Squirrels

Johnny Sunset said:

Jobst Brandt said:

From wreck.bike.de:

http://bike.jinbo.net/down/board/album/Squirell3.jpg

Good looking fork and spokes. A good reason to not ride paired spokes
with openings for critters to jump through.

Bike with squirrel proof wheel covers:
<http://www.wisil.recumbents.com/wisil/misc/EdGinCobra1.jpg>. 😉

I kinda like it in a weird, deviant, guilty way.

Ron

Luns Tee said:

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

perhaps if someone can translate Chinese we might get some more
information?

Only if somebody else translates from Korean to Chinese first.

Hehe, ya I know, right? More "They all look the same" mentality and
cultural insensitivity. When's it going to stop?

--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

mort said:

Here's another example of the genius of our cycling forebearers:

http://www.pauldowns.com/shopsite/UnfortunateSquirrel.html

Note that the Pederson, along with its many other virtues, was clearly
designed to survive squirrrel suicide attempts.

How is it damaged? The fender looks like the only damaged part.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

perhaps if someone can translate Chinese we might get some more
information?

Only if somebody else translates from Korean to Chinese first.

Hehe, ya I know, right? More "They all look the same" mentality and
cultural insensitivity. When's it going to stop?

Actually, I did *try* to get it straight. I can't tell from looking whether
it's Chinese or Japanese (my first thought was Japanese) due to cultural
ignorance etc, so I went further and followed some of the links, a few of
which led to pages in English. I was misled (based on a quick look at the
content) into believing it was Chinese. In retrospect, the evidence was
there to imply that it was, in fact, Korean (a piece about some American
Treasury agents traveling to South Korea to discuss economic destabilization
plans that North Korea might use as a weapon).

--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Trust me, if a bicycle loses its front fender, that is a mortal wound.

Adam Rush said:

All right, I'm sold.

The one thing these pictures fail to convey is the splatter pattern
these creatures produce on your khakis. My front wheel once digested a
sparrow on my way to work. I got a few questions that day.

A few years ago, a pigeon shot out of the hedge just in time to be run
over by my rear wheel. It was an 18mm tyre pumped up to some
ridiculously high pressure, so it virtually sliced the bird in half.
There were feathers stuck to the downtube and chainstays.

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Otherwise, the
possibility exists that this may enter the "myth & lore" section of Internet
history.

Following which, Jobst will feel obliged to post a debunking theory
based on the fact that the squirrel was hard anodized, and jim beam will
contradict him by asserting that hard anodizing does not harm squirrels,
and the fur tension was probably too high.

That reminds me, once when I was working at an LBS, we had a customer
come in with problem: She had gotten on the bike to take a ride, but
the back wheel wouldn't move without a lot of force. A few days later,
she came to us. Under her chainguard, around her freewheel, and in her
chainring, she had bits and pieces of the most unfortunate garter snake
on Earth. She hadn't ridden the bike afterwards, so it was nice and
dry when it got to us. It's been up on workshop's wall ever since.

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

Good looking fork and spokes. A good reason to not ride paired spokes
with openings for critters to jump through.

Jobst Brandt

Heh, are the forks covered by Trek's lifetime warranty?

But on a more serious note, is it my imagination, or is the squirrel
caught in the _narrow_ part between spokes on that wheel? Please look
at the photos real carefully. If so, I doubt if more traditional 32
spoke wheels would have helped.

The apparent lack of trauma (torn-apart squirrel casing, as it were) is also
quite interesting. Those photos have been circulating around the 'net for
some time, without any explanation (in english; perhaps if someone can
translate Chinese we might get some more information? Otherwise, the
possibility exists that this may enter the "myth & lore" section of Internet
history.

You know its a fake if the squirrel has antlers. -- Jay Beattie.

Mark Hickey said:

Phil Holman' piholmanc@yourservice said:

Yes, the several hundred critters who have bounced off my 32
conventionally spoked wheels are testimony to avoiding this situation.
Never mind the more important technical considerations.

