CJKarl

Squirrels!! New to road riding and we have just noticed that we're always surprising the squirrels. We have almost hit a number of them. Anyone else have near misses?

patentcad

Here the squirrels are 150lbs. AKA white tailed deer. You don't want to hit one of those.

CharlieWoo

Who's got the infamous dead-squirrel-in-spokes pic? Post.

nycwtorres

rcams

Oh.... they hear you coming but they know you're new to road riding., so they're just screwin with you!

ehidle

They're just uber-Freds and can't hold a line, so they always end up in your way

Hickeydog

This is why I want wheels with a high spoke count. Then the little critters just bounce off. Although not so good against bigger ones.

Like pcad, us Ohioans have a bad deer problem.

El Pelon

I've hit a squirrel or two in my life. They are crunchy, but as long as you keep them under the wheel, they are fine. To decrease rolling resistance, try coming at them from a perpendicular angle, and rise up about two to three inches off your saddle. You want to flex and press down as you pass over the little guy so that you can apply maximum pressure to his spine / internal organs. Always look back to make sure he is dead. If not, take another pass. It would be cruel to let him suffer.

AEO

it's geese season down by the lakeshore here. You don't want to hit those things, they weigh a good 12lbs in this month, it may not seem like much, but there are at least 2 dozen bunched together which makes for an interesting obstacle course of geese and their droppings.

roccobike

Squirrels are a problem when riding a road bike, but I REALLY hate it when I'm riding the MTB and the little creeps run up a tree when I'm passing about 6 inches away. I have nightmares about one of them jumping on my helmet, then trying to open it like a large nut.

cuski

I had one run straight into my foot on Wednesday. Good thing I was slowing down, or it probably would've ended up in a wheel. It hit my foot, bounced back, and ran away chittering.

kmagnuss

At least you haven't had a hawk drop one in your lap yet.

dark13star

This was my last contact on the bike: https://www.bikeforums.net/showthread.php?t=407841

BlazingPedals

Squirrel in wheel #2:

HWS

A few misses and I've run a couple over.

mastronaut

Many, many, too many wild turkeys in my neck of the woods. Just hope you're not under em
if they get spooked and decide to take flight!

shoerhino

I came up on some wild turkeys a few weeks ago and some of the little guys took off and landed in a tree. They were clearly uncomfortable in the tree and I was surprised they decided to land up there. I would have thought that they would just fly 100 feet away and resume grazing.

CharlieWoo

Back in the day a woman riding w/ Potomac Peddlers in VA (maybe on Skyline drive) was killed when she t-boned a white tail on a decent.

TeddyKGB

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sqltIamw_CQ

G60

ouch...i sliced my finger on a brake disc one time...it was not pleasant.

Iwannagofast

Hickeydog

smccready

Wow, quite a set of pics! On the ARBT, if you're out early enough, there are rabbits that dash back and forth across the trail at times, I keep worrying I'm gonna hit one of 'em. Plenty of squirrels around, too, but no close encounters here yet ...

Shimagnolo

When I lived in Schaumburg, IL, I had to put fenders on my bikes to deal with all the goose crap. On one occasion, I actually ran over one of the damned things when it bolted across the path. It was amazingly firm, like running over a football. I probably cleared 18" vertically and 48" horizontally before landing. Last seen the goose was sitting in the pond squawking his unhappiness.

In another incident, one of the obnoxious rats-with-wings tried to attack me head-on. He was in mid-air when my brake lever caught him in the chest and knocked him out of the air.

NYJayhawk

Had a near miss today. Little ******* was perched between some road debris and potholes, about 6" from the best line through the mess. He never flinched as I passed him by.

Also saw a fox, two deer, and various other smaller critters. Lots of road kill too....half of a baby deer (front half, insides scooped out). Pretty nasty. Wonder what happened to his back half?