Squirrels and other road hazards

I hit one and went down. The poor thing wasn't killed, but it was badly injured. I managed to take it to our locale Humane Society, where I think they put it to sleep.

It still bothers me when I think about it. I don't like to see anything hurt, especially I can't do anything about it.

I almost missed one last year. Stupid thing ran across the trail far enough in front of me so that I could swerve to the left to miss it, but then it changed direction and I got its tail. I've been looking for a squirrel with a kinked tail whenever I ride that section of trail now but I haven't seen it. Another bad rodent is the chipmunk. They do the same thing. I suppose that it is an instinct for them so that they can dodge hawks and other raptors. I didn't go down from hitting the tail, but I am sure that hitting the body would do it.

LOL, not a problem riding in and around Rome. I risk hitting/getting hit by cars/motorcycles/mopeds and occasionally cyclists. Most wildlife is already dead in/around the city... 🙁

Powerful Pete said:

LOL, not a problem riding in and around Rome. I risk hitting/getting hit by cars/motorcycles/mopeds and occasionally cyclists. Most wildlife is already dead in/around the city... 🙁

Except for the feral cats!

Well, I'm in a weird space with respect to this. I know that sooner or later I'm going to hit a squirrel, go down, and get hurt. It's just about inevitable. The only way to avoid it is to return to training on the open road, where the training is inferior, and then there is the chance of encounters with cars (though pretty slight on the roads where I used to train). I guess this is called being on "the horns of a dilemma."

Never had a problem with a squirrel. I can usually skim right over them. I have even hit a big dog at slower speeds and maintained but dogs over 15 lbs make me nervous.

So far no squirrel has taken me down and I've tagged one hard and grazed at least one. A groundhog did though. It ran smack into my front wheel and I broke a bone in my hand when I hit the deck.

I was just thinking that squirrels remind me of those bimbos in horror films. You know that ones that the monster is always after.
They take off like a bat outta-hell running and the monster is shuffling along behind at a methodically slow pace, but she looks back, trips and one tenth of one second later the damn monster is on her like fuzz on a weasels butt.
The squirrels are the same way, lots of speed but they go no where fast.

CAMPYBOB said:

So far no squirrel has taken me down and I've tagged one hard and grazed at least one. A groundhog did though. It ran smack into my front wheel and I broke a bone in my hand when I hit the deck.

I had similar with a raccoon. And the irony is that I was out for a rare pleasure cruise, going about 15 mph. The thing darted out, and I don't know if it hit the side of my front wheel or I hit it full on, but I went down hard and was on crutches and in severe pain for over a month (tore a muscle in the inner thigh).

jhuskey said:

the damn monster is on her like fuzz on a weasels butt.

I must say, you do have a wonderful way with words... 😄

Powerful Pete said:

I must say, you do have a wonderful way with words... 😄

I would rather have a wonderful with the ladies but I must settle ,I guess.

jhuskey said:

I would rather have a wonderful with the ladies but I must settle ,I guess.

LOL, indeed. But being able to write and speak well should help you get a leg over (pun intended) with the ladies, correct? 😄

Powerful Pete said:

LOL, indeed. But being able to write and speak well should help you get a leg over (pun intended) with the ladies, correct? 😄

I've run over a snake and a couple of frogs with the bike with no problems, the bigger stuff has hit my motorcycle. Hit one dog at 85mph, another, at 35 and litterally ran over him. You'll get hurt trying to avoid the contact, square up and make contact head on and usually you 'll be fine.

stlblues said:

You'll get hurt trying to avoid the contact, square up and make contact head on and usually you 'll be fine.

Real man advice. 😄

Actually makes a lot of sense.

Hmmm that is a good question. The raccoon and the car of course that would mess you up. The squirrels are fast it is not too likely that this will happen. The are small and fast. The bike is slender so it has time to get out of your way. I think it would be like hitting a rock kind of. They aren't really that big I don't think it would knock you off. I would put something on the bike to make a sound to warn the squirrels. I mean they still run out in front of cars when they come by and you would think they would hear that. I would put the baseball card with the clothes pin or think of something that will make a low noise to warn them. Kids will take a baseball card and attach it to the frame I think. It hits the spokes and makes a sound of the card hitting the spokes. They would hear you coming with that.

The closest I have come to is hitting someone's dog, but that's because that specific dog was chasing me haha. That gets really old, really quickly.

Never hit a squirrel before but unless you got some really good balance skills, you are gonna go down hard at 25 mph...

ZXD22 said:

Never hit a squirrel before but unless you got some really good balance skills, you are gonna go down hard at 25 mph...

I honestly think that most people would be hitting the ground at that speed.