Bike vs Squirrel

I was cookin along on my gravel bike heading back towards Santa cruz. I got stuck behind these three dudes on ebikes on the bike path. An opportunity presented itself to blaze by so I took it. Goin mach chicken down the bike path, life is grand. Then from the left hand side, a squirrel began his descent towards the bike path. "Don't do it buddy" I thought to myself. I began to make a plan for which way I would go if he did do it. Well he did do it, and my plan backfired. I felt the crunch of little bones under my front wheel. I felt terrible. But I kept going. What was I going to do? Stop and investigate the carnage? I kept pedalling back into town. I don't like killing innocent little animals. One of the ebikers caught back up to me and said, "dude! You hit that squirrel!"
I replied, "yeah I know, I can't believe it, I feel terrible."
He said back, "I thought you were my dad."
Yeah, nope.

/End.

A squirrel is just a rodent with a good publicist, same with beavers

so you are his dad?

Man, that crunch feeling through the handlebars. I can slow it down in my brain and feel the bones break.

Duno about down thar but up here its required you have to eat whatever you kill

Got any good squirrel recipes? Or good techniques for removing crunched up broken bones from the meat?

i think granny had the great recipes for whatever uncle jed shot

An MTB partner has run over/killed two ground squirrels over the years when they run a suicide mission and there’s no way to avoid them.

Way back in my road racing days somebody hit a small rodent during a race. It kind of exploded as several riders ran over it. The guts and tissue got into the spokes of one guys wheel and, over the remainder of the race, dried into a substance that looked a lot like beef jerky

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TBS

Way back in my road racing days somebody hit a small rodent during a race. It kind of exploded as several riders ran over it. The guts and tissue got into the spokes of one guys wheel and, over the remainder of the race, dried into a substance that looked a lot like beef jerky

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Had that happen to me a few years ago. No clue where I picked it up but there was no mistaking it was some kind of meat/guts.

I road killed a chipmunk at the bike park once. And every year it’s kind of amazing how many of those things get flattened.

Squirrel jerky. Squerky

Former teammate had one jump through the spokes on a road bike.

Was not pretty.

almost hit one of those little fuckers today

Quote:

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Originally Posted by TBS

An MTB partner has run over/killed two ground squirrels over the years when they run a suicide mission and there’s no way to avoid them.

Way back in my road racing days somebody hit a small rodent during a race. It kind of exploded as several riders ran over it. The guts and tissue got into the spokes of one guys wheel and, over the remainder of the race, dried into a substance that looked a lot like beef jerky

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Now Im hungry. Thanks a lot.

Was alongside a buddy of mine coming down a paved road at speed on mountain bikes. Marmot ran between his wheels followed by a sickening crack.

No jerky was harmed.

A friend of mine had an XC loop him and coworkers would do during lunch time. He said there was a certain section of fire road that you'd be coming down, with trees on each side, just far enough apart that squirrels couldn't jump from one side to the other, so they'd have to cross the fire road. After the second time they hit a squirrel and sent it flying into the air, they created a Strava segment called "Flying Squirrel Death Spiral" due to the way they'd go spinning off after they got clipped. He said that the brakes smelled like BBQ afterwards.

I was in a fast 3-rider pace line on the asphalt section of a gravel race I did in May and saw a squirrel come to the shoulder in the left side of the road. My telepathic message "don't do it!" had no effect and the little twerp ran right in front of the lead rider. Once he saw that front wheel bearing down, he realized he fucked up and started dodging like a wide receiver. We helped by trying hard to swerve around -- there's a high risk of swerving into a dodge, but we were all lucky and the little punk slipped through unscathed. Most exciting part of the ride for sure.

I can't find it right now, but there is usually a pic of a rodent wedged into the brakes of a bike posted when this topic comes up. IIRC, looked like the person had ended up going over the bars as it was really wedged in there.

squirrels are territorial and not that smart so we were in a campground with Asta the squirrel killing Siberian who chases a squirrel up a tree which is owned by another squirrel but its a stand alone tree which is TOO far away from the other trees to make the jump so the squirrels chase each other around the tree for a very long time while Asta sits at the bottom watching

eventualy one of them chose death by falling over death by another squirrel and sucessfuly made the very long jump

another time Asta chases a squirrel which decided to go left instead of over the fence and that last thing it ever did

I was crawling up a steep jeep road once at about 2.5 mph when a chipmunk ran out from the grass right under the front wheel. I've always assumed that that chipmunk was having a rough go with life and did it on purpose. That was the second one I killed that month, but at least the other one was a high speed descent so it made more sense.

