I ran over a squirrel

"Badger South" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Good thinking; you'd have definitely needed a Bambulance!

-B
--

But who gets the deer? Me or the dog?

(Michael) said:

"David L. Johnson" wrote ...

Quoted message said:

Michael said:

No, she didn't dart out into the road, but she did stop on her bike right in the roadway, with
no verbal warning or other indication. At that moment I was looking down. I plowed into her at
16+ mph.

Were you right behind her at the time, or did you really just plow into someone standing still?
What was the "moment" you spoke of? How long was she stopped before you hit her?

I accept some blame for not being as attentive as obviously necessary, but IMO the squirrel, I
mean woman, also shares the blame for stopping in the roadway during a busy century.

No, to me it looks like it's all you, man. Stopping is one of the permissible and occasionally
necessary things that road users do, that other road users must accommodate. In a hallway on foot,
on a freeway in cars, wherever, the rules are the same: It is not a person's fault, even a little
bit, if some bozo rear-ends him or her simply because he/she was stopped.

I would add that your use of ridiculous and inappropriate riding technique appears to have been a
contributing factor.

Too bad you were not the one injured. You might have learned something about paying attention, and
about the use of foolish and unsafe poseur riding techniques. Instead, the incident appears to have
cemented some grave misconception you have about the rules of the road.

You'll be lucky if she doesn't sue you, because you wouldn't stand a chance in court.

Salve your stinging conscience however you like, but are in the wrong all by yourself in
this instance.

Chalo Colina

In article LqXib.19235$hp5.4139@fed1read04 said:

"Badger South" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

Good thinking; you'd have definitely needed a Bambulance!

-B
--

But who gets the deer? Me or the dog?

Sometimes you get the deer; sometimes the deer gets you... ;-P

-B

--
Email Replies to johnson<nospm>01j <att> ntelos <dott> net

(Chalo) said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> No, she didn't dart out into the road, but she did stop on her bike right in the roadway,
> with no verbal warning or other indication. At that moment I was looking down. I plowed into
> her at 16+ mph.

I accept some blame for not being as attentive as obviously necessary, but IMO the squirrel, I
mean woman, also shares the blame for stopping in the roadway during a busy century.

No, to me it looks like it's all you, man. Stopping is one of the permissible and occasionally
necessary things that road users do, that other road users must accommodate. In a hallway on foot,
on a freeway

True, but one does not stop in the middle of a busy lane and not expect to get hit. Go out and try
it on the freeway, see how long it takes to get whacked.

Quoted message said:

in cars, wherever, the rules are the same: It is not a person's fault, even a little bit, if some
bozo rear-ends him or her simply because he/she was stopped.

Sometimes a person should move off to the shoulder, such as in this case.

Quoted message said:

I would add that your use of ridiculous and inappropriate riding technique appears to have been a
contributing factor.

Inappropriate? He didn't specify what he was doing. Maybe he was looking to see what gears he was
in, to avoid crossing up. Or maybe he was looking to see what that noise is, or why his left foot
keeps coming unclipped. If he was staring for too long, then that's inappropriate; but quick glances
at those things, well, that's fine.

Quoted message said:

Too bad you were not the one injured. You might have learned something about paying attention, and
about the use of foolish and unsafe poseur riding techniques. Instead, the incident appears to have
cemented some grave misconception you have about the rules of the road.

So quick to condemn even without sufficient information.

Quoted message said:

You'll be lucky if she doesn't sue you, because you wouldn't stand a chance in court.

Really? I don't know what state that was in, but where I am:
rilin.state.ri.us31 16 7.HTMOpen ↗
rilin.state.ri.us31 14 9.HTMOpen ↗ and especially
rilin.state.ri.us31 21 1.HTMOpen ↗ which says that you may not stop on
the main traveled part of the highway when a shoulder, even unpaved, is available.

Quoted message said:

Salve your stinging conscience however you like, but are in the wrong all by yourself in this
instance.

There's insufficient information to determine that.

