Don't mess with squirrels

Just adding to the plastic bag stories. A friend of mine was doing laps on
a park lane, going about 25mph, when a squirrel darted out of the bushes and
into the bike traffic. My friend had no time to brake or even blink before
the squirrel kamakazed into his back wheel. The poor thing got shredded in
the spokes and sent my friend airborne a good twelve feet. His Madone was
totaled, he broke his femur, and the critter was in a hundred little pieces.
Man, that was one of the worst crashes I've seen on a bike. Avoid small
game like the plaque when you are on a woodsy road. It was such a freak
accident, I don't think I would have reacted any differently.

ellis wrote:
Just adding to the plastic bag stories. A friend of mine was doing laps on
a park lane, going about 25mph, when a squirrel darted out of the bushes and
into the bike traffic. My friend had no time to brake or even blink before
the squirrel kamakazed into his back wheel. The poor thing got shredded in
the spokes and sent my friend airborne a good twelve feet. His Madone was
totaled, he broke his femur, and the critter was in a hundred little pieces.
Man, that was one of the worst crashes I've seen on a bike. Avoid small
game like the plaque when you are on a woodsy road. It was such a freak
accident, I don't think I would have reacted any differently.

I almost got run over by a moose once. I don't think I would have fared
much better than that squirrel!

Joseph

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:47:18 GMT, "ellis" wrote:

Just adding to the plastic bag stories. A friend of mine was doing laps on
a park lane, going about 25mph, when a squirrel darted out of the bushes and
into the bike traffic. My friend had no time to brake or even blink before
the squirrel kamakazed into his back wheel. The poor thing got shredded in
the spokes and sent my friend airborne a good twelve feet. His Madone was
totaled, he broke his femur, and the critter was in a hundred little pieces.
Man, that was one of the worst crashes I've seen on a bike. Avoid small
game like the plaque when you are on a woodsy road. It was such a freak
accident, I don't think I would have reacted any differently.


I've heard it's even worse if the critter runs into the front wheel,
but it's kind of hard to imagine anything worse than happened here.

I was riding right behind a friend of mine when a squirrel attempted
the same stunt, but the result was the squirrel got launched about ten
feet straight up. ;-)

I guess he was just lucky (my friend...not the squirrel).


jeverett3ATearthlinkDOTnet http://home.earthlink.net/~jeverett3

A albino bunny ran into the Cat 3s field at a Race here in Seattle one
summer. Didn't get shredded, but got run over. Really scary sound -
rabbit's crying.

I ran over rat at the same course last summer.

ellis wrote:
The poor thing got shredded in
the spokes ..., and the critter was in a hundred little pieces.

Cheap imported squirrels. Real American squirrels don't fall to pieces
at the first little jolt:

http://www.shop.pauldowns.com/UnfortunateSquirrel.html

My friend rode his bike with squirrel attached for more than a mile (it
was dead on first impact, he just wanted to get it home to take some
pictures.) Incidentally, the bike is Pederson.

Mort

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 21:47:18 GMT, "ellis" wrote:

Just adding to the plastic bag stories. A friend of mine was doing laps on
a park lane, going about 25mph, when a squirrel darted out of the bushes and
into the bike traffic. My friend had no time to brake or even blink before
the squirrel kamakazed into his back wheel. The poor thing got shredded in
the spokes and sent my friend airborne a good twelve feet. His Madone was
totaled, he broke his femur, and the critter was in a hundred little pieces.

Any crash "caused" by a squirrel in the rear wheel is really rider
error. The proper way to avoid crashing when a squirrel runs into
your wheel is to keep doing whatever you were doing. Don't panic,
don't slam on the brakes or jerk the bike.

No way an animal as small and light as a squirrel can cause a crash
when it hits the rear wheel unless the rider panics. And it's
extremely unlikely it can cause a crash hitting the front wheel
either. *Maybe* if the rider was leaned over in a hard turn then a
squirrel in the front wheel could cause a problem.

JT



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i wiped out two armadillos in 6 years. worse than squirrels. small
armadillos. crazed torpedo armadillo. faster than a speeding you know
what

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 17:53:16 -0500, John Forrest Tomlinson
wrote:

No way an animal as small and light as a squirrel can cause a crash
when it hits the rear wheel unless the rider panics. And it's
extremely unlikely it can cause a crash hitting the front wheel
either. *Maybe* if the rider was leaned over in a hard turn then a
squirrel in the front wheel could cause a problem.

Going 25 mph when you get a nasty shock and the front wheel blocks solid
is gonna be a bad ride even if you don't panic. Even a suddenly blocked
rear wheel can be unfun.

Jasper

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 23:51:05 GMT, Jasper Janssen
wrote:

On Tue, 08 Nov 2005 17:53:16 -0500, John Forrest Tomlinson
wrote:

No way an animal as small and light as a squirrel can cause a crash
when it hits the rear wheel unless the rider panics. And it's
extremely unlikely it can cause a crash hitting the front wheel
either. *Maybe* if the rider was leaned over in a hard turn then a
squirrel in the front wheel could cause a problem.

Going 25 mph when you get a nasty shock and the front wheel blocks solid
is gonna be a bad ride even if you don't panic. Even a suddenly blocked
rear wheel can be unfun.

The body of squirrel is not going to stop the wheel from turning --
it'll be repelled or ripped up.

JT

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mort wrote:
http://www.shop.pauldowns.com/UnfortunateSquirrel.html

That's a pretty cool bike! Any more photos or details? None of the
photos on that page show the whole bike.

--
Dave
dvt at psu dot edu