Don't mess with squirrels

ellis said:

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

ellis said:

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).

jeverett3<AT>earthlink<DOT>net 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

Quoted message said:

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

ellis said:

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

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

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 <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

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 said:

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

ellis said:

Avoid small game like the plaque

/Brush/ with danger?

Bill "sorry" S.

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

ellis said:

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

It must be nice to be such an expert that you can determine rider
error, when you weren't there.

Did you read what the OP wrote? He said " My friend had no time to
brake or even blink before the squirrel kamakazed into his back
wheel."
That would indicate that he kept "doing whatever you were doing".

The squirrels where I live are big enough that I could see the above
happening. You know, they do have bones. Granted, it may be a freak
accident, but for you to declare rider error, is unfair.

How small and light do you think squirrels are? That may be the
problem here.

Anyway, I think you are wrong.

Jeff

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 01:04:57 GMT, Jeff Starr <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

It must be nice to be such an expert that you can determine rider
error, when you weren't there.

It must be nice to just accept nonsense that flies against reason and
experience.

Quoted message said:

Did you read what the OP wrote? He said " My friend had no time to
brake or even blink before the squirrel kamakazed into his back
wheel."
That would indicate that he kept "doing whatever you were doing".

In any case, I don't believe the story. The guy jerked the bike or
tried to swerve. In a panicky way. This happens all the time. It's a
natural response. But that doesn't change the fact that the spokes on
the bike would just cut through a squirrels body, or repel or toss the
squirrel.

Quoted message said:

The squirrels where I live are big enough that I could see the above
happening.
You know, they do have bones.

A spoke on a moving bicycle will snap/slice those bones instantly.

Quoted message said:

Granted, it may be a freak
accident, but for you to declare rider error, is unfair.

I've seen squirrels go into wheels at least a half dozen times in my
life, including and twice into mine. Nothing happened other than my
heart skipping a few beats. But I've seen crashes and near-crashes
caused by rider panic from things heading toward their wheels.

JT

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"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

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

JT

I gather from the tone of your post that this is not an opinion but a
scientifically proven fact.

On 8 Nov 2005 13:55:48 -0800, [email hidden] scribbled:

Quoted message said:

ellis said:

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

Ditto that, but rather that I almost ran into one when it darted
across a trail when I was riding at night. They sure can book it when
they want to. Hooray for brakes that work.

-Slash
--
"Ebert Victorious"
-The Onion

On Tue, 8 Nov 2005 17:40:50 -0800, "Dan" <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

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

JT

I gather from the tone of your post that this is not an opinion but a
scientifically proven fact.

It's an opinion based on logic and experience. I haven't run
experiments to prove it. Sorry about that. But apart from not
wanting to hurt squirrels with such a test, or deal with touching dead
ones, I'd have no fear of crashing from someone tossing one into my
rear wheel and only the slightest worry about one tossed into the
front. It's a non-issue. It's not a problem if you just keep riding.

Well, it can be a problem in that it can be bloddy or messy. But
causing a crash. No.

JT

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John Forrest Tomlinson said:

On Wed, 09 Nov 2005 01:04:57 GMT, Jeff Starr <[email hidden]>

Quoted message said:

It must be nice to be such an expert that you can determine rider
error, when you weren't there.

It must be nice to just accept nonsense that flies against reason and
experience.

Quoted message said:

Did you read what the OP wrote? He said " My friend had no time to
brake or even blink before the squirrel kamakazed into his back
wheel."
That would indicate that he kept "doing whatever you were doing".

In any case, I don't believe the story. The guy jerked the bike or
tried to swerve. In a panicky way. This happens all the time. It's a
natural response. But that doesn't change the fact that the spokes on
the bike would just cut through a squirrels body, or repel or toss the
squirrel.

Quoted message said:

The squirrels where I live are big enough that I could see the above
happening.
You know, they do have bones.

A spoke on a moving bicycle will snap/slice those bones instantly.

Quoted message said:

Granted, it may be a freak
accident, but for you to declare rider error, is unfair.

I've seen squirrels go into wheels at least a half dozen times in my
life, including and twice into mine. Nothing happened other than my
heart skipping a few beats. But I've seen crashes and near-crashes
caused by rider panic from things heading toward their wheels.

Wow. And I thought it would be Jobst who spoke (no pun) up saying it
couldn't have happened that way. (Of course, JB /also/ said that chainrings
don't wear enough to make chains skip.)

Bill "this belongs in wreck.bicycles.furryanimals" S.

John Everett said:

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.

A buddy was riding (one of my bikes!) and got a large New Jersey
squirrel (probably part of a squirrel gang) wedged into his front
wheel. When it came around, it broke BOTH legs of his fork - or
perhaps they got finished off in the ensuing carnage.

He got pretty beat up by the whole episode.

Errrrr, my buddy - the squirrel was a bit worse, but was still in one
major piece at least.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

It's an opinion based on logic and experience. I haven't run
experiments to prove it. Sorry about that. But apart from not
wanting to hurt squirrels with such a test, or deal with touching dead
ones, I'd have no fear of crashing from someone tossing one into my
rear wheel and only the slightest worry about one tossed into the
front. It's a non-issue. It's not a problem if you just keep riding.

Well, it can be a problem in that it can be bloddy or messy. But
causing a crash. No.

I'd respectfully disagree.

If you saw the squirrel coming, and braced for impact, there's no way
in the world you'd crash (unless due to the locked rear wheel passing
to your right or left).

But if you were JRA and had no idea something traumatic was about to
happen, it's not all that difficult to slip a hand off the brake hood
or bars upon unexpected deceleration. Once that happens, "it's all
downhill from there".

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

"John Forrest Tomlinson" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Well, it can be a problem in that it can be bloddy or messy. But
causing a crash. No.

Absolutely not . or maybe not . or possibly not?

I am a big fan of absolute truths but I have yet to find one.