Quote Originally Posted by Grog View Post
Wait a minute.

If there is a bear sitting on the road, do you REALLY want to brake and stop in front of it? In this case it was a black bear, so not horribly dangerous, but still.

What you probably want is to get out of there fast!!! I know the bear's sense of smell is really good, but what about their sight? If they see you are they going to go back the way they came (like squirrels) or keep going across the street? I'd say the priority would be to keep enough speed AND guess the right trajectory of travel to get away from the bear!

I would most likely elect to "quick turn" out of the bear's path/reach, followed by a bit of a sprint to make sure I drop him/her. In my most recent critter encounter/collision back last December, I chose to try the "rock dodge" manuever against an errant opossum. I found out that while rocks (and LCIs' tennis balls) stay still, 'possums don't; and the little booger ran right into my front wheel. So then I tried a mountain bike trick to try to roll over him like a log, and that worked, even with my road bike & pulling a paceline ;-)

It helped convince me that riding dirt whenever I can makes me a better road biker...