[Closed] What's the most random thing that's happened to you when riding?

Found a ferret at about 2300 on a very cold and windy part of the south downs a few years ago. Chased her down, coaxed her out the hole she was hiding in, popped her in my rucksack where she promptly went to sleep and took her home.

Funnily enough I had a fairly random thing happen yesterday...I was cycling at a fair speed down a bridleway when I startled a magpie flying over which proceeded to drop what it had in it's beak on me which happened to be a snake!

Well, as it turned out, I think it was a slow worm but it scared the crap out of me plus I'm superstitious anyway ("one for sorrow...etc"). Got stung by a bee later on the cycle.

Yep sheep on its back is bad. You did the right thing there, otherwise it would've been dead, soon.

yep - the sheep stuck on it's back is "rigged". It's where Black Sheep Breweries gets the name Riggwelter from for their strong beer (and why the logo is a sheep on it's back...)

sheep on its back is bad mkay 😆

sheep on its back is flirting, no ?

(God, I know some pointless facts...)

Passed an Italian couple shagging alongside some singletrack! I nearly crashed 🙂

Cycling on back roads and through some woods on the roadbike and shouted woohoo from the serotonin hit.

Then this couple jumped up and fiddled with their clothes...I shouted sorry! 😈

(they probably thought I could see them when I didn't know they were there)

How did you know they were Italian? Their shoes?

How did you know they were Italian? Their shoes?

I was in Italy.

Perhaps they were eating pizza at the same time ?

>I was in Italy.

Is Italy only full of Italians ? 😯

Riding along a bridleway late one night I realised there was a badger running about 20-30 feet in front of me in the same direction.

Edit - I knew it was a badger cos I was in badger land.

Canal at night seems to be a focus of "unusual" activities. Nearly hit a squatting woman (peeing) one dark night. Saw another woman bent over a bridge being given "a good seeing too" early evening. Errr swarm of bats (literally dozens) seemingly in attack mode. Vauxhall Astra being taught to swim by some thoughtful hoodies (Not all on one ride mind)

Rode past a stranger who called my name today. Or was it really a stranger?

Did you still have your name badge on?

On a local trail, this winter in the heavy snow. Came taring round the corner to see an elderly couples with the guy on his hunkers right at the side of the trail taking a s*@t. Not a plesent sight.

Maybe not the most random, but on Saturday I came across someone's dentures. Perhaps not that odd considering I was just outside of Merthyr 😉

the sheep thing depends on where u are, my folks used t call it kessened....

How did you know they were Italian?

she 'overed three inches above the trail in ecstasy ??

i rode past a couple having sex. she was on top and i went to high5 her as i rode past. she looked shocked 🙂

Strangelove - Member
How did you know they were Italian? Their shoes?

She was good looking...

A deer antler (full size fellow type) fell out of a tree just missing my nipper who was resting underneath at the time !

Was on my snowboard rather than my bike, but did once find an unexploded bomb...

I'm trying hard to choose between riding right through the middle of a load of orcs and elves fighting, or having a seat rammed so hard up my arse it bled for a week.

@samuri

Are you having a recollection of a previous encounter, or deciding how to spend your sunday evening?!

lol, good point. Back in a minute.

Had an Owl fly five feet on my left one night on some wooded single track, stayed with me for 200-300 m.
Another time heard a crashing noise on the steep hillside above me whilst going pretty fast on a path contouring the hill and a herd on deer came crashing through just in front, needed to brake, felt I needed to duck and one jumped over me.
Like some of earlier encounters i have have come across a few pairs at 'it' on the trail, one car was reversed up into a bridle way with out of each side belonging to the same person -never did work out what they were doing.