... like trail choice?

I got squirrelled on a (very) urban bike path. Fortunately, it leapt
into my foot and not the wheel, then skittered away apparently
uninjured. Given the ubiquity (and temerity) of squirrels in these
parts (NYC), "trail choice" is not a risk factor that can be easily
minimized. Before I saw those photos, I hadn't really thought much of
my own encounter. Now, I realized how narrowly avoided squirrelicide.
I've also been bopped in the head by birds a couple of times.

John

"JBAFromNY" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

I got squirrelled on a (very) urban bike path. Fortunately, it leapt
into my foot and not the wheel, then skittered away apparently
uninjured. Given the ubiquity (and temerity) of squirrels in these
parts (NYC), "trail choice" is not a risk factor that can be easily
minimized. Before I saw those photos, I hadn't really thought much of
my own encounter. Now, I realized how narrowly avoided squirrelicide.
I've also been bopped in the head by birds a couple of times.

Agreeance. I ride to work on a paved river-side multi-use trail between 5 &
6 am. I've got rabbits jumping out in front of me 3 or 4 times a ride. I've
never hit one, but it's been close a few times. I'm glad I have regular 32
or 36 spoke wheels.

Mike Jacoubowsky said:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

> perhaps if someone can translate Chinese we might get some more
> information?

Only if somebody else translates from Korean to Chinese first.

Hehe, ya I know, right? More "They all look the same" mentality and
cultural insensitivity. When's it going to stop?

Actually, I did *try* to get it straight. I can't tell from looking
whether it's Chinese or Japanese (my first thought was Japanese) due
to cultural ignorance etc, so I went further and followed some of the
links, a few of which led to pages in English. I was misled (based on
a quick look at the content) into believing it was Chinese. In
retrospect, the evidence was there to imply that it was, in fact,
Korean (a piece about some American Treasury agents traveling to
South Korea to discuss economic destabilization plans that North
Korea might use as a weapon).
--Mike-- Chain Reaction Bicycles
www.ChainReactionBicycles.com

Nah, I was just messin with ya... I can't actually read or speak an asian
languages well, nor do I care all that much... I just know what they are
based on the curviness of the characters. Japanese is more swoopy and
curvy. Chinese is more angular, compact, and dense, and Korean has circles
and stuff in it. I didn't/couldn't read anything in the article.
--
Phil, Squid-in-Training

JBAFromNY said:

I got squirrelled on a (very) urban bike path. Fortunately, it leapt
into my foot and not the wheel, then skittered away apparently
uninjured. Given the ubiquity (and temerity) of squirrels in these
parts (NYC), "trail choice" is not a risk factor that can be easily
minimized. Before I saw those photos, I hadn't really thought much of
my own encounter. Now, I realized how narrowly avoided squirrelicide.
I've also been bopped in the head by birds a couple of times.

I don't think the squirrel caused the damage in those photosl.

JT

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Squid-in-Training said:

Nah, I was just messin with ya... I can't actually read or speak an asian
languages well, nor do I care all that much... I just know what they are
based on the curviness of the characters. Japanese is more swoopy and
curvy. Chinese is more angular, compact, and dense, and Korean has circles
and stuff in it. I didn't/couldn't read anything in the article.

Japanese writing often includes Chinese characters.

JT

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Visit http://www.jt10000.com
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damyth said:

Quoted message said:

From wreck.bike.de:

http://bike.jinbo.net/down/board/album/Squirell3.jpg

Good looking fork and spokes. A good reason to not ride paired spokes
with openings for critters to jump through.

Jobst Brandt

Heh, are the forks covered by Trek's lifetime warranty?

But on a more serious note, is it my imagination, or is the squirrel
caught in the _narrow_ part between spokes on that wheel? Please look
at the photos real carefully. If so, I doubt if more traditional 32
spoke wheels would have helped.

http://bike.jinbo.net/down/board/album/Squirell1.jpg

Does that help you at all? I can see one spoke in front of his his
body. I think he's in the narrow gap as well. Though it seems possible
he got squeezed in there after coming in contact with the fork (multiple
times?).

