I know, probably only 5% of you reading this even live in an area where this would be possible, but I'm curious anyway. We just found out that someone in our company was recently involved in a car/moose near-collision, with her family. Fortunately, the driver swerved and they were all wearing seatbelts, so they the most serious injury was a dislocated rib. (It would have been much more serious, if not fatal, if they had hit the animal, or had not been wearing seat belts, according to the officer at the scene. It was a very large bull moose.) The moose was okay too, since he was not hit. (Although I hear that our co-worker was entertaining thoughts of shooting it with the officers' gun if she saw it again.)

But it got me wondering - what would happen if a bicycle ran into a moose? Has it ever happened? Perhaps cyclists, being slower than cars, have enough reaction time and enough maneuverability to be able to avoid it in almost all cases. But if you did run into one, would it be serious? I would worry mostly about getting trampled underfoot. Anyone have any moose stories?

It would be serious for the cyclist. Those things are huge.
Bail and roll under the moose between its legs and out the other side.

There is probably no possible way to hit a moose while it is standing still...you would easily have enough time to dodge it. However, I do know for a fact that they can move pretty quickly, so maybe you might hit one that is trotting across the road (or rather, it might hit you). Or at night/dusk.

I would think that if you did get tangled up with a moose, you would almost be clotheslined. They are tall, like horses, so the bulk of their bodies are very high up. Who knows...why are we talking about this?

Hit a mouse, but never a moose.

Almost hit a horse once, does that count?

Just go between its legs - no problem.

They can top 1,000 pounds, you'd bounce.
Not too many down here, John. I like to ride
out in the country, and I haven't seen any in rural
areas.

They usually hang out in the deep woods, which is too
far from bike shops, restaurants, and cell phone towers for my taste.

I shot a moose back in 1986 (yes, it was legal. allowed one tag per lifetime in Idaho.)

I stepped on a moose (while deer hunting in Idaho. stepped on a moose calf's leg in some thick quakies.)

I sat <8ft away from a moose (while elk hunting in Idaho. biiiig bull moose came out trees into waterhole where I was waiting for others. we looked at each other for about a minute before I slowly backed out.)

I watched a cow moose chase my dad down an old fire-road (while hunting in Idaho. she was just jogging along behind him until he got off the road and into some thick undergrowth. turns out she had a calf up around the corner.)

...and many more moose stories... but I've never hit one with a vehicle of any kind...

I've been in a car when it hit a moose, thankfully we were not going very fast but even at that the car front was very damaged (nobody hurt). I've also witnessed a car in front of me fatally hit a moose, the car was about two hundred yards in front of me on a desolate highway in northern ontario. Unfortunately the car typically cuts the legs of the moose out and the body falls into the cabin. By the time we arrived the driver and moose had both passed on.
Aside from transport trucks and cars, i've never heard of any other vehicle running into a moose; and there are plenty of moose up here.

Actually, I think it would be the moose that was hitting the bicycle. No, I've never been run over by a moose.

I did run over a deer once. It was lying dead on the edge of the road. It was dark, and I was kind of not paying attention. It's a mostly deserted road. I think I hit the neck. Otherwise, I might have gone flying if I had hit the larger body section.

A deer ran across the road in front of me a couple weeks ago. Kind of freaked me out. Just like I had seen them do with cars. Zing, out of the ditch and across the road about 15 feet in front of me.

No, but I had a close call with a giraf once. Luckily I noticed just in time and ducked; went right under him.

No, but oddly, my wife's car is certified by some safety/foreign government organization for moose impact. How the hell they do that I'll never know. It's reassuring on Highway 61, though.

Nearly hit a moose on a motorcycle several years back when I lived in Interior Alaska. I read a story in the newspaper about a guy who rode his motorcycle THROUGH a calf moose -- the mother started trampling him as he lay on the ground after the accident. Some other motorists came along and scared her off.

The motorcyclist, who was wearing leathers and a full-face helmet, had only minor injuries.

Moose are tall and heavy.

I experienced encounters with moose twice while in Alaska. A mamma and calf were crossing the highway, we nearly struck the calf, the car did a 360, both mamma and calf ran off, we were ok. Another time, I was trail running and came upon a moose... I slowly backed off then ran back to camp... I'd heard that moose will stomp you to death if there's a calf around. While in Alaska I was taught to run from moose but not from bears.

https://www.mooseworld.com/

Easy for you to say, you must be on a low profile recumbent with mtb tires!

My moose experience is as pictured - At Hockenheim Formula 1 track:

Down here the moose have all multiplied and shrunk to deer size all over Highway 61.

he he, yeah it's not an issue 'till you go north of Duluth. I imagine some cyclists could just limbo right under an adult while on the fly.

Many people are killed in crashes with moose. They come out of the bush onto the roads in June in the hope the breeze will blow some of the bugs off them, or they run out onto the road in fall when i's mating season and they're excited. They're dark and the bulk of their bodies are above the headlight beams, so you don't see them at night. I was a passenger in a car at night in Riding Mountain Park in Manitoba, and screamed at the driver to stop and we managed to brake just before poughing into a group of 4 or 5 moose. That was 1975.

Last year I hit a bear outside Sault Ste. Marie Ontario. It was an adolescent and it ran onto the road and I braked enough to knock it over without damaging the car, and the bear got up and ran away.

Seems to me that you could easily duck and go under a large moose. They are giagantic animals

no moose, but I've been afraid to hit/get hit by deer on the bike trail. i don't know how many i've seen in the woods just off the trail, running parallel to me, or just walking on the trail itself. When they run parallel to me is the scariest because who knows if they will dart right at me?!!

I'm not a small person, and if you get me up to 20 mph, there is a lot of momentum there. I've seen what deer do to cars when they are hit. I don't even want to think what would happen to me chugging away out on the trail.

A Møøse once bit my sister ...

No realli! She was Karving her initials on the møøse with the sharpened end of an interspace tøøthbrush given her by Svenge - her brother-in-law - an Oslo dentist and star of many Norwegian møvies: "The Høt Hands of an Oslo Dentist", "Fillings of Passion", "The Huge Mølars of Horst Nordfink".

I once chased some wild turkies for about two miles riding on the path by the Delaware Canal. Those suckers are fast!

Lived in Fairbanks, AK from '76 to '80.....commuted from Ski Boot Hill to my office by the airport every spring/summer/fall....about 14 miles each way......was coming in one morning and came around a sharp corner at a good clip and was right next to a calf...about 10 yds away....it's mother was across the road on the other side of a drainage ditch, and charged, but luckily for me, she slipped as she was coming up the ditch.....I got out of there doing the fastest I have ever done on a bike...she certainly would have had me if she hadn't slipped...I think she could have caught me at 25 mph+...from that point forward, I always came around that corner slowly, ready to cut and run....many times, saw moose in the fields and an occasional black bear in the distance,before this and after this......this was the only close call.....it is not on my list of fun things to do....