Found a dead mouse inside a handlebar tape roll

Pulled some old bar tape off a customer's bike yesterday and a whole dried up mouse skeleton fell out of the bars. Kid said he left it outside for a month. Has anyone else found something weird inside a frame or bars before?

2 comments

2 Comments

xena_anderson1mo ago

Oh wow, that is both gross and fascinating at the same time. I had a similar thing happen with an old steel frame I picked up at a swap meet once. There was a nest of dried leaves and a couple of desiccated beetle shells rattling around in the bottom bracket shell. I always wonder how they get in there in the first place, because the openings are so small. Your story makes me think a mouse probably crawled inside the handlebar end looking for a warm spot and couldn't get back out. Now I'm going to be checking every bike I work on for little skeletons.

lisa_jones211mo ago

Honestly I always use a shop vac with a narrow attachment and then follow up with a flashlight inspection before I even think about cleaning anything out. Tbh if you find any little bones or shells just bag them separately so you can show your mechanic buddies later. Ngl the real trick is blasting compressed air through every tube after you clean it to make sure nothing else is hiding deeper.