[Closed] Have you ever hit or been hit by animals/wildlife while riding?

bumble bee/wasp in the eye......not stung tho, but it did smart....... 😉

yeap,

I've hit a bat, nearly got an owl and have squished several frogs. One of the guys has been knocked off by a deer and hit a rabbit, not at the same time, I never knew rabbits could scream 😕

Had a rabbit run between my wheels (I have no idea how it made it) and a squirrel bounce off my frame.

Hit a bird and killed it 🙁
Hit a bee and it killed.

Awesome 🙂

I had a blackbird fly into me when on't motorbike. It was like being hit by a brick

Hit on the head by a partridge.

Very narrow miss by a roe deer

I've run into my dogs arse quite a few times 🙂

A small deer ran into me on a XC race in the New Forest many years ago. That was a right shock!

[edit]Hmm, maybe I should re-word that first line 😯

Just remembered, in Wales a couple of years back me and my mate rode up a path full (almost literally!) of suicide Pheasants. That was quite bizarre.

When I lived in Perth W.A I was attacked by their version of a Magpie it flow alongside me and tried to peck my earring out, quiet scary with cars wizzing by me.
Late one night in Edinburgh coming back along the North Edinburgh Cycle path just by St Georges School, I saw one Badger off to the side of the path and another I presume it's mate stood in the middle of the path starring me down and growling. I was absolutely stumped as I could only do a bunny-hop so I had to ride around it.

Came close to this and it's three nippers whilst on my road bike in [url= http://www.waterton.ca/ ]Waterton National Park[/url]:

[img] [/img]

Fortunately she decided not to take any interest me.

Got hit by a bird once, painful 😯 a mate hit a dog on his road bike ages ago, ended up in hospital. Dog dead, frame wrecked nasty crash.

A dog put it's leg through my rear wheel last year. Sure hurt the dog more than me. I was oddly pleased because it was attacking me at the time..

Ran over (not on purpose) a mole, it burst and looked like a black velvet bean bag with chineese noodles coming out.

A mate ran into a badger coming the other way up the singletrack. stopped him dead (my mate), badger shook it's head, did a sort of "Is that the best you can do?" look, and shuffled of into the undergrowth

[i]Ran over (not on purpose) a mole, it burst and looked like a black velvet bean bag with chineese noodles coming out.[/i]

Nooooo! Don't kill moles! 😥

Came close to hitting a sleepy fox last night, stepped out right in front of me & froze in the beam of light coming from my bike!

Years back, had a Staffy chase and lock its self onto my front wheel, got its head trapped in the forks!

I went flying over the bars & the thing with its head still jammed in the forks still tried to come at me!

Tough, tough dogs, not a scratch, considering the front wheel must have gone over its head!

Has anyone ever managed to hit a pigeon! They seem to take off and miss me by millimeters!

Got T boned by a young lamb, it just went mad and ran at me.

On another occasion in the dark I had a fox run between my front and back wheels.

Also got tapped on the head by a kin big owl (I reckon it was a European eagle owl), the thing came from behind, tapped me on the head and flew to a branch in front of me down the track then turned its head through 180 degrees to stare at me as I rode past underneath. It was twilight in the forest in the Brecon. I pedalled real fast to get back to the pub!

T-boned a sheep earlier this year. Doing about 25mph down a grassy double track and it shot out from behind a gorse bush straight across my path. Sailed over the bars and I landed on my back but no damage done to me or the bike and the sheep just ran off.

Pigeons (and presumably other birds) see at a far quicker frame rate than us, so everything looks much slower to them. I do wonder if Pro DHers have a similar evolutionary advantage...

Not sure whether this is an urban myth or not but I remember reading somewhere about a guy riding in Whistler hit a black bear when coming around a blind corner, neither were hurt but you'd have crapped yourself hitting something that could rip your face off!!

A wasp once stung me in my mouth while I was riding. I was a bit distracted so I ended up crashing. I also very nearly ran over a snake of some sort while riding in Greece which was slightly worrying at the time.

I ran over a badgers nose at speed on my bike.

The badger was hidden in some long grass, it was only the horrible crunching bone noise that made me realise what I'd done.

On turning around and going back I found it had already been dead for some time. The smell's still with me.

Hit a spaniel while out on my road bike a few weeks back. Wee thing ran off unhurt as I lay in the road cursing. Wee ginger bugger it was..

Had a wasp hit the back of my mouth which tried and failed to sting but did cause a few nervy minutes as my throat swelled up ( then went back to normal - phew )

Flicked a squirrel in the air as it's tail caught in my front wheel and it narrowly missed the guy following behind

Ran over a badger when it ran out between my wheel. It just shuffled off.

