Road Kill / Near misses

yorkshireraw
yorkshireraw Posts: 1,628
edited March 2008 in The bottom bracket
Had a Badger scuttle across a country road in front of me last night, at the closest point it must have been about 1m away from getting a new stripe on its back (or me on the deck). Have also seen a fox and a muntjac deer in the past week, although both were speedier and less suicidal than Mr Badger.

What has anyone else had a run-in with (or near miss)?
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Comments

  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    I had a run in with a badger last year - just missed him luckily as I suspect his low body profile would have seen me doing a Superman over the bars.
  • they must be special Bedfordshire kamikaze badgers round here - my encounter was between Old Warden & Cardington.
  • Bronzie
    Bronzie Posts: 4,927
    they must be special Bedfordshire kamikaze badgers round here - my encounter was between Old Warden & Cardington.
    Ditto - mine was on the road between Old Warden and Deadmans Cross (A600/Rowney Warren Woods).................probably the same beast..............he/she is obviously a serial cyclist terroriser :lol:

    I've seen 3 live badgers, all while on my bike cycling after dark, and 2 within about 2 miles of this spot. Too many dead ones to count. :cry:
  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    Maybe it is something about Bedfordshire. The only time I've hit wildlife on my bike was a suicidal cat in Brickhill. It ran out from behind a car straight under my front wheel. Cat, rider and bike were apparently unijured. Difficult to tell as the feline quit the scene at speed ;)

    Anyway, brings back memories as I was a member of Beds Road CC as a junior and the roads around Cardington got quite familiar
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • Had a couple of close encounters with bears - singles and families of - racoons, badgers, beavers and the odd feral dog.

    Gats
  • I don't think we have Bears in Bedfordshire, not sure about the local beavers...
  • ekimq
    ekimq Posts: 20
    I see foxes and deer all the time. But my best wildlife encounter was with an owl which flew about 15 to 20 feet in front of me for nearly a mile :shock: It only veered off when the fencing at the side of the road ended and I had so much fun keeping up that I found myself at the top of a hill which usually kills me :P

    Haven't seen any 3D badgers here in Berkshire, we only seem to do the flat ones and they don't move much.
  • bagpusscp
    bagpusscp Posts: 2,907
    For fox sake badgers are tough as old boots or my wifes steaks when she over cooks it.
    bagpuss
  • Cycling through the new Forest my close encounters tend to be New Forest Ponies. The adults tend to be okay but the new foals tend to be skitish and suddenly decide that they want to be on the other side of the road.
  • pneumatic
    pneumatic Posts: 1,989
    I remember riding North through Angus towards Brechin one glorious sunny morning in November and encountering:

    Hedgehog, Rabbit, Pheasant, Sparrowhawk, Deer and some kind of weaselly thing.

    all in the space of a couple of hours.

    They were all dead but had not yet had their eyes pecked out by the crows, so were probably quite freshly mown down.

    It prompted me to wonder whether the same 4x4 had killed the lot on some kind of mad anti-wildlife spree, or whether it was something to do with the angle of the bright winter sun in the sky at that time of day.

    Anyway, apart from all the carcasses, I would strongly recommend a few days cycling around that area; it is all stunningly beautiful (once you have got out of Dundee!).


    Fast and Bulbous
    Peregrinations
    Eddingtons: 80 (Metric); 60 (Imperial)

  • Eat My Dust
    Eat My Dust Posts: 3,965
    I've only had one fox run out in front of me, it looked like it was carrying a rat in it's mouth.
    I do however "startle" rats every night riding along the river bank close to my house, god know how one hasn't ended up in my spokes by now.
  • term1te
    term1te Posts: 1,462
    Once found a mixy rabbit just sitting in the middle of the road. Poor thing must have been completely blind as it hoped into by wheel when I stopped next to it. It sort of found it's way to the hedge.

    Also had a large dragonfly fly through my front wheel, well halfway through, before an aero-spoke dispatched it.

