Don't mess with squirrels

[Sandy]

Dans le message de news:[email protected],
Sir, It's Just Me <nospam?@thanks?.?> a réfléchi, et puis a déclaré :
> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way traffic,
> yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement. The fat
> squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and made it to
> the other side of the road, running off onto someone's front lawn.
>
> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed
> (easily 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how
> it made it's way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how I
> would have faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.

PETA's argment for low-count paired-spoke wheels !!

But you know, at carnivals, where they give prizes for throwing a baseball
through a good-sized opening - and where most fail - well, there, we need
lessons from the squirrels.
--
Sandy
Verneuil-sur-Seine
*******

La vie, c'est comme une bicyclette,
il faut avancer pour ne pas perdre l'équilibre.
-- Einstein, A.

 

[CEarly]

"Sir, It's Just Me" <nospam?@thanks?.?> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
>I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
>descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a whack
>sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain control
>until just before the bottom of the hill with two way traffic, yikes! I
>thought for sure I was going to eat pavement. The fat squirrel (as in late
>winter/early spring) continued on and made it to the other side of the
>road, running off onto someone's front lawn.
>
> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes, paired
> design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed (easily 25mph +)
> I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how it made it's way
> through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how I would have faired
> with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.

Well, we finally have a good reason to prefer low spoke-count wheels; to
have more room for the squirrels to get through!

LMFAO,

Cal

 

[Bill Sornson]

Sir, It's Just Me wrote:
> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way traffic,
> yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement. The fat
> squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and made it to
> the other side of the road, running off onto someone's front lawn.
>
> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed
> (easily 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how
> it made it's way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how I
> would have faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.


Variation on an old joke about the guy who ran through a harp:

I hear he's in the hospital recuperating.

Yes, in rooms 219 thru 254!

{rimshot}

Apologetic Bill

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:23:52 -0700, Mark Hickey <[email protected]>
wrote:

>Though they did use a Piper Cherokee (small four place GA aircraft)
>instead of a fighter for their test. Watching the results of the

True, but it went through the bulletresistant lexan screen they had first
quite handily, as well. Didn't they fire it at a steel plate at one point
and get halfway through that as well?

>Mythbusters' testing gave me a bit of a chill since I used to fly one
>of those... the chicken pretty much not only went through the
>windscreen without slowing down, but then proceeded to do serious
>damage to the aluminum airframe.

I think one of the chickens wnet through the windshield, pretty much
through the pilot's seat, and bored itself through the aft bulkhead to end
up very nearly escaping the blast cabin.

>Good things chickens don't spend much time at 10,000 feet, frozen or
>not!

Any time you're doing take-off and landing cycles or flying low, though,
you get to deal with geese &c that are hanging very nearly stationary in
the air compared to your speed. Ouch.

Jasper

 

[Alfred Ryder]

"Sir, It's Just Me" <nospam?@thanks?.?> wrote in message
news:[email protected]...
> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way traffic,
> yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement. The fat
> squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and made it to
> the other side of the road, running off onto someone's front lawn.
>
> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed (easily
> 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how it made it's
> way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how I would have
> faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.

According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and 2.5
inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?) had to be
going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this speed, the
squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing spokes as well as the
rim.

I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this happening.

 

[Bill Sornson]

Alfred Ryder wrote:
> "Sir, It's Just Me" <nospam?@thanks?.?> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
>> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
>> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
>> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way
>> traffic, yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement.
>> The fat squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and
>> made it to the other side of the road, running off onto someone's
>> front lawn.
>>
>> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
>> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed
>> (easily 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how
>> it made it's way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how
>> I would have faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.
>
> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
> spokes as well as the rim.
>
> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
> happening.

812,000 to 1.

Bill "egghead" S.

 

[Phil, Squid-in-Training]

Alfred Ryder wrote:
> "Sir, It's Just Me" <nospam?@thanks?.?> wrote in message
> news:[email protected]...
>> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
>> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
>> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
>> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way
>> traffic, yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement.
>> The fat squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and
>> made it to the other side of the road, running off onto someone's
>> front lawn.
>>
>> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
>> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed
>> (easily 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how
>> it made it's way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how
>> I would have faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.
>
> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
> spokes as well as the rim.
>
> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
> happening.

It makes for a good story... we'll leave it at that.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

 

[[email protected]]

Jasper Janssen writes:

>> Though they did use a Piper Cherokee (small four place GA aircraft)
>> instead of a fighter for their test. Watching the results of the

> True, but it went through the bullet resistant Lexan screen they had
> first quite handily, as well. Didn't they fire it at a steel plate
> at one point and get halfway through that as well?

