Fifty Plus (50+) - Ever run over a critter while riding

Been riding on one of the most popular rail trails in the area lately and it's a great ride. Almost every time I ride it I have a close call with a squirrel, chipmunk or bird. Wednesday the wife had a close call with a chipmunk and about a mile later I came within an inch or two of another chipmunk. It's worrisome because I can see my wife diving into a tree to avoid running over any kind of animal. When the one jumped in front of me my first instinct was to hit the brakes, now I was only rolling along about 14 mph so it wasn't a real problem. I was wondering if anyone here ever hit something or crashed trying to avoid wildlife.

Yes... a squirrel. He shot out from the side of the path and I had no time to break or swerve. He did not survive. I had no problem maintaining control of the bike - just another bump in the road.

I ran over a rabbit in the neighborhood once. No harm other than perhaps to the rabbit, but he wasn't hurt enough he couldn't run off.

The dog I hit was another story.

One ride I ran over 2 squirrels within a mile of each other. One lay twitching and dying on the trail, the other screamed and ran into some bushes. The noise they make is the worst

I have clobbered several squirrels in my cycling career. It's worst in the spring when the young come out and forage along the MUPs. They seem to understand dogs and pedestrians but have no clues about bikes. They go thump-thump and lay there in the path.


I have also run over several snakes but I think they were all already expired.

Snakes - live and dead. Grasshoppers by the dozens.

If a squirrel/rabbit gets caught in your spokes, it can be deadly. One VERY quick stop for your bike.

Yes!

I can only recall a snake and some close calls with mammals. The worst was a very very close call with a dear at about 20mph.

Almost hit a three ft gopher snake a couple of weeks ago. I slammed the brakes and went for my phone to get a pic, but he slithered away too fast. I've never hit anything live except for flying bugs, and I've eaten a few of those.

While I was cautiously looking left and right while approaching a county road intersection, I failed to see the enormous dead armadillo directly in front of me. I dumped, providing great entertainment for my group.

I had a duck take me down once. I was riding on a path along a lakefront and the bird spooked and flew into my rear wheel. It took me down fast. I had duck feathers all over my derailleurs. My front wheel was so damaged that I straightened it out by banging it on the path. I had to take the front brake off so I could ride the bike home. I lost a lot of skin as well. Never did find the duck though; probably lucky for me since I was hunting out of season . . .

Mostly bugs, small reptiles. Didn't run over him but I hit a medium sized (35-40lbs)dog once. Most dogs chase you from the side or behind. This one caught up with me and jumped in front of me before I could stop. I don't think he was hurt. At any rate he ran off easily enough.

I ran over a goose once who darted across the MUP heading for a pond. It was amazingly firm. I cleared about 4' horizontally, and 18" vertically, but managed to stay upright on the landing. Last seen, the goose was sitting in the pond squawking his unhappiness.

Two weeks ago I almost hit a groundhog while riding on my favorite MUP. He lumbered onto the trail directly in front of me while I was riding very fast on a flat section of the trail. I decided against swerving left because there were two cyclists approaching me riding two abreast. So, I gulped and swerved off the trail into the grass from which the groundhog had just emerged. Fortunately, there was no drop-off at this point, and I just rode 30' or so in the long grass in parallel to the path until I found a spot where I could safely ride back onto the trail. It happened so fast that I barely had time to think. It did raise my heartrate quite a bit. He was so large that I am sure I would have taken quite a spill had I struck him.

By the way, I saw the same groundhog last week while riding in the same area. He was seated in the shade under a bench in the area. He was chewing on some grass and he seemed to be watching the cyclists as they rode by. I thought to myself, "he probably is wondering what all these idiots are doing, riding in this high heat and humidity."

Offroad night ride and to save battery- I was on low power except for the downhills. Couldn't see much as I do mean low power. Saw plenty of shadows lurking just outside of the lamp and had several things scuttle off the trail in front of me. No idea what they were but some birds- some foxes and a couple of deer by the sound and rough shape of them. Got used to it but woke up suddenly when a big commotion went on just under my front wheel. A Bird of some decent size and I caught its tail. Lots of wing flapping and squawking and it certainly woke me up.

Never saw the thing till I caught it's tail and I stopped and it was a cock pheasant. At least I presume it was due to the feathers.

Two rabbits. Neither survived. Did not make a dent in the population that I can see.

I can only recall a snake and some close calls with mammals. The worst was a very very close call with a dear at about 20mph.