    My worst experience with road kill was when I was flagged down in Bracknell by two girls who must have been 8 or 9 years old. One was crying, so I stopped. She pointed to a very flat hedgehog and asked if it was dead. Not having any children of my own at the time, I made the mistake of saying yes. Both girls then started crying and ran off. I thought the sight of two small girls running away from me in tears didn’t look good, I had visions of angry mobs and cycled off rather fast.
  • geoff_ss
    geoff_ss Posts: 1,201
    JonGinge wrote:
    Maybe it is something about Bedfordshire. The only time I've hit wildlife on my bike was a suicidal cat in Brickhill. It ran out from behind a car straight under my front wheel. Cat, rider and bike were apparently unijured. Difficult to tell as the feline quit the scene at speed ;)

    Anyway, brings back memories as I was a member of Beds Road CC as a junior and the roads around Cardington got quite familiar

    You were lucky. It was a cat that put paid to my serious cycling and, incidentally, introduced my club's tasteful 'Flat Cat Award' which has been awarded annually to the 'Best Crash of the Year' since 1990. I think my wife and I are the only married couple to feature as she also clobbered (or was clobbered by) a homicidal cat about 5 years after I did.

    The A600 between Bedford and Welwyn was well known to me in my youth. I traveled it 100s of times in the 50s on my motor bike commuting between Nottingham and Welwyn Garden City - no motorway in those days :)

    Geoff
    Old cyclists never die; they just fit smaller chainrings ... and pedal faster
  • I put a rat out of its misery for a BMXer last year - he ran over it & broke it's back but was too squemish to kick it in the canal to finish it off. I was happy to help.

    Another friend finished off a bird that was injured and flapping around in the road outside a primary school at going home time. Believe it or not, one of the mothers complained and he was arrested for it! Presumably she wanted him to take it to the RSPCA.

    He might not have chosen the best method, holding it by the head and giving it a swing to snap the neck, is effective but could turn people's stomachs...... :lol:
  • I had a cat between my wheels before, not sure who it scared most!
    Wheelies ARE cool.

    Zaskar X
  • During the Summer I had a fox cub run alongside me for about 50 yards through a park at night.
    On Boxing Day I was cycling from Oxford to Brill and I was "buzzed" by a red kite. It flew directly above me for about a mile. Nearly lost it into the hedges a couple of times admiring it.
    My beaver chasing days are, sadly, behind me. :oops:
  • jonginge
    jonginge Posts: 5,945
    Geoff_SS wrote:
    You were lucky. It was a cat that put paid to my serious cycling and, incidentally, introduced my club's tasteful 'Flat Cat Award' which has been awarded annually to the 'Best Crash of the Year' since 1990. I think my wife and I are the only married couple to feature as she also clobbered (or was clobbered by) a homicidal cat about 5 years after I did.

    Absolutely. I wish I could say it was my superb bike handling skills that kept me upright. Alas, no, it was luck pure and simple. The incident left me a gibbering wreck for the rest of the ride home (200yds or so)

    Jon
    FCN 2-4 "Shut up legs", Jens Voigt
    Planet-x Scott
    Rides
  • the usual white vans, people walking in the road, car doors, had a near miss with a badger once aswell, but the scariest has to be having a heron flying towards you at head height! Must have something like a 2 metre wing span and a nice pointy beak to go through the helmet...it turned off just in time.
    oh, and a squirrel darting back and forwards infront of me.
  • discurio
    discurio Posts: 118
    bit off topic but i was racing down a loose gravel track on my dirt bike a few years ago with a mate behind me then out of nowhere im flying through the air and bouncing down the track. when my mate stopped and saw i wasn't dead he pissed himself laughing and told me a kangaroo had come out of the bush on the side clouted me took us both down got up looked at me then hopped off. i had no idea at all what had hit me it all happened so fast. no sorry mate or anything, cheeky marsupials :roll:
    I'm not dumb. I just have a command of thoroughly useless information
  • coco2
    coco2 Posts: 44
    Cycling in Glenlivet with a head torch it's amazing what hides in the shaows waiting for you...
  • My mate riding ahead of me almost hit a chicken today. It's just went mental on the roadside, then raced across his path flapping it's wings and missing his front wheel by inches.