So what was the impact velocity? Certainly not the speed of a bicycle
descending a winding road or for that matter TT speed in the flat.

>> Mythbusters' testing gave me a bit of a chill since I used to fly
>> one of those... the chicken pretty much not only went through the
>> windscreen without slowing down, but then proceeded to do serious
>> damage to the aluminum airframe.

> I think one of the chickens went through the windshield, pretty much
> through the pilot's seat, and bored itself through the aft bulkhead
> to end up very nearly escaping the blast cabin.

Get real, these are more than five times the velocity of a bicycle.
Water balloons can do that as well as a chicken at such speeds.

>> Good things chickens don't spend much time at 10,000 feet, frozen
>> or not!

> Any time you're doing take-off and landing cycles or flying low,
> though, you get to deal with geese &c that are hanging very nearly
> stationary in the air compared to your speed. Ouch.

Not for a bicycle, and I think that's the subject of this thread.

Jobst Brandt

 

[Werehatrack]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 22:26:01 GMT, "Alfred Ryder" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>
>"Sir, It's Just Me" <nospam?@thanks?.?> wrote in message
>news:[email protected]...
>> I had a large New Jersey squirrel go *through* my front wheel while
>> descending a hill (Hillside Ave in Alpine, NJ). It made a bit of a
>> whack sound. I went into a kamikaze like descent and did not regain
>> control until just before the bottom of the hill with two way traffic,
>> yikes! I thought for sure I was going to eat pavement. The fat
>> squirrel (as in late winter/early spring) continued on and made it to
>> the other side of the road, running off onto someone's front lawn.
>>
>> My front wheel is a Velocity Spartacus - Deep V rim with 16 spokes,
>> paired design. Despite a low spoke count, given the fast speed (easily
>> 25mph +) I was going at (downhill), I'm still wondering how it made it's
>> way through my front wheel successfully. I wonder how I would have
>> faired with my 36 spoke, low profile rim wheel.
>
>According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and 2.5
>inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?) had to be
>going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this speed, the
>squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing spokes as well as the
>rim.
>
>I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this happening.

The probability of the *reported* event, assuming that the report is
factual and accurate, has been established; it's 1 in 1...after the
fact. The probability of this happening *again* can only be
determined empirically; there are too many variables in a
biologically-controlled misguided-missle's likely trajectory and
speed.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

 

[Werehatrack]

On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 19:24:21 +0100, "Sandy" <[email protected]> wrote:

>But you know, at carnivals, where they give prizes for throwing a baseball
>through a good-sized opening - and where most fail - well, there, we need
>lessons from the squirrels.

Which just seems to say that a little brain in a self-guiding
projectile can deliver a lot more accuracy than a big one that's
trying to control a low-precision delivery system.
--
Typoes are a feature, not a bug.
Some gardening required to reply via email.
Words processed in a facility that contains nuts.

 

[Sir, It's Just Me]

> It makes for a good story... we'll leave it at that.

It really did happen, honest.

 

[Alex Rodriguez]

In article <[email protected]>,
[email protected] says...

>According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and 2.5
>inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?) had to be
>going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this speed, the
>squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing spokes as well as the
>rim.

My guess is that since his tail is flexible and thin, the spokes could have hit
is tail and still not caused any serious damage. So his speed could have been
a bit lower than 25mph.
---------------
Alex

 

[Mark Hickey]

Jasper Janssen <[email protected]> wrote:

>On Sun, 13 Nov 2005 07:23:52 -0700, Mark Hickey <[email protected]>
>wrote:

>>Good things chickens don't spend much time at 10,000 feet, frozen or
>>not!
>
>Any time you're doing take-off and landing cycles or flying low, though,
>you get to deal with geese &c that are hanging very nearly stationary in
>the air compared to your speed. Ouch.

I'm not sure if it's an old wives (pilot's?) tale or not, but I have
heard that when you fly "through a duck" they almost always miss the
prop and take out whoever is sitting behind the entry point to the
cabin. I guess that only makes sense, since the prop makes up very
little of the "prop disc" at any given time. After seeing that
episode of the Mythbusters, I have a new respect for the power of a
duck's butt.

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

 

[Mark Hickey]

"Phil, Squid-in-Training" <[email protected]>
wrote:

>> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
>> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
>> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
>> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
>> spokes as well as the rim.
>>
>> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
>> happening.

I don't think the squirrel really had to be going that fast - just
fast enough to get its center of gravity past the first spoke that
smacked it. Remember that the bottom spokes aren't moving much at all
where the squirrel ran through, and as the trailing spoke started up,
it would have just pushed the squiirel out of the way (quite
forcefully, of course).

>It makes for a good story... we'll leave it at that.

