Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Road Debris / Hazzards.

So I've been riding to work and on the road pretty consistent for the last 4 years, I've seen potholes that could have swallowed my bike whole, and road debris that could flatten both tires and left you in an endo on the road.

So I'm curious as to what the most interesting road debris is that you have had to dodge (or didn't :) ). I think with recent memory the worst I had to dodge was an entire muffler and tail pipe that was laying across the shoulder and into the traffic lane, and due to the long stream of cars that were not about to let a cyclist into the traffic lane I ended up going around it on the sidewalk (at least there was a driveway right before the muffler). I have also been truly amazed at the number of broken lug nuts and lugs that you find on the side of the highway, now wonder cars loose a wheel all the time ;).

I dislike Road Kill and the smell that goes along with them.... takes about 2 miles to get the burning sensation out of my nose.

Huge piles of beer cans and/or used Krylon cans, car parts, and roadkill are all too common in my area. But the toughest... um, object... that I've had to dodge was people camping out on the New Brunswick Raritan towpath. I saw them at the last minute while rounding a curve. I was able to not hit anyone but I ran over somebody's (fortunately empty) sneaker.

Road kill!

Road kill!

speaking of road kill, I think the racoons here have a death wish this year, I swear there is a new dead racoon every day I ride to work.

I had road kill right in the middle of my biggest hill last night. I was pushing hard so there was no way I could hold my breath until I was through the smell. That was brutal!

Joe

Riding in farm country I not only get the odor, but occasionally have to dodge some manure. Road kill is way too common to mention; although a flattened skunk does get my attention.

I had to bunny hop a live dog once (German Shepherd)! He got in front of me before I could react. I did roll him and brush him pretty hard with the back wheel, but didn't hurt me, the bike OR the dog. That's a road hazard! By the way, the dog and I are buddies now ;)

On my commute yesterday I had to dodge a used prophylactic (I didn't investigate it that closely but noticed one end was knotted). Gosh durn kids can't be bothered to go to the park and dispose of these things in a trash can rather than fling em out the window.

Other than that and roadkill, nothing too interesting. I have found many bungee cords and few snap on sockets.

Mostly just road kill. Nothing too exciting here :D

I had to dodge a chicken on the local MUP the other day.

The funniest thing I had to avoid was a VHS porno in the box, laying in the shoulder. If I would have had a place to carry it, I'd have taken it home.:D:D:D

I once flatted on a dead opossum fang. It was hot too. Ick.

The local black-bears are coming down out of the mountains to feed on choke cherries, currants, and wild/escaped plums, and they leve big mounds of bright-colored bear-droppings in the middle of the road all over the place. They do this to mark their territory in a prominant location where they feel "threatened". Bear crap is slippery, 4-8 inches deep, and can contain some interseting things (bones, berries, grass, commercial plastic bread bags, parts of tin/aluminum cans, etc.). Not to mention, that it makes you look around for the bear while you should be looking at the damn road.

The local black-bears are coming down out of the mountains to feed on choke cherries, currants, and wild/escaped plums, and they leve big mounds of bright-colored bear-droppings in the middle of the road all over the place. They do this to mark their territory in a prominant location where they feel "threatened". Bear crap is slippery, 4-8 inches deep, and can contain some interseting things (bones, berries, grass, commercial plastic bread bags, parts of tin/aluminum cans, etc.). Not to mention, that it makes you look around for the bear while you should be looking at the damn road.

at least our bear problem hear isn't that bad yet :)

Road kill!

Aw it brightens my day to see road kill, well I mean other then feeling bad for the animal and all that. It means I get to call my wife and report it as she has to come pick it up :D Gotta keep her busy and her metrics up at work. For a while I was playing turtle crossing guard but the season is over and now it is back to dodge the armadillo goo.

I'm really getting sick of building debris. Bricks, 2x4s, plywood, drywall, bags of cement!?!? There was a couch in the shoulder of FM2499 for months that was all over the place. No one could figure out who's job it was to pick it up I guess. *sigh*

The thing I hate most is longhorns though and their wanderings. Flying down a big hill around a tight corner and then wham hello Mr longhorn I think I'll go on the wrong side of the road right about now and hope a car isn't coming. They are getting rare also as people move their animals further out and sell the land they were grazing on for $$$$.

I've had to dodge the usual stuff mentioned already like car bumpers, mufflers, broken bottles, syringes, prophylactics, etc. The thing that stands out most in my mind, though, is one specific piece of roadkill. It was the BIGGEST frigging rat I've ever seen! This thing must have been 8" without the tail! Nasty bugger!

