BigDaddyPete

Yesterday morning I saw what might be the most unusual thing I've ever seen while riding. It was around 6am and still really dark. As I'm riding, first I saw a shadow of something in front of me in the bike lane, then as I got closer I realized it was a person walking. Then I realized it was a big person, easily 6'4". Then I realized they were dressed as Dorothy from the Wizard of Oz. He had obviously had a long night. So what's the strangest thing you've ever encountered?

centuryman

A homeless person asleep in a MUP tunnel under a busy road. It was still dark and he was completely blocking the passage. At first I though it was an animal. My lights must have awakened him - he moved and ... Let's just say I almost had soggy shorts the rest of the way to work.

Artkansas 

On the Joe Weber Arky 100, I passed by the headless corpse of a deer.

I can understand hunting for food, but that was just murder.


Another time, I saw a squirrel wait patiently for a pack of three cars to approach and then as they passed, the squirrel dashed into the second car and was killed under its wheels.

ax0n

Myself. I am easily the strangest thing in the greater KC area.

atombob

This summer I was waiting at a red light when a little black jetta pulled up next to me with 4 very cute giggling girls inside. When I turned to look they were all naked! This is the first time I didn't mind a really long red light. They were all laughing. College town so I think it was some hazing gig for a local sorority house. Lucky me. I've started carrying a camera phone with me.

CliftonGK1

Big group of people gathered just 3/4 mile from my apartment, standing and looking at something off the Sammamish River Trail.
It would have made sense if they were looking the other way, toward the river, if there was something cool like a river otter, etc. I stopped and asked somebody what the hub-bub was, and he just pointed at one of the townhouses.
Some couple was having sex in their living room, and they left their blinds open so everyone could see. They were putting on quite a show, so I'm certain it was intentional.

bikebuddha 

A couple doing the horizontal mambo in a car in a parking lot I was cutting through.

zephyr

About 3 years ago I rode right by a dead mountain lion in the bike lane (hit by a passing car a short time earlier). It was real early morning, I thought it was a piece of old carpet that fell off a pickup until I was almost right up next to it. For just that moment I was relieved it was not alive, but I put some distance between me and the cat and then stopped and looked at it for quite a while. I had never seen a full sized mountain lion real close and was amazed at what a beautiful animal it was, it's tail looked almost the length of my leg. What a waste that the lion was killed by a car, right on the edge of our vast megalopolis.

buzzman

• I've found two dead bodies in the Charles River on my commutes.
  
• Pulled one living bridge jumper with a broken leg from the Charles,
  
• found a woman lying unconscious on the bike path who's pedal had come off of her brand new bike,
  
• had a guy jump from the bushes in full camouflage gear in the middle of the night,
  
• watched a hawk almost snag a squirrel only to have the squirrel run up a tree and do a gymnastic leap back at the hawk,
  
• had a squirrel that was being pursued by a cat run into the front wheel of my folding bike- not a pretty sight,
  
• had a rabbit jump across the path in the middle of the night right at eye level with serious hang time inches from my face with the two of us eyeballing each other,
  
• once, at 2 am while riding in a tough neighborhood, saw a spectacular car crash as a car being chased by a cop collided with a building and then the cop car went into the back of it- I stopped my bike aghast as the criminal leapt from the wreckage opened the unconscious cop's door and took his gun and ran,
  
• was passed by a limousine with Nelson Mandela in it- who waved at me,
  
• was stopped very early one morning in Newport, RI on my way to work because they were shooting a film and sitting in the old Model T next to me was Laurence Olivier, who also waved at me...

I've been cycle commuting for 37 years, if I thought about it long enough I could make a really long list of weird stuff.

RT

Cyclists riding the wrong direction without a helmet.

AEO

suicidal show off bird that kept crossing the intersection diagonally at car level and weaving through the cars. It was doing this constantly. No idea why, lol.

Zero_Enigma

Video camera + upload to website = profit. LOL Hey someone had to say it.

Wino Ryder

I was chased by a wild hog one night while riding home from work in the boonies!

