Bird attacks

[dave_a]

So riding today to work on the harley :scooter: cruising about 50 km and I see something in the corner of my eye I duck and a bird flew straight into my helmet! :bash:

Has anyone else had this happen? out of my 7 years of riding bikes Ive never had this till today,just wondering if anyone else has.

Would not like to have had it happen at 100kmh :gob:

[duckonin]

At 50k's you must of been going to fast hence you collided,ha ha yep a couple of times now I have had to duck near miss both times....

[Tortron]

a couple of times, once hitting (and breaking) the radiator guard, and just the otherday one bounced off my helmet. Since then im fairly sure every bird on the road has been trying to hit me, or playing chicken at least:mellow:

[HDTboy]

On the way to Taupo on the 2nd of Dec I hit a hawk at a speed great enough to kill it, and too great to post on a puplic forum

[Dave Lobster]

I've had one hit the side of my helmet at about 130mph. It burst all over my passenger (who was only wearing a T shirt and shorts).
I didn't feel a thing.. but I think the passenger was a bit shocked. Amazing how much blood and stuff is in a bird..

[sugilite]

Yep, Was quite a while ago, I was on a RZ500 heading along the Hutt motorway to the then Lower Hutt Branch of Wellington Motorcycles, when I saw this large white object diving out of the sky at me, I just got my head down and WHAMMO!I got pushed back in my seat, I looked around and saw it had been one of those huge white seagulls! When I got to Wellington Motorcycles, they said, FARK, what did you hit? I said huh? They said, take off your helmet and look at it. I did so and there was a large splotch of feathers and gristle. As an added bonus the blood had run back like flames, cool! :niceone: I guess that is what happens when you collide at a combined speed of 250 kmh + (It was a really, really fast seagull, honest! )

[janno]

Isn't it that time of year with a lot of young birds about? Not quite road savvy and all that. Might be wrong though, but I've had a few near bird strikes too this weekend and thought of that.

[BIGBOSSMAN]

I've just about killed every type of bird in the skies around this country, including a pheasant, ducks, sparrows, a Thrush and a Blackbird. And this poor hawk, which I caught (!) while riding with the two 'trophy holders' pictured.
Why me?

[Mikkel]

The poor birds probably just didn't see you! ;)

[Hitcher]

Some guy with his daughter pillioning was killed by an Exocet duck in the Wairarapa a few years ago. Tragic.

[99TLS]

bike have been hit a couple of times by sparrows, and i have pulled over to remove the cooked bits off, duck ran out straight into front wheel also,

[Swoop]

Barely missed a pheasant this morning, near Waitoki.
The bastards scare the crap out of you when stalking them with a shotgun, but when they run out onto the road, in front of the F-117... Near-miss country! "Collateral damage" averted... just!

[Sully60]

Amazing how much blood and stuff is in a bird..

You're right there sir!
I remember the one of the last four hour races at Manfield when Jason McEwen was riding the SP-1 and got a duck full frontal.
What a complete mess, quite a bit a stuff down the air intake, in radiator and a lot more red strips the the normal Castrol colour scheme. I think the front edges of the fairing were a little worse for wear as well.

It was a good lesson in natural selection too, any animal that didn't move fast enough to get out of the way of that thing didn't deserve to live!

[sunhuntin]

i nearly took out a hawk when riding up to taupo. took off just in time, and then damn near into me. on the way, that same hawk was dead on the road. i took a feather from his wing and brought it home.

worst ive had hit me was a butterfly... square on the bridge of my sunglasses... spread its guts across both lenses. had to stop at bp bulls to wash them so i could see. those white butterflies are yellow on the inside...

[roadracingoldfart]

I had a big black/white seagull fly at a good 100kmh speed into my left shoulder from an angle and it hit me so hard my hand came of the bar and flew all the way back like a good old golfing swing , straight back into the pac-frame. I almost broke my wrist and my shoulder had such a massive bruise for about a week. How i didnt crash i dont know.

Another time i was leading a bunch of mates on a ride and going through the old Upper Hutt road at 50kmh i looked back with a good old hip twist stare to the rear and as i looked back to the front , with the visor up ill add, a friggen sparrow fles straight into my face. It gave me a huge cut from the bottom of my cheek to the top of the eyelid and shat over everything else.
Never a good look and it took for ever to clean it up.

[Monsterbishi]

Have had a near-miss with a seagull before, 60kph on Brougham street(wasn't speeding - had a patrol car directly behind me!) It took off from the footpath and flew across my path, it started to tumble from the airshift as it came over the top of my fairing, I ducked enough to avoid it - cop car wasn't so lucky as it bounced off their windscreen...

[XF650]

If riding with visor up or no visor......
Potential bird strike & stones being flicked up by passing vehicles etc, are good reasons to wear safety type sunglasses.

[Monsterbishi]

UVEX Make a reasonable range of safety sunglasses, they're not too expensive from memory(I get them free from work so can't remember the exact price)

[Ocean1]

Isn't it that time of year with a lot of young birds about?

Not so's I've noticed. <_<

I did however encounter a pukeko on the way up to Taupo last week. Bastard ambushed me from the side at well over legal avian open road velocities and hit the front rim just behind the axle, causing a moderately worrying twitch. Most of him then hit my right ankle, taking my foot completely off the peg, which really didn't help with trying to get the front end sorted out again. I also wondered at the time where they keep all the feathers and entrails when they're not distributing them all over innocent Buells.

Half an hour later a bloody thrush also did the Kamikaze bit, and got me full on the right shoulder. At least the thrush wasn't employing excessive and un-nescessary speed at the time, and he didn't have quite the build of the pukako, so the mess wasn't too bad.

Half an hour after that, (just before Taihape) I came around a corner to find a feking great hawk having lunch in the middle of the road. I thought "you gotta be joking", but he buggered off just in time.

[Kickaha]

A Magpie once gave both me and my brother a smack on the helmet when we out trailriding one day