--
Paul M. Hobson
Georgia Institute of Technology
..:change the f to ph to reply:.

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

Squid-in-Training said:

Nah, I was just messin with ya... I can't actually read or speak an asian
languages well, nor do I care all that much... I just know what they are
based on the curviness of the characters. Japanese is more swoopy and
curvy. Chinese is more angular, compact, and dense, and Korean has circles
and stuff in it. I didn't/couldn't read anything in the article.

Japanese writing often includes Chinese characters.

As does Korean. The differences are obvious if you've spent time in
either country. In short, the Korean Hangul characters are a lot more
angular than the Japanese characters.

Mark Hickey
Habanero Cycles
http://www.habcycles.com
Home of the $795 ti frame

In article <[email hidden]>,

Mark Hickey said:

John Forrest Tomlinson said:

Squid-in-Training said:

Nah, I was just messin with ya... I can't actually read or speak an asian
languages well, nor do I care all that much... I just know what they are
based on the curviness of the characters. Japanese is more swoopy and
curvy. Chinese is more angular, compact, and dense, and Korean has circles
and stuff in it. I didn't/couldn't read anything in the article.

Japanese writing often includes Chinese characters.

As does Korean. The differences are obvious if you've spent time in
either country. In short, the Korean Hangul characters are a lot more
angular than the Japanese characters.

Don't forget the circles. Hangul has a lot more circles in it than
either Chinese or Japanese scripts.

Most importantly, Hangul has 24 characters, which is about 10000 fewer
than either Chinese or Japanese (well, maybe Simplified Chinese is a bit
better than that).

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos

In article <[email hidden]>,

Paul Hobson said:

damyth said:

Quoted message said:

From wreck.bike.de:

http://bike.jinbo.net/down/board/album/Squirell3.jpg

Good looking fork and spokes. A good reason to not ride paired spokes
with openings for critters to jump through.

Jobst Brandt

Heh, are the forks covered by Trek's lifetime warranty?

But on a more serious note, is it my imagination, or is the squirrel
caught in the _narrow_ part between spokes on that wheel? Please look
at the photos real carefully. If so, I doubt if more traditional 32
spoke wheels would have helped.

http://bike.jinbo.net/down/board/album/Squirell1.jpg

Does that help you at all? I can see one spoke in front of his his
body. I think he's in the narrow gap as well. Though it seems possible
he got squeezed in there after coming in contact with the fork (multiple
times?).

Two shiny vertical stripes appear to be two spoke nipples
of a spoke pair.

--
Michael Press

As far as I know, the "simplified" in Simplified Chinese only refers to
the number of strokes per character. Though, there are actually cases
where the number of strokes *increased* in order to keep things
intuitive.

In article <[email hidden]>,

Adam Rush said:

As far as I know, the "simplified" in Simplified Chinese only refers to
the number of strokes per character. Though, there are actually cases
where the number of strokes *increased* in order to keep things
intuitive.

It's trickier than that. I recommend the wikipedia article, which seems
to be fairly reasonable:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simplified_Chinese_character

But in short, in many cases multiple characters have been merged into a
single, simpler character. Or to put it another way, one side-effect is
that there are more homonyms in Simplified Chinese, and thus fewer
characters.

I can't tell for sure after reading that article, but my impression is
that the number of characters removed from the language is relatively
small. This list seems to give an idea of the changes:

http://xahlee.org/lojban/simplified_chars.html

From here, the issues get more serious than this humble correspondent,
essentially ignorant of either spoken or written Chinese, is willing to
explore.

--
Ryan Cousineau [email hidden] http://www.wiredcola.com/
"I don't want kids who are thinking about going into mathematics
to think that they have to take drugs to succeed." -Paul Erdos