1) 5-6 years ago on the South Downs near Chanctonbury Ring: I passed an old dear (gypsy looking) having a kip by the side of the trail with her rickety old bike beside her.
2) 1 year ago in a sunny field in the middle of nowhere in Surrey: was out for an early evening run and passed a besuited middle-aged man trying (or pretending?) to get to sleep on his pillow (I kid you not) next to his two labradors.
3) 1 year ago on North Downs near Ranmore: gave directions to a couple of American bible-bashing weirdos who were cycling from Guildford to Dorking to attend a Church gathering - what made it weird was they had a German Shepherd for company ... and they were even contemplating cycling along the A25 with the dog in tow!

on the same road ride in north yorkshire..

young child in full shorts, blazer and school cap, running along the side of the road making aeroplane noises. 15 miles from the nearest obvious settlement.

an owl flew along side me for a good few minutes, and kept looking at me. Mindy you, I was grinning like an idiot at riding with an owl!

came across a very large lorry, with a large tank on the bank (like army tank, not cylinder) stuck down a very narrow road. Driver asked directions to "the motorway". I can only think of the A1 near york, and that was a long way away. offered directions to nearest barracks (my old base) he seemd to be less interested in this info.

then I rode back to my hotel and my room was clean and the beer wasn't overpriced and flat, so truely a strange day.

Camping in Glen Nevis one winter[the one where it was -25 .i was bivvy'd in deep snow but had cleared about a 6' area.i'd settled down for the night when i heard whispering noises coming from nearby.
Glen Nevis -Dead of winter,dead of night and pitch black
But i can hear whispering 😯
and its close to me
I nearly had a heart failure when i see[barely] a large black shape on the ground about 5' from me moving.
.
F'king TA on some sort of large night exercise.they had bedded down without me noticing.i guess the noise had woken me and by the time i was fully conscious they'd quietened down briefly
😆 2 years off the life of me old ticker 😆

3 of us were on a night ride at about 1.00AM and were rather shocked to see a young lady on a mobile phone seemingly in the middle of no-where in the pitch dark.

Dont know what surprised me more; thae fact that she was there or the fact that 3 dudes with mega bright lights riding straight at her didnt even throw her of her conversational stride

Turns out there was a campsite nearby but of course i didnt know this at the time!

I once hit a chain across a trail and was knocked off my bike. When I came to a stop / opened my eyes there was a goat staring at me, about 2 ft from my face to its. It had one end of the chain attached to a collar round it's neck!

Never seen anyone having sex. Given that I live between promiscuous France and Catholic Spain it's bound to happen soon.

Going along the south downs a couple of years ago and walking towards me is a naked man, nothing on except rucksack and walking boots! 😯

The Naked Rambler?? I saw him walking along the high street here in France. We couldn't help giggling a bit!

Got attacked by a Buzzard last year, that was pretty random.

'The Naked Rambler' yeah, I remember there was a guy who insisted on rambling naked, he made the news at the time, so he made it into France, could well have been heading to the ferry at newhaven when I saw him then, there was a few smirks on the other walkers around at the time and it made me giggle ... wonder where he is now?

Well, last summer he got arrested in San Sebastian. He was released but ejected from Spain and headed to France because they're a bit more lenient. I don't know what happened to him after that but he was in all the papers in this part of Spain!

Naked rambler Stephen Gough? - still in Perth prison I think where is is likely to stay.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/crime/6977441/Naked-rambler-faces-life-in-prison.html

Riding into Bristol on the Bath-Bristol cyclepath a couple of years ago and as you get near Brizzle, it goes slightly downhill through a residential area. Broard daylight, early evening, people everywhere and there was a couple blatently shagging on a bench. There were some kids 150 yards further down.... 😯

Had Barn Owls fly in my lights for a couple of hundred metres 3 or 4 times on one of my regular rides.