I had just got off work and clicked up a few gears when I saw something coming out of the woods. It was big and black, about the height of a 'Great Dane', but much much thicker and heavier. By that time I was cruising at 15 mph, but when I approached a little closer saw that it was a big black wild hog and that it made eye contact with me. Every hair from my arse to the back of my neck stood up, and that was when I clicked up yet another gear and stomped on it, swinging wide in a "hell bent for sprint".

I didn't slow down until two miles later, at a remote street light, the whole time trying to listen for a crazed, wild squealling in the dark behind me. I've seen bigger hogs in hog pens, but this one was big and stout looking, with a lot of muscle, and there wasn't no hog pen around him either.

That topped about everything I ever saw on a ride!

GRedner

I recently stopped to watch a wild turkey chasing a woman around and around her car. Eventually the woman jumped inside, and the turkey started pecking at the window!

I also passed a homicide crime scene along the Muddy River - the north (paved) side of the river was blocked off by police, so I took the south (unpaved, but hardpacked) side. The river's only about twenty feet wide at that point, and apparently a body had been found right along the bank. I tried not to look - I was pretty creeped out by the whole thing.

I was filtering forward in stopped traffic on Mass Ave in Cambridge, looked to my left and an elephant was staring at me! After shaking my head to clear it, I looked again and the elephant was still there. Apparently the circus was in town, and they were taking the elephants for a walk.

ken cummings

A group of drug dealers? at Confluence Park in Denver, where the Cherry Creek and South Platte bike trails join. I was using my old 100 watt headlight and one of them screamed, " Shut off that Goddamn light." I did and made it out of there by starlight.

sknhgy 

Often, when a deer is killed by a car, some passerby will cut off the head to save the antlers. Quite a common occurance around here. Might as well make some use of them.

Michel Gagnon

It's lovely to see such accounts.

My urban commutes are rather tame by comparison.

The commute from my former office to home was right in the heart of the business district. Yet one night I saw a skunk crossing the street. BTW, that street was St. Laurent Boulevard just north of Saint-Viateur in Montréal.

This year, my new commute brings me to Longueuil and Saint-Lambert. I saw a couple of dead skunks (the city takes much longer to pick the corpes than Montréal), and not too long ago, I stopped very quickly because a cat was crossing the street in a hurry. Turned out the cat probably had just been sprayed by a black "cat" and was running home!

On evening rides, I see many racoons (Mt. Royal is a good place for them), squirrels, and hear frogs when I ride near swamps.

But my most memorable encounter was about 30 years ago when I was riding at low speed in a new residential development. A young bear erupted from the bush and crossed the road a few centimetres in front of my front wheel. Then a big bear (mother?) crossed the road just a few centimetres behind my rear wheel. I have the distinct feeling that neither of them saw me or smelled me and that they might as well have run through me.

Flimflam

Holy wow dude, that's a seriously crazy list you have there...

I can't even think of anything right now, this post made me realise how tame my rides really are

rando

I see lots of articles of clothing. not sure why. are people throwing clothes out of their cars for some reason?

aubinmg

One rainy morning on my way to work I saw a man trying to ride his bike and hold a regular sized open umbrella, I laughed out loud. Haven't seen him since. On the way home once I saw a guy texting on his cell while going at a good clip no hands.

bike2math

Strangest:
On my third week of commuting in Columbus I came upon two naked men walking down the MUP at 5 AM in the morning. They politely got out of the way and wished me a good morning.

Second Strangest:
I came upon a buck and doe (the buck had a Large rack) less than a 1/4 mile from downtown on the MUP late at night. Scared the beegesus out of me.

PostScript: A news report on NPR this morning informed me that this is not all that uncommon in Ohio.

Sixty Fiver

I often come across single shoes...

I_bRAD

Out cruising no doubt.

StephenH

"I see lots of articles of clothing. not sure why. are people throwing clothes out of their cars for some reason?"

Maybe going to the laundromat in their pickup trucks, and stuff blows out?

MyBikeGotStolen

I seem to see ALOT of co2 cartriges everywere I ride. I dont think its from people getting flats though, I think its the college kids doing whippits will driving around town