Close encounter with a badger this morning

duckfoot1606

Picture the scene. 7am this morning on my Saturday ride in the Bradgate Park area near Loughborough. On my trusty Tricross Sport, belting along on the road between Woodhouse and Quorn, I'm overtaken by a car that then has to slow slightly for an upcoming bend (no problem, he gave me plenty of room), another car slows behind me as we enter the bend in what has now become fairly close proximity to each other.

Panic. As we all enter the bend (about 22mph) a badger darts across from the offside undergrowth but instead of carrying on stops and stares into the headlights. Lead car panic stops and my face is suddenly full of brake lights. I grab two BIG handfuls of brake, the rear wheel lifts (felt about a foot, but was probably an inch or two) but stop in time (just, a gnat scrotum hair might have fitted between my wheel and the bumper), the car behind is right on the ball and pulls up OK. Sadly the badger is winged by the lead car and limps off into the dense near side undergrowth, can be heard moving away. Driver of the lead car is reduced to a blubbing wreck, eventually calm her down, we are joined by the second driver and all thank our lucky stars.

Lessons to learn?. 1. I don't think any of us planned for the eventuality of the badger crossing the road, so we all entered the bend too close to each other. I can't really blame the lead car solely for this near miss. 2. Koolstop brake pads are FANTASTIC!!.

I'll be out again tomorrow morning with a change of shorts and a little more insight; Even at 47 years old, you still learn a new thing every day. And I hope the badger is not too badly injured.

La cucaracha

Well that's stole my thunder - I had a similar experience, only it was just a squirrel I encountered which isn't quite as interesting as a badger. Ah well, perhaps one day a two-headed rhinocerus will run out in front of me, superceding all other encounters...

Bronzie

I nearly clobbered a badger a couple of years back on a nightime chain gang. I think if I'd hit him, I'd of come off and he would have bitten me to teach me a lesson. The only live badgers I've ever seen (3) have all been whilst riding country lanes at night.

martincroxall

That's actually quite cool, I've never seen a live badger and it makes every dead one I see that bit more depressing. I've had a few close calls with the deer up on Bradgate Park, funny how they wait until you're almost up to them before running across the path in front of you. Oh and the squirrels in the area are total kamikazes as well.

el_presidente

It is easy to say in the cold light of day but you should never attempt any extreme manouevre to avoid wildlife, be it swerving, emergency stop or otherwise.

I knew of someone who was in a car with four people, early morning and empty road, driver saw a fox crossing the road, swerved to avoid and ended up rolling the car into a field, numerous injuries including car driver in a coma and with serious brain injuries which will seriously entail her quality of life.

Let the badger / fox whatever take the hit while you live another day.

As I say this is easy to write but much harder to do in practice, worth thinking about though.

Only excpetion is if it is a serious sized beast i.e. a deer. EDIT and the above applies to driving a car , on a bike I'd prob take my chances

Bronzie

martincroxall wrote:

That's actually quite cool,

It certainly made an evening training ride a bit more interesting..............
"Hole left"
"Hole middle"
"Gravel"
"BADGER MIDDLE!"
"Hole left" etc.

CHRISNOIR

martincroxall wrote:

...I've never seen a live badger....

Thank God it's not just me. And I've only ever seen one dead one. Are we sure badgers really exist? I'm determined to see a badger before I die (preferably not while I'm cornering at high speed as it may be the last thing I ever see...).

bigflangesmallsprocket

I've seen a few deaded badgers on my rounds, though no live ones. One night I took a tight corner on my scoot and had to hastily change my line to avoid a rock directly in front of me, but the 'rock' moved into my new line, on account of it actually being a bolshy ninja hedgehog...near miss. Also one snake.

I recall one that made me feel a tad sad! One day riding through a little-used back road a pair of squirrels bounced across the road looking quite perky...ah, young love...I thought; taking the same road the next day I saw a squashed squirrel at about the same spot and thought about mr/mrs squirrel by themselves...nearly shed a tear there!

robbarker

el_presidente wrote:

It is easy to say in the cold light of day but you should never attempt any extreme manouevre to avoid wildlife, be it swerving, emergency stop or otherwise.

Only excpetion is if it is a serious sized beast i.e. a deer. EDIT and the above applies to driving a car , on a bike I'd prob take my chances

A Badger can do as much damage as a deer - they are huge, and very heavy and solid. You can write a car off if you hit one at speed.

giant_man

Badgers are a BIG animal, and like the posters above, I've only seen dead ones, too many at the side of roads I have to say. Never seen a live one. Beautiful creatures.

el_presidente

OK I amend my advice - if the suicidal beast is smaller than a badger e.g hare, stoat, weasel, vole etc then plough straight on and send him to the big ol' burrow in the sky.

If however the fearless fauna is of badger size or larger, perhaps a disgruntled goat, small pony, or some kind of giant fox then concede defeat and leave him to procede across the highway at his leisure.

8)

el_presidente

giant mancp wrote:

Badgers ....Beautiful creatures.

Beautiful my arse, they're ugly fat little things with a face like a Newcastle fan at a cup semi-final

giant_man

They are beautiful creatures and they should be protected more than they are, so there mate.