    No idea why it wanted to cross the road so suddenly :shock:
  • bagpusscp
    bagpusscp Posts: 2,907
    coco2 wrote:
    Cycling in Glenlivet with a head torch it's amazing what hides in the shaows waiting for you...


    I have tried cycling after Glenlivet :shock: . I was all over the shop :oops: :? :wink:
    bagpuss
  • nwallace
    nwallace Posts: 1,465
    Never managed to hit anything while cycling

    Near Misses
    Head Height Bat early one evening on a dirt track in the village.

    Not quite so near misses
    Had a rabbit running alongside me on the road to Tentsmuir one day, it kept looking for somewhere to dive out the way, luckily it found somewhere on the offside!
    Sheep near Whitehills stone circle on the way back from the Pitfichie trails.
    The odd mouse.

    And of course as everyone has probably had problem with.
    Stray dogs (Using the RTA rules which require any dog walking along the public highway (THe pavement is part of the Way) to be on a leash)

    Driving
    Discovering a white rabbit (and thus blatantly an escaped pet) in the headlights while doing 70 on the A90 (didn't hear it hit so think it got out of the way just in time)

    Sheep in Glencoe, clearly suicidal, not your usual sheep who sits on the road cos it is warm and you can see for miles away. Oh No, the kind that hide behind rocks and jump out, look at you then dive back in again.
    Do Nellyphants count?

    Commuter: FCN 9
    Cheapo Roadie: FCN 5
    Off Road: FCN 11

    +1 when I don't get round to shaving for x days
  • Near miss... a terrier dog thing that the owner called out to when he saw me coming... dog ran straight at the front wheel, but my emergency stop meant it's paw went under the outside nobs of the front nobby nic, and were milimeters away from being squished.


    On skis... another terrier thing chasing my ankles while I was trying to do a skid stop outside a cafeteria... almost a 4-paw amputation.


    On 4 wheels... 1 lizard basking in the middle of the road that ran AT my wheel after I carefully swerved to avoid it. 1 caiman crocodile, at least 100 frogs, 1 tortoise, and 2 ferrel dogs that decided to run into the middle of the road and attempt to procreate right in the headlight beams. That was all in French Guiana.
    Andy - The Expat Cyclist in Germany
    '07/'08 Cotic Soul
    '96 Scott Vail
    '89 Ridgeback Rapide 105
  • webbhost
    webbhost Posts: 470
    my worst:

    Going out of my village, and a cat runs in front of me, and misses by about half a metre....

    50 yards further down the road, a burd jumps ouf ot the grass by the side of the road and I swear to god it must have been aiming for my wheel.

    The little blighter was LITURALLY an inch from becoming minced bird pie.
  • fat_bob
    fat_bob Posts: 3
    first timer - hi all.

    Squirrel ran 'through' my front wheel this morning. just ran straight into it! couldn't do anything but listen to the squeal and the subsequent silence. Twitched for a few seconds then packed in! Nearly threw up. Carried on my ride and had to return past the crime scene to get home - felt guilty but they are vermin apparently (regardless of how cute they look with their 'oh so lovely big bushy tails' Quote my wife).

    happy days!
  • 4 fallow deer ran out into our club run the other week - took out at least 2 riders - with one ending up in casualty. All of the deer appear to escape unharmed.
  • heavymental
    heavymental Posts: 2,076
    Squirrels make good eating apparently. Should have put it in your jersey pocket and had it on a satay stick for dinner!
  • richardast
    richardast Posts: 273
    What's got a hazelnut in every bite?
  • had a Weasel/stoat thing run through the front wheel last year on the Chesterfield canal damn them things is quick luckily I was just pottering and neither of us got hurt(I kinda like the little guys.
    Nearest death experience was a few years ago going along the road down from Fox House(Derbyshire) over the ledft hand bridge along the long straight and then past the car park near end of road before it bends to the right then heads down past a pub on the right on the Castleton road.We were catching up behind a coach (a bit too close perhaps) on the drops belting down when he decides to turn left into the pub car park opposite with no prior indication and his brake light were out, much brake 'dancing' on our part ensued and with a quick jink saw us all out of trouble just ! moral give coaches room and expect the unexpected. definately a mucky pants time!
    being a reformed stuntdrinker allows pontification