I had a live possum run under my rear wheel. Other than that, branches and road kill are most common.

I ride rail-trail and run into all kinds of wildlife, but whitetail deer are the worst, they will stand frozen till I get close and I never know which way they will go

Road kill!

+1

The weirdest thing I've ever had to dodge was a dresser. I figure it must have fallen off the back of a moving truck or something.

-DR

The stuff on the road doesn't bother me too much but there is one place on my normal ride that smells like catfish bait for about a mile. Really nasty. lol

Lots of dead toads recently. The occasional roadkill. Big cracks in the pavement on the shoulder in a 2 mile stretch just waiting for a front wheel to catch. In the same area the snow plows tend to "chatter" causing gouges which make riding rough.

Construction debris, mainly dirt and gravel, but also rope, paper, A lot of my rides are partly through "undeveloped" new developments - roads, half built houses (maybe 20-50% occupied), and NO CARS!! :D One of them goes along a creek, and the other day after a hard rain, I was dodging crayfish. If I'd been willing to pick them up (and eat them... hmmm...) I could have had a free dinner!

For some reason, I keep running over butterflies.

butterfly-killer! ;)

My dog was chasing and eating cicadas on her walk this morning... crunchy!

I had to bunny hop a live dog once (German Shepherd)! He got in front of me before I could react. I did roll him and brush him pretty hard with the back wheel, but didn't hurt me, the bike OR the dog. That's a road hazard! By the way, the dog and I are buddies now ;)

Isn't that a doggyhop ? :D

BTW - good fast thinking.

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/Huntmoor/IMG_0422.jpg

1. In the spring, snails like to cross the country roads here in ?flocks? <<crunch...crunch... ...crunch...>>

2. I ran squarely over a cat once <<thump thump>>... It was dark. The cat was black. And I wasn't in a neighborhood that I wanted to stop to see if the cat survived.

3. There's no one responsible here in Greece to pick up road kill and if its their responsibility they don't do it. For the last week and a half I've had to ride past a very large decaying dog. This morning it was in more peices than I could count. This one will stop smelling before someone moves it...

Rattlesnakes laying across the Cherry Creek Spillway trail.

WET CONCRETE!

In West Lafayette, I was riding down the sidewalk on river road which had just had a new bridge opened, new bike lanes, and new sidewalks put in. Early on, they had the bikelanes closed partially, so I went up on the sidewalk. I'm cruising along so happy that my daily ride is now on much safer streets on a beautiful morning to see a work crew moving dirt against the new sidewalk. I think "No biggie, there's no barricade, wet pavement sign, not even a stick across the sidewalk." So I go barreling down through sinking my navigator's big wheels into 1-2 inches of semisoft concrete!

The guys yell at me, I realize what happened, shoot off of the sidewalk to the left, hit the back side of the curb (not filled in with dirt) and nearly launch my big ***** into traffic over the handlebars. Luckily, I didn't, and the bike survived.
I gathered my senses, got on the bike, and rode off while the "lookout" of the crew is explaining how the 350lb, 6'5" clyde snuck up on him.

I laugh every time I think about it. A road cone or sign of some sort would have been appropriate. :)

I hit a mule deer going over 30 mph down a big hill this past May. The deer took all of the impact, and I walked away with only a little shin hemotoma that did not become a medical problem for about a week (big bruise became a clot that would not clear away fast enough, and doctor had to lance it and manually pull it out...yucky). I ride that same road 2-3 times a week, and boy do I watch out for deer! :eek:;)

Oh, and that is why I have this avatar. It is me jousting a deer on a bicycle.

I found myself in the middle of a tarantula migration near Stinson beach one day. I'm not fond of spiders to start with, put me on the road with several dozen of the big hairy kind and words escape me.

I'm pretty sure I didn't hit any, but there was some dynamic steerage and major butt english playing for several hundred feet.

:eek:

I found myself in the middle of a tarantula migration...

Reminds me of something that happened back home about 10 years ago. Some sort of Preying Mantis migration must have blown off course, because our area had never had any of them before (I was 18-19 years old at the time, and I'd never seen one in my life), but all of a sudden (literally overnight) there were thousands of them - maybe milions of them - all over town. In the yard, in the trees, in the house, on the street - everywhere. 2-3 days later, they were all gone.

It was one of the strangest things I've ever seen.

