I ran over a squirrel

Steve Knight said:

The Real Bev said:

5, I think. (It was uphill. Both ways.) I once clocked a Dachshund going 7 mph at full tilt.

I would liked to have seen that (G) must have eaten his weaties (G)

Make them think there might be food. You can do that by cooking, opening a bag of cheese, walking,
breathing, or just existing...they will think you have food and will run to you at relativistic
speeds. You can add a few thousand decibels of noise by doing anything that makes them think that
somebody who ought to be there is actually there, or that somebody who shouldn't be there is there
-- try driving by the house or walking around in the house across the street.

Also note that if they have food they will bring it underneath a table to eat it; and if they think
that somebody is there, they will run in fear underneath a table. Otherwise, they'll hang around
underneath a table, unless they think there may be food elsewhere.

Finally, if they see that you are, in fact, offering them food, they will immediately bite your
fingers to get the food by standing on their hind legs, destroying their back and resulting in a
surgery that costs thousands of dollars and requires you forevermore to pick them up and carry them
up the steps and into the house after they defecate and urinate in your yard.

Why couldn't she have gotten a nice German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, or a cat? And TWO of the brown
mini-monsters?
--
Rick "Damn ankle biters!" Onanian

Rick Onanian said:

Chalo said:

continued on his ride, and erroneously characterizes his victim as sharing fault in the
collision.

You must have missed the links to the law which I posted in that message -- it is illegal to stop
in a lane where you are expected to continue unless there is no shoulder on which to stop, and
even then, you are to stop as far to the right as practicable. Sounds to me like a textbook case
of both at fault.

That was stop as in "stop, park, or leave the vehicle", not just come to a stop. As to whether she
signaled her stop, we don't know, because Homeboy wasn't looking.

The rear driver in a rear-end collision being entirely at fault is basic rules-of-the-road type
stuff that doesn't even warrant a specific law in most places. To try to shift fault around in
such a case is contrary to basic ethical principles, e.g. one who performs an action is
responsible for its consequences. Running into someone in front of you is an action. Being run
into from behind is not.

If R.I. law does not automatically hold the rear driver in a rear-end collision at fault, then it is
an exception among US jurisdictions in that regard.

Maybe Bob Hunt (Hunrobe) or some other copper will weigh with a professional opinion on this point.

Chalo Colina

Mark Hickey <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:<[email hidden]>...

Quoted message said:

(Mark) said:

I can not imagine that any of the squirrels run over by the riders above were dead. And I have to
think that the squirrel-busted fork in the thread must also have had some LARGE other
contributing factor. Like MAJOR.

Did any of the riders go back to verify the death of the squirrel? Doesn't look like it from the
posts, and I'd think that squirrel might have spent, at most, a few stunned moments in the road,
before scampering back to shelter.

Not this one... he picked up what was left of the wheel (fork remnants still attached) and shook
what was left of ol' Rocky out of the spokes.

Wow. Well, I put faith in what you've seen, Mark. I am shocked to hear we actually had a dead
squirrel on this one. Squirrels are extremely flexible and very hardy. They don't die easily. Their
small size actually protects them - something to do with inertia, mass, all that physics stuff.
Thanks for the reply posting, well said.

Mark Buell

Quoted message said:

FWIW, I too wonder if maybe there wasn't some sort of unseen damage from another incident lurking
in those forks... but have absolutely no doubt the incident unfolded as described (I've known the
owner of that particular Habanero a lot longer than I've been in the bike business).

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame

(Mark) said:

Mark Hickey <[email hidden]> wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Not this one... he picked up what was left of the wheel (fork remnants still attached) and shook
what was left of ol' Rocky out of the spokes.

Wow. Well, I put faith in what you've seen, Mark. I am shocked to hear we actually had a dead
squirrel on this one. Squirrels are extremely flexible and very hardy. They don't die easily. Their
small size actually protects them - something to do with inertia, mass, all that physics stuff.
Thanks for the reply posting, well said.

