Modern Vespa

That is not a good feeling. ...and you really do feel it.

Thought about swerving, but they are such, well, squirrely little buggers, that seemed a weak bet.

Thought about braking hard, but there was truck behind me.

So. Just. Rode. On. Through.

Oof, can still feel it.

We just got two kittens on Wed. so feeling it in my soul, as well.

Bleah.

Sorry about your hit.

But, another reason for the Vespa floorboards.

I am so sorry. It is a horrible feeling. I cried for days after runningover a small bird. Huhs.

To temper the harshness of this post, this is happening now...[/img]

Definitely not a good feeling, but you did the right thing.

BTW, I hope you meant "crunched", not "munched".

I think your new kitties might have a different take on this event.

Animals can make you wreck trying to avoid them. Best just get light on the bars and gas it if you cannot avoid and have to go over them/ it. FWIW armidillos are the worst.

Sorry to hear this, but you did the only thing you could unless you wanted to have an accident. I hope it was a quick kill for the squirrel. Anytime I'm out and see one scampering across the street I pray it makes it.

I had a friend in high school that swerved to avoid a squirrel...and ended up paralyzed from the waist down. Thus, I've never tried to avoid them. Finally hit one a couple years ago. Not fun but better than going down.

As much as it sucks, this is great advice. I will brake and gas to avoid, but minimal swerving.

Sometimes you just can't miss them.

A couple of months ago a cute widdle bunny ran in front of me, I was just able to avoid him by this much.

And immediately, before I could congratulate myself on my mad skillz, his cute widdle bunny fwiend came running across from the other side of road and right under the front wheel. The whole event was over in about two seconds.


I'll make a attempt to avoid hitting a small animal if it's safe to perform a reasonable maneuver, but I won't risk my own safety or that of others on the road. No panic moves.

mmmm.......squirrel.

they are amazing on the grill slow cooked around 250 degrees F, brushed with olive oil and lightly salted.

it sucks when they go to waste.

You are such a man. A manly man! Slay that 1 pound beast and put it on a spit!

See where I'm going with this?

My wife was upset when she hit a squirrel while driving her car, until she realized that it would probably make a meal for one of the many vultures we have around here who entertain us with the amazing soaring abilities!

Bob

Not sure why Jeff gets down-votes on this post. While I may not share his take on cuisine, some part of me is now curious about how squirrel is best served.

Generally speaking, I'm all for some attempt to avoid collision with the smaller creatures of the world, not wanting to kill one out of intention. But I"m not going far out of my way, or endangering myself in ANY way, to avoid it.

Deer, on the other hand, get as wide a berth as possible. And now I know, armadillos also get room to roam.

It was such a hot day = hot asphalt, that it probably slow-cooked on the road. When heading back to my camp hours later, the bunny roadkill was gone. I guess some else got there first.

So... It was Chef Boyardee on the camp stove again.

I'm so relieved the attachment to this thread was not a mushed squirrel.

Sucks to hit animals. Twice i've hit dogs (puppies) and it was horrible. First time i killed the pup and went down. Totaled the Helix and took the skin off my ass. Looked like the mummy. To bad it wasn't Halloween. Never saw the puppy and i felt bad for the owner. Dog got loose. The guy was very apologetic. Things happen that are beyond our control sometimes. I think he thought i was going to sue him Second time was in Bali. Didn't go down and i kept going for a bit. Tried and succeeded not to drop it. Went back to see what i had done and find out whose dog it was and the puppy was gone. Nobody owned up to owning it, so i did a group apology. Thank God we don't have deer here. Had one hit my car in NY on the Taconic Parkway. Forgot about the deer.

Thanks for the feedback, y'all; I was pretty sure that simply powering thru was the right move, but I wasn't certain. I feel better about that now.

This little guy certainly didn't suffer -- I could even see in the rear view mirror that I'd, well, never mind....

Took a long ride today and somebody had just hit a porcupine -- they'd pulled over and were toe-ing it to see if it was alive, and when I came back through it was on the side of the road: respect to that guy! -- and that made me think of kawzak's armadillo comment: yeah, that would be a lot of mass, low down and well armored. Not good.

Spotted a brown flash in the brush later, slowed down and it was, indeed, two absolutely beautiful little bucks with quite large racks in velvet...that would also not be not good.

Sorry little squirrel!

td

I hit a dog once, back in my college years with then (almost mandatory) VW beetle I owned at the time. A beagle/basset something ran right in front of the car.

I slammed on the brakes and heard a thump.

People, I love dogs. After a second of cold-sweat-adrenaline-rush, I was relieved to see him running down the road like his ass was on fire. I guess I just tagged him. Talk about relief.

Deer? That's another story. I've had several close calls over time and a really close call this April on a highway at highway speeds. I was happy in retrospect, to know that even though I thought a collision was unavoidable and I hit those brakes pretty hard, I didn't go into panic mode. Both me and the bike stayed upright.

I like my deer in the parks and in the woods...I just wish they'd stay there.

Don't get me started on bears.

Hit a cat and a bird. (Not at the same time)

About 6 months ago, some sort of hard shell flying bug hit my face shield so hard it was like a small rock.

At first I thought this was a small bird, but it turned out to be much softer...



This was last Wednesday.

I used to include swerving as a way to avoid them. I quit doing that when one kept matching my swerve with their own. I managed to counter-swerve twice, then low-speed high-sided. (I think that's what it's called when you go over the bike. More of a cartwheel.) Broke my right smallest toe and right-hand pinky finger where the foot peg and bar end smashed them for a second against the pavement. (It was the maiden voyage of my 2nd bike, first motorcycle: a Ninjette.) My pinky's last joint healed crooked.

