Kamikaze squirrels

[Cymraes]

Happens to the best of us - Mark Cavendish Tweeted that he had an "incident" with a deer this morning ...

[Redvee]

I had two rabbits dash out from the bushes where they were safe to the otherside of the path this morning, 00:20, as I rode home from work

[TonyR]

The good news I can tell you from experience is if they do run into the side of your front wheel they bounce off the spokes rather than go through and get stuck in an icky mess at the forks. I have a nice straight downhill run through the trees that becomes kamikaze rabbit alley in the early evening.

[Alex L]

The good news I can tell you from experience is if they do run into the side of your front wheel they bounce off the spokes rather than go through and get stuck in an icky mess at the forks. I have a nice straight downhill run through the trees that becomes kamikaze rabbit alley in the early evening.

Oh really?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/76039319/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/29172942/

[TonyR]

The good news I can tell you from experience is if they do run into the side of your front wheel they bounce off the spokes rather than go through and get stuck in an icky mess at the forks. I have a nice straight downhill run through the trees that becomes kamikaze rabbit alley in the early evening.

Oh really?

http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/76039319/
http://www.flickr.com/photos/bike/29172942/

I should have used that useful word typically The first photo is a wheel with very few spokes and a big gap between them which would leave holes which a traditionally spoked wheel doesn't. The second appears to have got caught up in the disc brake. All my experiences though have been bounces - squirrels and rabbits.

[Alex L]

Fair enough, I'm sure I've seen another image that would be classed as a normal scenario.

[gentlegreen]

* starts designing bunny guards for bike*

When a hazard approaches, their instinct is to head for the nearest tall tree-trunk, even if it means crossing open ground.

That may explain several close calls I've had - I was watching a David Attenborough once where he demonstrated the well-prepared escape path networks created by some small mammal or other.

I had a nail-biting moment when I doubled back to help this little blackbird earlier in the year - fortunately the hedge was on my side of the road.



Apologies for the weird colour balance.