Quoted message said:

Chalo Colina

--
Rick Onanian

Boyd Speerschneider wrote in message

Quoted message said:

"STP" wrote in :

ETC said:

Quoted message said:

I killed a squirrel today. I was on the road riding and it darted out

SNIP

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My back tire rolled right over him. It all happened so fast I never missed a pedal stroke much
less had time to brake.

SNIP

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

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

SNIP

Quoted message said:

friends and one ran under my front wheel. I might have been able to dodge it, but we were 3 wide
and I would rather kill a squirrel than put some other cyclists in the hospital. So I held my line
and ran over it with both wheels. It was dead for sure. It happened very quickly.

I've hunted lots of squirrels, as a kid, and more recently 'cause they are an uncontrolled pest of a
varmint that destroyed every bird feeder my wife could find. I also gutted, skinned, and cooked many
of same varmints. I tell you this to establish my credentials on the squirrel matter. See also:
chainreaction.comsquirrels.htmOpen ↗

I've also ridden many many 1,000s of miles on my several bikes. Touring, racing, commuting,
whatever. 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.

Ah well, an all-too-serious minded response to a belly-laugh of a thread.

Enjoy, y'all!

Mark

The sun is shining, the birds are singing, and my glass is half-full. That's my story, and I'm
sticking to it.

DejaVU said:

DiabloScott <[email hidden]> scribed in <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

I was riding four abreast up hill when a squirrel ran in front of all of us. I was in the middle
and had no where to swerve and I ran over it at about 10mph - it squeaked a little bit (twice -
once for each wheel) but ran off in to the ditch unharmed.

when I was in the army (conscripted) we did an excercise called fire and moevement. half the squad
(each alternate peerson) is running forward while the other half is firing. light machine gun
(belt fed) on the end and all. live ammo....

Let me get this straight. You're firing AHEAD of you while half your group is IN FRONT of you? Is
this some sort of last-man-standing-gets-all-the-beer exercise?

Quoted message said:

I was under a tree watching the other squad in action when a rabit comes out the bush ahead of
them, from the right. it ran all the way across the front of the squad and off to the left,
followed by a serious cloud of dust and howling bullets. the order of movement broke up and they
all just went for the bunny...

So the movies where Ahnold fires half a ton of ammunition and only 3 guys get killed are
actually accurate?

Quoted message said:

how far was that? lemme think it out. 30 to a platoon, 10 to a squad, 5 meters seperation, so
about 90 meters for the squad of 10. the LMG bloke on the left gave it the rest of his 300 round
belt and still missed (-: I laughed a lot, but wonder to this day if I could have done any better
(-: (yes, I did tend to get high points on the rifle range, to the point where I can pick which
bit of 'you' to injure at 200 meters, but they don't move the range targets os it's a different
ballgame)

No wonder war is hell. The humiliation itself is bad enough...

--
Cheers, Bev
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Tell him that the government will give him lots
of fish and he will vote for you forever. When he doesn't get any fish, blame the other guys."
--A Taxpayer

Steve Knight said:

The Real Bev said:

Last week I was chased by a killer chihuahua. After half a block I got tired of the yapping, got
off my bike and attacked doing my best rabid bear imitation. Worked like a charm. I did a similar
thing when cornered by a German Shepard once.

you must have been going atleast 10 miles and hour or he would have over ran you right? (G)

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

--
Cheers, Bev
------------------------------------------------------------------------
"Give a man a fish, and you feed him for a day. Tell him that the government will give him lots
of fish and he will vote for you forever. When he doesn't get any fish, blame the other guys."
--A Taxpayer

14 Oct 2003 10:26:35 -0700, <[email hidden]>, [email hidden]

(Green Hill) said:

When I saw the many deer eyes, I realized i was pracictly in a herd of deer. I

I once rounded a corner and was face to face with a big horn sheep. I stopped, not wanting to turn
around and give up the elevation I'd gained, so we just stood there staring at each other. Finally
some cars started to arrive and pulled off to the side for photos. When I decided to leave the
animal began to pace me for about a hundred meters until we broke eye contact.
--
zk

Rick Onanian said:

Chalo said:

I would add that your use of ridiculous and inappropriate riding technique appears to have been a
contributing factor.