One misty day had a herd of about 60 red deer wander across a track about 50 metres from me

Having a snack yesterday stopped by a loch on a regular ride saw a pair of Ospreys circling. Their nest was only about 400m metres away, but it's the first time I have seen them

Saw a [b]wallaby[/b] in the wild - in [b]Oxfordshire[/b]. 😯

me and 2 others riding along a bridle way at the end of an evening ride .i'm about a hundred yards in front as there are a series of gates and you end up taking turns to open then .hear the others shout something but couldn't tell what.
next thing theres a loud noise and two horses are galloping right behind me.i pedal like the very devil and they are chasing , i get to the gate shitting myself, get off and open it sharpish style. they give a snort and gallop off doing the horse equivalent of laughing their chuffs off .proves once and for all animules like dicking about too.

I was riding along with a group on a whyte preston test ride, when a chinnock helecopter landed in the field next to the track and a load of armed geezers ran down the loading ramp, layed down in a circle then the helecopter flew off,,
we rode on past said nice morning to all the tough rambolikes

rabbit running through my front wheel and getting caught up in the chainset whilst I was going downhill at fair rate of knotts. As I pulled up on the brakes to stop my mate rode into the back of me went over his handlebars and landed in a bunch of stingers. He got up swearing and saying 'what the **** you stopped for !??' I pointed to the squirming squealing mess of what was once rabbit on the floor and he promptly put it out of it's misery with the nearest rock, which almost made me lose my lunch.

Kev

On yesterday's ride, cresting a hill to find a group of middle aged people playing a role playing game in full regalia, swords and pointy hats was quite interesting.

I've had an owl fly alongside me for a good 100 yards, and one swoop down at my light (that freaked me out a bit!)

I've had deer dash across the trail in front of me and seen more doggers that I'd care to mention.

I've also been riding with Hora. That's always weird 😀

Going down a fast single track in dry dusty conditions one evening. Badger ran out in front i ran over it, stacked it big time, rolled down the hill. Went back up to get bike and badger just got up sniffing the tyres prob had crap on it then walked off.

Not me, but someone on bikeradar came across a guy playing a full drumkit on a moor in the middle of nowhere

was pushing up a quarry track and there were A4 pages ripped out of a pretty nasty porn mag in the bushes, trees and on the track itself. Then a big group of girl guides were walking down (they will have had an education/counselling after walking down there). Then, got to the top and there was a 2ft high pile of knickers, bras, suspenders, etc in the on the edge of the bridleway. Looked like they were from the 80s (nylon and vivid colours) but left recently.

Internet research confirmed it's a big dogging site... 😯

The aftermath of a rave on Walbury hill. First time I haven't felt out of place in lycra. Sat down and enjoyed the view with some amiable pill heads, and asked them to clean up after themselves 🙂

Just coming up to the bridge to go over the canal, and I notice there's a large plume of smoke pouring into the sky. The local scallies had nicked a boat from one of the moorings further down and it was blazing away like a good un underneath the bridge. Made sure the FB were on the way, and made a dash across.

I got flashed at once. That was pretty weird really! Rode off pretty quick, but I had to stop I was laughing so much

Internet research confirmed it's a big dogging site...

Grid reference please

That Naked Rambler bloke, what a tool:

Mr Gough said he accepted he could "potentially" remain in jail forever and added: "This is about individual freedom."

But you keep getting locked up, you numpty.. 🙄

Strangest thing that's happened to me was in Norway. Happly pootling along a bit of track, when suddenly a load of bushes suddenly jumped up around me, pointing guns at me. T'was a bunch of soldiers in Ghillie suits, on a training exercise. They were perfectly polite though, and their fit blonde female group leader invited me to sit in the cab of their truck parked nearby, and have a cup of hot chocolate with her, as an 'apology'. 😀

Saw a naked rambler another time whilst over there, but it didn't seem too weird, in a quiet forest in the middle of nowhere. I had a skinny dip in a lake myself one time.

I once discreetly cycled past a couple going at it on a lakeside beach in the middle of nowhere. Passed within 5m of them but I'm fairly sure they were oblivious to anything besides each other.

Strangest things have been animals though. I had to use my bike as a shield against a pi**ed off badger once, after surpruising it coming over the crest of a hill. Had a eagle swoop down and whack the bejesus out of my helmet before too (whilst on my head!).

