it's little different from car-commuting for most people. I always have a cell phone, just in case.

Other than that, I'm always in city/suburb environments, and am a big, ugly guy -- nobody would want to bother me !!!

Originally posted by stewartp

We don't have bears in England


That's true, but those squirrels can be viscious!! :D

Ellie

Originally posted by Ellie


That's true, but those squirrels can be viscious!! :D

Ellie

Especially Dom Joly's squirrels

We have bears too..... Koala bears.:D Their a bugger to clean out of the spokes.

CHEERS.

Mark

Never heard of a bike/bear attack. I imagine a good, loud Air Zound horn would dissuade any bear.
My mom is jealous of my riding because she's disabled and can't ride at all. My father thinks I'm some kind of nut for riding around with back injuries. My sisters don't understand physical activity at all.

Originally posted by Maelstrom
As long as you are bigger than a baby and don't go anywhere near the cubs bears just kind of stare at you and then saunter off.

Exactly. A couple of years ago a jogger just happened to run between a couple of cubs and their mother and got promptly killed. But that is rational behaviour for the bear. It is more than can be said of the busy businessman who run a red light last week in his Audi A3 4WD and hit a 10-year old girl who was crossing the street (she had the green light, mind you). She died instantly. I think the guy still claims he came to the crossing on yellow, even though the 5-6 car drivers stopped at the light on the lane next to his state otherwise. Talk about denial.

So: death by raging bears is rare. Death by ignorant car drivers is fairly common. I would imagine getting struck by a lightning while riding is somewhere in between. Anyone here whose parents are worried about that?

--J

If you see cubs. Run. While they are cute the moma bear will rip you a new one. I should say leave. Not run. Then momma will chase you.

Funniest storey about a bear is my own house. We get them all the time in our yard and our porch. One day I hear knocking on my door and front window. We have a special bear proof garbage can there which works well but really just irratates hungry bears. I open the door to see who is making all the racket and the full grown bear turns to stare at me. On all fours looking me in the face (I am 6'5) I went white closed the door, locked it. My gf started busting a gut at the look in my face. It takes a lot to scare me but the was the worst.

That was my first but not last experience with Whistler Bears.

Heh, heh---good story! :D

The main interaction with a bear I ever experienced was when I was a kid. We were cabin-camping in Copper Harbor, Michigan, and there was a bear that kept hanging around. One day it smelled my dad's socls hanging on the line, and that was enough to spook it back to the woods. Another time, it nonchalantly grabbed the plastic garbage bin by the handle and ran off carrying the whole thing....to open at leisure. Mostly when I'm camping I have my dog with me, so the bears keep clear (except when they poop in my campsite when I'm away.

Originally posted by Maelstrom
Funniest storey about a bear is my own house. We get them all the time in our yard and our porch. One day I hear knocking on my door and front window. We have a special bear proof garbage can there which works well but really just irratates hungry bears. I open the door to see who is making all the racket and the full grown bear turns to stare at me. On all fours looking me in the face (I am 6'5) I went white closed the door, locked it.
After hearing your story, I'm ashamed to admit the same thing happened to me, only it wasn't a bear.

I heard a dog going through my garbage, so I opened the back door to chase him off. A raccoon stood up and asked me, "What are you looking at?"

I closed the door. (Raccoons are bigger than I pictured.)

>(Raccoons are bigger than I pictured.)

They're bigger than my Chihuahua pictured, too. ;)

We have a small family of coons that often come out of the sewer drain in front of our house and amble up our driveway (this is in midtown Omaha, not the boonies). I've seen what a fullgrown coon can do to an experienced coonhound (a big coon can kill one), so I don't let Benita out when they're out there. She thinks she's 10 feet tall and bulletproof (although she did run really fast from a Rottweiller once who took offense, in our own yard-scared the crap out of the little twit).

We live with Maine Coon cats, the largest of which is 16 pounds, so Beni is used to bossing much larger animals. One evening I heard the tone of her barks change, and looked out the window...she was trying to chase a couple of half-grown coons out of our yard :rolleyes: ...they were trying to figure out where the barking rat came from. Of course they didn't *run*, they don't even run from the car when they're ambling up the driveway, so a four pound dog is not much of a danger.

I tore out the door and called her off. She came running back to me with an expression on her face that said, "Mom! THose were really weird cats! Didja see me run them off?"
:rolleyes:

The main thing that worries me about coons is the danger of rabies...healthy coons have better things to do than attack a human who's not trying to bother them.