Hey everyone, Alex here. I was out last Sunday for a 30 mile ride in Muskegon on the bike path and all was well. I reached the end of the path and turned around. About one mile of heading back the other way, something happened that will probably never happen again. I glanced at my computer which said 23mph, and the next thing I knew, my dropbar was 90 degrees to the right, and a millisecond later I was flying through the air. I looked to my left before I hit the ground, and I realized that a squirrel had hit the inside of my front rim, causing it to shift. A few people passing by had witnessed the the little animal hit my wheel. I had to get the chain back on and re-align my handlebars. Even though I was wearing my helmet, I am thankful that I did not hit my head. But I did get pretty scraped up as I had only my jersey and shorts on. Once I made sure my bike was ride able, I hopped back on and went home. All because of a squirrel...

Squirrels happen... often.

Ouch - glad you aren't seriously hurt. There are quite a few photos on this forum of squirrels who had the misfortune of being caught in wheels.

I just never thought I would crash because of a squirrel! Plus that was my only crash ever so far.

Huh, I thought it was unheard of! Well it could be around here and there really aren't many road cyclists in my area with the few exceptions that do.

Riding along the road one day a squirrel shot out of the bushes into my front wheel. Between the nimbleness of the squirrel and the 16 spoke wheel, it was able to get through the wheel. Unfortunately it was propelled upward, hit me in the chest and ricocheted forward onto the roadway where I ran over him. It all happened in a split second. I was lucky, the squirrel was not.

We have suicidal rabbits around here, they lie in wait and try to run between the wheels good reason to run the largest tire you can. BTW Hasenpfeffer for dinner is always a good thing.

Aaron

Roger, that is something I WISH had happened! But it hit the very edge of my wheel and turned it.

Aaron, I never knew that that was so common. It was so strange flying through the air and looking at the little animal just run away haha.

Wow...And all this time, I thought that squirrel was a goner!

Snakes can be fun too I had a big black snake that was going the same way I was one time, that rascal could MOVE. Normally they will be crossing the road, then there are turtles, don't want to hit them, they are worse than hitting a rock, the shell will roll you in a heart beat.

Aaron

I've bunny hopped over quite a few brown snakes around here. What really woke me up once was a good size goanna running along beside me for a couple dozen yards checking me out before deciding to not try to eat me. I remember looking it in the eye and thinking to myself "this could end very badly".

Thread derail!
Gosh darn you Aaron! you made me do research because of your new word. At least now I know what Laverne & Shirley are chanting when they are hop-scotching at the intro of their show. It's similar to the Spanish saying of, "The shrimp that sleeps, gets eaten."... Now back to the show.
Ernest

Glad you are OK! Sadly your experience is WAY more common than 1/million though. Here we have suicidal prairie dogs that are equally hazardous. Poor little dears are such adorable little plaque-ridden road hazards...

Glad you'r ok, Alex. We've hear worse stories of run-in with the little critters. At least you didn't ruin your bike.

I've hit a chipmunk before. Ok more accurately it tried to jump through my spokes - unsuccessfully. There is a good ending to this though, it just sounded like the spoke plucking noise when he hit and bounced off back into the bush

For the record, if a bunny ever tries to make it through my spokes and subsequently dies trying, I'm totally eating it.

Better a squirrel than a deer.

We just ride around those

Aaron

Ive always heard squirrels hated computers.

Rofl!!

On a night ride offroad and I got to a fenced in section of the trail and I saw a couple of stripes in front of me. Then it turned round and it was a Red dear with antlers that just about filled the width of the trail. It must have felt cornered as it then ran towards me at full bore. When it was 30 ft in front of me I was off the bike and looking for a way over the 6ft high fencing that enclosed the trail. Just as I was about to leap it- the deer jumped sideways and was gone.

And you want tosee the mess they make of the front end of a car- Hit one a couple of weeks ago and It will be a total front end on the company van. The deer got up and walked away so didn't even get meat for the freezer.

Sorry, I don't care about you, but how was the squirrel doing afterwards? Was he alright?

Happy stuffing, I am also glad I didn't wreck my bike! I absolutely love that it, and for a 89', it is very good at doing what I ask of it.

Carbon & squirells don't play together well.

https://cloudbaseimaging.blogspot.com...-dont-mix.html

https://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/76039319/

Funny you said that, I saw a newspaper article a couple of years ago about an elk that was hit by a car, and his antlers and head penetrated the windshield right where the driver would have been. All the paper talked about was that the elk survived and was ok...not a word about the driver!

We live in a twisted world.

I have had several squirrel hits over the years, but I away's saw them coming and braced to control the bike. The bike can get squirrely after an impact like that. Anywho, glad you weren't hurt, I could care less about the squirrel.

Which reminds me of something else. A father and son went hunting together for the first time. The father said "Stay here and be very QUIET. I’ll be across the field." A few minutes later, the father heard a blood curdling scream and ran back to his son. "What’s wrong?" the father asked. "I told you to be quiet." The son answered" "Look, I was quiet when the snake slithered across my feet. I was quiet when the bear breathed down my neck." "But when the two squirrels crawled up my pant legs and said, should we eat them here or take them with us?" "I guess I just panicked"."

Of course you all know why squirrels swim on their backs right?

Holy ****!! Common Browns? I'd crap myself if I almost ran over one of those -- and I worked with (Agkistrodon piscivorous) in school back in 2007.

You Aussies have some incredibly extreme wildlife!

Why?