Clydesdales/Athenas (200+ lb / 91+ kg) - Ever get spooked on a ride?

The sun is going down earlier, and I'm doing more dusk and night riding lately. Between that and the weather dropping, there are less people out, and sometimes I'll have a road or a MUP to myself - which is kind of nice.

I was coming down a hill, with street lights above me, some rain on the pavement, and a leaf wafting down through the air. Then a mouse, or a rat, or something small and dark, ran out across the street. It was too erratic to even think about bunny hopping, darting left and right as it made its way toward my end of the pavement. So I tested my emergency stopping skills. When I got from about 20 to about 3 mph, I realized that my mouse was the shadow of that leaf I'd just seen falling. :o

It wasn't a frightening experience, but it was weird ... I was just so sure I'd seen something, and then it wasn't there. Have you ever had a sense of vertigo after you realized a situation wasn't what you thought?

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/thumb/e/e7/Necker_cube.svg/220px-Necker_cube.svg.png

I ride at night, so yes...

I've ran over an opossum, dodged many fleeting cats and raccoons, been hit it the face by a bat, had dogs chase me and drunks yell obscenities at me. This is why I carry pepper spray, although I've never used it.

And sometimes the shadows do play tricks on you, but that just boosts your speed for a bit as you haul outta there.

I've had a couple of times where I've been stupid enough to not check my lights before a dusk ride. Ten miles on a dirt trail in the woods lit only my moonlight isn't fun.

On the 3 Volcanoes 300k about a month ago, I started mildly hallucinating during the last 15 miles. Shadows started looking like they were moving, and stationary things on the roadside took on a life of their own. The best one was a large stand of grass and weeds in a drainage ditch that I could swear was a 2 foot tall praying mantis. Scared the crap out of me.

Happens all the time. Means I'm paying attention,maybe a little too much.

The strangest thing that happened to me was on a night ride in Huntington Beach. I had the beach trail to my self. I am sure that I heard another rider behind me (just bicycle noise that was not from my bike...) When I got to Warner, I was going to say "goodnight" and head home. There was no one else around. I will admit that I don't have perfect hearing. It might have been noise from my own bike bouncing of the walls, etc on the path.

Worse spooking i have had was departing from a red light that turned green. I was with two others riding pace line. I was in front. A black SUV comes up and passes us going around a bend. A female driver coming the other way is at or crossing the double line while talking on a cell. The guys behind yell out. I am not sure what is going on. I then see the suv pass me. The female driver sees and locks up her brakes. I proceeded to check out the patch of woods to my right for a necessary escape route. Luckily she recovered, but for the next mile I was totally shook, so shook I couldn't bring myself to get off the front of the line. It was not a fun experience at all.

One of the mitigating factors in my getting into road riding was getting spooked while MTB'ing in the wintertime (wind, rain, grey sky and being alone). I've worked myself up to 99% of a full blown panic attack. The 1% kept me from stripping naked and running through the woods screaming gibberish! I put that effort into riding faster...
Rationally, I know I have a better chance of getting hit by lightning than getting attacked by an animal on the trail. (not counting humans here.) I'm working through it.
I'm still alert, because lerts live longer, while riding on the road. But the panic is virtually non-existent. Plus I really appreciate the different strengths developed with each type of riding.
The feelings still return in the summer, but there is something so calming about riding single-track on a beautiful summer day.

On my commute back home from work there is a downhill i love to catch speed at. I was going about 30mph down the hill while on the bike lane, and all of a sudden i see about 4ft of loose gravel and debris. I had no time to check my rear for cars to jump in the car lane so i slowed down as much as i could and my bike slid sideways for a second and then caught tracktion again. It sucks because the debris is still there and i loved going fast down that hill. Now as i approach it i remember what happened and go slow.

Never at night. Theclosest would have been seeing the eyes of several deer just off the road. Sort of funny how close to civilization deer can be.

Now during the daytime a few times, having rows of tarantuallas rearing up with their front legs off the ground at the side of the road was a bit spooky. If yuo got in a bad sci fi film mood yuo started to expect they would shoot out thread and try to pull you down. (Did I mention this was a ways into a double century and in hte mioddle of nowhere?).

But the spookiest was on a fairly hot day when there were vultures circling me. Never thought I'd be glad to come across some roadkill.

Not from shadows.... dyno and a supernova.

However this story (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?674684-Leftover-food-got-tossed-at-me-while-riding-home-at-night.&p=11353725&highlight=#post11353725) is what infuriated me and spooked me.