Inappropriate? He didn't specify what he was doing.

Michael said: "At that moment I was looking down. I plowed into her at 16+ mph." ... "It was very
windy and I was riding in an aerodynamic tuck, looking up regularly to watch the road."

Homeboy was looking at the ground, to be more "aero". Not sitting up and looking where he was going.
Therefore he crashed into a rider who had been stopped for no more than a moment, injuring her. He
continued on his ride, and erroneously characterizes his victim as sharing fault in the collision.

Sorry, but no. He was riding like a moron/jerk and hurt somebody. He was solely at fault. He owes
her at least an apology, but he may well wind up owing her a lot more than that.

Chalo Colina

Quoted message said:

Let me get this straight. You're firing AHEAD of you while half your group is IN FRONT of you? Is
this some sort of last-man-standing-gets -all-the-beer exercise?

It's generally called fire and maneuver. Basically it is some of the group suppressing the enemy
while the rest of the group moves to another advantageous position to support the former fire group
as they maneuver. Ideally nobody on your team gets shot in the process.

It's all in FM 7-8, which is available online at your friendly US government website (search
on FM 7-8).

--

_______________________ALL AMIGA IN MY MIND_______________________ ------------------"Buddy Holly,
the Texas Elvis"------------------
__________306.350.357.38>>[email hidden]__________

David Kerber <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Just out of couristy from everyone, what is the best thing to do when large dogs decide to chase
you? When I do rural routes, it seems, I never fail to get chased by at least one large agressive
dog. Some say dont go faster, that will only make it worse. Some say just keep going. Some say
stop compleltly. What really works? Ive seen this animal mace type stuff at bike shops, but i
figure spraying that at a good 10-15 mph might backfire on me, and hell I dont want to permeantly
blind the animal.

What do you mean by "backfire"? Obviously you don't want to spray it directly in front of you, but
off to the side shouldn't be a problem. It won't permanently injure the dog any more than pepper
spray permanently injures a person. Many people swear by just squirting a dog with a water bottle.
Others use dilute ammonia.

The guy is concerned about mace hurting the dog and you recomend using ammonia instead??? Ammonia
will definitely blind the dog if it gets in their eyes. If they swallow/breath enough it will
definitely kill them.

Just use your water bottle. I've fended off the most rabid from-hell- looking huge crazy-eyed pit
bull with just water. It freaks them out and they stop in their tracks.

- Boyd S.

(Mark) said:

I've also ridden many many 1,000s of miles on my several bikes. Touring, racing, commuting,
whatever. 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.

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

This is a multi-part message in MIME format. --------------030604020208000708020301 Content-Type:
text/plain; charset=us-ascii; format=flowed Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

This is the perfect thread for Mike V. lol.

Mark Hickey said:

The Real Bev said:

Mark Hickey wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Next time you find a dead one, try to rip it in half.

Different force involved. If I'd taken physics instead of English I could probably explain
it. Or not.

Quoted message said:

Now imagine your fork trying to do that before failing or at the very least throwing you over the
bars. They's skinny little devils, but they's stringy...

If it's happened to you or a trusted friend I wouldn't dream of calling you a liar, but I would
think that it would bend in half and get squooshed somehow. Maybe jam a wheel a little bit, but I
just don't see how it could possibly break two aluminum tubes. Have you ever seen a squirrel's
tail back-lit? Damn thing looks like a bottle brush. How could its body be much sturdier?

It was a carbon fiber fork, BTW. I didn't ask him how big the squirrel was, but in New Jersey, most
of 'em are pretty large (well, for squirrels anyway). The little critter went into the wheel, then
attempted to go through the fork probably 2/3 of the way toward the crown. It's pretty narrow
there, and trying to force the little dear through there was just more than the fork could bear.

A side note - he didn't even see it coming - had his head down cranking up a hill... not that it
would have mattered much.

