Hills, dogs and motor cars..

pottssteve

Hi Boys and Girls,

My commute to work contains a detour with a hill which I climb and then descend to make my morning ride a bit longer. I often get up to speeds of 60km/hr on the straight downhill bit. However, a colleague of mine came into work this morning having just hit a dog on the same stretch of road. She was doing about 70km/hr (the limit). Apparently the car number plate was smashed. The dog was a write-off - splattered all over the road. There are quite a few stray dogs in the area (together with a couple of water buffalo), and it's made me wonder what my chances would be if I hit something travelling at that speed. Has anyone ever hit a dog or similar at high speed?

bompington

I think I can safely say that if you hit a water buffalo at almost any speed, bad things will result.
I once nearly came off, more in surprise than due to the impact, when a blackbird flew into my helmet early one morning.
If you hit a dog at 60kmh on a bike, I'd guess you're off, very off, and your bike will be damaged.
As for stray dogs, if I saw an out of control dog in the road when I'm driving, I would aim for the owner.

geoff_ss

In August 1990 I hit a cat going considerably slower than that and it effectively ended my serious cycling as well as my competitive sailing. I ended up doing a somersault over the bars and suffered spinal shock which left me totally paralysed for several days and off work for 3 months. Very scary, I can tell you. I've regained most of my movement but I'm left with a lot of chronic pain and various relatively minor agility problems.

So yes, hitting an animal can have very serious consequences. It totally changed my life. Fortunately my collision was at the top of a hill; had it happened 150 metres later I'd have been doing 40/50 kph it may have been even more serious.

Take care.

Geoff

pottssteve

Thanks, guys, and best wishes with the recovery, Geoff.

Lo and behold, this morning a black labrador comes running out of a driveway and has a go. I managed to avoid it (by swerving into the middle of the road :shock: ). Then on the way up the hill I go past one of the water buffalo. I came down quite slowly...

I might take up chess....

geoff_ss

Believe or not there's a water buffalo in Derby - on a cycle route too! Fortunately it's confined to a field. I'm afraid my recovery has run its course but thanks for the thought. I'm not going to get any improvement now and at my age I'm merely doing my best to limit the decrepitude (70 in January)

We saw lots of water buffaloes when we toured Nepal in 1989 but they were a minor problem compared to the roads themselves.

Geoff