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OT animals in spokes - chop or crash?

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Mattman

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Discussion starter · #1 · (Edited)
Hi all, after several weeks of not posting and barely even checking mtbr, I'll reappear with this weird question. This should make for an interesting thread, the challenge may be to sort the truth from the BS.

Have you ever had an animal run through your spokes when you were riding and if so what was it and what was the result?

A few weeks ago a chipmonk with bad timing chose to cross a bike path and went right into the spokes of my buddies road bike, he is no longer with us ( the chipmonk). A couple years ago a fairly large rabbit hit my front wheel on a night MTB ride and he was lucky and bounced off. I think he must have hit at the spoke crossing or something but I was merely knocked off my line a bit and he ran away. We were discussing this at work and none of has witnessed a crash as a result of an animal in the spokes but we are sure it must have happened?
Oh.....if you accidently chopped up your own dog, you may want to use discretion in sharing that :madman:
 
#2 ·
I had a large dog attack me on my road bike in college about 30 years ago. I'm assuming he was going for my leg on the upstroke; he got the spokes of my rear wheel instead. It was horrible.
 
#3 · (Edited)
I was riding out west of Broken Hill (Central Australia) on the Mund Mundi plain recently. I was on a road crossing a dry river bed when a pair of emu's came running out of the river. They ran right at me from the side then at the last minute one of them changed directions and gave me a really solid hip and shoulder. I ended up in the dirt and they kept running.
 

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#9 ·
slightly off topic, still involves things in spokes

As a kid, I wiped my brother out on his bike by tossing a hockey stick into the spokes of his front wheel as he was speeding down a hill. Instant and violent endo, one very mangled front end and one very angry brother. I only meant to slide the stick on the road in front of him to give him a little scare, honest.
 
Discussion starter · #11 ·
Rusty SS or rusty country?

rusty_ss said:
I was riding out west of Broken Hill (Central Australia) on the Mund Mundi plain recently. I was on a road crossing a dry river bed when a pair of emu's came running out of the river. They ran right at me from the side then at the last minute one of them changed directions and gave me a really solid hip and shoulder. I ended up in the dirt and they kept running.
Click to expand...
Cool story Rusty, but from your pictures it looks like your whole part of the country is rusting? I've seen lots of colors of dirt but if the color in your pics and my monitor are accurate, you live in rust land.
 
#12 ·
Colours are pretty accurate. Pictures were taken at dawn so maybe a bit oversaturated. It is very red there and very (very) flat. One day I decided to just ride in one direction, no road or track, and see how long before I hit an obstacle. I had to turn around and head back to start work before anything stopped me. I rode for about 40 mins in one direction though.

Cheers
 
#13 ·
hu-man said:
As a kid, I wiped my brother out on his bike by tossing a hockey stick into the spokes of his front wheel as he was speeding down a hill. Instant and violent endo, one very mangled front end and one very angry brother. I only meant to slide the stick on the road in front of him to give him a little scare, honest.
Click to expand...
I got rid of the local bully the same way when I was about 10 years old. He would come up along side on his bike when I was riding to a friends house, talk a lot of smack and occassionally push me into trash cans or off the bike. One day I happened to have a good sized stick in one hand, he went to push me, I pushed the stick into his front spokes- he went instantly otb. Never saw him again... Of course, I did ride a sorta out of the way loop to my friend's for quite some time just to make sure I didnt.
 
#14 ·
I've got 3:

1 - Early 90s, Flatt TT, in full tuck, dead straight road with a head wind, pop out of the tuck to a loud YELP dog noise and my bike jumping in the air. Seems a friendly dog came pacing up to me from a house on the course, got too close and as my pedel rotated down it hit the dog's back and propelled me up. The dog scurried home, I stayed upright although shaken.

2 - Late 90's, 5 corner crit, Cat III pack, I'm at the front post sprint lap so we're bunched,we head around a right hander into a slight downhill, squirrel runs out and attempts to jump through my front wheel, it takes a ride through the fork, bounces somewhere, lands on the ground and runs back into the ditch. About 5 people saw it, it wacked 2 spokes (bladed) and nessecitated a wheel change. USCF official said NO!!! Says that a squirrel is a "natural" occurance and it doesn't qualify for a wheel change! I was ticked.

3 - non riding, bird killed by big ring of bike while on bike rack, icky messy.
 
#15 ·
SKullman said:
3 - non riding, bird killed by big ring of bike while on bike rack, icky messy.
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That one sounds like it would do some damage to the little critter.

We have a few little furry critters here as well I have:

Hit a deer / turkey / frog / turtle / snake / squirrel / mouse / any number of insects

Ran over a friendly dog even though I attempted to jump out (over) of its way during a suprise greeting.

Rode up on on moma skunk and her little one crossing the trail locked the brakes and ran back the other way. Still don't know how I got out of that one with out getting taged by her.

All have been fairly minor thankfuly since it seems as if I see more than my fair share of wildlife.
 
#16 · (Edited)
A friend of mine had a squirrel run out and catch the spokes of his rear wheel. The squirrel was then flung up into the air and landed feet first on my buddies back. He hung on for a short distance then lept off into the bushes.

Pretty funny stuff.

I ran over my dog out on one of our rides. Terrible feeling. She was fine but she doesn't try to stop or cut hard anymore when leading out the freshie single.
 
#19 ·
Years back I hit a squirrel on a long steep decent on my rode bike. I was going about 45mph and I thought he knew which way he was going, but he changed directions at the last minute and I actually picked him up with my rear wheel and heard a lound thong!!! I circled back to check him out. His head was crushed, but his body was still wiggling. It was fairly traumatic at the time. Ever since that day I have had bad squirrel karma.
 
#20 ·
bears

I've come across my share of wild WI and CA critters.

In 2000, I got spooked by a mama black bear and her two cubs. What I thought was a turkey in the corner of my eye...was a bear wondering the woods, with cubs behind her. I immediately turned around and went back to the cottage in a jiffy.

In 2001, my buddy Alan jumped over a "big rock" going down a hill in CA near Cache Creek. I was behind him and was preparing to do the same. The "rock" moved and I stopped. It was a baby deer. It scurried in the bushes.

2 years ago, riding in the freshness that is Northern Wisconsin, I came across a bear that was drinking from a puddle on the ATV trail. I yelled and he ran into the woods so fast. I kept on ridin'.

I've ran over shrews. They think they're fast, but they're not.

In CA, we were driving from Yosemite back to Sacramento, and we ran over two mountain lion cubs that just ran in front of the Jeep. Sad...so sad. Sniff! WAAAAAA!!!
 
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