Originally Posted by
hopperja
No, but I've yelled at them and honked my Airzound horn. It doesn't seem to matter what I do, they feel compelled to run across the path in front of me at the very last possible moment. Usually it starts by them hopping away from the path, so I don't slow down. But then suddenly, before I can react, they turn around and run right in front of me. Believe it or not, this is exactly what the rabbit and the opossum did that I hit. I've had countless other rabbits do this that I've narrowly missed.
The good news is that they're soft enough that when I do hit another, I'm confident I can roll right over it without crashing. I'm not going to hit one on purpose, but if you've ever experienced what I'm talking about, you know it's inevitable.
i know a guy who lost a few teeth and broke his arm after going over the bars, while successfully avoiding a small dog on a footpath. his mistakes:
1) he shouldn't have been cycling on a footpath
2) having broken rule #1, he was going too fast
3) he had a very heavy backpack, which raised his center of gravity, making him more likely to go over the bars
4) he didn't alert the pedestrians (bell, voice) to keep their dog close
5)
he tried too hard to avoid the dog
anyway, once you see an animal in the headlight, it's freaked out in "fight or flight" mode and not thinking clearly. it should hear bells before you see it and run away from the sound. this should avoid a collision with small furry animals. next time it may be a skunk and you may not be so lucky.
you don't want to clean up anything like this -
