Back in the fall of 2007 I went for a ride one day up Mount Royal in my home of Montreal. Now Mount Royal is not a real mountain, but it is a very picturesque park designed by Fredrick Law Olmsted, and a decent size hill which you can get a good work out on if you can avoid hitting the pedestrians and joggers. I didn't hit any, so I was pretty pleased about my basic coordination and cycling skills, and thinking about how great a cyclist I was, and was having a little mind movie of me winning the 1896 Paris-Roubaix as I descended down the mountain (again, not a real mountain).

Then outa no where, a bloody little tree rat ran right in front of me and under my front wheel. I rode over him at a brisk pace of probably around 35, maybe 40 k, and he just took it. He just maintained his vector and went into the woods. I stopped, got off my bike and went into the thicket to look for him, but god knows why. It's not like I coulda performed any damage control surgery to manage his trauma, but I guess if he was in pain I coulda finished what I started and done him in as humanely as possible with my fifteen millimeter wrench (I was on the track bike that day). I was relieved to not see him. I am no great animal lover, but neither am I a cold and calculated killer.

I don't know what happened to him, but I have often thought about him from time to time. I like to think that he did not succumb to his injuries, that although in severe pain he managed to find a small cache of water and nuts, made a bed out of soft pine needles and fallen leaves. Slowly bringing himself back to health, day after day, until he was able to once again spastically run around Mount Royal with a renewed lust for life, mating vigorously and often with other squirrels (I assume it was a dude squirrel) and living his squirrel existence to its fullest potential.

Now in the past four years since that has happened, I have had no issues with squirrels whatsoever, until about two months ago. Since late September, or early October I have run over four more squirrels, with one confirmed kill. Is it me? Am I putting something dark and hate filled into the Universe, maybe actively trying to kill squirrels on some subconscious level? Or is anyone else running over them also?

It's your uber-Green organic hazelnut lube! It has 'em thinking they'll kamikze in for a 200lb nut rolling downhill and they'll be set for winter...

The squirrels are apparently as perturbed about the Habs' slow start as the rest of us ...

Better than antelopes.

Here in NYC, though we have a leash law, about 90% of the dog walkers on my morning commute let their dogs run free. Big ones I can deal with; they're more like battleships in that you can tell when they're coming about. But the little ones skitter all over the pavement, and owners are oblivious to this, deep into their coffee or cell phone conversation (who wants to talk at that hour?). I dread the day that I run over one of those; probably get sued. The rats are for the evening commute; I saw one that was approaching cat size the other night. They run tiptoe, but at least generally in a straight line. Squirrels are like the small dogs, making right angle turns constantly; maybe they're not as intelligent as rats.

My wife almost took out a dog on our trail ride today, the owner was about forty feet behind her dog and carrying the retractable leash in her hand

Nice line - Now about a year ago it was getting to be warm again on a Texas March day - All the animal were just hanging out at the side of the road waiting for me for some reason - I find they run away faster if I FISSS at them - OK - A coupula Deer onE bounds in front of me the other in the other direction - A Raccoon rather large just stood up on his hind legs and kind of threw me the bird with his right hand - Two tree rats running back and forth and doing their dance before getting away - Now let me tell you - I was all out - Big gear up front, little gear in back - Going down a 15 degree decline and loving it - What ever got in front of me I was going to plow through and either kill or be killed - Then - On the side of the road - Just barely visible - A newly emerged very large Texas/Mex Tarantula - Up on his hind legs and looking at me dead on - Whoa - I jumped to the other side of the road and nearly lost it in the loose gravel - What was I thinking - That bug was no bigger than my hand and no more than an once or two but man I jumped - Anyway - Brings new meaning to the term - SQUIRREL-A-CIDE...

i've had a few close calls, but no rodenticide yet.

BTW is you handle latin? ipso facto, what's it mean?

Please, come ride around my neighborhood!

j/k

Been to Mt. Royal. Wonderful spot in the city. I think those critters there don't fear anyone due to being hand fed by everyone visiting the park. I've seen a few, quite cute...and those big Marmots. At least you didn't hit one of those, taco a wheel and nursing broken bones 4 years ago.

reminds me of the time back in jr. high school i had a minibike. my brother and i were riding down the alley at full throttle when i noticed a squirrel running straight at us from the right and i just knew i was going to hit it with the front tire. i didn't, but it wound up running between the front and rear tires and was rolling underneath the minibike untill it went out the same side it ran in from and kept running.

It depends on your wheelset. If you have modern rims on a vintage frameset, you have your answer: The critters are performing ritual suicide in the name of originality.

-Kurt

Yeah, these aero spokes would slice the guy like deli meat.

Yeah, it's suppose to be cucumis.cucurbita, but something went wrong in the naming process so it came out cucumis.cucurbi. They are both genera of the gourd family of cucubitaceae, so I pretty much think of it as cucumber.pumpkin. I am really into gourds.

And no Kurt, they are definitely not aero rims. Mavic g40's, that I was gonna replace with some tubulars, but I don't know if that will change the situation for better or worse.

i hate squirrels



i hope they all die...one time when i was out on a ride with devinfan probably about 5-6 squirrels darted infront of our bikes out of the bushes, i guess they like playing chicken? I don't even bother swerving i figure if i hit them i'd rather it die then mess up one of my bikes, plenty of squirrels in the forests, do you know how hard it is to replace a mint condition celeste or pinarello...

(i'm actually a nice guy, i just don't like squirrels)

other than that all the other creatures are cool, chipmunks are wonderful, i don't mind raccoons either even though i hear them going through my trash from time to time...

They must be road forum rodents. They'll probably leave you alone with Zipps

-Kurt