When riding MTB solo in the mountains in Central PA I constantly get spooked by noises off the trial which is mostly rustling leaves and everyonce in a while I swear I hear some grunting. Not sure if it's me grunting or an actual bear. I have seen bear while MTB the same trails in late summer. This encourages me to peddle faster and get the heck out of there when it is probably a little chip munk runing around the leaves. Call me crazy but way in the back of my mind, as a kid in the 70s they used to have these documentary films in the theatres, I grew up in a rural area next to forests and was petrified of BigFoot. I would wake up nights waiting for it to puch it's arm though my bedroom window and drag me into the woods just like in these documentries. That being said, there are these Big Foot experts out there and websites and there have been bigfoot sightings in PA. I still think it is most likely D.B. Cooper still hiding and living off the money jumped out of that plane with :)

The strangest thing that happened to me was on a night ride in Huntington Beach. I had the beach trail to my self. I am sure that I heard another rider behind me (just bicycle noise that was not from my bike...) When I got to Warner, I was going to say "goodnight" and head home. There was no one else around. I will admit that I don't have perfect hearing. It might have been noise from my own bike bouncing of the walls, etc on the path.

A couple days ago, I was coming down a very steep hill into the urban core ( ie "downtown" ). I was moving along, riding the brakes a bit ( there's a light every block, and a freeway entrance nearby ), and everything was normal. Then I went by a parking garage, with something loud going on inside. Somehow, the noise sounded like rubber on roadway, and coming from behind and slightly to my right, my brain decided it was something wrong with my tire on the road. It felt normal, was gripping ok, no wobble or anything ... but it sounded like I was about to blow out or something. I was pretty worried until I figured out what was actually going on.

Pretty common for me as well. It usually happens to me when I'm thinking about something on a flat stretch, and am still sleepy. I suddenly think that I see something like a deer, person, bear, dog, cat, fox, etc. sitting behind a bush or rock that I'm passing, and am sure that it is ready to jump out in front of me. So far, it has just been other shrubs that the wind is moving around a little bit. Un-nerving, though. Puts me "on-edge" for a half our after.

On the 3 Volcanoes 300k about a month ago, I started mildly hallucinating during the last 15 miles. Shadows started looking like they were moving, and stationary things on the roadside took on a life of their own. The best one was a large stand of grass and weeds in a drainage ditch that I could swear was a 2 foot tall praying mantis. Scared the crap out of me.

In the 70's, I forked out a lot of money for less! :rolleyes:

Riding on the dirt roads of rural Nebraska at night will do some wierd things to your head.

I was riding about 10 miles outside of the city limits of Lincoln with corn fields on both sides of me, it was about 10:00 P.M. and every time the road would loop to the left or the right, I could have swore that my headlight was shining light on someone standing in the corn... talk about creepy... I have never ridden so fast in my life.

I was riding about 10 miles outside of the city limits of Lincoln with corn fields on both sides of me, it was about 10:00 P.M. and every time the road would loop to the left or the right, I could have swore that my headlight was shining light on someone standing in the corn... talk about creepy... I have never ridden so fast in my life.

Was it the same (really, really fast) person, or was it a network of folks conspiring to watch you ride? Or did your brain not go that far down the wrong path...?

The best one was a large stand of grass and weeds in a drainage ditch that I could swear was a 2 foot tall praying mantis. Scared the crap out of me.

:eek:Now that is a good one.:50:

Happens to me, night riding will break of the habit some. But I swear I hear more at night

Just last week I was commuting home around 8, forgetting that it's getting Darker this time of year.
Those electric cars are really quiet, I was riding through a heavily wooded street surronded by a nature reserve, when from around a bend and behind me and electrical car wizzed by at about 50 mph. I swear I didn't hear a damn thing, I was heading downhill probably at about 20-25 mph kicking it. Put I almost wrecked.

Spooked on a ride has a whole different meaning here, and it is considered racist.

I buried my father this past Wednesday and rode my first ever metric century on Saturday (the ride was a fundraiser for cancer research and he died from cancer so there was no way I could miss this ride). The first 75km went surprisingly well but the remaining 25 were a bit of a struggle, on a couple of occasions I noticed the shadow of someone right behind me and felt my father's presence encouraging me (he was old school Army - you never quit) - when I turned my head both times there was no one there.

It was probably the culmination of an emotionally difficult week plus a healthy dose of exhaustion but I definitely got spooked. And, no I don't believe in apparitions or hauntings and have not been partaking of recreational pharmaceuticals.....:twitchy:

Spooked on a ride has a whole different meaning here, and it is considered racist.

Oh please. It's an innocent word when used properly.

I buried my father this past Wednesday and rode my first ever metric century on Saturday (the ride was a fundraiser for cancer research and he died from cancer so there was no way I could miss this ride). The first 75km went surprisingly well but the remaining 25 were a bit of a struggle, on a couple of occasions I noticed the shadow of someone right behind me and felt my father's presence encouraging me (he was old school Army - you never quit) - when I turned my head both times there was no one there.

