Do you avoid road kill,cow muck and the like?

[Accy cyclist]

I was out yesterday when in my path was a squashed dead crow, a big one at that!, so i swerved to avoid it. I've been behind cyclists before who don't bother about such things and go over dead birds and animals(some not flattened ) . To me the thought of getting all that rotting stuff on my tyres then flicked onto me is horrible. The same goes with all the cow muck slurry on the roads at the moment.
Do you go over the stuff without a care, or are you squeamish?

 

[slowmotion]

I avoid anything even faintly squishy, organic, and animal-based like the absolute plague. Yucky stuff that I don't need in my face, on my back, or stuck to the bike.....no thanks...

 

[Crankarm]

Pedestrians as well.

 

[Banjo]

If I go through slurry I use one waterbottle to wash the outside of the other one, nasty stuff in cow poo. I defo wouldnt ride over road kill if I could possibly avoid it.

 

[Nihal]

I never go over slushy stuff as long as i can avoid it unless its mud or water.Hate to look at the wheels after going over cow poo,etc,etc

Riding over road kills is

 

[Accy cyclist]

If I go through slurry I use one waterbottle to wash the outside of the other one, nasty stuff in cow poo. I defo wouldnt ride over road kill if I could possibly avoid it.

Yes i've heard about all the bacteria in the stuff. I couldn't avoid some last week, it was annoyingly pouring from a pile of s..t in a nearby field.
As cars pass by they whip up a spray of the stuff that we have to endure, and if we go over it it splatters up(no mud guards) onto our clothes. I've recently started carrying a little anti bacteria spray to spray onto my hand and wipe by backside, legs etc. It's not perfect but ok till i get home and shower. You certainly know when you've been through the stuff, it stinks to high heaven!!

 

[snorri]

Generally avoid, but if it's cow or horse manure I stop and scoop it into the buckets in my panniers and take it home for the garden.

That was a complete lie, a loada s****.

 

[Night Train]

I even avoid running over the stuff in the car (if I can, safely), never mind on the bike.

 

[Rob3rt]

I don't think anyone in their right mind would choose to ride through something unpleasant if it was safe and reasonable to do otherwise.

 

[palinurus]

There was a nasty incident in a local TT when a rider was downed by a badger. On hearing of the incident I imagined this badger rushing out of the hedgerow only to cop a face full of aero wheel. It turned out though that the badger was dead before the incident occurred. Avoiding a dead badger isn't something I'd consider a particularly technical challenge, but having said that nor is tightening chainring bolts without skinning your knuckles and I rarely manage that.

I was nearly taken out by a fox (live) a few weeks back. I'm surprised I haven't ever had a squirrel-related incident (that well-known dead squirrel between the forks picture springs to mind, I've no idea why that doesn't happen forty times a day in the UK)

 

[Ian H]

Mudguards?

 

[Accy cyclist]

Mudguards?

yes apparently some folk still embarrass themselves by "wearing them"!

 

[xpc316e]

Last year I did a bike maintenance day at a local school and it seemed as though the majority of kids had ridden through something on their way to school. It wasn't dead birds or cow muck; it was canine-related and decidedly unpleasant. Needless to say we wore surgical gloves all day!

 

[Globalti]

My brother and I were once mountain biking down a BW that crossed a field that had been sprayed with something odd and grainy and a bit smelly. It was sticking to the tyres and spraying all over us but we didn't pay much attention until be began noticing johnnies and odd bits of tissue and cotton wool, and we realised we were riding through the contents of somebody's septic tank....

 

[colly]

Generally avoid, but if it's cow or horse manure I stop and scoop it into the buckets in my panniers and take it home for the garden.
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How very green / eco / sandal-ish of you. The planet will thank you eventually.