Ran over a squirrel this morning

[Spaghetti Legs]

Originally Posted by AngryScientist

Moved.

At least he didnt give you the Cinzano spoke treatment!

Many years ago, when I lived in Memphis, I got the Cinzano, but luckily not full Cinzano as I didn’t endo. I was riding solo, about 20 mph, the critter tried to jump through my front wheel (Campy Proton), got stuck, and went around 3-4 times before being ejected. There were squirrel guts all over me and my water bottle. I might have mini-barfed a little. The squirrel looked like a wrung out dishrag. I was about 15-20 miles from home on a hot day. Only had a bent spoke but it was a long ride with squirrel gut coating and no way I was touching my water bottle. 20 years later, I’m still jumpy when I see squirrels in the road.

[paredown]

I figure there's a black mark on my karmic record for the time I ran over a baby goose. It was a race, I was head down and stoking and womp womp...

I felt pretty bad about that.

[capt_velo]

I killed a rabbit this morning. It ran right underneath my front wheel. I hoped it would be OK and kept on riding. On the way back, I saw its dead body on the multi-use path. What's the proper etiquette in that situation? Should I have kicked the body off the path?

[unterhausen]

There are pictures online of bikes with squirrels stuck in the fork. When a squirrel run into my wheel, I had visions of that happening to me. But he tumbled around in there for a while and ran out the other side. The only evidence was a few tufts of hair stuck in the spoke crossings. It probably helped that I was going slowly waiting for someone to use a portapotty. He was quite skeptical of my story. I'm glad he didn't find me in a heap.

[ducati2]

Originally Posted by capt_velo

I killed a rabbit this morning. It ran right underneath my front wheel. I hoped it would be OK and kept on riding. On the way back, I saw its dead body on the multi-use path. What's the proper etiquette in that situation? Should I have kicked the body off the path?

Lapin a la cocotte?

[thwart]

Originally Posted by capt_velo

I killed a rabbit this morning. It ran right underneath my front wheel. I hoped it would be OK and kept on riding. On the way back, I saw its dead body on the multi-use path.

What's the proper etiquette in that situation?

Rabbit stew.

[thwart]

Originally Posted by ducati2

Lapin a la cocotte?

Great minds…

[reuben]

Chasseur lapin. And invite some friends.

[benb]

I have hit a chipmunk and I've run over a snake but not a squirrel, but squirrels are always out there trying to hit me.

I am so afraid of them pulling a Cinzano (I like that term) that if I'm solo I usually stop pedaling and slap my thigh with my hand or yell at them. It usually knocks them out of the zig-zag-can't-make-up-my-mind thing.

The chipmunk I hit I don't think it even got badly hurt. I was riding relatively deep wheels, and I didn't actually run it over. It ran across my path and bounced off the side of the rim!

The snake I ran right over the middle of it on a descent. Did not stop to see if it wanted to bite me.

Anybody wants to come ride around in my back yard and hit the rabbits that would be OK. They cause damage, I would be happy if we had a predator get some. I know we have a fox come by almost every night but they don't seem to catch the rabbits enough.

[GregL]

My closest squirrel encounter happened as I hit the front of the paceline during a local training race. The offending rodent ran directly into my front wheel from the right side of the road. Somehow, it didn't get stuck in the spokes/fork. Rather, it was flung straight up, mere inches in front of my face. The squirrel caught enough air that it cleared nearly all of the pack, dropping to earth amongst the last few riders. No one crashed and there was no sign of the (expletive deleted) squirrel when we came around on the next lap. Made for a great story when we went out for pizza after the race.

Greg

[redir]

Originally Posted by capt_velo

I killed a rabbit this morning. It ran right underneath my front wheel. I hoped it would be OK and kept on riding. On the way back, I saw its dead body on the multi-use path. What's the proper etiquette in that situation? Should I have kicked the body off the path?

I would move him off the path and let nature take care of it.

"Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms."

[jimcav]

Originally Posted by redir

I would move him off the path and let nature take care of it.

"Buzzards gotta eat, same as worms."

"I got the gold right here Pa"

I came very close to having a deer dart into me once, but I've fortunately only actually hit snakes--the only ones that were fatally hurt were rattlesnakes--I think they are too muscular to squish like the garden or black snakes I have also hit. I've hit 4 rattlesnakes MTB'ing over the years--gruesomely split the sides of 3 of them, the 4th I barely clipped with front tire; and it struck at me, hitting the toe area of my shoe. That one I kept going, but the other 3 I stopped. After they stopped thrashing around they coiled up with head toward center, but stayed at the trail--which seemed a bad proposition for whoever came along next if they weren't dead then. So, I found rocks, smashed them (I have decent aim), and then used a stick to fling off the trail.
Since I ride the same areas over and over, I'd see they'd been scavenged within 2 days max.

[Mark McM]

The Wear and Tear Black Hole wheel was guaranteed to be squirrel-proof, chipmunk-proof, and rabbit-proof:

[cgolvin]

Originally Posted by GregL

My closest squirrel encounter happened as I hit the front of the paceline during a local training race. The offending rodent ran directly into my front wheel from the right side of the road. Somehow, it didn't get stuck in the spokes/fork. Rather, it was flung straight up, mere inches in front of my face. The squirrel caught enough air that it cleared nearly all of the pack, dropping to earth amongst the last few riders.

I heard that squirrel is now sponsored by Red Bull.

[hernium]

A bit OT but the largest (and only) animal I have hit so far has been a massively strong stray dog who charged me and my commuter loaded up to probably 45lbs. It was raining and the very old cantilever brakes would not bite in time to stop me from T-boning it at around 10 mph. He ran off whimpering but I still wonder if he was alright.