It was probably the culmination of an emotionally difficult week plus a healthy dose of exhaustion but I definitely got spooked. And, no I don't believe in apparitions or hauntings and have not been partaking of recreational pharmaceuticals.....:twitchy:

I'm sorry to hear about your father. All of this what you said made me remember something I had experienced a few years back when my grandpa died. I remember walking into the store where I worked (I was a manager at that time there, electronics store), and generally having a day where I was feeling like I was watched all day by something or someone. It'd gone that far that I had gone to look over the security cameras, to be sure no one was following me around the aisles. Alas, there was none of that. So, then I saw an older man standing by the entrance, and waving me on. I went there, ask how could I help him, and he proceeded to ask me questions about different computers and so on, very technical questions, which was a bit weird, because older people usually are not that well versed in that.

So there I was, having that conversation with him that started to feel surreal, and I couldn't help but to notice that there was something awfully familiar about his eyes. Then he looked at me and said: "I just wanted to let you know it's ok, it's all fine on the other side, no need to worry". So I stood there speechless, then he said that someone is waiving for me from behind and I turned around - when I turned back there was no one there in front of me.

I asked the cashier's did they see the man I was just talking to go out or something, and they asked me - which man? They said they saw no one there. That it was just me. So I thought I might be loosing it, I went back to the cameras footage and what I found amazed me - all the footage has timestamps down to the second - and right in that time that I talked to that man, there was a faint swirl of colors, somewhat resembling a human shape, standing across me. I almost fainted, and then showed that footage to the rest of my people on the shift who were there, because they were taunting me saying they want something of that that I had that day - they thought I was talking to myself. They turned a bit pale in their faces, and simply walked away without comment. No one was laughing anymore, and I got the feeling that they got too much of what they wanted, this time.

And after that experience of mine, I can tell you this - there is so much more out there then we care to admit to ourselves. We can sense and feel more then our primary senses can tell us. I wouldn't be surprised if your senses were right. But we can be very effective constructing all kind of arguments to explain why we saw some things that our reason and logic are telling us are impossible.

In the end it's not even down to what you believe in; such experiences are vastly known for hundreds and thousands of years, over all the different people on this globe we call our home, with all their different beliefs. One thing holds steady over everything - that was known and documented for decades. So, if there is so much documented occurrences of that, why would I try to deny it? I think that there are a lot of things out there that we don't yet understand; but, I do not think that fear should stop us from looking at it like it is.

Brian, yours and whitecat's stories brought to mind a memory I had forgotten, from when my father died, a little over 7 years ago. I was at my parents' house for a few days to help get things settled, and one morning I had to don my father's jacket to walk out to the mailbox. It makes no sense at all, but for that short walk in his windbreaker, rather than feeling his presence, I felt like I was my father - like he had stepped into my body. One of the weirder sensations I've had in my life, and quite palpable.

Oh please. It's an innocent word when used properly.

Come down here and see how innocent that word isn't. Language isn't the same everywhere.

I take it that it's only one of the words people in Beaufort object to, then, and not the whole phrase "spooked on a bike ride." I'm guessing it isn't spook; that's already taken by spies.

I have to admit that being pretty interested in language, I'm curious about the details and the story.

I take it that it's only one of the words people in Beaufort object to, then, and not the whole phrase "spooked on a bike ride." I'm guessing it isn't spook; that's already taken by spies.

I have to admit that being pretty interested in language, I'm curious about the details and the story.

As a noun, it's been used as a racial slur against blacks. As a verb, it's innocent.

As a noun, it's been used as a racial slur against blacks. As a verb, it's innocent.

Neil is right as usual. "Ever get spooked on a ride? (http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?678510-Ever-get-spooked-on-a-ride/page2)" is entirely different than, "How many spooks did you see on your ride?" Usage is the key.

Interesting. And sad. I'm going to issue a fatwa that says racists have to stop inventing evil meanings for ordinary words.

Ironically, I hesitated before going with "spooked" ( nouns don't have past tenses :D ) because I didn't mean frightened, exactly. In my case, it was sort of like an illusion, where I was lead down the garden path to believe one thing ( that a mouse was running out across my way ) when the reality was something else ( it was just the shadow of a leaf ).

But, I'll keep this in mind and know one more way not to offend people.

Interesting. And sad. I'm going to issue a fatwa that says racists have to stop inventing evil meanings for ordinary words.

Ironically, I hesitated before going with "spooked" ( nouns don't have past tenses :D ) because I didn't mean frightened, exactly. In my case, it was sort of like an illusion, where I was lead down the garden path to believe one thing ( that a mouse was running out across my way ) when the reality was something else ( it was just the shadow of a leaf ).