I have a cousin that used to road race. He was practicing for a race one evening, coming down a steep hill at around 30 mph and hit a deer. Major damage to the bike, lots of road rash and a concussion for him, the deer had to be taken to a vet and if I remember right it had to be euthanized. There's a lot of deer out my way and creaming one of these is something I sure don't want to do. :speedy:

It's probably safer to just hold your line and run over a small swerving critter, instead of losing control or hitting somebody alongside you. I remember Barbara Savage from Santa Barbara, who rode around the world, wrote "Miles from Nowhere" about the trip, and died swerving to avoid a squirrel once back home. This comes to mind because I descend a steep hill on the way to work with no driveways or cross traffic; a couple of weeks ago, I saw a mockingbird (?) flying in a crazy fashion over the road out of the corner of my eye at 39 mph as it pursued some insect--in a heartbeat it swooped down to the road directly under my front tire and I felt a small bump--but I did not move the handlebars at all. I looked in my helmet mirror, but it was already out of sight around the curve. I hope that bump was just its tail feathers. I looked for any sign of the bird that evening going up the hill, but saw nothing. That happened to be the first advanced (vertebrate) varmint that I've hit in many years. (I've murdered snails by the thousands on damp nights on some bike paths)

yup, hit deer and ran over it about 6 weeks ago. I posted about it on the forum.

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/819069-Holy-cow!-Hit-a-deer-broadside-today-on-my-commute?highlight=

Been lucky so far. Have had a bunch of squirrels playing chicken with my bike(hate squirrels), and a rabbit or two cross my path. I even had a deer cross my path, but so far I have not hit a critter. Now, I did have a disagreement with a car about occupying the same physical space at the same time.

A frog. It was sitting on a small log, right in the center, and I ran over it with my front wheel.

*warning - graphic detail*
I glanced down right as my wheel was rolling over the middle of the frog and saw it's guts popping out of it's mouth, but then, it's guts slid back in as the wheel rolled off it. :twitchy: I stopped, the bike straddling the log, feeling very sorry that I killed it, but the darn frog jumped away!

I had my 1st animal strike this am on the bike trail. I was out at about 445am today crusing along when all of a sudden out of nowhere this racoon walks right out in front of me at about 18mph. I held bars tight and hit him directly in the rib cage. He hissed at me as he was thrown to the side of the trail. I was always worred about this and today i found out 1st hand. I am sure i am lucky as i must have hit him just right for it not to cause me to go down. Jerry

Solution?

http://i418.photobucket.com/albums/pp269/Burra2a/trains/RP/2010-03-16_1.jpg

I've not ever run over a critter but have had a critter almost run over me. If it werent for peripheral vision and good braking, that big whitetail doe would have flat smashed into the side of the bike and me.

Nearly had two encounters this morning! Each animal zipped across so fast I'm unsure what the h*** either one was. One of the times I swear the animal zipped between my front and rear tire under the crank.

I had an encounter with a groundhog earlier this year while riding a local trail. It came out of the weeds about three feet off the trail and hit my front wheel. I eventually ended up at the Urgent Care for x-rays to the knee and left wrist. No broken bones but the wrist was sprained and I still have evidence of the fall on my knee:( The bike recovered quickly with help from my LBS:thumb:

http://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php/819056-Got-me-a-ground-hog!?highlight=groundhog

I ran pover a skunk once. Luckily it was already dead, so no lasting impact on me or the bike.

Bit of a bump though, like a soft-edged reverse pothole.

Millipedes. Thousands of millipedes... Maybe we have found the migration route to the long-mysterious and rumored millipede burial ground.

I t-boned a dog 4 years ago while going 30 mph and got a shattered collarbone out of the deal. I wasn't wearing a helmet, either. Now I do.

I ran over a squirrel once at the wilderness MUP where I do my daily rides. Also ran over a few pigmy rattlesnakes and some other small snakes on the path.

I have a cousin that used to road race. He was practicing for a race one evening, coming down a steep hill at around 30 mph and hit a deer. Major damage to the bike, lots of road rash and a concussion for him, the deer had to be taken to a vet and if I remember right it had to be euthanized. There's a lot of deer out my way and creaming one of these is something I sure don't want to do. :speedy:

I hit one at about 18 mph. Bike was fine, I spent the weekend at the hospital, and was off the bike for two months while my surgically-repaired thumb healed. The deer survived-I think he starred in one of those GEICO commercials afterwards.

Ran over a little yapping dog 35+ years ago. I stayed upright - had an old Hercules 3-speed for a commuter that was very stable - and the dog seemed unharmed. I don't remember him coming out to chase me after that.

A bird flew through my front wheel once. It made it through but I don't know if it survived. I managed to stay upright but had a pretty wicked shimmy for a few seconds.