Rode into the middle of an all male cluster bum (I guess that's what you'd call it I'm not up on the terms) and they all ran off in different directions.

Rode past an equestrain bassed porno shoot- lady in heels and not much else holding a horse by the reigns and posing for her snapping accomplice, She even appologised for putting me off my ahem 'stroke' if you will as I slipped in the mud trying to pedal past.

an all male cluster bum

😆

Not whilst riding but, as we arrived at Newcastleton last year after SSUK this is what we found

[url= http://m.flickr.com/photos/allankelly/3622302263/ ]Sheep with bucket on head[/url]

We had a laugh, got some photos and then removed the bucket.

Not one but two naked (male) ramblers, don't think it was the guy mentioned above.

And I've seen the local dungeons and dragons group out in the wild a few times now.

[i]an all male cluster bum[/i]

I love the fact that they all ran off in different directions. Like the guilt had finally caught up with them.

Rode into the middle of an all male cluster bum (I guess that's what you'd call it I'm not up on the terms) and they all ran off in different directions.

Personally, if I happened to stumble upon an all male cluster bum my first instinct would not be to charge right into the middle... 😆

Personally, if I happened to stumble upon an all male cluster bum my first instinct would not be to charge right into the middle...

Where's your sense of adventure? 😆

QECP Hampshire, cycled round a corner on an uphill section and there wasa young lady having a wee by the side of the track. If she had bothered to walk 20 meters into the trees I probably would not have seen her. She did have a very small baby in a papoose thingy , so might be the reason for being caught short 10 mins walk from the lavs.
Kingly Vale. Hampshire/ W.Sussex. Cycled up onto the ancient tumulii one afternoon to find a a young couple engaged in an act of a sexual nature. She screamed and promptly pulled down her dress to cover her lower half. Had to ride past them again 20 mins later, they were walking now, on the way to the car park. She didnt scream that time.

I got overtaken by a red car, followed by a blue car, followed by two silver cars, followed by another red car.

I think I should point out that I'm an old fogey and object to the excessive and inappropriate use of the word "random" by the younger generation when they mean "unusual" or "unexpected".

MilitantGraham You get todays pedantry points

We once were cycling along the tops at Elan Valley, when we heard a faint bleating. Looked around, and there was a sheep (probably a year lamb) stuck in a very small bog up to it's neck. We had to pull like hell to get it out. It staggered about a bit then wandered off to eat something.

Not me this time but the same guy with the sheep thing was out on a long ride in North Wales and bonked really badly.. so he lay down for a kip at a layby. Woke from a dead sleep to be surrounded by sunlight and white wings flapping all around.. he thought he'd died and gone to heaven but it was just a pigeon racer letting his birds out of a cage.

Also with the same guy, but not bike related (the Glen Nevis story reminded me of this) we'd walked up to Llyn Idwal in Snowdonia late at night to camp and climb the following day. It was about midnight on a totally still starlit night, we were settling in for the night when we heard this rushing noise. Sounded like something approaching from the distance.. very fast.. it was on us in a second and WHAM it slammed into the tent. Tent shook violently, candle lantern guttered out and the rushing noise continued off into the distance. Very scary indeed!

It wasn't a normal gust of wind, it actually hit us with a bang. It was exactly like the shock wave from a moving object, like you would expect from a lorry barreling past very close, but there was no other noise besides the rushing of wind. No noise of aeroplanes near by, nothing at all.

My guess is either a UFO ( 😉 ) or some kind of weird meterological thing - after that moment there were a few small puffs of wind which gradually over the next 4 hours or so built up into a raging storm.. had to pack the tent away in lashing rain and gales at first light and walk back home.

Had an Apache attack helicopter fly right past me at Ladybower once, but thats about it..

I obviously ride in really boring places 😀

Badgers joining me on single track in the evening.
Just appear from the hedge row, trying to undertake me.