But, I'll keep this in mind and know one more way not to offend people.

Eventually the English language will have so many words that can't be used while remaining politically correct, it will become ineffective to use the language at all. Of course by then the whole concept of political correctness and not wanting to offend anyone, in any way, may have run it's course.

"Spooked" is an irrational fear of blacks. You hear it used quite a bit when you live in a majority black area.

Eventually the English language will have so many words that can't be used while remaining politically correct, it will become ineffective to use the language at all. Of course by then the whole concept of political correctness and not wanting to offend anyone, in any way, may have run it's course.

Cue George Orwell's 1984.

^ That would be double-plus ungood.

OK, back to the original point of this thread. Last night coming down GMR, a local climb here in Southern California, I had the road lit up with what I get by with at night. Enough lumen to see, but not very far. I was just past the halfway point in the descent, when rounding a corner I almost T-boned a coyote feasting on roadkill. I had less than a second to react from when I first saw it, and there was no way I could. Lucky for me, the coyote bolted, leaving me with my heart in my throat, and almost in need of a change of shorts. The incident slowed me down for the rest of the ride, that is for sure.:50:

I ride on rural roads in Eastern NC. We have a lot of snakes, and while I study them right much, I am scared to death of unexpected encounter. I am always on the lookout for venomous ones either lying on the road or on the grass beside the road. Once a copperhead struck my pedal, my legs were up since I had seen it, and it really spun the pedal backward. Anyway, several weeks ago we were on a real bumpy, aggravating back road. I was focusing on releasing the death grip I had on my grips when I looked up and saw a huge "snake" right in my path, about 8 or 10 feet away. On second glance, it was a branch from a tree..but dang, it looked very Eastern Diamondback like for a second or two. Needless to say, both the cadence and the heart rate lept!

Well I was thinking of going for a night ride tonight but some of ya'll have made me rethink that now! Thanks!!!!

Two weeks ago, I was in the mountains of Western North Carolina riding the TSALI single track trails. To me this is the ultimate in riding. I have been in love with this area for a while and try to ride it at least 2-3 times a year.

Anyway, I was 4 miles out on a 9 mile loop (Mouse Branch) and 3 spokes popped in a row. Sounded like rifle shots. Now I have a back wheel that looks like a pringles potato chip, I am 4 miles from a human, with a 30# bike and it is within a couple hours of dark.

Bears are common to the area, as well as a few snakes and my biggest fear, mountain lions. The first two I figure to be opportunists, but the latter is a hunter and if you know me very well, I am so sweet, I must taste good:rolleyes:

So I spent the next 2 1/2 hours carrying out my bike. About a mile from the truck, I heard a sound on a ridge above me. It was the rustle of leaves and it was getting closer. It was basically dark and I figured I was food:eek: I was in a rhododendron tunnel and could not see out and it was getting dark. The next thing I saw was a rock about the size of my head roll across the trail about 20 ft behind me and on down the mountain.

After I checked to make sure that I had not crapped myself:twitchy:, I sat down and started to cry a little. Does that count as being spooked?

The rewards for riding in this area are worth it though.
http://i425.photobucket.com/albums/pp331/homeairdirect/BIKE%20RIDES/North%20Carolina%2009%202010/IMG_0264.jpg

"Spooked" is an irrational fear of blacks. You hear it used quite a bit when you live in a majority black area. ????

"Spooked" is an irrational fear of blacks. You hear it used quite a bit when you live in a majority black area.

Spook is also another name for something unidentifiable that leaves you with that overall tingling feeling of being scared spitless. I work with about 25 guys, 15 of whom are black, and none of them are in any way scary. Okay one guy is scary, only when he attempts to sing though, the guy is hopelessly tone deaf, and what his singing lacks in quality it makes up for with quantity.

The best one was a large stand of grass and weeds in a drainage ditch that I could swear was a 2 foot tall praying mantis. Scared the crap out of me.

hilarious!

I was bike commuting home through a rural area. There was no moonlight and no streetlights. There was a slight fog in some low spots. My lights were completely inadequate. It was so bad that I could not see the road and probably could not have seen my hand had I held it up to my face.

I got so disoriented in the foggy spots that I couldn't tell up from down, what my lane positioning was, etc. It really scared me - I easily could have fallen or ridden off the road into a ditch.

Then some cars approached so I had their headlights to navigate by until I rode out of the low areas and out of the fog; then I was back in civilization with more ambient light.

Other bike scares: one night I startled a pack of 3 large loose dogs and they took chase. Even riding as fast as I could go on a major arterial at 1AM, they followed me almost a mile including some pretty big hills.

More recently, I have had deer bolt across the roads in front of me as I was coming downhill 30mph in the dark.