A bird flew through my wheel.

[dellzeqq]

I just though I'd let you know. There I was pootling along, when this little winged item went straight through the front wheel! Only possible, of course, if you don't overdo the spokes. But still remarkable.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

It's a lucky birdie to find you pootling Dell, if it was your usual pace the poor thing would have looked like it'd been through an egg-slicer!

 

[gbb]

I just though I'd let you know. There I was pootling along, when this little winged item went straight through the front wheel! Only possible, of course, if you don't overdo the spokes. But still remarkable.

Did he survive ? I love birds, and with this in mind, i'm going to remove every second spoke tonight....give em a bit of a chance, little sweet things

 

[bonj2]

Did it live?

 

[willhub]

A rabbit was under my wheel once, it just managed to escape before it landed on him, I was doing about 22mph.

 

[bonj2]

Did he survive ?

Let's ask ourselves how fast the bird would have to have been flying to live.

if the bird flew through at the widest point i.e. the circumference which we'll assume is 27" and a 16 spoke wheel, then it had a gap of 27"/16 = 1.6875" = 42.8625mm to get through.
assuming 20mph, then this is 8.94 metres per ssecond, or 8940 millimetres per second.
This means the bird had only 8940/42.8625 = ~a 200th of a second (5 milliseconds) to get through.
If the bird is, say, 100mm long, then it must have covered its own length in that time, so it must have been flying at 0.1m/0.005s = 20m/s = 44 mph, which is JUST feasible, but it would have had to have been lucky.

Any more than 16 evenly spaced holes in the rim, if dellzeq was going faster than 20mph, or the bird flew through at the centre of the wheel rather than at the edge, then it would have had to have been going even faster.

 

[Wigsie]

One flew past me the other week and just missed my wheel (heavily spoked and a death trap for birdies)

Which has had me wondering what type of bird would just die and get mashed up and what would send you flying over the handlebars at 25mph? where's the crossoverfrom dead tweetiepie to no front teeth and road rash city? So far I have (based on a Road bike):

Magpie and bigger = no teeth and road rash
Blue Tit and smaller = mashed, dead and rider probably maybe stay on the bike.

Somewhere in the middle there must be a crossover, what about a blackbird? what would they do?

 

[bonj2]

A rabbit was under my wheel once, it just managed to escape before it landed on him, I was doing about 22mph.

A dog once went between my front wheel and my back wheel once and it didn't.

 

[bonj2]

One flew past me the other week and just missed my wheel (heavily spoked and a death trap for birdies)

Which has had me wondering what type of bird would just die and get mashed up and what would send you flying over the handlebars at 25mph? where's the crossoverfrom dead tweetiepie to no front teeth and road rash city? So far I have (based on a Road bike):

Magpie and bigger = no teeth and road rash
Blue Tit and smaller = mashed, dead and rider probably maybe stay on the bike.

Somewhere in the middle there must be a crossover, what about a blackbird? what would they do?

albatross.

 

[threebikesmcginty]

A dog once went between my front wheel and my back wheel once and it didn't.

Trendy pocket dog or Irish wolfhound?

 

[Wigsie]

Let's ask ourselves how fast the bird would have to have been flying to live.

if the bird flew through at the widest point i.e. the circumference which we'll assume is 27" and a 16 spoke wheel, then it had a gap of 27"/16 = 1.6875" = 42.8625mm to get through.
assuming 20mph, then this is 8.94 metres per ssecond, or 8940 millimetres per second.
This means the bird had only 8940/42.8625 = ~a 200th of a second (5 milliseconds) to get through.
If the bird is, say, 100mm long, then it must have covered its own length in that time, so it must have been flying at 0.1m/0.005s = 20m/s = 44 mph, which is JUST feasible, but it would have had to have been lucky.

Any more than 16 evenly spaced holes in the rim, if dellzeq was going faster than 20mph, or the bird flew through at the centre of the wheel rather than at the edge, then it would have had to have been going even faster.

A fine theory Bonj, but have you seen Dells Spoke set up? Pics of the Colnago were on a different thread and they are definately bird friendly (at pretty bloody sexy for spoke arrangements too)

 

[Wigsie]

albatross.

Rider = Dead
Bike = F*cked
Bird = Headache

 

[bonj2]

Trendy pocket dog or Irish wolfhound?

mongrel.

 

[bonj2]

A fine theory Bonj, but have you seen Dells Spoke set up? Pics of the Colnago were on a different thread and they are definately bird friendly (at pretty bloody sexy for spoke arrangements too)

well, it assumes 16 evenly spaced holes on the rim. Multiply the speed the bird would have had to go by n/16 where n is his actual number of spokes. It appears wigsie that you have, inadvertantly or not, hit upon the entire point of this thread - to boast about how few spokes he's got. I think my calculation proves that even with minimal spokes a bird couldn't possibly have flew through and lived, which renders the entire story complete bollocks anyhow, thus proving my analysis...

 

[Amanda P]

As Bonj says, it's going to depend on the nature of the wheel and how fast it's going, but I was once on a ride on which a blackbird flew through a front wheel.

The blackbird died. The bike and its rider were liberally spattered with its blood. The rider also came off, taking several following riders with him (this happened on a bend at the bottom of a fast descent).

Apart from the blood and a few scratches, the bike was unharmed.