Nearly offed by a cat!

[2Loose]

Got to my final home stretch this evening, downhill and freewheeling so about 20mph-ish when I saw 2 pedestrians walking their dog up the hill towards me.

Sudden movement and a football sized blur flew across the road into my front wheel and knocked the bike sideways.
A massive wobble and I managed to stop with my heart in my mouth. The pedestrians seemed shocked and confused as to what had happened until we spot a small tabby cat sat in the road motionless.

I walked to check it out fearing the worst when up it flew across a garden and under a fence, followed by ten minutes of knocking on doors to try and let the owners know what had happened, just in case it had run off to lick its wounds.

At the fourth house, just as the door was opened, guess who sidled up and rubbed itself around the bottom of my legs purring! Not a mark on her, which is a relief.

A big thanks from the owners for letting them know, despite no sign of any harm.

Got the bike indoors and my front right hand mudguard stay has a huge kink in it, which probably prevented the moggy from being minced in the spokes (and likely saving me a repair bill

).

Very relieved all round.

Now it has got me considering a noisier freewheel when its time for a wheel change.

 

[Crankarm]

Blimey, that could have been catastraughic!

 

[monnet]

A catalogue of errors.

I had a very similar incident on Monday morning - open stretch of 3 lane one-way road approaching a set of lights (on green), I was in the left hand land lane. Cat ran across the first two lanes. It saw me, ran parallel to me as I slowed anticipating an unexpected move from the cat. And then bang, it chose to go right under my front wheel. Cue sound of scuffing of cat against tarmac and me wobbling precariously. I managed to get the brakes on harder and it scurried off. It can't have been too badly injured as it managed to leg it at a fair rate and I had no idea where it went. I just hope it was alright. It did make me wonder how drivers can do hit and runs when I felt that concerned about a cat (and I don't even like cats).

Glad you're both ok though.

 

[SurlyNomad]

spokeydokes! or the old playing card in the spokes! you can pretend at being a motorbike then lol.

 

[deptfordmarmoset]

I'm sure they don't do this on purr-puss!*


*sorry, it had to be said...

 

[Batmancaver]

Yes they do do it on purpose!!

A few years back whilst training for the Ruthin Merida enduro I was descending a hill into Pentre Halkyn going quite fast. A cat started walking across the road in front of me from the right side of the road. I hit the brakes and then the cat turned around and walked back towards the verge so I let go of the brakes and speeded up a little, when I've never seen a cat move so fast!

One moment it was walking to the right the next it was right in front of me! No way I could avoid it, I didn't even have time to brake. Wham I hit the cat, then I Supermanned through the air, bounced and rolled along the ground with my bike bouncing after me.

The cat disappeared, I gingerly stood up in a bit of pain and picked my bike up. The reason that I went flying was simple, the wheel was well buckled!

I ended up jumping up and down on the wheel to semi-straighten it so that I could cycle home. Thankfully I had disk brakes. Once I'd got home I had to go to A&E to get all my grazes cleaned and bandaged! OUCH!

I still managed the Merida a few weeks later but it cost me a new front wheel!

 

[Nebulous]

I was scalped by a cat on my holidays.

I was in France, on a cycle lane, with a lovely surface and lots of trees and vegetation at the side, on my mtb. I saw this cat heading in the same direction as me, almost caught it, when it must have seen me and took off, - like a cat out of hell - I followed it for about 150 metres when it turned off into a garden, by which time it had made about 15 metres on me.

 

[2Loose]

You droll guys - it really did give me paws for thought.

 

[Jezston]

I saw a not so lucky cat that someone had deposited at the side of the A52 the other day. When I approached it, it was lying on it's back in that way that cats do when they are rolling around being cute. Thought it was being friendly, then as I got closer noticed it wasn't moving

 

[LCpl Boiled Egg]

A few years ago I had a cat run out from between some parked cars - it went between the front wheel and the chainring. Luckily I wasn't going fast at the time, but unfortunately for the cat it was fast enough that it got caught up and rolled over and over for a few seconds. As I braked it eventually managed to come out the other side and ran off into a garden on the other side of the road.

A week or so later a sign appeared in one of the windows of the houses nearby with the words "Missing Cat" on it. It may not have been the same cat but I'll never know. I'm ashamed to say I didn't knock on the door and explain what had happened, but I wish now that I had.

2Loose, you did the right thing.