Been riding on and off road for 25 years or so, and for the first time today on commute to work hit and killed a squirrel… Little bugger was pretty suicidal and ran under my wheels from safety of a grass verge.

Feeling kind of bad now, anyone else ever managed to not avoid a animal?

Should I go back and get his little carcass for making lasagne to make up for killing him?

i give it less than 2 minutes before someone posts a picture of that squirrel in a disc rotor

Ickle baby rabbit,road bike,steep downhill,new back wheel and bib tights(and skin) 😡

Yes – managed to not avoid rabbits a few times. One unfortunately got run over by the front wheel, then somehow caught in the chainset and flung vertically up my leg. Clearly badly injured, it made it into the bushes, but I felt bad and went looking for it to see if needed finishing off. Couldn’t find it though.

Crow flew out of a hedge while I was at the front on a clubrun, somehow bounced off my front wheel and went between my leg and the crank as I pedaled. No blood so I presume it survived, or I broke every bone in it’s body and it got flicked into the ehdge and it was finished off by a car/fox several hours later.

Whilst driving 2 mallard ducks (one m one f) flew out at bumper level. I hit one of them and in my rear view miror saw the m fly a loop round and land next to the body and nuzzle it trying to lift her head up. Felt properly shit for days after that!

damn

Rode over and squashed a rat years ago. it sort of exploded in the same way that a crisp packet does if you stamp on it just right. Rat’s weren’t in short supply so I didn’t feel bad.

Crushed a fledgeling waxwing once. Half the flock went one way, half the other way, the baby hesitated, looked at me, crouched in terror.. crunch 🙁 Nothing I could do to avoid it.

Recently a rabbit ran a good 100 metres from the safety of a field to break its back under the front wheel of the man in front. I had to finish the poor thing off. Fortunately it was a ride to a bivi spot so it got stuffed in the pack and eaten that night. Stupid thing.

Had it a few times, they see us riding, panic and try and get back to the burrow, running from safety hundreds of metres away to die under our wheels outside their burrows. 🙄

hit a flying stag beetle earlier this year – not sure where it went after it bounced off the lens of my Oakleys, but it did remind me why I never get on a bike without adequate eye protection.

Recently a rabbit ran a good 100 metres from the safety of a field to break its back under the front wheel of the man in front.

Mixy?

Fortunately it was a ride to a bivi spot so it got stuffed in the pack and eaten that night. Stupid thing.

Ohhh

A marmot got squished on the descent from mont jovet to bozel last year, poor thing!

in the split second before it happened I imagined this

but fortunately just squished him. (Not my bike in picture and accident clearly caused by logos/valves not aligning)

Riding fixed, so not quite so maneuverable/squirrel hop-able…

Readng the above, I wonder if I have been lucky to have missed doing this before now! Plenty of ponies/cows round here, don’t want to hit one of them…

An old friend used to have the rattle from a rattle snake as a trophy from a cross-USA ride he did. He said the pack he was riding in split in front of him and he had no time to react and went straight on, straight over the poor reptile.

Worst I had was two birds and a hedgehog on one ride.

I’ve also named a local trail known as the “Fluffy Bunny Trail” as you had to dodge the newborns quite often. Sometimes, you didn’t 🙁

I got a rat, or a rat got me a few years ago~

A few years ago I was coming down a nice bit of singletrack and saw a pidgeon in the middle of the path.

It will move away – I thought as they always do when driving and cars move faster than bikes.

It didn’t move and my last minute bunny hop was too late.

I was challenged by a riding buddy at the bottom of the hill (feathers everywhere) and I had to go sort it out as it clearly had a broken wing.

Not my finest riding moment!

Killed a rabbit one morning commuting to work, it ran out infront of me then decided to turn around to try and run between the wheels and did not make it.
I had all my work clothes in bag or i would have taken it home to eat.

I once got taken out by a dog when I was riding. I was just entering a park from a path concealed behind a fence and hedge, when BAM! A German pointer that had been running along the fence perimeter slammed into me from the side.

Smashed my front light, tore my trousers, and bruised my knees, elbows, and ego.

Had I not pulled through, through, I suppose that would have made me roadkill on a bike.

there’s a rat in ma brake caliper, what ama gonna do?

I’ll add a suicidal hare to the list.

Once hit a sheep while descending off the Sidlaws on a commute to work. Stupid animal ran out of the gorse bushes with no time to avoid it. Was braking hard by the time it was in front of me, clouted it, it spun around and wedged under the frame/BB with the chainset tangled in its wool. Just as well no-one saw me wrestling to get it disentangled, must have looked a bit dodgy.
Ran into a partridge on another commute. That one came home with me..

Mole. It was messy.

Someone else described it well above: like popping a crisp packet

I ran over a small shrew about 2 weeks ago on my commute. I saw it on the path and the stupid thing jumped into the road. I only caught its back legs so it ended up squealing and doing a sort of break dance spinning round wildly. I stopped and stamped on it to put it out of its misery. Felt bad but it was me or him

A mate still shudders when he sees a rabbit after a big smash on hitting one a couple of years ago. Mate wrecked his clothing, helmet, black eye and various minor injuries. The rabbit didn’t survive.

Made all the more amusing by the fact that he is quite a strict veggie.

I once completed an audax and an “older” couple on a tandem finished with a fresh looking pheasant strapped to the pannier rack. At a recent event the same couple were out on their tandem. We were taking odds when we rode past a fresh looking dear carcass, but they obviously decided the extra weight may be too much for them. Or just finished it off on the way round the course…..