Odd that walking / climbing tale. It might be the very same place something similar happened to me. The sudden gust was so strong, and so out-of-nowhere it flattened my Terra Nova Voyager to the point that the inner and pole actually touched my ankle whilst I was sleeping. This happened twice, so I then lodged myself into the corner of the tent and each subsequent time it happened I was pushed downwards and into the tent.

Must be something about the Ogwen area. I was once picked up by a random very strong gust and dumped in the heather about 10ft down the hill while on the heather terrace on Tryfan.

Naked Hiker up at Coedy Brenin just in his red socks and boots and a rucksac - Male - yuckhhhhh 🙁

Ti29er - great! I'm so glad to hear someone else mention similar after all these years 🙂

I'm thinking of contacting the met office to ask them about it. Course I've been thinking that since it happened 15 years ago 🙂 It was about [url= http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&source=s_q&hl=en&geocode=&q=llyn+idwal&sll=53.800651,-4.064941&sspn=17.287903,43.59375&ie=UTF8&hq=&hnear=Llyn+Idwal&ll=53.112478,-4.026092&spn=0.001069,0.002661&t=h&z=19 ]here[/url] by the way if memory serves.

Found this:

The Helm Wind is a most interesting and remarkable phænomenon, and it has called forth curiosity, and raised inquiry in the most careless observer, and many have been the conjectures as to its nature and cause. Dr. Barnes says - "The air or wind from the east ascends the gradual slope of the western1 side of the Penine2 Chain* or Cross Fell range of mountains, to the summit of Cross Fell, where it enters the helm or cap, and is cooled to a low temperature; it then rushes forcibly down the abrupt declivity of the western side of the mountain, into the valley beneath, in consequence of the valley being of a warmer temperature, and this constitutes the Helm Wind.

The sudden and violent rushing of the wind down the ravines and crevices of the mountains occasions the loud noise that is heard.

[url= http://www.stevebulman.f9.co.uk/cumbria/helmwind_f.html ]Full thing here.[/url] Not sure if it's meant to be as sudden as what I felt but the noise did come down the mountain and into the valley iirc.

TJ: MilitantGraham You get todays pedantry points

The pedantry points belonging to today.......?? Do I get an honourable mention in dispatches?

Oddest thing i have seen was a pair of males bumming on Tunnel Hill. They weren't far from the railway line, to the extent that i think they might have wanted to be seen by people on the train knowing that there was a good chance of being seen but little chance of anyone being able to do anything about it. Not sure if I should mention this but as i wheezed past within about 10 yards of them the bummer (as opposed to the bummee) heard me and almost in shock turned around pointing his thingy directly towards me - I tried not to see obviously but it's just sort of there! And then took off like a scared rabbit through the undergrowth.

At the time I remember that I wasn't particularly offended, or shocked, the abiding memory for me was wondering whether it was hard to run with an erection slapping around......

Sorry.

The wind thing - could it have been a small whirlwind / dust devil? More common that you might believe. we got hit by one on the top of Beinn a ghlo. That threw various bits of our kit about 20 ft vertically in the air.

dust devil?

[img] [/img]

The wind thing - could it have been a small whirlwind / dust devil

Thought about that, but doens't seem to fit. The entire thing moved at 100mph ish - came from out of earshot to down the valley and away within a second or two.

This helm wind thing has got me thinking. Wind blowing over the crest of a mountain could have created an eddy, which if then blown back up the hill side by a gust in the other direction could have formed a [i]horizontal[/i] vortex.. if that got going it could have made a sort of sausage of dense air that somehow started to slide down the mountian.. maybe drag with the ground caused it to spin further, sucking more air in and craetign positive feedback...

A bit like a tornado only with updraughts creating the wind shear and then gravity and ground friction keeping it going...

My house is called Ogwen. It is often very windy here.

a sort of sausage of dense air

WTF did you used to write Star Trek scripts?