Ran over (not on purpose) a mole, it burst and looked like a black velvet bean bag with chineese noodles coming out

Can I hire you to cycle around my garden and try and get the little git that keeps wrecking our lawn?

a pheasant flew up and I hit him with my right hand/handlebar. Big wobble as I was blatting down a hill on a single-track-lane-with-passing-places at the time.
A got ==> <== this close to a badger's gnarlcore teeth on St Andrew Lane coming down off of haldon on a young summer evening.

A mate of mine ran over a jack russell that was chasing the bike in front of him. Damfooldogs but apparently made of rubber.

I've had
Butterfly in the mouth was my worst ever hit by an animal experience. Flies in the mouth are easy enough to spit out.
Wasp in the helmet, alerted by the angry buzzing, stopped and ripped my helmet off.
A Bunny once ran between my wheels during a 30+mph descent in the dark and clattered of the pedals.
I had a bird fly through the spokes of myfront wheel in a burst of feathers.

A friend was going quite fast down a lane, when a chicken ran out, through his frame, did a somersault type thing up a dry stone wall and ended up missing my bike by centimetres. We laughed for ages after the incident.

Last year I was out night riding in the Peak, when a badger brushed my leg, the bike wobbled loads and I screamed. At the bottom of the trail all the guys in front had managed to avoid it. Don't think badger was harmed in any way.

Also been stung by a wasp that got trapped under my helmet strap - bee in my bonnet.

Bat and a rabbit.

Ran over a rabbit with the front and back wheel. Broke it's back and it crawled away. But not far 😥

Killed a vole on a local trail and narrowly missed a weasel.

Killed a lot of tiny frogs this summer - the ones that have just changed from tadpole and left the water. They were the size of midget gems and I just didn't spot them until there was a 20 yard trail of flib and blood about 2.25" wide 😳

I had a blackbird fly into me when on't motorbike. It was like being hit by a brick

Me too, or more accurately, a pigeon.

Thing exploded, guts up the helmet and a bruise which covered from my neck to the bottom of my ribs on the right side. Couldn't cough/laugh for weeks. Luckily I stayed on!

catflees46

Gotta hand it to you - that's one of the finest similes I've ever read

killed a rat a few weeks back on my daily commute, 700c wheels over it's guts,

I once startled a goat in front of Buckingham Palace.

[img] ?v=1&c=IWSAsset&k=2&d=77BFBA49EF8789215ABF3343C02EA54847370481E918BBF03D7EA826A9E9612FEA13E36763861625E30A760B0D811297[/img]

It's true. I got a twenty-five pound fine. 🙁

I once ran over an adder on the road, and had an instantaneous vision of it somehow being flicked up and wrapping round my neck - yeuck.

Also wasp in the bike helmet that stung me on the head (but not on the same day).

I got attacked by a buzzard in Yair forest (Borders)last year.

On a nice rooty downhill bit I got this whack on my shoulder. Managed not to fall off and sensed this animal sitting on my shoulder. It was trying to peck my head through the helmet. Anyways if took off when I stopped but did a few more dive bomb attacks (always from the rear) and mainly hit my backpack but grabbed my wrist once. It seemed like it went on for ages but was probablly 3 - 4 mins.

I had some nasty scratches on my back and wrist and a holy jersey. Shook like a leaf for about an hour afterwards.

I can only assume it had young on the ground.

Today I was bravely attempting a 1 foot jump in the local woods and just as I was about to hit the ramp a blinking squirrel dashed between my wheels. Added an extra level of stress to an already stressful situation. 😮

My friend was cycling and a bird flew straight through his main triangle of his bike. Was very impressive.

About 5 of us had to hit the shrubbery on a narrow trail near Newbury when a full sized deer came belting towards us and it just didn't stop.

In Devon whilst blazing down a narrow sunken dirt track I had to do an emeregency stop when a bull wandered across the track - I literally came to rest about 6" infront of it's very large head .... luckily I think it was as surprised as I was and it took a good look and then wandered off ....

same Devon weekend one mate hospitalized, hammering downhill on a back road a flock of sheep sprinted across out road Zilla went into sheep, over bars over sheep and bounced down road, not good, blood, cuts with embedded gravel, she limped home on bike and then driven to hospital, ok with some heavy bruising after a tidy up.

Hit on the head by a partridge.

Wonder if it was the same one that clipped me on the head too...

