MMPC

What's been your most bizarre ride, and what happened?

For me it was yesterday. A buddy and I were riding a trail approaching a hill. He's to my left and slightly behind when, out of the corner of my eye, I see this small brown blur moving fast toward the trail. I figured correctly that it was a squirrel and it passed behind me. Then I hear a "THUNK" and my friend saying "what the...? I think I just hit a squirrel!" We stop and look back and - sure enough - there's a bloody, dead squirrel lying in the middle of the trail! WTF? Well, evidently, the little guy tried to go THROUGH THE SPOKES of my buddy's moving rear wheel (as you can see from the picture below)! Anyway, what are the odds of that ever happening? That's been my strangest ride to date...

jfmckenna

I got hit in the head by a birt once! Fortunatly I was wearing a helmet. Bird lived too...

ruirui

lol.. i can't believe it. it is indeed the strangest ride ever!

Moonshot

I ran over a squirrel's tail once. Those boogers get in the road and just can't seem to make up their mind sometimes.

khuon

Hmmm... I don't know if it's the strangest thing that's happened to me on a ride but I once got hit on the helmet by a pop-fly baseball while riding near a park.

Lar Falli

At the Hilly Hundred in Indiana last season, I almost hit a chicken. I guess he had to get to the other side of the road. Really, though, from hearing people talk, the chicken had a death wish because almost everyone saw it in the road.

I hope the chicken made it, if for no other reason than it was big enough to cause a serious endo.

khuon

In the Seattle area, along the Burke-Gilman Trail near Bothell Landing there are wild chickens and roosters. They can be aggressive at times too. What you really have to watch out for are the little kids whos parents think it's cute for them to go wander aimlessly along the trail feeding the fowl.

pletcgm

Wow, it's a wonder that he didn't wreck! How lucky he was

bradw

While riding trails with a friend a few years ago, I saw a small copperhead strike at my friend's heel as he pedalled by.

And when we turned to look at the snake, the little bugger struck a defiant pose and refused to leave.

RonH

I ran over a snake a few weeks ago. It was stretched out next to a crack in the road and I didn't see it until it was too late. Guess it was trying to warm up in the sun.

townandcountry

A friend had squirrel go through the spokes on his bike. He crashed but he was okay, bike a little messed up, squirrel died.

On my ride this weekend I think I saw everything. I've been chased by dogs, attack geese and now an attack llama.

khuon

Tell us more about the attack llama!

pyze-guy

I was visiting some friends in Ottawa and they told me to check out some trails they knew of in Gataneau Park. Turns out the trail led to a gay nudist beach. That was strange.

madpogue 

I once rode thru an in-the-street frisbee game and caught the disc as it went past, hardly slowing down (the guy wasn't trying to hit me; he had just tossed it before he saw me approaching).

Yesterday I became an impromptu pall bearer (sort of); a hearse driver didn't have any other assistance moving a casket (yes, with a dead person in it) into a church in preparation for a viewing. I happened to be stashing my 'bent in the church's parking rack. So there's this guy in a formal black trenchcoat and white gloves, a pearly silver casket, and a guy in a fluorescent yellow jacket and snot-smeared Planet Bike gloves. Out of respect, I doffed my helmet...

Last summer I came within inches of hitting a woodchuck. Going down a tiny farm road, downhill, on my go-fast bike at about 25 MPH. I'm looking to my side for a driveway. Just as I turn my head forward, there's Woodrow, deciding to take that moment to cross the road. I'm pretty d@mn sure he went between my front and rear wheels. This is a 50cm Cannondale with a VERY short wheelbase (serious toe overlap).

Coupla years ago we found a possum stuck in a window well. Coupla blocks from the Capitol building. Went home and got the live-trap we use for feral cats, and strapped it to the Blackburn. Set it up, but he wasn't budging. So I used the pump and nudged him into the trap, and tripped the door. Rode him back home, about a mile, on the rack. Released him in the back yard. Okay, maybe it was a "she".

I can see how that squirrel met his maker in your spokes. When the bike is moving, the spoke area looks like open space. Not being known for their prowess with physics, a squirrel is not gonna conceptualize that there has to be something solid between the circle on the outside and the solid thing on the inside.

Gonzo Bob

I had a bird fly through my front wheel once! He didn't make it totally unscathed but he did continue to fly away. I had a pretty wicked shimmy for a few seconds but I managed to stay upright.

P.R.Moffatt

Strangest ride? Her down the shop with leather fettish...erm, did I just say that out loud?
Had my cat jump onto the handlebars once while doing about 20mph past my house, strangest thing was she balanced perfectly, jumpied into my lap and went to sleep! While still riding.

khuon

Okay.. maybe you should have bolded "cat" because the first time I read it through my eyes skipped over that part and while it still made sense (in a sort of twisted way), I'm sure it was not the meaning your were shooting for.

55/Rad

American River bike path, 1991. Cruising at 20+ mph and a antlered buck comes bounding out of the brush at 90 degrees. I figure to speed up and hope he swerves. No luck. He hits the pavement and does a "Bambi on ice" leg splatter 10 feet in front of me. I hit him square in the gut and roll over the top of him. By the time I look up, he's running off into the woods. I however, was unable to continue.

55/Rad

MMPC

I think that's exactly what happened - and you're right - squirrels aren't the smartest creatures.

These stories are great (in a morose sort of way)! I had no idea cycling oddities occured so often. I guess if you ride often enough, you're bound to run into a great many interesting things, so to speak...

Red Baron

I saw a picture of a guy on a litespeed who had run over a dead possum. It sure got a lot of folks talking!

ollo_ollo

About 3 weeks ago, I was tearing down a local bike path(Chehalis Western Trail) about 25 MPH when I saw a blur in my right periphal vision, to quick to react. Another biker was following about 20' behind & told me later a chipmunk came from the side underbrush at full speed & ran right in between my front & rear wheels. Perfect timing I guess.

shhambo

I ended up playing touch football the other night. Was riding down the street and came upon a group of guys playing nerf ball. As I rode through one of the guys started yelling defender, defender and threw the ball. Didn't realize he was talking about me til I had ridden through. When I figured it out I turned around and rode back through. This time when the guy threw the ball I stood on my pedals somehow managed to catch the ball(can't usually do that off wheels) and kept on riding. I turned back a gave em back the ball after a couple blocks. Maybe that could be a new game. bike footbal.

khuon

Wouldn't that be just BikeBall? Or how about Ultimate Frisbee on Bikes? I have a feeling that's been done already though.

Da Tinker

On a day we still refer to as The Dolittle Ride, a sheep bolted out of the bar ditch as we passed. It shied away as we yelled, but a guinea fowl was drafting on the sheep (imagine that, a sheep domestique!). The guinea went right into the chainring of the point guy. We were all picking feathers out of our chains & gears.

Chris L

The climb of Mt Lyell through the moonscape near Queenstown, Tasmania was pretty bizarre.