holy shit!!! Hit a bat.. or a bird... something with wings...

[knorwj]

Anywho like the title says I hit a bat or small bird tonight on my ride home from work. I was doing about 40 and I saw it swoop down then next thing I know it smashed my shoulder and flopped into my crotch. Soooo now I'm doing 40 with an injured winged creature (probably a bat or small bird) flapping and squirming in my lap... holy shit!!! haha anywho I was trying to shoo it away while driving and eventually it flopped off of me and I continued my commute... I'm just glad it didn't bite anything while down there.

Anyway this got me thinking about all the different critters you may contact with a bike and how bad it would probably be for the rider.

So what kind of critters have you hit and or "clipped" with your bike? close calls?

An old friend of mine hit a dog with an 80's cb400 bent his pegs and stuff but was otherwise unharmed. lucky I'd say. but I know there are worse stories than that so lets hear them.

[jeffcoslacker]

The oddest encounter I had was when I rode under a railroad bridge...there was a couple of geese nesting under the bridge. I like to gas it and hear the exhaust under bridges, and it scared them into flight.

They flew straight out in front of me, parallel to my lane. One was about 20 feet in front of me at about handlebar level. I opened the throttle kinda hard to scare him outta the way, but didn't consider how fast I'd accelerate...

And the bird got scooped right over my bars and into my chest ...there was some tense moments while he struggled out from between my arms, finally falling off to the right side. My friend riding alongside me was laughing so hard he almost went off the road. He said it looked like the bird exploded there was so much feathers flying...

[speediva]

I've had a bird graze the top of my helmet, but it wasn't more than a robin. My dad saw a turkey buzzard swoop down after me once when we were in some backcountry woodsy areas... he said the wingspan had to be 6 or 7 feet on the sucker. I'm SO GLAD that isn't the one that grazed me!

[VR43000GT]

Well, I don't ride street bikes but I do some enduro racing through the woods and of course have had some encounters there. I have hit a squirrel, came scary close to running into a deer, and have almost hit a turkey countless times (dumbest creautres I have ever run across). Other than that just odd things like a possum or racoon.

[richtazz]

A group of family and friends decided to take a ride to our property in Northern Lower Michigan, about 125 miles from the Flint area where we all live. My Uncle Ron didn't have his windshield on his bike and was gonna rough it without putting it on. I convinced him that the 5-min it would take would be well worth it and luckily he listened. As we passed a lake, two Canadian geese flew up, one of which hit his windshield, grazed his head and landed behind us in an explosion of feathers. It cracked the windshield and shook him up a bit, but otherwise he was fine. Image what would have happened to him if a 60lb goose would have hit him in the chest at 70+ mph!!!! That's one of the reasons I don't ride without a windshield.

[aussieidiot]

my in-laws live just out of suburbia in a rural sector, no street lights and long gutterless roads lined by large acreage. late one night coming home, rounded a corner and a wallaby jumped right in front of me. they are about 5 foot tall and 100lbs. lucky he was moving coz all i saw was...... corner..... long straight...... F"N WALLABY...... long straight......corner.

i had no time to react he was gone that quick.

most of the time they jump out and when they get scared they turn back to where they came from knowing it was safe in that direction.

[speediva]

Originally Posted by aussieidiot

my in-laws live just out of suburbia in a rural sector, no street lights and long gutterless roads lined by large acreage. late one night coming home, rounded a corner and a wallaby jumped right in front of me. they are about 5 foot tall and 100lbs. lucky he was moving coz all i saw was...... corner..... long straight...... F"N WALLABY...... long straight......corner.

i had no time to react he was gone that quick.

most of the time they jump out and when they get scared they turn back to where they came from knowing it was safe in that direction.

Hahaha, Aussie said Wallaby!



That makes me giggle. And oddly enough... as I'm typing this, the streaming radio I'm listening to is playing an ABATE ad for motorcycle safety (Look twice, save a life, motorcycles are everywhere)... mind you that it was 31*F when I left the house an hour ago.

[knorwj]

haha awesome, I can't even imagine a goose hitting me in the chest. wow.

That would definitely shake me up a bit.

[jeffcoslacker]

Originally Posted by knorwj

haha awesome, I can't even imagine a goose hitting me in the chest. wow.

That would definitely shake me up a bit.

Did I mention geese poop when they get scared?

Motorcyclists do too, occaisionally...so I've been told...

[Paul79UF]

I've only been hit by huge dragonflies. Man those things hurt at speed.