Many snakes, alive and dead.

Many close calls w/ squirrels. One made it through right between both wheels. It's also amazing how some can stop on a dime just before the point of impact and do a "180" back to where they came from.

Ahhhh...road kill ~ sorta making me hungry.

Ahhhh...road kill ~ sorta making me hungry.

"You might be a redneck if you think 'fast food' is hitting a possum at 65 miles an hour"
-- Jeff Foxworthy

I was riding down a hill the other night when a possum came out of nowhere and I came within an inch or two from hitting him. I was too busy paying attention to the possum that I didn't notice the skunk that I was about to collide with until the last second. When I saw the skunk I stopped dead in my track and slowly started backing away. Man that got my heart pumping... Lol.

Back when bike lights were pathetic things, I ran over a skunk on a bike path on my way from the Sacramento Valley to a friend's place in the Sierra. All I saw was a flash of white on black and then I felt a thump under my rear wheel. I wasn't completely sure what had happened until the next afternoon when I returned to the scene on my way home. I'm sure glad he didn't see me coming.

I have run over snakes. But yesterday morning on my way home from my ride I was on a residential street with some 6:30 AM traffic and a jogger. This stretch of the road has a cow pasture on one side and swamp on the other. I looked up and thought I saw a large dog crossing the street. To my amazement it was actually a huge wild sow. That thing was fast. It was spotted and about the height of a large dog (but much bigger around). I had plenty of time to slow. As I got up to where it entered the swamp I could see it run off through the water. You should have seen the expression of the jogger who came much closer to encounter than I did...
:roflmao2:

A yappy dog many years ago, two rattle snakes during a race in Euphrata in the late 90,s. Had a chimp munk jump in my front wheel and did two full revolutions before jumping back out.

Had a small bird bounce off my front wheel years ago. I had just cruised past a hedge and it flew out at the end of the hedge right into the wheel. I kept going; didn't look back to see if it survived. I'm not an animal rights kind of guy...

This whole animal rights thing gets really ridiculous around Victoria, BC. They must have got rid of all the predators (coyotes), so deer and rabbits roam freely all over southern Vancouver Island. So I was always careful about deer appearing out of nowhere on fast descents when I lived there for 6 months. Where I live now, near Vancouver, there are lots of coyotes. Coyotes are too smart to bounce out of the woods and into bicycle wheels, which is why I have a lot of respect for them. I always thought we should round up a bunch of the coyotes around here and ship them off to Vancouver Island (with all the human retirees). They'd have an easy and fulfilling retirement life controlling the deer and rabbit population.

And raccoons. I have no qualms about running over those varmints!

Luis

Never ran over an animal. Did come close a couple times with squirrels, rabbits, and chipmunks.

I had a deer run across a trail right in front of me one time. The next day I was at a different trail and almost ran into a deer standing off the side. Thankfully I missed both times because something tells me I would have been much worse than the deer.

When you are about to hit something what is the best thing to do, grab the bars tight, be relaxed, stand up on the pedals... what? (noob question)

Keeping in tune with the title of the thread-
I used to ride with my Uncle Myron when he went pheasant hunting with his 50 Studebaker.

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSM07l5nxJdQcYTcIOdw6BmSs18cZO72wTGQTCOOEcMWX3xzhbZjQ
I never heard of using a Studebaker for pheasants. I always thought they worked well to spear deer.

That Studey kind of looks like a bird dog on point to me, nose out and the front paw a bit back with the long tail out straight. Looks kind of like my departed Llewylen Setter, Stoney. he as one birdy dog, too!!

266411 This one looks just like Stoney in his markings and his form.

https://encrypted-tbn1.google.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcSM07l5nxJdQcYTcIOdw6BmSs18cZO72wTGQTCOOEcMWX3xzhbZjQ
I never heard of using a Studebaker for pheasants. I always thought they worked well to spear deer.

He'd try to take their heads off with the front cross member.
He lived on a gravel road (back when most of us did, even in town) and if there were pheasants in the road, the foot went to the floor.

Yes, indeed. Did not actually run over the Gopher.

Traveling down local MUP at 18-20 mph. Startled a juvenile size gopher which caused him to run straight into my back wheel. Nearly decapitated the poor guy. Bent my derailleur hanger. Broke NO spokes, gotta love bladed Mavic wheels!

Did mess with my karma for a couple days, because I do brake for All animals if I can.

Wooly caterpillars and earthworms..

Snakes, a squirrel, had a rabbit run between my wheels, bees ( the ones that get down your jersey do serious damage), and an endless bunch of various insects.