-DR

I'll second on what james herbst said about road kill in Greece (I'm in Athens btw James!). So far after two-three weeks commuting to work, except for the usual items most of you have mentioned, the strangest item I nearly ran into was a moped frame which must have fell off the back of a truck. Someone had taken the time to kick/push it over to the side of the road above a recessed water drainage grate making it nearly flush with the road; add total darkness and you have a clydesdale (me) doing some funky last minute maneuvers to avoid it (by sheer luck of course!)

I was actually having this conversation about a month ago when I dropped one of our cars at the dealership I work off off at a repair shop up the street for work to be done. I walked back to my shop and noticed all the strange stuff and garbage and was wondering how all of that stuff got there. I found an exhaust tip, change, nuts, bolts, the shaft of a screwdriver with no handle, a 5" square metal box, lottery tickets, various garbage items like McD's bags, cans, paper etc. Of course there is road kill. The most interesting item is feminine hygiene items. Are women really changing these while driving? That was kinda nasty.

I was actually having this conversation about a month ago when I dropped one of our cars at the dealership I work off off at a repair shop up the street for work to be done. I walked back to my shop and noticed all the strange stuff and garbage and was wondering how all of that stuff got there. I found an exhaust tip, change, nuts, bolts, the shaft of a screwdriver with no handle, a 5" square metal box, lottery tickets, various garbage items like McD's bags, cans, paper etc. Of course there is road kill. The most interesting item is feminine hygiene items. Are women really changing these while driving? That was kinda nasty.

Often times when you see feminine hygiene items they come from sewage and storm water overflows.

A live catfish. Yep. A month or so ago my boss and I went on a bike path in the midst of all the rain we were getting and it turns out that in several places the patch was under standing water. When I was riding along a HUGE commotion occurred at the top of my rear wheel (the water was about 2/3 up my wheel). My co-rider say it and told me it was a huge catfish and it appeared as if the tail was in my spokes or he came up with my wheel or something.

Crazy.

I ride on the Mississippi river levee. So, A live gator about 10 feet or so.

The flooding here has brought them out of their river swamps and so we have gators on the MUP!

http://i14.photobucket.com/albums/a340/Huntmoor/IMG_0422.jpg

That's just wrong.... LOL!

I took a ride two weeks ago, out of contacts, and it being sunny I just road in a pair of regular sunglasses.

The Worst desicion ever.

I cant tell you how many things I ran over, both tires somehow survived the ride but were flat afterwards.
The two obvious things I saw when it was just two late were a floor vent, like the metal sort in your home, and and entire smashed 40oz of Olde English. ughh.

A two foot diameter snapping turtle, middle of the trail, took the tail side
route. I heard him hissing as I passed.

I have to be weary of bunnys almost every day on my trip from work. They jump out of the bushes to run next to me and then they dart across my path or underneath my crank and back into the bushes on the opposite side. I'm hoping I never clip one. That would be sad.

A live possum. I don't know who was more startled. Me or he/she but the darn thing jumped as I said "Watch it" and went flying across the road. Who knew possums could move fast when they want to. LOL

Possums usually just fall over and play dead. Hence, "playing possum".
That's what I've heard anyway.

Possums usually just fall over and play dead. Hence, "playing possum".
That's what I've heard anyway.

I think this one taught that they don't always do what people say. LOL

I've been surprised by the sheer amount of old cell phones, keys, and discarded GPS units along the road. I find at least 2 bashed cell phones along every trip. I'll probably find a set of keys every 3 rides, and I've seen at least 2 (broken) tom tom's along my usual routes.

I found a completely function iPhone 4 about a week ago, turned it on, called the owners wife, and had it returned by noon. It had apparently been laid on the trunk of their car and slid off when it was forgotten. I also ordered an otterbox like his the following day.

Was riding in the mountains with some friends when I stopped to take some pictures as they were coming up the road. In getting back on my bike, looking down at my pedal to get clipped in, I found an 8 GB IPOD Touch on the road. Works like a charm to this very day.:50:

Fresh killed skunk a couple weeks ago. Dodged it, not over it, thank goodness.

smell was like a slap in the face.

After lengthy study, I've concluded that road kill turtles end up smelling the worst in SC as they come with their own little oven to bake in the sun...

Actual road hazzard dodged appeared to a handfull of syringes? I hope they belonged to some diabetic and not the local heroine tweeker.

Fresh killed skunk a couple weeks ago. Dodged it, not over it, thank goodness.

smell was like a slap in the face.


carcass was gone when I rode by on Saturday, but smell was still strong, 3 weeks later.