chuckfox

I ran over an opossum last night on my way home from work. He darted out in front of me on a bike trail through a wooded park. Well darted might be an overstatement he lumber on to the trail from left to right--I spotted him with my helmet light before he was on the trail but I was going pretty fast and just plowed right over him.

I'm new to the fixed gear thing and was wondering if there are techniques for hopping obstacles...it would have been pretty hard to stop in time, but plowing right overhim was kinda dangerous too!

BTW, I slowed down, turned around and went back to see what I thought would be a dead opossum...and he was gone. Tough little guy. Here's what his face looked like just before I hit him:

alchemist

I can emphathize with you. about a year and a half ago i was riding home aroun 1am and pegged a racoon going about 20mph (i was going that fast, not the racoon). well, i went over the handlebars and came down on my elbow while the racoon surried away seemingly uninjured. blood everywhere. i went home and went to bed and woke up in the morning with my elbow (bandaged the night before) stuck to my sheets. i love animals, but that night i wanted to kill the racoon. the wound took many months to finally heal as it was right on the joint and i now have a really cool scar on my elbow and an interesting story... just glad it wasn't a skunk.

chuckfox

Ouch...alchemist, that sound rough. Fortunately for me, an opossum is a lot smaller than a racoon. I was preparing to go over the bars, but was able to keep it going straight after I hit him. My heart was really pounding though!

Strick

Damn animals... one of the scariest moments I've had on a bike was when I was flying down a hill in heavy traffic and a pigeon flew into my face. The pigeon died, I managed to stay on my bike.

chuckfox

You're the first guy I heard of who killed a pigeon with your face...that's intense!

gregg

On the local forest path there was a family of dear. They stood steadfast while I approached, had I not started making some serious noise I probably would have had Bambi as an ornament on my bars.

Lovely nature!

spud

yeah i've had a few close encounters with deer and elk on the W&OD and it is scary. i mean, youve seen what a deer can do to a car, i'm really afraid of what one can do to a bike. Worst part is they panic and run in zig zags, not just in one direction like most animals.

invicta

oh animals, i was out on the mtb and cruising through singletrack and a partridge flew out of the grass and into my disk brake rotor, cut it up the the spokes beheaded it....had a frog jump into my rotor too.....messy and not that much fun for me or the poor things.

JMPetersen

I think his expression probably looked more like this:

chuckfox

I think your right--JM, my eyes were about that size too!

auk

Couple of close encounters with Racoons, punted one with my foot still in the clips. Well, maybe not punted, more like a good thump on the head as it ran under my foot. It groaned, I counted my luckies.

chuckfox

What about hopping? can one skilled in the art of street fixie riding safely hop over obstacles in his/her path? How do the city riders negotiate curbs and other obstacles. I feel like I'm glued to the ground on my fixie.

griffin_

in the past couple weeks i have almost run over a few squirrells and hit a bird that flew out in front of me
i can't imagine that any small mammals could really withstand being run over by a fast bike with such skinny tires, maybe they have the energy to get up and run away but they die soon after i bet

chuckfox

soon after I realized that I wasn't dead...I went back to check feeling certain that the opossum was dead, but it was no where to be found. I have no idea what I would have done if it would have been laying there...CPR is out of the question. I dunno, maybe a pelt for a seat cover?

baxtefer

Fabio? is that you?

MAD Rider

Well, I can hop on my fixxed. I am pretty good at doing it on a bmx bike since that is what I learned to do it on many years ago. Its tough though. Just start riding around in the street and try it. It is a wierd feeling since you have to keep your feet moving but it can be done. Maybe start out on a regular bike so that you can get the feel of a bunny hop again.

chuckfox

I can bunny hop like crazy on my moutain bike...but I have the urge to have my pedals horizonal, which I can't do on the fixie. Or maybe I can only initiate a hop with the pedals in that position, but keep spinning in the air. Hmmm, this may be frought with peril for an old guy like me.

somnambulant

Remember that episode of Seinfeld where animals stop getting out of George's way? That's how I've felt lately. Both in my car and on my bike, ****ing pigeons won't get out of my way! I keep picturing the "jumping on a packet of mustard" effect, so I really don't want to hit one..

Now I'm going to be all paranoid on my way home.

somnambulant

mental note: stay away from strick if you want to avoid the plague.

chuckfox

And Fabio.

MAD Rider

Just time your riding so that when you do the bunny hop the pedals are horizontal, thats how I do it. Also I ride with clip-ins and that helps too

red house

There is elk -on the WO&D?? I've had my share of deer, wild turkey, snake and box turtle encounters on the WO&D...-but elk?

dnb_evol

I almost hit a deer riding down 16th st. in D.C. right near the Silver Springs Metro stop. The f_cker jumped right out in front of me then ran out in the street. that was pretty crazy!

deathintransit

One day while riding the University of Minnesota Campus Commuter Bus/bike route (I am really hankering candy right now) with some friends, a falcon lifted off from the side of the road with a pigeon in it's talons. The falcons loaded trajectory would have seen it thouroughly entangled in my front wheel so said falcon dropped Le Pigeon and banked away to a nearby tree. Pigeon came to a grinding halt on the ground.

Damn Raptor Center.

Another time when I was riding bike (F.E.M Wallestein 10 speed mit Avocet Cross K's) with dog up in the Boundary Waters Canoe Area a skunk ran out across the road and Timber (Gordon Setter mit a little Springer) went after Peppe in a flash and scooped up the bugger in his mouth. Holy crap. Mass amounts of dark green fluid came gushing out the poor dogs mouth. After letting go of the stripey bugger Timber engaged in a coughing fit not seen since the day Thourogood and the boys smoked that weed they got from the scientist.
The smell was not so much a smell that evening at camp, as my dad thought it best that Timber SLEPT IN THE VAN WITH US THAT NIGHT, it was more a tangible presensce (haha, spelled right the first time).
Now the when nature presents the odorific display of an offended skunk It smells rather nice and must trigger a lovely memory of a moist (teehee) fall morning up north chewing up miles on a narrow gravel road on a fine steed with a good friend at my side.

slvoid

Is that chick to the right of him behind him smiling with a face full of blood? NICE!