ok, I'm not saying that anyone here has ever tried to hit an animal, or would intentionally hurt an animal, so lets not freak out... but sometimes its unavoidable. Lets here some good stories.

I'll start. One morning on the way to class, at like 7:30, i was riding down not really paying attention, when out of the corner of my eye I see a groundhog on the other side of the street moving around. As I get close to passing him, he ****ing sprints, straight across the street and gets caught in between my tires and my crankarms, for like one full revolution. it was the scariest wierdest **** ever. it knocked my bike sideways and I almost fell. When I got to class I had to tell someone that the whole way there I was on a sharp lookout for groundhogs.

p.s. the groundhog was fine

This morning, my dog kept bugging me, so I went to work around his ears with a pipe. He settled right down. Sure he got a few bites in between hits, but you'll have that.

I was cutting across 45 Street one morning on my commute and I bunny hopped a pothole. When my front wheel landed it crushed a pigeon. It freaked me out since I would never harm an animal on purpose. It was the worst sound and feeling I have ever came across while riding my bike.

i don't really remember who but i remember someone sharing the story before of having a bird fly into their rear spokes. explosion of the animal ensued

^ thats gross

There are pictures floating around with the aftermath of someone hitting a squiral.

I had a squirrel freak out and run into the spokes of my front wheel. He spun a couple revolutions, got out and ran away. I kept going about 15mph.

I've kicked a pigeon on the downstroke of my crank, it flew into my bike instead of away from me. The bird was fine, kicking it probably kept it out of the spokes but it was weird.

That's why I want front and rear Aerospokes. Clean slice.

I never hit an animal but one hit me once. A bird. I think it was a cardinal flew right into my head. I was wearing a helmet at the time. Bird was ok and we went on our way.

on a downhill i once scooped up a squirrel with my pedal on the downstroke and sent it flying on the upstroke. squirrel was okay, he just sat there stunned for a while wondering what just happened, but eventually he took off up a tree.

Theres actually an entire webpage devoted to hit squirrels. I had a pigeon fly into my shoulder and get knocked to the ground during the first sprint of the Rocky Race.

squirrel stories

back when I had big thick tangly dreadlocks, I had a mother starling dive-bomb me (as nesting birds will sometimes do). the bird got its foot stuck in my hair, so I had this pissed off, flapping thing attached to my head for a very long 5 seconds while I was riding along.

Since when did Aerospokes have edges? Spinergy's yes, Aerospokes, that's just the hip factor talking.

squirrel playing with low spoke count front wheel

and by playing I mean killed

more carnage

edit: fixed links

my dorm used to have a crazy infestation of rats. it was some secret of NIMH(sp?) type stuff. since it was MIT we all thought they had electricity and what not in that little bush in front of the dorm door. anyway, on a ride home i saw one running parallel to me against the building wall, and for some reason, it just darted towards me. being the ***** I am, i took my feet off the pedals and held 'em high watching. it hit my front tire head one. i turned back and it never moved again.

o yeah, a cat ran into my front spokes too. no injury, just turned and kept on running.

you forgot an h in your url, i fixed it in this quote, can you fix it in the original post as well?

I had a friend that smashed a deer broad side. yes, a deer. Apparently he was riding down a hilly wooded bike path around dusk and well, the deer wanted to cross the path. He wasn't really sure who scared the sh*t out of the other one more when it happened. The deer ran off and he was left with a nice size dent in his top tube from his bars flipping around. He was just happy not to have gotten kicked.

I've hit a ton of gophers over the years and most of them didn't survive the impact. I hit a muskrat last year with my fixed gear riding home at night. I was kinda drunk, didn't see him, and rolled right across the back of his neck. I think that's the biggest animal I've ever killed with a bicycle. I also nearly hit a deer one night biking home, I missed him (he was nice sized buck) by about an inch and a half. Just a guess, but I think he would have fared better than me.

This story is funny.

While riding with a local Junior racer (K-Dub) along the road we travel often, a squirrel came darting across our path. I hit the brakes to avoid it but K-Dub had not chance to avoid it. The squirrel hit his back wheel and somehow got caught inside the spokes in a Ferris wheel ride action. The squirrel went around about 4 to 5 times before figuring out how to jump out of the wheel, only to land on K-dubs left foot. With K-dub still pedaling, the squirrel took another 4 to 5 "Ferris wheel Laps." Trying desperately to get off the "RIDE" the squirrel jumped off his left foot, through the bike frame and now onto his right foot. Without missing a beat K-dub still pedaled as the squirrel took his now customary 4 to 5 "Ferris wheel laps." Finally the squirrel was able to get off this death ride and scattered off towards a house and (still pretty dazed from the ride) he plowed straight into a garbage can and there was a loud "Thump." He survived I'm sure but he was riddled with bad luck on this odd ride.

From --> https://www.promechanics.com/mechanic...ince060204.htm

I am scared of deer. Ask some of the DC members, when they are off the path I go real slow and freak out.
I'm not afraid of them in the sense that they are scary, I just fear being trampled.

when I used to ride motorcycles, my riding buddy said the rule of thumb was,

"Never hit anything you can't finish in a meal..."

Once, after a drunken night, I awoke to find feathers stuck to my front rim and spokes.

Whaa?


Ideally the bird was already dead.

No love for pigeons here. If it weren't illegal I would be the guy putting alka seltzer in bread chunks. But it is illegal so I don't. Pigeons are filty dumb rats with wings. Good riddance.