I think it DOES say something about a particular failure mode of a carbon fiber fork. Maybe I could
get him to send me photos of what's left.

Quoted message said:

And Buck said:

Hey Bev! Get yourself a good-sized polish sausage (at least a foot long and an inch thick), get
up to speed on your bike, then reach down and toss that sausage right into your spokes. When you
get out of the hospital, let us know how well your experiment went!

That sounds like the lead-in to a dirty joke. I think I'll skip it, thanks all the same!

I'd imagine a sausage would be much easier to slice as well (and if that's a continuation of the
joke, I'm not thinking about it any more...).

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

--------------030604020208000708020301 Content-Type: text/html; charset=us-ascii
Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit

<!DOCTYPE html PUBLIC "-//W3C//DTD HTML 4.01 Transitional//EN"> <html> <head> <meta
http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html;charset=ISO-8859-1"> <title></title> </head> <body
text="#000000" bgcolor="#ffffff"> This is the perfect thread for Mike V. lol.<br> <br> Mark
Hickey wrote:<br> <blockquote type="cite" cite="[email hidden]"> <pre
wrap="">The Real Bev <a class="moz-txt-link-rfc2396E"
href=""][email hidden]"><[email hidden]></a> wrote:

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Mark Hickey wrote: </pre> </blockquote> <pre
wrap=""><!----> </pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Next time
you find a dead one, try to rip it in half. </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">Different force
involved. If I'd taken physics instead of English I could probably explain it. Or not.

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Now imagine your fork trying to do that before
failing or at the very least throwing you over the bars. They's skinny little devils, but they's
stringy... </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">If it's happened to you or a trusted friend I
wouldn't dream of calling you a liar, but I would think that it would bend in half and get
squooshed somehow. Maybe jam a wheel a little bit, but I just don't see how it could possibly
break two aluminum tubes. Have you ever seen a squirrel's tail back-lit? Damn thing looks like a
bottle brush. How could its body be much sturdier? </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> It
was a carbon fiber fork, BTW. I didn't ask him how big the squirrel was, but in New Jersey, most
of 'em are pretty large (well, for squirrels anyway). The little critter went into the wheel,
then attempted to go through the fork probably 2/3 of the way toward the crown. It's pretty
narrow there, and trying to force the little dear through there was just more than the fork
could bear.

A side note - he didn't even see it coming - had his head down cranking up a hill... not that it
would have mattered much.

I think it DOES say something about a particular failure mode of a carbon fiber fork. Maybe I could
get him to send me photos of what's left.

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">And Buck wrote:

</pre> <blockquote type="cite"> <pre wrap="">Hey Bev! Get yourself a good-sized polish sausage
(at least a foot long and an inch thick), get up to speed on your bike, then reach down and toss
that sausage right into your spokes. When you get out of the hospital, let us know how well your
experiment went! </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap="">That sounds like the lead-in to a dirty joke.
I think I'll skip it, thanks all the same! </pre> </blockquote> <pre wrap=""><!----> I'd imagine
a sausage would be much easier to slice as well (and if that's a continuation of the joke, I'm
not thinking about it any more...).

Mark Hickey Habanero Cycles <a class="moz-txt-link-freetext"
href="habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗">habcycles.comhabcycles.comOpen ↗</a> Home of the $695 ti frame </pre>
</blockquote> </body> </html>

--------------030604020208000708020301--

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)

--
Knight-Toolworks & Custom Planes Custom made wooden planes at reasonable prices See
knight-toolworks.comknight-toolworks.comOpen ↗ For prices and ordering instructions.

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

Quoted message said:

David Kerber <ns_dkerber@ns_ids.net> wrote in :"]news:[email hidden]:

<snip>

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Just out of couristy from everyone, what is the best thing to do when large dogs decide to
chase you? When I do rural routes, it seems, I never fail to get chased by at least one large
agressive dog. Some say dont go faster, that will only make it worse. Some say just keep going.
Some say stop compleltly. What really works? Ive seen this animal mace type stuff at bike
shops, but i figure spraying that at a good 10-15 mph might backfire on me, and hell I dont
want to permeantly blind the animal.

