Squirrel encounter

[redtreviso]

JRA today in the neighborhood.. Squirrel sitting on the curb me in the middle of the road giving him extra space..5ft from him and he goes for it .,.across the street..pringgggg! He hit my front wheel and bounced off...It didn't seem to hurt him..He kind of shook his head and continued on across the street. I usually yell at them if they are near the street so they can make their move one way or the other..A little while later a car tried to curb me so I guess the stars were slightly askew for me today..

 

[forty four]

JRA today in the neighborhood.. Squirrel sitting on the curb me in the middle of the road giving him extra space..5ft from him and he goes for it .,.across the street..pringgggg! He hit my front wheel and bounced off...It didn't seem to hurt him..He kind of shook his head and continued on across the street. I usually yell at them if they are near the street so they can make their move one way or the other..A little while later a car tried to curb me so I guess the stars were slightly askew for me today..

hit and killed one doing 30 or so on mulholland highway. they are either very dumb have very poor depth perception or both either way i have come within inches on 2 other occasions.

 

[BroDeal]

"Squirrel? Well, we have no deal with THEM!" -- George Costanza

 

[Hugh Januss]

I don't trust them shifty eyed little bastids. They must love cancer or something, or at least hate bikes. They are sneaky, and will try to get you every time.

 

[usedtobefast]

out at Irvine Park they like to play 'dodge'em' with your front wheel. 20 years of many close calls,no impacts. and i'm not trying miss them.bastagezz.

 

[S2Sturges]

out at Irvine Park they like to play 'dodge'em' with your front wheel. 20 years of many close calls,no impacts. and i'm not trying miss them.bastagezz.

Used to train in Centennial Park in Sydney at night with this extremely dim light on the bike, one night I centre punched a possum, it was a big ****** and sent me flying.. of course there is a moral to the story, put fresh D cells in your sad little headlamp, ya twit... squirrels are a mere blemish in the pavement compared to possums

 

[TopCarbon]

cute rats.

smash away

 

[bridgeman]

It happened again yesterday on the Noon Ride. There's that moment where you see that you might be the one that has to deal with this little critter. Do you try and avoid it, or maintain focus on keeping your line?

My buddy did the zig zig yesterday. He lost his focus and freak out a few behind and around him. At high speed and with a group, when you see them on the side of the road, you just have to ignore them, no matter what they do.

 

[CentralCaliBike]

I don't trust them shifty eyed little bastids. They must love cancer or something, or at least hate bikes. They are sneaky, and will try to get you every time.

So, how many squirrel decals do you have on your downtube

 

[Boeing]

Some time ago a squirrel ran into the group. It hit my front spokes and was thrown up in the air. Trippy because it was about head high in the group and seemed to float there for a while and I even felt the need to bat it away

 

[marathon marke]

So, how many squirrel decals do you have on your downtube

LOL Love it!

 

[CentralCaliBike]

LOL Love it!

I am only asking because I want to know where to purchase mine???

 

[Saddlesaw]

Earlier this year I was riding my MTB in Northern Laos and shredded a chicken with my front wheel as it ran out of a shack beside the road. Funny thing was the chook emerged the other side and other than an explosion of feathers, which made the Belgian guy riding beside Pi$$ himself laughing, I didn't feel a thing!

We didn't stop though I had an awful feeling that Chickens in Laos might be like pigs in Papua new Guinea......expensive..

 

[Road Hazard]

Why the hell do they run right in front of you?

I've pondered this for what must be many cumulative hours while riding.

It seems so counter-intuitive that an animal whose instinct makes in run right in front of a threat moving at high speed should still be alive.

My only guess is that they dart in the direction that a predator would not expect them to dart in, i.e., right the hell in front of it. Sort of like a gazelle zig-zagging it throws off the chase.

Except of course cyclists are not chasing them. Instead of lunging for where they were, only to be caught off guard when they move to where we were going, we go where we were going and so do they.

That is my theory of squirrels.

-Road Hazard, Ph. D.

 

[redtreviso]

Why the hell do they run right in front of you?

I've pondered this for what must be many cumulative hours while riding.

It seems so counter-intuitive that an animal whose instinct makes in run right in front of a threat moving at high speed should still be alive.

My only guess is that they dart in the direction that a predator would not expect them to dart in, i.e., right the hell in front of it. Sort of like a gazelle zig-zagging it throws off the chase.

