| Author | Message | ||
     Ourdee |
I have noticed that every time a bird and my helmet collide I am wearing a white helmet. I hit another one last night an hour or two before sun down. | ||
| Ourdee |
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| 86129squids |
Haven't you heard?  (Message edited by 86129squids on September 06, 2015) | ||
| Ourdee |
I just knew the bird's eyes were going to open back up. I feel like I took a punch to the jaw today. At least no sore neck. | ||
| Steveford |
Looks like it was eating blackberries! Could be worse, it could have been a swarm of stink bugs. | ||
| Crusty |
I once had a stink bug hit me on my upper lip, and the juicy guts went up into my nostril. It happened just before I was about to stop for dinner. I didn't stop to eat for six more hours, and I spent those six hours blowing my nose, trying to get the smell out. | ||
| 1313 |
On the way to work one morning this past spring I was riding my 1190RX. The road I live on is the twistiest road that I know of in the area. Once I got to the longest straight I opened it up considerably more than in the curves. Out of the corner of my eyes I saw a small bird whose path was perpendicular to mine. All I could do at the time was roll off the throttle and as the bird impacted my left shoulder I looked down at the speedo to see that it read 87. There were no remnants on my jacket (Buell Adventure jacket with liner - which made for a little extra padding for me) and I couldn't detect any carcass in my rear view mirrors, so apparently the small bird got through the incident as unscathed as I - well, I did have a slightly sore shoulder that day... The first time I saw the aftermath of a bird/helmet strike it, too, was a white helmet. During the Battle Of Champions, one of the racers (Billy Graef) hit a bird - during practice if I recall correctly. All over his jacket and all over the fuel tank of the bike. Guess who got to clean up the bike? Well, I was pitting for him, so... Thankfully there was no contact with the 2 turkey vultures I saw on my road tonight as I was ripping around on my 1125CR but at this point I'm just rambling... 1313 | ||
| Ourdee |
One before that I hit was a forehead strike just above the visor. Sore neck for three days on that one. I put a chicken through the forks on a Kaw 750 once. | ||
| 86129squids |
Crusty- ACKK!! That sounds gawdawwful!! You guys are making me paranoid now- other than all the stickers I have on it, my helmet's white...  Once I was hauling mules down Foothills Parkway on the CityX... suddenly, in my peripheral vision, I see something big and brown bounce off the right side of my front rim... in my rearview, a wild turkey was doing the ragdoll roll... Went back and took three feathers. In hindsight, should've brought home dinner. Glad I was going as fast as I was!  | ||
| Panhead_dan |
An old friend was removed from the seat of his Triumph by a brown bat to the chest. | ||
| 86129squids |
Yikes! Wearing gear or not?!? Hard to believe something with such little mass can do that- but hey, that's physics, right? | ||
| Ourdee |
Not wearing gear would have been very bad. I am thankful. | ||
| Aesquire |
Crow to the chest. Only 45 mph, and leather jacket, but it still felt like getting hit by a softball. Fast pitch. Atlanta Girls League. ( they take it serious ) even more attention getting, a Honeybee hit my chin vent on my Suomy, lived, and was crawling around on the inside of my face shield. Love them 6 piston brakes... stopped, opened visor, carefully removed helmet, and watched her fly away. I get along fine with Honeybees, unlike wasps and hornets, ( they hate me ) unless I sit on or hit them. When a bee flies into a crowd, and they start to freak I call for calm, hold out my finger, and "here, bee...here, bee". They only land once in a while, but it's worth all the other times to get the reaction. Birds, though, it's just physics. Deer are far worse. A buddy cut one in half with his Honda Sabre. He landed in mud ( second time Mud saved his life ) in a cornfield. When he got it back from the shop with a new fork & fender, first start it began to smell. The shop didn't hose out the radiator. Half an hour later we were very unloved at the local do it yourself car wash. | ||
| Aesquire |
Come to think of it, I was very unloved at the same car wash when I hit a hedge hog, and had to wash off the exhaust & underside of the Cyclone. | ||
| Ourdee |
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| Ourdee |