What do you mean by "backfire"? Obviously you don't want to spray it directly in front of you,
but off to the side shouldn't be a problem. It won't permanently injure the dog any more than
pepper spray permanently injures a person. Many people swear by just squirting a dog with a
water bottle. Others use dilute ammonia.

The guy is concerned about mace hurting the dog and you recomend using ammonia instead??? Ammonia
will definitely blind the dog if it gets in their eyes. If they swallow/breath enough it will
definitely kill them.

*I* don't recommend it; I said I've seen others here say they used it! But if you dilute it
significantly, it should still chase the dog away without injuring it. That's why I specified
*dilute* ammonia.

--
Dave Kerber Fight spam: remove the ns_ from the return address before replying!

REAL programmers write self-modifying code.

"Buck" <s c h w i n n _ f o r _ s a l e @ h o t m a i l . c o m> wrote in message
"]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"The Real Bev" <[email hidden]> wrote in message "]news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I don't see how a squirrel could shear off fork legs, and it sure seems that if you have a
steady grip on the bars hitting the beast shouldn't be that much of a problem anyway. What are
they, an inch thick? And the only hard part is the spine, which is much smaller.

Hey Bev! Get yourself a good-sized polish sausage (at least a foot long

and

Quoted message said:

an inch thick), get up to speed on your bike, then reach down and toss

that

Quoted message said:

sausage right into your spokes. When you get out of the hospital, let us know how well your
experiment went!

Remember that scene in "Breaking Away" when the Cinzano team puts a bike pump into Dave's spokes?

--
reply address: MikeKr at AOL dot COM

The Real Bev said:

Pbwalther wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Well, I did have a chance to inadvertantly test that one. I was riding on a trail with a friend.
A squirrel dashed across the road, saw the other bike, reversed and smack right into my front
wheel. It got sucked into the spokes and fork and was sawed in half. That was just about the
grossest thing that I have had happen on a bike. Fortunately, for me, not the squirrel, I had a
full water bottle and was able to hose the blood and squirrel bits off of the bike, my shoes, my
legs --- yuck. It didn't hurt my fork at all, but there was a spoke that had seen better days.

Quoted message said:

SEE?

Yeah, well, that was probably a REAL steel fork, too, not one of those new-fangled carbon thingies.

'Scuse me, I think I'll just toddle off now...

--

-John ([email hidden])

MP said:

Where did the buck stop?

Harry Truman's office.

The Real Bev <[email hidden]> scribed in <[email hidden]>:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

when I was in the army (conscripted) we did an excercise called fire and moevement. half the
squad (each alternate peerson) is running forward while the other half is firing. light machine
gun (belt fed) on the end and all. live ammo....

Let me get this straight. You're firing AHEAD of you while half your group is IN FRONT of you?

yes, half are moving, half are firing, but you're supposed to be 5 meters apart, and you're supposed
to move for 2.8 seconds (-: most shooters can get a bead and fire on a moving target in 3 seconds,
so don't stay up and moving for longer than 2.8....

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

the order of movement broke up and they all just went for the bunny...

So the movies where Ahnold fires half a ton of ammunition and only 3 guys get killed are actually
accurate?

sort of, the Arnold movies are cheap and can only hire 3 guys prepared to die for Arnolds glory (-:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

can pick which bit of 'you' to injure at 200 meters, but they don't move the range targets os
it's a different ballgame)

No wonder war is hell. The humiliation itself is bad enough...

yup, fair bit of 'potential death stress' too.

swarf, steam and wind

--
David Forsyth -:- the email address is real /"\ terrapin.ru.ac.zawelcome.htmlOpen ↗ \
/ ASCII Ribbon campaign against HTML E-Mail > - - - - - - -> X If you receive email saying
"Send this to everyone you know," / \ PLEASE pretend you don't know me.

(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.

Quoted message said:

Chalo Colina

--
Rick Onanian