I didn't see the carnage - my buddy blendered the sqirrel in New Jersy (a squirrel has to be
tough to live there!). ;-) He did say it was an unusually large squirrel though - probably at 2+
pounds (1kg).

I just asked if he had any photos of the fork, and unfortunately he doesn't (and Kestrel asked for
the fork back). Too bad... it would have made an interesting discussion more interesting.

And FWIW, I absolutely trust my buddy's word on the subject. He has no reason to lie to me, and is
as straight arrow as he can be...

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗ Home of the $695 ti frame

STP said:

I killed a squirrel today. I was on the road riding and it darted out from a bush. It hit the
pavement just in front of me, saw me and did that squirrel/flintones thing and tried to reverse
direction. Unfortunately both he and I were moving too fast. The squirrel, back pedaling hard,
skidded about a foot or two in front of my front wheel then regained traction and reversed himself
and headed back for the curb - right under my bottom bracket. My back tire rolled right over him.
It all happened so fast I never missed a pedal stroke much less had time to brake. If he had hit
my front wheel, I'm sure I would have been toast.

I had roughly the same thing happen about a year or so ago. I was going along a bike trail, and the
squirrel decided he needed to be on the other side. At first he was racing me parallel to my path
but then he tried to dive between the wheels and his skull made a loud crunching sound under my back
wheel. He was not even full grown.

--Bill Davidson
--
Please remove ".nospam" from my address for email replies.

Support the Electronic Frontier Foundation eff.orgeff.orgOpen ↗ Petition Congress to stop the RIAA
lawsuits eff.orgpetitionOpen ↗

Quoted message said:

Why couldn't she have gotten a nice German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, or a cat? And TWO of the brown
mini-monsters?

I agree two!? I am limited to four of the little darlings that you so accurately describe, by county
ordinance :-)

I'd love to have a real mini, like about 5 pounds, to take with me on the social rides... Better
than any lock, if left on the bike. My Joey has teeth...and knows how to use them, but at 17# a
cable lock is a lot lighter

There are two kinds of dogs in the world, and only two. Dachshunds and Nada Dachshund... its a joke
OK? I realize most folks don't share my impeccable taste in dogs, or bikes

Mike Euritt said:

Quoted message said:

Why couldn't she have gotten a nice German Shepherd, Siberian Husky, or a cat? And TWO of the
brown mini-monsters?

I'd love to have a real mini, like about 5 pounds, to take with me on the social rides... Better
than any lock, if left on the bike. My Joey has teeth...and

One of them is a mini, although probably heavier than 5 pounds (she eats everything in sight,
including the other dog's food). However, if I took her on a bike ride, she'd pee on my bike. She
certainly wouldn't be fast enough to run next to it (nor obedient enough).
--
Rick Onanian

Quoted post said:

Originally posted by Stp
I killed a squirrel today. I was on the road riding and it darted out from a bush. It hit the
pavement just in front of me, saw me and did that squirrel/flintones thing and tried to reverse
direction. Unfortunately both he and I were moving too fast. The squirrel, back pedaling hard,
skidded about a foot or two in front of my front wheel then regained traction and reversed himself
and headed back for the curb - right under my bottom bracket. My back tire rolled right over him. It
all happened so fast I never missed a pedal stroke much less had time to brake. If he had hit my
front wheel, I'm sure I would have been toast.

Anyone ever been brought down by a squirrel or other small varmint?

STP

I had just started biking a couple of years ago and ran over one on my second training ride with people. Hit it dead on and ran over it with both wheels. It wasn't nearly the collision I expected and I easily kept control of the bike.

The grounhog that ran between my wheels on a big downhill while I was going 45 mph was the one that I am REALLY glad I missed. (that was 5 min after a deer ran along next to us).

A local cyclist was killed last year by a squirrel. He hit it with his front wheel, squirrel got
stuck in the wheel, rotated around and jammed in fork. Rider did endo, hit helmet/head/neck on
pavement. He was on life-support for a few days, then they pulled the plug.

All of this at around 12 mph. I bet I pass/dodge 10 squirrels at day on local bike paths.

Steve Scarich Eugene, Oregon