Perhaps they think you're a fat ugly little thing!

el_presidente

giant mancp wrote:

They are beautiful creatures and they should be protected more than they are, so there mate.

Perhaps they think you're a fat ugly little thing!

well that is another argument altogether ;

PS i am pro-badger really

Gussio

robbarker wrote:

el_presidente wrote:

It is easy to say in the cold light of day but you should never attempt any extreme manouevre to avoid wildlife, be it swerving, emergency stop or otherwise.

Only excpetion is if it is a serious sized beast i.e. a deer. EDIT and the above applies to driving a car , on a bike I'd prob take my chances

A Badger can do as much damage as a deer - they are huge, and very heavy and solid. You can write a car off if you hit one at speed.

A badger might ruin your front grill if you hit it, but is unlikely to take out your windscreen like a deer could if your scythe through it's unfeasibly long and slender legs bonnet first (have you seen The Long Kiss Goodnight where Gina Davies twacks a deer and gets a hoof in her head?).

I like badgers. Their legs are too short for their bodies and they scuttle around in a way that reminds me of stripey daschunds.

el_presidente

Gussio wrote:

robbarker wrote:

el_presidente wrote:

It is easy to say in the cold light of day but you should never attempt any extreme manouevre to avoid wildlife, be it swerving, emergency stop or otherwise.

Only excpetion is if it is a serious sized beast i.e. a deer. EDIT and the above applies to driving a car , on a bike I'd prob take my chances

A Badger can do as much damage as a deer - they are huge, and very heavy and solid. You can write a car off if you hit one at speed.

A badger might ruin your front grill if you hit it, but is unlikely to take out your windscreen like a deer could if your scythe through it's unfeasibly long and slender legs bonnet first (have you seen The Long Kiss Goodnight where Gina Davies twacks a deer and gets a hoof in her head?).

I like badgers. Their legs are too short for their bodies and they scuttle around in a way that reminds me of stripey daschunds.

that's what they want you to think Gussio. then before you know it the bar-code faced buggers are crashing through your windscreen then dragging you off to their sett to gnaw on your cold lifeless corpse

pneumatic

My sister met a badger whilst on her way to work early one morning. As she was in a Honda, she took el Presidente's line - i.e. directly over the top of the stripy one. On his way to Badger heaven (the great St James Park in the sky), our big boned cousin took out her fuel tank. That and the rest of his modifications to her subframe cost nearly 4 grand to fix. I'd rather take a pheasant through the windscreen any day. And I really HATE pheasants.

Gussio

I for one welcome our new badger overlords

http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/w ... 062085.ece

"...a bear-like monster stalking the suburbs and attacking livestock and humans alike"

vermooten

Interestingly all badgers have the face of Tour de France winner Bernard Hinault.

CHRISNOIR

They also eat up to 200 earthworms a day, badger-fans!

toontra

Got to be a bit careful with the badgers - they can get you into trouble:
http://politics.guardian.co.uk/wales/comment/0,,912483,00.html

tardington

When I was a school there was the legend of the lad who'd been KILLED while cycling, as he followed that advice and didn't swerve round a squirrel. It died, whizzed round the wheel and jammed in the fork, stopping the front wheel dead. Boy went flying and diiied. Allegedly.

In no way am I saying this is true, but it was LEGEND round our way!

shockedsoshocked

tardie wrote:

When I was a school there was the legend of the lad who'd been KILLED while cycling, as he followed that advice and didn't swerve round a squirrel. It died, whizzed round the wheel and jammed in the fork, stopping the front wheel dead. Boy went flying and diiied. Allegedly.

In no way am I saying this is true, but it was LEGEND round our way!

surfgurl

I was driving up Cheddar Gorge the other evening and came across a recently deceased badger in the middle of the other lane. Coming home a few hours later it had somehow moved to the gutter. A badger friend was sniffing round it. It was either in mourning or having an evening snack.

MrKawamura

I'm lucky enough to have had a couple of chance meetings with badgers, both times after going outside for a smoke (on foot, quitting next week). A thrilling, startling experience, truly, to have a big one scuttle across the path a few feet away.

I sometimes live in fear of running over a squirrel while on the bike. Just the thought of the wheels crunching over its back, then turning to see it flapping in spasms on the tarmac, assuming it doesn't have its revenge by jumping in the spokes.

Matchstick Man

Saw not just one, but TWO badgers ona night-time training ride back in November.
Vicious buggers just ran out and tried to kamikaze style take out the lead rider. Then ran alongside us before darting back in to the hedgerow. Bliddy scary it was as they are massive creatures :shock: We thought word had got out amongst the local badger community as after seeing the second one, we reckoned on there being loads more up the road, armed to the teeth with baseball bats etc ready to take us all out.....

La cucaracha

When badgers attack;

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YsouWVw8DjY

popette

ShockedSoShocked wrote:

tardie wrote:

When I was a school there was the legend of the lad who'd been KILLED while cycling, as he followed that advice and didn't swerve round a squirrel. It died, whizzed round the wheel and jammed in the fork, stopping the front wheel dead. Boy went flying and diiied. Allegedly.

In no way am I saying this is true, but it was LEGEND round our way!

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A squirrel went between my front and rear wheels today - god knows how I didn't hit it.