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| Stirz007 |
Was following another bike on a (paved) farm road in Kansas - we were doing about 70 I guess - glad I was back a ways - he flushed some pheasant and one of them took him right off his bike - it wasn't pretty for the bird or the biker. | ||
| Tombo |
Been stung a few times when my helmet scooped up a yellow jacket. First time was as a kid on a Mini Trail 50 and jumped off the bike to get the helmet off. Most recent was while riding the Buell (did not jump off, though I did get stung). Someone who bought one of my bikes ended up with a bat flying into his jacket. I should probably close my helmet shield more often, but at least I zip up my jacket. I have several riding jackets but none of them have front impact chest protection. I think it is too often overlooked for precisely the situations on this thread. | ||
| Rwven |
Birds hit silver helmets too.... | ||
| Sifo |
I hit a seagull doing about 70 mph once. Fortunately I was on a bike with a Windjammer fairing and it just splattered on the windshield. | ||
| Airbozo |
I've had birds land in my lap a couple of times on exactly thee same corner on HWY 9. First time freaked me out, second and third time were almost expected. It's like all their bird buddies are sitting next to them in the tree's yelling: "Ready, set, NOW!" | ||
| Akbuell |
Coming back down the hill from the Blue Ridge Parkway, on 276. Tight, technical roadway, so doing 35-40MPH. On the left side of the road, a hawk had found some treasure or other. It looked from the carrion to the approaching bike, and back. Decided the bike and I was a threat, so the bird grabbed the critter and took off. The prize was Just About big enough to exceed the birds max gross weight rating, so climb performance suffered. When it dodged directly in front of my head, I ducked, and the prize grazed the side of the helmet. Have done the bug things, and was there in the early 70's when the bike at the front of the group lost its heavy, Maltese Cross air cleaner and hit Blevit, who was next to me, square in the chest. Almost took him off the bike . . . | ||
| Bluzm2 |
Had a sparrow bounce off the side of my helmet once, didn't hurt but sure was loud. Same goes for killer June bugs. They make a hell of a racket when they hit your face shield. Stinging critters on the other hand.... Back when my Cyclone was still kind of new, I was on the way home from work. I had my Aerostich suit on (that was back before it shrunk...), it was a bit warm so I had the jacket zipper down about 1/4th. A yellow jacket, hornet or the like hit me right at collar bone level, right at the split of my button up shirt. Stung like all hell from the impact and the sting. The damn thing then fell down my shirt and continued to sting me. I was using my left hand trying to smash it while on flying down the interstate in traffic doing about 70. Every time I hit the bastard it stung me, I couldn't hit it hard enough to kill it through the jacket and such. Finally got it though. When I got home the evil stinging creature had nailed me at least half dozen times. I had huge white blotchy bumps every place it got me. Wasn't much of it left to tell what kind it was. I got to enjoy that one for many days.... | ||
| Rick_a |
The only bird strike I've had was on my mountain bike. I was on a slight downhill grade doing about 28 MPH when a swallow darted right into the front wheel and eventually stopped with it's head caught between the forks and spokes. What a mess! Feathers were everywhere. As far as bugs, a yellow jacket also went into a helmet on me while the visor was cracked but I immediately opened the visor and turned my head to release it to the wind. That was good for a quick sweat. The worst was a flying plastic bag onto the visor. Does not come off easily with gloved hands... I've managed to dodge some big crows and vultures so far. Did run over a baby duck by accident that made a suicidal run for it...poor little fella! | ||
| 86129squids |
Wasn't that long ago this year that I rode up fast on a BIG turkey vulture having a roadside snack, startled it, and its takeoff path arced RIGHT over my head- took a while for my butt to regurgitate the bike seat... Dang thing was HUGE. | ||
| Steveford |
The one I cared for the least was when a large spider walked across the inside of my face shield one day as I was riding down the road. I pulled over in record time! | ||
| Brother_in_buells |
I pulled over in record time And what did it say? "drivers licenses and registrations please?!" |