No one believes these NJ squirrel stories (including the one that
didn't survive the experience and broke both legs of my buddy's fork).

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

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:08:59 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
<[email protected]> wrote:
>Alfred Ryder wrote:

>> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
>> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
>> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
>> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
>> spokes as well as the rim.
>>
>> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
>> happening.
>
>812,000 to 1.
>
>Bill "egghead" S.

Show your work, not just the answer.

Jasper

 

[Jasper Janssen]

On 14 Nov 2005 02:06:38 GMT, [email protected] wrote:
>Jasper Janssen writes:
>
>>> Though they did use a Piper Cherokee (small four place GA aircraft)
>>> instead of a fighter for their test. Watching the results of the
>
>> True, but it went through the bullet resistant Lexan screen they had
>> first quite handily, as well. Didn't they fire it at a steel plate
>> at one point and get halfway through that as well?
>
>So what was the impact velocity? Certainly not the speed of a bicycle
>descending a winding road or for that matter TT speed in the flat.

Something like 100-200 mph, IIRC.

>> I think one of the chickens went through the windshield, pretty much
>> through the pilot's seat, and bored itself through the aft bulkhead
>> to end up very nearly escaping the blast cabin.
>
>Get real, these are more than five times the velocity of a bicycle.
>Water balloons can do that as well as a chicken at such speeds.

Uhhh... Yeah, sure.

>> Any time you're doing take-off and landing cycles or flying low,
>> though, you get to deal with geese &c that are hanging very nearly
>> stationary in the air compared to your speed. Ouch.
>
>Not for a bicycle, and I think that's the subject of this thread.

Except it's *not* the subject of this subthread. Try to keep up.

Jasper

 

[Sir, It's Just Me]

> 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.
>

When I experienced the squirrel go through my front wheel, I did see it
coming. I was expecting it to change direction like every other time
I've encountered a squirrel on a bike.

When it hit, it did do a discenrable whack noise and threw my front
wheel of course enough for me to wobble left-n-right maybe a 1/2 dozen
times and had my right front leg unclip (perhaps maybe physchologically
bracing for a fall). I thought for sure I was going to crash and like
my past experiences with crashes, it all seemed to happen in slow motion
- memory wise. What helped me was that I did not panic and no
surrounding traffic.

FWIW, squirrel encounters are quite common in Central Park, NYC. While
I've never made contact, I have come close many times. Those that have,
I recall reading and hearing that the squirrels tend get shot off the
wheel like a projectile and the rider does not crash. Pure hersay, I
know and not a sicentific sample, for sure.

 

[Bill Sornson]

Jasper Janssen wrote:
> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:08:59 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
> <[email protected]> wrote:
>> Alfred Ryder wrote:
>
>>> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
>>> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
>>> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
>>> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
>>> spokes as well as the rim.
>>>
>>> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
>>> happening.
>>
>> 812,000 to 1.
>>
>> Bill "egghead" S.
>
> Show your work, not just the answer.

OK, you got me. {pause} I rounded off.

 

[Mark Hickey]

"Bill Sornson" <[email protected]> wrote:

>Jasper Janssen wrote:
>> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:08:59 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>> Alfred Ryder wrote:
>>
>>>> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long and
>>>> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he (she?)
>>>> had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the wheel. At this
>>>> speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead and trailing
>>>> spokes as well as the rim.
>>>>
>>>> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
>>>> happening.
>>>
>>> 812,000 to 1.
>>>
>>> Bill "egghead" S.
>>
>> Show your work, not just the answer.
>
>OK, you got me. {pause} I rounded off.

I got 795,000 to 1. Whuzzup with that?

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

 

[Bill Sornson]

Mark Hickey wrote:
> "Bill Sornson" <[email protected]> wrote:
>
>> Jasper Janssen wrote:
>>> On Mon, 14 Nov 2005 00:08:59 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
>>> <[email protected]> wrote:
>>>> Alfred Ryder wrote:
>>>
>>>>> According to my calculations, if the squirrel was 7 inches long
>>>>> and
>>>>> 2.5 inches in diameter and had absolutely perfect timing, he
>>>>> (she?) had to be going 25 miles per hour to get through the
>>>>> wheel. At this speed, the squirrel would just brush both the lead
>>>>> and trailing spokes as well as the rim.
>>>>>
>>>>> I leave it for someone else to calculate the probability of this
>>>>> happening.
>>>>
>>>> 812,000 to 1.
>>>>
>>>> Bill "egghead" S.
>>>
>>> Show your work, not just the answer.
>>
>> OK, you got me. {pause} I rounded off.
>
> I got 795,000 to 1. Whuzzup with that?

Your squirrel said a prayer first.

(But 41's still here.)

:-D