Except of course cyclists are not chasing them. Instead of lunging for where they were, only to be caught off guard when they move to where we were going, we go where we were going and so do they.

That is my theory of squirrels.

-Road Hazard, Ph. D.

It might be the helmet or the height of the approaching bike.. A squirrel's most ingrained enemy would probably be a hawk or other bird of prey.. Running towards what appears to us as right at our front wheels might be an under and behind move avoiding a flying predator. The silence of a bicycle also might trigger their flight response..Their record for automobile encounters is certainly not good either but I have seen them not react at all to a car but then freak for a bike. I've only killed one.. I've had 2 hit my front wheel..Had 2 others go (successfully) between my front and back wheels.. (had a cat do that the other day)..

 

[Francois the Postman]

Why the hell do they run right in front of you?

I've pondered this for what must be many cumulative hours while riding.

They are wondering the same about us. Do you have any idea how many cyclist they have already killed and dragged back to their lairs?

And still they come....

OK, so occasionally a kill goes wrong and they re the ones ending up like toast. But they are still miles ahead in the numbers game.

Next time you see a squirrel, stop riding straight at 'em. It might well be your last time.

 

[redtreviso]

Use no less than 28 spoke wheels if you live in a squirrel infested area. lest they go through your wheel.. Zondas and the like noooooooooo

 

[Megalodon]

It might be the helmet or the height of the approaching bike.. A squirrel's most ingrained enemy would probably be a hawk or other bird of prey.. Running towards what appears to us as right at our front wheels might be an under and behind move avoiding a flying predator. The silence of a bicycle also might trigger their flight response..Their record for automobile encounters is certainly not good either but I have seen them not react at all to a car but then freak for a bike. I've only killed one..

Though just about everything eats squirrels, their main predators are terrestrial. They're not very fast in an open run so their strategy might be to dart in between the legs of the predator and use their superior maneuverability. It's the same thing with sharks and seals. The seals try to stay close to the shark if it misses its first strike (usually a sneak attack from below) and rapidly change direction. The shark tires quickly and then it can make its escape.

BTW, I think Shark Week starts soon on the Discovery Channel and you can watch all this in the Air Jaws shows.

 

[BroDeal]

This is why the world needs more cats.

 

[sometriguy]

I had one run into my rear wheel, amazingly I sheered his tail straight off and he ran away.

Clean cut, I didn't even feel him hit, just saw him running away with no tail.

 

[Hmmmmm]

They might be a cute edition of a rat, but....I don't trust them.

At least geese have the common sense to continue in a straight path so I know which way to steer to avoid them. But squirrels, man, they just can't make up their minds which way to go. It's like they see a bike and they click into "I have to freak out mode".

 

[Road Hazard]

Use no less than 28 spoke wheels if you live in a squirrel infested area. lest they go through your wheel.. Zondas and the like noooooooooo

OMG!

Geese are my second most hated cycling enemy. The ones we have here are black and gray, they camouflage very well with the road, especially if you have polarized lenses, seems to work in the geeses' camo favor.

If they are waddling at least you can see them, but the cheeky ones who just stand there are like surprise obstacles that materialize out of no where.

 

[Megalodon]

This morning, I rode past a freshly killed juvenile ground squirrel. Those things were always darting across the road in front of my bike and one finally got nailed by a car.

On the way back, I saw another rider off of his bike pick up a large rock from the ground and approach the squirrel. I noticed it was in a different position so I guess it wasn't dead.

 

[usedtobefast]

I had one run into my rear wheel, amazingly I sheered his tail straight off and he ran away.

Clean cut, I didn't even feel him hit, just saw him running away with no tail.

you got a free piece of tail. you should have stopped and picked it up, hang it on your bike as a warning to rest of those little bastagezz

 

[redtreviso]

This morning, I rode past a freshly killed juvenile ground squirrel. Those things were always darting across the road in front of my bike and one finally got nailed by a car.

On the way back, I saw another rider off of his bike pick up a large rock from the ground and approach the squirrel. I noticed it was in a different position so I guess it wasn't dead.

The one I killed I ran over his neck...I stopped and turned around and he was flip flopping around in the middle of the street..I though oh no what should I do...take off my front wheel and beat him to death?..run over him again? Luckily after a few seconds he quit moving..