[bikerdavecycling]

I’ve decided not to do rides at night in rural areas. I’ve crashed twice in a year (literally 1 year apart to the day & almost to the hour!), both at night. The first time, where & how I crashed could have day or night, no difference. My last crash though was never going to happen in the day.

I’d got used on night rides to seeing more animals that I’d not encounter in the day. Foxes, bunnies, the occasional badger. It was a badger which has resulted in me being hospitalised, with a fractured pelvis, heavy bruising to arse, hip & leg, a little bit of whiplash (maybe, it aches for sure) & a completely destroyed helmet, sprained wrist, and various other cuts & grazes.

I’d pondered whether to jump on the turbo or do an off road ride along an old railway line. I decided the latter & as per usual saw loads of animals scurrying away as I approached. Only 1 animal when I was about 2 miles from home, didn’t scurry but shot or in front of me from the undergrowth literally 2 ft in front of me. I had nowhere to go, no time to react, and hit the Badger full bore.

I learned since that I’m not the first person on this old railway line to fall foul of a badger hit. And someone else had a badger incident on a rural road too.

So that’s it for me. I’ve probably lost my chance to do the Tour of Flanders sportive due to a night ride where I knew I’d see animals (as I always ride on quiet roads for obvious reasons) ending up badly.

Take care out there!

Topic

[Argos74]

bikeboy76 wrote:Yey. He

bikeboy76 wrote:

Yey. He mentioned a helmet… obligatory helmet debate.

Hatters gonna hat.

[url=http://weebls-stuff.com/songs/badgers/]And just in case you haven’t had enough of badgers.[/url]

[bikerdavecycling]

That gif is great! Found out
That gif is great! Found out there was another badger induced crash on the same old railway line 18 months ago. In this case, the rider managed to stay on but was well shaken up when it realised what had happened! See photo, kindly Facebook’d to me by Neil of CATS MTB club. Unbelievable!

[Leviathan]

Yey. He mentioned a helmet…
Yey. He mentioned a helmet… obligatory helmet debate.

or

[URL=http://gifsoup.com/view/1728477/badger-badger-badger-badger.html][/URL] [URL=http://gifsoup.com]GIFSoup[/URL]

[arfa]

I very nearly slammed into a
I very nearly slammed into a herd of deer in richmond park a few months ago on a night ride. They suddenly bolted across the road and I only picked them up at the last second and had to swerve between them. Of course it happened going downhill but I would undoubtedly have come off second best in a collision. That was the end of the night rides for me !

[farrell]

Badgers? We don’t need no
Badgers? We don’t need no stinkin’ badgers…

[redmeat]

A friend of mine almost came
A friend of mine almost came a cropper due to a badger.

You can see his HR spike to over 200 bpm where it happened :))

[smuggers]

I had a close call with a
I had a close call with a Badger, a few months back. Same thing, appeared from nowhere and I was fortunate to miss it. I cycle to work on rural country lanes at night and although it’s nice to see lot’s of wildlife, I do worry about hitting something on pitch dark lanes. Your injuries sound painful and your helmet looks like it saved you from much worse by the looks of it. Guy I rode with had an head impact to the back of his head and was left with quite a bad brain injury. Hope you’re back up and running soon.. And watchout for those Badgers & Deer!!

[KiwiMike]

I find shouting at the
I find shouting at the buggers does the trick. Rode over one a few years back on a very narrow lane, luckily just the rear wheel so recovered and stopped. Then it loped into the field track opposite where I was stopped, and *I swear* it snarled at me.

Much more worried about a deer leaping from the verge though. On a bike or in a car.

[bikerdavecycling]

Part of my helmet. Damn
Part of my helmet. Damn badger.

[oozaveared]

I reckon they should shoot
I reckon they should shoot the little buggers.

[Author]

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