I always duck down real low when I see any birds. I did see a large bald eagle once in North Florida that swooped over my head as I passed.

I'm glad it didn't bit yer nuts man.

[jeffcoslacker]

I don't worry as much about the animals as the other stuff...I'm human, I like how it feels to ride without a helmet...but I just can't justify it. I bear no malice to those who chose to go lidless, and I don't think they should be required to wear a helmet.

But my own experiences make me accept the helmet.

Once when riding down the highway in heavy traffic, I found myself boxed in, which I usually don't allow. I had cars on both sides of me, a dump truck in front of me, and a small rental truck behind me...so nowhere to go if something happens...

I saw a flash of light that caught my eye from the dump truck's rear tandems...it was a chrome lugnut I'm sure, came off and spun out of the wheel and went through the air in an arc, headed straight back at me.

This was a large hunk of metal, probably near 1" diameter by 1.5" long, looked like one of those capped acorn-type nuts...I put my chin down to my chest when I realized it was coming straight at me, and WHACK!...it hit the top of my lid, I could feel it right through the liner and pad...

When I got home and looked, there was a deep crack in the shell with an imprint of the hex of the nut, about 2" across with the inner foam exposed...could feel the bump on the inside...

I doubt my skull would have handled it so well...I keep that helmet as a reminder why I wear a lid....

[richtazz]

I agree 100% Jeff. I wouldn't ride without a lid, but I don't feel I should have to wear one. It has been proven that there are just as many types of accidents where a helmet does more harm than good. I wear mine for just the scenario you presented. You never know what's going to come flying at you, and I'd rather have something to duck behind. I wear a light, thin 1/2 helmet which protects me from what I fear while on a bike. If you think a $1000 Arai helmet is going to make a difference if you t-bone a Buick......you're dead wrong. I also think riding in shorts, open toed shoes, and without gloves is stupid and more dangerous than riding without a helmet, but there's no law (nor should there be one) against it.

[jeffcoslacker]

I love when TV reporters ask stupid questions on camera.

A couple of years ago a couple on a Goldwing with a trailer were caught in a sudden traffic slowdown in the rain on the highway...someone tagged them, they went down, and both of them were run over by several vehicles before traffic could stop. Gruesome for sure, both were killed instantly.

I'm watching the news that night, and the stupid reporter talking to the State Trooper handling the scene asks "Have you been able to determine if they were wearing helmets?"...

And the trooper shot her this look like she was the biggest idiot that ever lived...carefully chose his words and said "We are just beginning our investigation, but I'm fairly certain helmet useage would have made no difference in the outcome of this tragedy..." and walked away, shaking his head in disbelief...

[es_class]

Wow...wow...wow..and Wow. All Crazy Stories. Thank The Powers That Be ...that Every1 Of Ur Stories Ended With A Reason To Laugh With The Lesson. I Got Hit In The Chest Once And To This Day I Dont Know What It Was. Had To Be A Rock About 1 Inch To 1 1/2 Inches In Diameter But I Cant Honestly Say What Or How Big To This Day. All I Know Is That It Hit Me Right Below The Colar Bone On The Left Side And It Hurt So Bad I Almost Cried. And I Am 315 Pounds Six Feet 2 Inches Tall. And That Was With A Helmet On And A Jacket. I Could Only Imagine What Something Like That Striking Ur Face Would Feel Like. An Eye...lip..nose....cheek.... Omg.

[jeffcoslacker]

I have the strangest story about odd objects...

Fortunately this did not happen while riding, rather in a work truck. But it still makes me wonder.

I was driving down a residential street lined with small one story homes. I was just coming to a stop when a tremendous bang that buckled the hood and sprayed the windshield with pulpy debris just about made me crap my pants.

It hit so hard and so fast, it was like it was fired out of a cannon. It came in at a high angle with little arc, as if falling from orbit. After regaining my composure, I realized a familiar and unpleasant smell was entering the cab.

Grapefruit.

That was what hit my truck, and was sprayed all over the hood and windshield. The seeds confirmed it. Now the question was, where the hell did it come from? There was no multi-story buildings around, no tall trees, no low flying produce hauling aircraft around that I detected, no plausible explaination.

Being a bit of a mad scientist myself, I wondered if someone, somewhere in the vicinity had made some type of apparatus that could launch a grapefruit at high velocity. I once read where some college students made a compressed air weapon that fired a 200 lb slug of bread dough almost half a mile, and it crashed through a guy's roof...so I know it's possible.

Come to think of it, there was a college pretty near there....