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I'm a murderer!
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 2:56 am
by -Holiday
So yesterday , after installing my heated grips and accessory power system I hopped on the bike and went for a test run. I recently moved and I found myself on a road i was unfamiliar with. The road ran next to a river and it has a lot of turns. After i went through a blind turn at 20 mph or so I found myself looking face to face with the cutest baby fox you've ever seen. Well, he decided to run directly towards me, and under both of my tires. I could here his whelping noises as he went under me. I felt horrible. A car coming the other direction witnessed the entire thing. About 10 yards down the road I stopped, and looked back. The fox was now rolling around in the middle of the street , in obvious pain. The car who saw the entire thing has stopped and was apparently trying to run over the fox to put it out of his misery. He tried one time, and then gave up and left. In the meantime I got turned around and went back over to the fox, but by the time I got there luckily he'd stopped moving, and had died. It seems I had run over his head.
Needless to say, this event kind of overshadowed the joy I had just found in my new heated grips and GPS.
In case anyone was wondering, when I saw him running for me I did absolutely nothing. Swerving would have sent me into an embankment, or the hood of the oncoming car, and it all happened so fast there was no time to stop.
No damage to the bike or me.
Bike: 1
Fox: 0
Poor guy

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:03 am
by jonnythan
Did you at least blip the throttle right before your front wheel made contact?
(I'm going straight to hell.)
Seriously, sorry dude. That really sucks.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 3:10 am
by t_bonee
Damn, -Holiday.
I've had the same thing happen a few times but never with a cute baby fox. Just squirrels.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:03 am
by KarateChick
Aw Hol, I know how that feels. Sucks.

I was in the car last mth when one of those lil richardson ground squirrel things went right at the wheels the instant I went by and got squashed. I felt so bad I turned around to check him then went home to feel worse.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 4:10 am
by green meenie
Should have strapped him to the bike & taken him home. The pelt would make a great cold weather seat cover (you would need at least a dozen squirrels to cover it & the fur is not nearly as nice)

Re: I'm a murderer!
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:01 am
by grymlocke
-Holiday wrote:So yesterday , after installing my heated grips and accessory power system I hopped on the bike and went for a test run. I recently moved and I found myself on a road i was unfamiliar with. The road ran next to a river and it has a lot of turns. After i went through a blind turn at 20 mph or so I found myself looking face to face with the cutest baby fox you've ever seen. Well, he decided to run directly towards me, and under both of my tires. I could here his whelping noises as he went under me. I felt horrible. A car coming the other direction witnessed the entire thing. About 10 yards down the road I stopped, and looked back. The fox was now rolling around in the middle of the street , in obvious pain. The car who saw the entire thing has stopped and was apparently trying to run over the fox to put it out of his misery. He tried one time, and then gave up and left. In the meantime I got turned around and went back over to the fox, but by the time I got there luckily he'd stopped moving, and had died. It seems I had run over his head.
Needless to say, this event kind of overshadowed the joy I had just found in my new heated grips and GPS.
In case anyone was wondering, when I saw him running for me I did absolutely nothing. Swerving would have sent me into an embankment, or the hood of the oncoming car, and it all happened so fast there was no time to stop.
No damage to the bike or me.
Bike: 1
Fox: 0
Poor guy


4 more and your an ace...
don't worry, I hit a 'possum once, bugger literally jumped from the ditch to the center of the road after being startled by my lights when I made a turn (i was in a van) hit him with from rt. tire flopped around in wheel well, flung out and hit my Lt rear, flopped around and flung off the side of the road....

never had a chance to stop it all happend to quick. Always feel bad about killing anything (except bugs on windshield)...
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 5:15 am
by shalihe74

What a heart-warming story to be the first thing I read this morning. (My bad for clicking on the "I'm a murderer" thread first, I suppose.)
Poor lil critter, but...

Go Darwinism!
I feel terrible anytime I see something dead in/by the road, even if I didn't hit it. (Driving in Australia was the worst for that; dead 'roos... and cows

... all over the place from when the road trains would plow through them.)
My mom hit a duck once. It had just taken off, was flying low and smacked right into the windshield. That was too weird to be anything but hilarious.

Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:37 am
by scan
It is the risk of being on the road, especially away from the city. I guess the good thing is that it was just him and not you too. Some large critters don't just fall under your wheels and cause the bike to stop. I was driving my car one time and came over the crest of a hill to find the racoon standing up and look right at me. I could not stop or swerve, so he went right under the car and thump a thump thump, popped out the back as a still pile in the road. Nothing you can do, except not drive or ride your bike. The part of your story that made me most queezy was thinking of going back to have to kill the poor bugger. I'm a bit wimpy for that step.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:46 am
by Scott58
That sucks bud. I hate killing things like that. Hasn't happened to me in a long time and I hope it doesn't ever again.
Posted: Fri Apr 20, 2007 6:59 am
by roscowgo
When i first started driving birds used me as their suicide target. I bet i would hit 3 or more a week. Just be cruising along (in the car) see a flash out of the corner of my eye, then another feathery critter fluttering behind me in the distance
Dad had a fawn run into the side of his mazda once. The mama went in front of him while he was at a stopsign. Fawn close behind and i guess got spooked..... Thump. one woozy deer.

It got up and bounded into the woods where it stood and stared for a bit.
I once hit a dog on a bicycle, Big arsed coon dog at that, had a gravel road that was probably 2 miles long, I'd push and grunt my way to the top to see my buddy andy, then absolutely haul "O Ring" down this dirt road. Top gear and pedaling all the way. Stupid dog liked to chase me. Thump quiver wobble yelp. Didnt wreck. But i did some interesting manuevers. Dog didnt chase me after that. I think my special concession to gear that day was a pair of socks. As i had managed to give myself a blister mowing the yard the day before.
