The STW hive mind is needed to analyse yesterday’s ride and see if there was a better way to handle it.

Yesterday, while returning from my morning ride to the national park, head was down, heading down a hill, I looked down at the speedo, looked up to see….

RIght in front of me, about 1m long and thick, gauged by it being half way across the hard shoulder, going hell for leather, across my path.

I considered a bunnyhop to clear it, but realised that might go wrong and I will land on it, I considered simply running over it.

Sensibly I decided to swerve around the tail rather than the head and carry on riding, heart pumping a little quicker.

As I rode back, considering what might have happened if I had ran it over, it got whipped around bit my ankle and left me with a necrotic leg.

Not the biggest I have seen on my rides out, but closest I’ve come to running one over.

Sorry, can’t help myself:

Higher tyre pressures

^ No – the ride started off badly enough after pumping my tire up to 90psi, turning my back on it for the tube to blow, not sure which scared me more, banging tire or coming out of a daydream to realise I was about to run over a snake,.

is that a tree viper snake?

whatever it’s beautiful.

am guessing you don’t live in the uk Quirrel. the only snakes i have ever seen on my travels are grass snakes.

Typically when I have run over them, not intentionally but it does happen, you just tend to go straight over and they don’t get tied up in anything, you rarely even feel it.

am guessing you don’t live in the uk Quirrel. the only snakes i have ever seen on my travels are grass snakes.

Two of my mates were standing at the side of the trail on a Scottish hillside. I assumed they were kindly waiting for me to haul my fat unfit body up to them. When I caught up I hopped off the bike and almost stood on the Adder they had been admiring.

Given my experience of snakes in the wild is zero I’m gonna suggest bunnyhopping as the way forward. Time to brush up on those skills.

Stick in in your loftspace…

It was you with the rodent in the loft wasn’t it?

I’m probably wrong but I think that tree-climbing snake is the symbol, wound around a staff, for a doctor.

It was you with the rodent in the loft wasn’t it?

There may be a snake up there already, given we found a snake skin in the house a few months ago after being away.

Give it a whiz of this.

See, this would all be irrelevant if you’d bought a Mongoose.

I often came across snakes when I was out riding in Taiwan. One huge one I reckon at least 2m long was curled up asleep at the bottom of a singletrack descent just before the trail rose again. Didn’t see it until the last minute so had no choice but to bunny hop it.I lived to tell the tail.

When living in Ohio in the US I came across a snake curled up on the road.

I came so, so close to poking it with my bicycle pump to see if it was alive.

It was a water moccasin – a very grumpy venomous snake.

Note: Many years later they’ve invented Wikipedia.

I did not nearly prod a water moccasin but a northern water snake. I would have lived after all 🙂

Not an issue if you line the trail with bed sheets

wat

Fit some bombers and own them.

See, this would all be irrelevant if you’d bought a Mongoose.

8)

A lot of the riding I do in Greece is off-piste sort of stuff and, especially in early summer, I see quite a lot of snakes – the ones that I see are the metre long, bronze-green coloured ones, which are harmless. The ones that I don’t see (but which are, no doubt around) are the small venomous ones, like horned vipers.
I reckon riding among them is safer than walking though……

Meh. First world problems.

If you can’t bunny hop something the size of a snak I’d suggest practicing that, especially if you think it might happen again.

I narrowly missed running over a worm on Mellor Moor this morning.

(Glad you’re ok, Quirrel. I thought that was a green mamba at first. Just the idea of a snake that poisonous gives me the willies).

I’ve been pretty close to a few eastern brown snakes here in Australia. Normally you don’t see them on the downs as the vibrations given off by you riding will have them going for cover. However on climbs is where I find them. As I’m normally going a lot slow its best to jump off the bike and back away ensuring that the snake has a way to escape!

The start of summer is worst for it.. Also a small baby snake is worse as it doesn’t know how to control its venom and will give you ALL of it! Been told that if bitten best to stay still and compress the limb-bite area to limit the venoms progress around the body!

Just a little note I’d rather get bitten by a snake than of the nasty spiders here! I was bitten a few weeks back whilst out trail building by a small spider.. Went up over my boot under my trousers bite me just above the sock kine. Two days later pain still there. Blister was around a 10mm in diameter – it popped and a hole in my leg appeared… At least with a snake you know what it was!

When I was in Australia, I remember stepping over a long thick stick outside my van door, that hadn’t been there when I parked, which suddenly moved and slithered off. Huge long brown thing it was, hostel guy reckoned it was a king brown. He said they were prevelant then, that spooked me a bit.

Had a lairy huge centipede a few weeks ago giving it the big one in the road – they scare me.

The brown that stood up and hissed at me in Eagle Park in Adelaide really freaked me out for the day, saw lots in my first year here thankfully slow enough to stop, still never sure what to do….

Not a fan of snakes at all.
As I am Awesome I have of course bunny hopped one and lived to tell the tale. Only an Adder that I nearly ran over on Simonside. Must have been just warming itself on the fireroad as got to have a good inspection and watch it slowly make an exit. Beautiful creature.
Used to see quite a lot of Large Whip Snakes in Cyprus doing similar things in the morning. Big and black and up to about two metres long I would guess. Non venomous the locals told me and they like them as they have a taste for the venomous ones that have an affinity with you swimming pool.
Nothing like the malevolent and evil ones here in Aus. Luckily not had an encounter with a Brown only a Red Bellied Black Snake which seemed pretty chilled once we stopped and let it make an exit. Seen some awful footage of Browns striking at passing bikers on local forum. Will see if I can find it.

^ I would like to see that

Can’t lay my hands on it at the moment. Here is what happens:
Man follows wife down some Singeltrack with GoPro. Snake takes exception and launches itself out of the long grass at the first rider. Misses as rider is traveling quite quickly. Such an explosive and impressive thing as the snake is airborne for what seems like an age.
Que all branches giving me the willies for a couple of rides.

Never really been an issue for me…..

Then last week… Came about 3 ft from stepping on a rattler that made its prescence known as i was about to step down on…..

Of course that was nothing compared to the bear we disturbed from its evening meal walking home from the pub in mammoth,

^ I’m assuming of the type that eats humans, not the type found hanging about in car parks after dark.

in mammoth they are almost domesticated so they are the type that eat humans and also are found hanging about in carparks trying to get into the bear bins where the food is after dark……

1st one wakes it
2nd one pisses it off
3rd one….

Seems to be the tassie rule

We had a similar thing happen on Epsom Downs last night.

Just carry chopping block and sharp blade in backpack… 😯

[video]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8UEkRYfkHw4[/video]

^ That is what I worried about