The tree rats are real common along Boise's greenbelt. Cruising along on my bike commute, tree rat is sitting on the greenbelt as I approach, it runs left, right, left, right and right into my wheel, gives one of those weird squirrel sounds, not sure if I killed it, maimed it or whatever, but it'll soon be fox food.

I ran over a rat in the shadows on the Cherry Creek path in downtown Denver about 13 years ago. That crunch is haunting.


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Right? You can like replay the feeling and sound of little bones crunching through the rigid fork and up through the handlebars. Lol.

Did a squirrel on a high speed section of one of our local trails some years ago. Friends behind me confirmed. It was sorta doubletrack but with a defined line for high speed bikes. I was insulated from the crunch by fat tires and suspension. No way I'm swerving for a squirrel on a bike or in a car. Not worth it.

On another note, I was riding the "DH" trail Targhee and a bird flew flew into the spokes of my front wheel at high speed. Thing was vaporized instantly in a cloud of feathers. Looked around and all we could find were clumps of feathers and no body.

Today at Deer Valley (lift serve), a rockchuck was standing in the trail eating something, standing tall with 0 fuks given, as riders came around the corner. He didn't even flinch and sent my wife, and the next guy, careening off the trail as they tried to avoid him. Was actually hilarious to see it happen twice (both riders dirty, unhurt).

I've also been a victim of the super aggro grouse up high, 4oz bird charging 200lb rider on MTB, LOL

[QUOTE=beaterdit;7097466] No way I'm swerving for a squirrel on a bike or in a car. Not worth it. .[/QUOTE, ]

the right thing to do, I worked with a guy who would swerve for birds or squirrels or anything and he was a fucking terrible driver, fell asleep almost killed us while totaling a a brand new taco in the ditch

the boss said to me " he said he was a very safe driver and went 10 kph under the speed limit " to which I replied " he is a fucking terrible driver at any speed "

We have a hill going down to the local trail hill that is squirrel central. I felt the bones crush below my handlebars once myself. And I have seen dead squirrel on that path at least two other times, with clear signs of bike tire. More common than one would expect.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by dan_pdx

I was in a fast 3-rider pace line on the asphalt section of a gravel race I did in May and saw a squirrel come to the shoulder in the left side of the road. My telepathic message "don't do it!" had no effect and the little twerp ran right in front of the lead rider. Once he saw that front wheel bearing down, he realized he fucked up and started dodging like a wide receiver. We helped by trying hard to swerve around -- there's a high risk of swerving into a dodge, but we were all lucky and the little punk slipped through unscathed. Most exciting part of the ride for sure.

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And this is why roadies on road rides - gravel or not - resort to dick-ish behavior to alleviate the drudgery. Black diamond singletrack FTW, where the challenge instills camaraderie as opposed to aggro behavior!

I didnt find that ^^ I mean sure they are gona draft but IME roadies will warn the peloton by pointing at danger on the road and in general have camaradrie to go for coffee, I'm not sure why/ where you folks find so many dickheads in America

I dodge those things every day going to work in SC on the bike path. I've only kicked one pedaling. It definitely startled me and took a second to realize what had just happened.

They used to be thick around our local trail system. We called them the Tifosi because they ran alongside us on the trail. Had one jump across the trail from boulder to boulder right in front of me - kind of a “to Infinity and Beyond!” Maneuver.

For some reason their population has declined markedly.

Good thing squirrels don't drive hummers

Attachment 496117
My dog found this on our morning hike. It’s right next to the trail.
WTF

After reading what the participants eat on the CDT race, i think you may have overlooked a protein booster free of charge.

I have a vague memory from years ago of a close call from a marmot running across a rail to trail right in front of me or somebody I was with.

Was it one of those chubby, almost kinda cute eastern fox squirrels like that are in the Bay Area? Because those are introduced/invasive. Tree rats that can carry Lime Disease. Kill them all.

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Originally Posted by NuMexJoe

And this is why roadies on road rides - gravel or not - resort to dick-ish behavior to alleviate the drudgery. Black diamond singletrack FTW, where the challenge instills camaraderie as opposed to aggro behavior!

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The "drudgery" is the fun! It's just type 2 fun.

Going over a pedestrian bridge yesterday a Redtail hawk flew about 10' over my head with a ton of blackbirds behind him squawking. It took a second for me to see with the chaos going on, but he had a squirrel squeezed in his talons. Bad day for the squirrel.