+1 rightplacerighttime, I ran over a rattlesnake and had instant thoughts of it getting caught in the spokes and launched right into my face----amazing how fast you can unclip and get your feet up as high as possible when the adrenaline rush hits instantly.
Night riding in the mountains had 2 deer jump from a small ridge directly in front of me, both about 5 feet in the air--hate to think of one of those hooves imbedded on my helmet or other body parts.

the summer before last i picked up a friend in my van as we were heading over to swinley to ride. I left the van running and helped my mate load his bike and gear into the van, we went to ride swinley our local trail and whilst on the ride i ran clean over the back of a grass snake on the trail just before dropping down a section that leads to where one of the gorrick races startlines is positioned. I felt this was unusual and do not know if i killed it or not, though i doubt it as my mate following did not see it across the trail when he came by. We enjoyed our ride, and then i took my mate home. Upon getting to his house i was greetded by his wife and neighbour who was very upset! Unknown to me the neighbours exotic breed cat had gone under the van while the engine was on, and when we got in to leave i reversed over it!!! I did not feel a thing in the van and had no idea untill our return, and to this day i always turn the engine off now when collecting my mate in the hope that if a cat has gone under the van the engine starting will spook it out again before i reverse out. My mate has 3 cats and a dog, so i have to be carefull now!

I've had very close calls with deer. GF got knocked of her bike by a german shepherd did more damage than when she go hit by a bus a few weeks earlier.

Friend crashed into a herd of red deer resulting in him getting his bike tangled a stag's antlers. He wouldn't let go of the bike, neither would the stag. Hooves. It didn't end well. 😯

A rabbit ran out of the grass and under my front wheel. It made a popping sound but my mate insisted I do the decent thing and make sure it was definitely dead.

Lots of frogs as well, and probably several hundred insects

Several snakes and squirrels. Lots of rabbits on my fast gravel track way home from the pub. Scary but only hit 1. Biggest scare was a pissed road ride home. long fast down hill spinning out in top, probably about to puke. "saw" some shape "ghost" across my path left to right. Then gone although maybe my right arm touched something. To sacred to stop. Spooky. Got home and found white deer arse hairs on my right jumper elbow.Culd have been messy.

Bat flew into my face when I was riding along at dusk many years ago. Clung on for a good few seconds.

I ran over and Adder in Grizdale thinking it was a stick, went back for a look as something just didnt seem right, the wiggly fella wasnt best pleased. Suffice to say I didnt get to close.

Also took a hornet to the eye whilst riding in Kranska Gora, the little blighter got behind my glasses, luckily for me it didnt sting me before I managed to extracate him.

Hit a Bee on a fast downhill on my road bike, the impact snapped the arm off my riding glasses (c.35mph).

Had a magpie fly into me on the motorbike while doing 80mph, luckily hit me on the boot (heavily padded) but still managed to bruise my foot through it. Magpie died but did not explode like a pigeon.

I got 'buzzed' by a buzzard but it didn't actually hit me at Whites trail so strictly speaking doesn't quite make this thread.

It was very scary though.

Actual impact.....badgers x2.

Close calls..... deer, practically jumped over me.....squirral, ran between my wheels while I was moving..... sparrowhawk, near eyeball to eyeball coming round a wall corner...buzzard, swooped on prey two foot from me.

Badger - glancing blow at night
Bat- stuck in helmet vent and very freaky
Sheep - soft for half a second then very solid
Owl (nearly) - massive one, in Canada. Swooped out of a tree overhanging the trail at dusk + new lycra (it was the early '90's!)

Clipped a snake - it appeared in the trail, I tried to hop it and mistimed it. Guy behind me said it moved pretty sharpish so hope no much damage was done 🙁

Plenty of dopey deer around here too. They often won't move very fast/far so have had a few close calls on tight singletrack. It's also pretty scary startling timid autumnal ones who move en masse across the trail at high speed.

Had a bat in the pus night riding as well. Not pleasant.

[url= http://www.singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/i-killed-a-rat-or-it-really-killed-it-self-picts ]I got attacked by a suicidal rat last winter![/url]

[img] ?t=1254350467[/img]

Had a Duck run right into my front wheel, i thought the bladed spokes would have had its head off but it looked ok when i saw it on my way back from work.
Same stretch of towpath i have had a heron fly right into the side of my head.
Herons sound rather scary up that close.

and a dog once. I was going relatively slowly and it was paying more attention to the other dog it was playing with when it backed into my path. dog yelped but it was ok , I went over the handlers

Had an impressively useless fall last winter when a badger ran out in front of me. Instinct kicked in and without thinking I instigated the start of emergency avoidance procedure than results in you sitting dazed on your rear end in a muddy puddle with scratches everywhere...