Archived comment by Arlene:
I know someone who had a mouse in his hubcap. A real dead mouse. He wondered what the smell was. He found it when he had to change a flat.

I've had ants in my pants; sat on an anthill as a child & they were what we call fire ants, because their bites sting like fire. My grandmother rushed me indoors & put me in the shower, clothes & all to get them off me.

Archived comment by fash mag slag:
oddly enough, i was thinking of 'mouse in the tire' the other day [i'd never heard it before, either] +, as i was unlocking the door, happened to glance down at my front left car tire...whereupon my gaze fixed on a big bloated mouse! being as how del sols are practically bikes, i knew what was to follow + chucked it [despite being intrigued with taco-as-a-verb]. in passing--setting the trap all over again

Archived comment by Brenda:
I dunno... I read that, and the "mouse in your tire" speaker sounds to me like a surfer type. Especially the totally part.

Archived comment by talshadar:
Sandman - thanks for the advice and uh.. don't tell us anymore of that story ok? I don't wanna know :-)

Archived comment by CAM2:
Well if you're putting lemmings in your tires make damn sure you're NOWHERE near a cliff.

Archived comment by Matt:
Being a cyclist for so long (with varying degrees of enthusiasm, since about '80), I'd totally forgotten the sheer pantheon (right word?) of jargon in the sport/hobby. "Tacoed" is a cooler image, but most of the time (like when I was rear-ended by a Honda Civic) wheels are more likely to be "potato-chipped" than tacoed. I gotta admit, I'd never heard of the phrase, "mouse in your tire" until I read this post.

...I'm not sure whether this is bragging or a confession (maybe some of each), but mountain biking has so absorbed me that a few days ago I put down a deposit on a bike that, should it be stolen or wrecked, will cost me a little over $4000 US to replace. Crazy? Perhaps. Committed? Definitely. Obscene? Only if, like me, you're 25 and have never had a driver's liscense.

Archived comment by triticale:
There is something worse you can do with poison ivy, and that is to burn it. The irritant vaporises without degrading, and if you breath the smoke it attacks your lungs. Happened to the family of someone I met at an engineering summercamp while in high school.

Archived comment by eowyn:
Good quote for the first day of the Tour de
France. :) ahm-Go Armstrong!

Archived comment by dave:
Well, sometimes you have to put a mouse in your tire. I mean hampsters are fine on a big mountain bike tyre. And all that running certainly assists your speed.

But its damn hard to fit a hampster into one of those racing tyres.

Hmm, I wonder about a series of lemmings in your tyre ... all trying to follow each other around and around and ...

Archived comment by Sandman:
Ants in the pants sound rather better than poison ivy on the penis. That drove me insane for about 3 days. If it had been worse, I would have pulled it out by the roots. Now I am very carefull, when I finish working in the yard I was my hands with ivy soap (removes poison ivy) for about 5 minutes before I do ANYTHING else.

Archived comment by Mike:
I remember that episode! "New Twilight Zone," I think. And "dog" became "Wednesday," not "Tuesday". No, I don't know why I remember that. Yes, you probably are on some sort of medication.

I usually wrecked my bikes before they developed tire trouble. But I can say, as someone who once got ants in his pants (that's another story), that a mouse in the tire has to be much less horrifying.

(*shudder*) Now I'm all itchy.

Archived comment by CAM2:
True, it was one guy . . . I made the reference of "group" referring to the vocals and instrumentals as a whole. He had an interesting version of "Singing In the Rain" on the same album with "Puttin' On the Ritz." Wish I had THAT one back . . .

Archived comment by Obsidiana:
Taco wasn't a funky '80's group, it was one guy. That was his real name, too. It's also the real name of a freshman at my school.

Archived comment by Montygirl:
Denise - I'm with you, that's exactly the way I pictured this guy.

Jon, Don't give Mike any more ideas: he comes up with enough on his own! :)

Today, I shall use taco as a verb.

Ian, would you like to share your drugs with the rest of the group?

Archived comment by Ian:
I'm not sure why, but when I read this the first time I suddenly remembered a "Twilight Zone/Outer Limits/Tales from the Darkside" episode where a guy wakes up and there's a slow shift over one day of semantics in his world. (ie. "ball" becomes "dinosaur", "dog" becomes "tuesday")

Anyone remember that eposiode? Or am I just on heavy medication again.

Archived comment by Denise:
... and one time, at Band Camp... (how I imagine young-guy's speech pattern) or else like Eugene from Grease.


I'm with you, CAM.

I'm going to start riding my bike JUST so I can say to someone, "I just tacoed my mouse."

hehehe

Archived comment by Jon:
I'm just wondering if Mike ever put a live mouse in his tire...

Archived comment by CAM2:
I'm kinda partial to the use of 'taco' as a verb. And all along I thought it was just a funky 80s group . . .

Archived comment by Andrea:
: phew : Being a non-biker, I was a little distressed.

Archived comment by Matt:
Thankfully, "mouse in your tire" is just lamo biker-speak for when your cheaper-than-day-old-doughnuts tire gets bulged out by your equally cheap (and probably over-inflated, courtesy of the local gas station) tube.

Nevertheless, I'd rather have a mouse in my tire than ants in my pants.