I don't swerve for squirrels. I've retrained myself to honk at animals as a first response to scare them away from my path. Failing that, I'll just about stand the bike or scooter on its nose (never endo'd) to test my emergency braking skills IF no one's behind me...but I'll never swerve again.

Sorry you ended up running over a creature. I've only hit one living thing (not including bugs) on a bike. I had a large bird, I think it was a hawk, dive low in front of me down a hidden driveway. I was on a 55mph road in medium traffic and caught it square on the leg shield. I turned around at the first parking lot to see if it was still alive, but it was nowhere to be found. It took about a week to get over it.

I've been pretty lucky with animals. Most of the time it is within a mile of home too!

One time many years ago coming home at dusk with first wife on the back of my 250 triple Kawasaki thought I saw something shoot out of the weeds on the right side of the road. Then bike did a little wobble so I figured I must have run over something. My thoughts were more or less confirmed when our dog ran over to great us and spent much time sniffing at the tires.

Then there was the time I decided to take a quick run around the block on the RD400 as we were leaving that morning for a vacation by car and I needed my two wheel fix. I was pushing it a bit, running down the back road at 70 mph when I crested a hill. OH! NO! deer to the right of me and deer to the left more or less just standing in the road. All I could do is think "Don't anyone do anything stupid!" and that included me. Everyone did the right thing and no one was hurt!

The last time was last summer heading down the road about one mile from home with wife following on her GTV crest a small hill and a brown flash goes by from the left so fast and so close I could almost have slapped it's butt! Wife said first thing she did was to look to see if anymore were following as that is the case most of the time. This time we were lucky as it was only one deer.

Just remembered a non-riding incident about a week ago. I was out doing some weed-eating by the road and a car stopped so I went over to see what they wanted. They tell me someone had just it a deer back towards the house. At first I did not see anything but when walking back that way I saw a very small deer, no spots, but very young laying in the grass. I'm thinking "Now what am I to do with this poor thing" not sure if it was dead or not. Just then the head raised up and those big eyes looked at me with fear. A second latter up on all fours and it bounced away into the woods. Just hoping it did not have any serious injuries but seemed to be moving just fine when last seen.

If it makes you feel any better, I have a friend who has been riding her bicycle through the streets of Boston for over 20 years and thus far has decapitated a pigeon, crushed a seagull, and squashed a squirrel with that bicycle. She swerved once and wracked up pretty badly, and never did so again.

I myself almost sent a bunny to its great reward the other day, but luckily I was only going 20 and was able to brake fast enough to miss it.

Have hit a squirrel and a deer with a car...felt awful about it for weeks afterward.

Having had both squirrel stew and some amazing squirrel croquettes, I can attest that squirrel is indeed tasty. And, no--they weren't road kill, my brother is a hunter.

[quote="Madison Sully"] My family generally served them as stew... My father grew up quite poor in NC and not only ate, but liked eating squirrel. I've had them, but can assure you they're not a favorite. Should times ever require though, I know how to skin & clean one for cooking...

Sorry if this comes across as if I'm being an a$$hole, I'd lose no sleep over a squirrel, they're just vermin with cute tails. Destructive little ba$tards.
A good friend from high school was killed on the road not long ago trying to avoid hitting a squirrel, I've no love for them.
I once hit a deer, it lived, I was pissed I damaged the car and didn't get any meat out of it. Just the other day I couldn't avoid hitting a rabbit, it tasted pretty good that night after spending time on the bar-be-que rotisserie.
Heck, the week before last a friend of mine hit a cow on the road at 2:00 in the morning. Yes, we live in the 'country'. He's lucky he wasn't seriously hurt.
A number if years ago, my brother-in-law wrecked a car avoiding what he thought was a cat on the road, it turned out to be a newspaper......

We have doves here, stupidest animal, on two separate occasions I have hit of them with my scooter, I mean what are the chances of that - they just fly right in front of you no chance to avoid - just got to clean up the mess.

so... this is what it sounds like when doves cry?

Just as dumb and stupid are woodchucks (aka hedgehogs). Not the same mess as a dove. Squirrels, and chipmunks are fast and nimble. Woodchucks are as slow as slugs, until they decide what they are going to do. Meander back and forth, stop, think, decide, then run ... then, change direction. A woodchuck is totally unpredictable.

Must have evolved with squirrel brains.

I have a pretty low roadkill census. When I was around 18 I was driving to a rural painting job. The neighbor down the road was driving his tractor and wagon parallel with the road. His dog, for some reason was running along the right (and opposite) side of the road in the same direction as me. Figured he'd keep going, so passed him. At the last minute he cut in front of me. Two sickening thumps. No fun watching your neighbor's dog die. At least he didn't blame me. I felt bad enough.

Around that time I was driving on a dead-end lane to another job. Cruising down the pavement at maybe 20 mph, I watched a squirrel attempt to cross the road, turn back, turn around again as I gradually slowed. Wound up locking up the brakes with him sitting there staring at me.

As for scooting, just caught a wasp (of all ironies) smack between the eyes on my helmet prior to the last group ride with MadisonSully. Must be catching.

I've had birds fly in front of me frequently, but on a long evening ride last week had a small songbird smack me in the crook of my arm. Good thunk, but thinking it was soft enough to survive. Didn't go back to look.