Squirell through the spokes?
 

I was on a ride yesterday when out of nowhere a squirrell started running across my path of travel. When he noticed me he tried to stop and it appeared that he was gonna slide into my back tire when I heard the sound of my spokes make that pinging noise like you're picking them like a guitar string. I looked back and the squirell is in a head over heels flip in mid air. He landed and headed up a tree. I almost wrecked from laughing so hard. Poor little guy.

BTW. The weather was absolutley beautiful this weekend. Low 80' high 70's not a cloud in sight. I did get a sunburn for the first time this year(forgot to put on sunblock)

Haha, sad. Hope he wasn't hurt. My friend once had a crow take off right into his front spokes. It wasn't nice (and rather bloody).

In Central Park on Friday night around 10 pm, I learned that raccoons won't move out of your way. In fact, they'll probably just ignore you even if you're ringing your bell and have a blinkie pointed right at them.

It must be in the air. I've never had a encounter with a squirrel, until yesterday. I had three run in front of me, one of them went past turned, jumped and bounced off my shoe!

Last season while mountain biking I had a squirrel run in front of me. It was scared and ran and launched itself off the edge of the trail. It flew parallel to the hill like a ski jumper. All four limbs were spread out and it landed waaay down there. Like you, I had to try to stay upright while laughing to tears.

You seem to have a thing for squirrels

the results of a squirrel versus a madone:

http://i10.photobucket.com/albums/a1...sh_madone2.jpg

Which one lost the most the squirrel or the cyclist?

Last week I was riding in the back in a group of about 20 in a double paceline. A squirrel manages to run into the center of this, getting hit by a tire on the way in. Then he does the usual nutty back and forth can't-make-up-my-mind-where-to-go thing down the center of the pacelines. Everyone is wondering who is going to get the honor of running him over. He manages to dart out, getting hit by another tire but surviving. I'm most glad no one in the paceline went down.

They are crazy and apparently somewhat indestructable

I had a rabbit leap into my front wheel last year. He/she/it hit the front of my rim on a slight downhill at about 30mph, and I almost went down. Luckily had a solid grip on the hoods... holy crap we sure scared the heck out of each other.

You sure it was not a nutra rat that you hit?

It depends on what the squirrel was riding.

:D Absolutely the most hilarious response I have seen on BF for some time! :D

Not while riding, but one morning on the way to a race (Pine Flats RR 1995), an owl flew right out of the dense fog into our team van's windshield, eventually getting caught in the spokes of a bike on the roof rack. The coach found it badly crippled and removed it from the spokes before putting it out of its misery. My teammate had to ride with blood stains and guts on his stays that day.

A friend of mine ran over a squirrel and it got caught in the wheel and went up through the brakes...how the fork survived I have no idea. The squirrel on the other hand...well it ended up looking like it went through a meat grinder.

Last May I was on Mt. Diablo and a dog jumped out of nowhere and ran through my front wheel and broke a couple of spokes. I broke my hand in three places when I went down. Lucky that was all that happened. The biggest shock of all was that my wheel wasn't pretzeled. A friend of mine had to rebuild the wheel since all the spoke tension was off, but he found the rim to be in perfect shape. it really surprised me since it was a low profile and lightweight rim.

i wonder if that was the same squirrel george hincapie hit.

A couple years ago I saw a mountain biker riding a paved road get tackled by a deer from the woods. Deer definitely won.

Lucky for him he was able to get away.

I remember when a cat darted trough a central park pack ride. will never forget the look of that poor cat and it's freshly amputated tail ;)

Damn....................that would suck! I would eat that varmint with some rice and gravy to show him who's boss! LMAO!:D

You were both lucky.
About a year ago somebody posted a picture of a squirrel stucked into the wheel. The poor thing was obviously dead and the rider probably took a spill (I don't remember exactly the rider's fate).

This sounds like it could be the newest sales pitch from low spoke wheel manufacturers. I am glad you and the squirrel are ok (less the squirrel, one of them chewed through my spark plug wires last week).

When I was a lot younger my friend and I were riding to the BMX track and a squirrel ran into his front wheel, went completely around 1 full rotation and them got shot out in the same direction he was originally travelling. He hesitated for a split second and ran up the nearest tree. Lucky we were on BMX bikes with no front brakes! Hardy creatures those damn squirrels, my cats don't even mess with them.

Hee...

:roflmao: tooo funny. Love the OP's sig too

a friend was riding a local bike path, by the beach, and he picked up a rabbit in his front wheel. man, when that thing went airborn, it looked like it was shot out of cannon... LMAO