transam

I received these pictures, via email, from a cycling friend. There wasn't a story attached so I don't know any details, but the pictures tell a lot. I'm sure we've all wondered if this could happen...well here's the proof.

My wife and I have run over squirrels before with our tandem and had them hit our wheels, but never encountered this kind of disaster. Maybe some of you have related stories you can tell. Sure gives a renewed respect for those little furry critters scurrying around the road in front of you.

merlinextraligh

Those have been circulating around for awhile, with no one being able to offer the story better than a guy in their club knew the guy.... Personally, I question the implication that the squirrel caused the forks to break (as oppossed to being a setup pic added to an already broken fork.) One would think the force necessary to snap the forks might have made the squirrel a bit more of a bloody, furry, mess.

twilkins9076

I've also seen those before. If that was real, I would expect to see a lot more damage in the spokes. They seem to be in pretty good shape for the abrupt stop that the wheel would have made.

TandemGeek

I'd buy it as authentic...

Squirrels are pretty durable critters and that's a really big squirrel. The paired-spokes are pretty tough as well, particularly at the junctions with the rim and hub and it would appear as though centrifugal forces whipped the "rat with a fur coat on it's tail" right up against the spoke rim joint and, in turn, into the back of the fork. It doesn't take much to stop a front wheel from rotating enough to make a single bike endo and it would have been the rider's weight that folded the fork at the "furry obstruction", not solely the impact of the squirrel.

Could be wrong about all that and it could be staged... just doesn't look that far-fetched to me.

K&M

I hadn't seen those pics before, but I recently saw a completely trashed bike at a lbs, asked what happened to it, and was told that a squirrel had gotten caught in the spokes sending the rider over the bars and wrecking the bike. Hopefully, most tandems are strong enough and heavy enough that the squirrel would "fail" first.

TandemGeek

If you're lucking enough to run-over a small critter, it's usually no worse than hitting a stick or a pot hole. If they run into the side of your wheel or get caught up in the spokes, you've probably got less than a 50/50 chance of "saving it". We've been lucky in that we've run-over the small animals we've encountered.

Larger critters, like dogs, will usually take you down regardless of whether you hit them with your front wheel head-on or if they run into your front wheel from the side, noting that the side impact produces the same result as clipping a rear wheel with your front tire: an abrubt steering input that usually sends the bike crashing down down hard in the opposite direction of the turn (and notorious for giving riders broken collarbones).

4564646544

I would have thought the pressure on the squirrel would be enough to rip it. I hit a cat once that ran out of a bush...

bockwho

on the silver comet trail (rails to trails project in atlanta) ive seen some critters with some large red bumps or abseses on thier backs .. I was thinking this was caused by them being run over by cyclists.

I would expect to see more blood and guts also .. (not that I want to see more)

Brian

I would think the guy would have rolled back and released the squirrel.

karinbur

A few riders in our club were coming over the top of a steep climb (Cavedale Rd. near Sonoma) when a rider zoomed past them. As they crested the climb and coasted down, they were stopped by the sight of the rider sprawled in the road, having flown over his handlebars when a squirrel jumped into his wheel. Like the pictures, he had those wheels with widely spaced spokes. One of our riders found his front teeth in the road and handed them back to him.

So, regardless of the origin of the pictures, it does happen...

Brian

Runs off to order bladed spokes...

masiman

Runs off to order disc wheels...

Maury Cohen

Best strategy I've cme up with is to aim for the Squirrel. They zig-zag so much you're that much less likely to hit them.

transam

My wife and I do a lot of riding on rails to trails here in Florida. The Withlacoochee and Van Fleet are two of our favorites because they go through rural areas. Early morning rides are usually an exercise in squirrel dodging. Best strategy I've found is to make a high pitched sound when approaching a squirrel. They immediately turn and scurry off into the brush.

mtbcyclist

I was out mountian biking with my neighbor and he ran over a squirrel when it ran between his front and rear wheels. Like a mini speed bump. I pulled off the trail and about crapped my pants I was laughing so hard. The little critter wiggled on his back for a bit jumped up right before I was about to hit him, since I was practically drafting my friend, and then he took off running.

Funny as heck.

Brian

I knocked out a rabbit with a motorcycle once. Thought I killed it, but next lap he just jumped up and took off.

stokell

Fake.
I ran over a squirrel once. They don't go through the spokes.

I thought I'd killed the damn thing, but it just got up and ran away.

DaveVictors

Running over a squirrel, and having run through your wheel and get caught up are not the same thing. I have trouble following the (il)logic presented here...I ran one over once so this pic of one getting caught in a wheel is fake? One has very little to do with the other.

merlinextraligh

Another way to think about this is that the force the squirrel puts on the forks is the same force the front brake puts on the fork when the front wheel is fully locked. A CF Fork is not going to fold simply because you skid the front tire, and in essence that's all the squirrel was doing was skidding the front wheel.

slowandsteady

Hmm, I bet the real story is more like, he hit a curb or a big pot-hole when he wasn't looking.

K&M

... and it just keeps happening. Check this out: https://today.reuters.co.uk/news/arti...RREL-OPERA.XML

masiman

Almost the same but not quite. The squirrel is applying force on the blades. The brakes on this bike are mounted at the crown. If the bike had cantilevers or V-brakes, it would be closer to the same forces this fork experiences. Maybe a builder or someone with more knowledge of forks could chime in on potential differences between forks with crown and blade mount brakes.

TandemGeek

No, it's not. The rodent impacting the fork exerted an intense amount of stopping energy much more quickly than could normally be achieved simply by locking a front brake (coefficient of friction, etc...) and, coincidentally, focused that energy on the weakest part of this particular fork --at the junction where the carbon fork legs are bonded to the aluminum crown -- and not into the much stronger junction of the crown and steerer tube.

If you're really bored, although not definitive, here's something John Forrester wrote back in '93 about this very subject, e.g., what could cause a fork blade to bend or brake short of a collision with an immovable object: https://www.johnforester.com/Articles...g/forkbend.htm

zonatandem

Fortunately, not many squirrels in Arizona!
However, did just miss a big 5-ft rattle snake sunning itself on the road yesterday.
Other incidents: stoker was buzz-bombed by rather large bird that must've had a nest in the immediate area . . . and stalked/chased by a coyote.
Had a huge bull jump over 3-strand barb wired fence and in front of our tandem . . .
Chased by a dachshund . . . and by a goose in Indiana!
Worse yet, got caught in a fast moving/swirling/stinging dust devil . . .
Fortunately no harm done in any of those incidents!