Originally Posted by
gearbasher
I had a rat run across the roadway and attempt to jump through my front wheel. It was launched about 6 feet in the air. This all seemed to go in slow motion...I'm watching it as it's falling. It's tail is spinning like a rotor on a helicopter. The damn thing lands right on my left thigh. The guy I'm riding with is yelling "holy sh*t, holy sh*t" repeatedly. I'm shaking my leg trying to get it off and it's hanging on for dear life. I finally shook it off, but ended up with scratches from it's nails. Ended up getting a tetnus shot in the ER
Similar thing happened to me, maybe five years ago! My father in law was riding right behind me and saw the whole thing. A squirrel ran through my front wheel (32 spoke MTB wheel; how'd he fit?). He was most of the way through when the wheel picked him up, spun him upward and forward, and then as he made his way back toward the ground I booted him with my left foot, still clipped in and pedaling. This somehow stopped his spinning. By this time I've clued in to something funky going on, and I see this squirrel flying forward past my front wheel, still running like heck as he sailed through the air. Landed on his back, momentum rolled him over onto his feet, feet made a scrapy-scrapy sound as they found purchase, and he was on his way again, which involved running right under an SUV in the other lane of the road. Dang lucky critter.