Birds!!!

[Caladbolg]

Has anyone ever been hit by a bird!? I was just coming down the hill before coming into akaroa and out of the corner of my eye something gives me a hell of a fright.. it was a sparrow! i moved my head but it managed to hit the top of my helmet.. i felt sorry for the poor bugger getting headbutted at 100k.

Birds could pose quite a hazard? especially if it was a larger bird like a gull or magpie!

I was quite surprised as it was my first ride on the open road.

[Nagash]

A member a little bit ago posted pictures of him waking a seagul with his helmet,

Broken nose with blood on the inside and outside of a helmet. Looked painful to me..

That's pretty unfortunate for your first open road ride. They ain't always like that, honest.

I've hit a couple of ducks before.. washing the blood of the bike is the worst bit.. other than that, stupid animal shouldn't of been there in the first place.

[toebug]

Check out this thread, it is an example of what a bird can do to you!
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=67271&highlight=pukeko

[Nagash]

Check out this thread, it is an example of what a bird can do to you!
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=67271&highlight=pukeko

I was searching for that!

It was a pukeko though.. not a seagul.. probbly why i didn't find it.

[beyond]

Yep, thrush on the helmet at 130kmh. Sounded like a shot gun going off in my ear and gave my head a good sideways rock.

Then would you believe it, only yesterday I'm cruising along a nice back road at 140kmh and a flash out of my right eye and then a massive thump in my left man boob that hurt like hell. I thought it must have been a magpie cos it blew all the wind out of me and I reckon I must have had at least three broken ribs.

Once I gathered my breath I turned back and rode slowly along the road and found a rather dead looking Kingfisher. Man it hurt and still does. The deep bruising will come out in the next few days and that's with a thick leather suit. Imagine a seagull or Pukeko. In fact it was a Pukeko that whacked one of the litre club guys on Highway 22 and caused him to have a head on and die. :(

Birds and motorbikes don't mix.

[Caladbolg]

Check out this thread, it is an example of what a bird can do to you!
http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=67271&highlight=pukeko

Fuck me.. thats nasty! I'm glad it was only a sparrow... poor guy must have needed new undies after that one

[_intense_]

Yep, was on my MC22, and cruising upright on the open road, at 110kish, and remains indicate what hit my now scratched HJC visor, was a sparrow, and all i remember is all of a sudden my head was thrown back, my visor went dark with feathers and blood and so forth, and it felt like someone had thrown a brick at my head.

i stopped an after inspecting the massive brown stain in my ex-pants, figured out what had hit me. rather scarey.


// have also had a couple of front wheel strikes, a sparrow and a blackbird to be precise, no-where near as exciting as my near-life helmet strike experience.

[Chickadee]

Happens a fair bit. I remember Gijoe1313 telling us about being whacked on the nog by a duck while riding. Something that size would give you a bit of concussion for sure!

[toebug]

Yep, thrush on the helmet

Lucky its only on your helmet!:spanking:

[georgie]

It scared the shit out of me when a bumble bee hit my visor:laugh:... No bloody idea what I would do if a sparrow or, God forbid, a duck headed my way. Reckon it would knock me off my bike!

[Bren]

I was hit by a bird quite a few years ago....it was a duck, but hit me on the upper arm...started me off on a wild tank slapper...

I have had a bee lodged in my helmet...that aint nice either, especially when ya get stung by the bastard!

[Dutchee]

Heading to Taupo the other week, all of a sudden the rider (I was pillion) ducked/moved and I'm busy eye-balling a myna. Funny as hell, we didn't hit it, we didn't come off. the rider thought it'd be smart enough to avoid us and couldn't believe it had a death wish. It got caught in the up-draught (my husband was riding MY bike behind us and watched the whole thing).
I always cringe when I see birds, but am worse about it now haha

[Mikkel]

I have taken a sparrow out with my should at about 100 km/h... The impact is surprisingly powerful considering they only weigh about 10 grams. This was on the leathers and it was fairly undramatic, just a bit of a surprise.

Weirdest thing I've tried was catching a big moth with my arm at about 140 km/h... It hit right on one of the stiches and made a smallish bruise. :crazy:

[Nagash]

Hah, moths are cool to hit, they just dissapear into a small cloud of dust,

[Boob Johnson]

Yep hit two so far & had at least twice as many near misses that i've had to duck to miss. Funniest one was when a sparrow hit the front screen near the wing mirror at 160+ & left some of his feathers stuck between the front faring & the screen, shit he hit it hard, gave me one hell of a fright :laugh:

[Jiminy]

Got one with my shoulder on one of my first rides, didn't have a chance to identify the bird (well, ok, I don't know anything about birds).

Wasn't a Japanese MotoGP 250cc rider taken off by a bird (a seagull?) a few years back in Philip Island(?) and got injured?

Here is a good starting point if you want to see birds and MotoGP encounters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDIa-RymzeI

[fredie]

i hit a magpie :Oi:a dove flew up from the bushes right next too the road straight into my visor . the noise was like getting hit by a peice of wood . DOOOOOOOIIIIIIEEEEEEEEEEE:Oi:HAD BIRD SHIT ALL OVER ME HELMET AN JACKET:Oi:gave me a jolt at 80klmph. had a spider in helmet , then it crawled into my ear :crybaby:had too get the doctor for that one:crybaby:

[Bren]

shit he hit it hard, gave me one hell of a fright :laugh:


Imagine the fright you gave the bird...ya prolly scared it to death!

[Livvy]

I haven't been hit by a bird yet, or had any interesting near misses, but I remember the first time I got a bumblebee in the face, right between the eyes on my (thankfully closed) visor, that gave me a big enough fright!

Don't want to meet a bird with my body or bike at all though - I know I'm bound to - but I have a soft spot for birds (what, being an emotional girl and all) and I think I'd feel fairly horrible if I killed a bird whilst riding.

Unless the little fucker hit me hard, in which case, it's fault for being on the road... :laugh:

[slimjim]

yes have had quiet a few hit', helmet and chest, hitting the arm via the little bugger's hurt the most , but biggest fright was coming out of a sweeper and big bloody hawk watching over a road kill was the biggest scare, an it lifting off, erk !

[CookMySock]

took out three pheasants at 130k the other day. looks like I was lucky I didn't cop one to the face.. :no:

DB

[phaedrus]

nearly clobbered a duck once. Over the wind noise from 100 and mumble km/h, through the ear plugs and over the bike noise - there was the most surprised quack i ever heard.

[Bekki]

One of my man's previous bikes got a new paintjob due to a duck incident!

http://www.kiwibiker.co.nz/forums/showthread.php?t=8698

[jim.cox]

I took out a flock of starlings once

No major damage

But I did get some odd looks when I next pulled in to fill up - blood and feathers everywhere

[n0regret5]

brothers mate got whomped by a pukeko a few years back out the back of rotorua on his NS250, smashed THROUGH his visor, nearly took out his eye (he was doing an estimated 140), dropped the bike and everything, ended up having major surgery and was stuck inside for 6 months or something..crazy birds! poor things. haha. i've never been hit by one but one time i had my visor up at >100km/h to adjust my glasses i got smacked in the face by a bloody butterfly..was a shock more than anything, but still!!

[Finn]

brothers mate got whomped by a pukeko a few years back out the back of rotorua on his NS250, smashed THROUGH his visor, nearly took out his eye (he was doing an estimated 140), dropped the bike and everything, ended up having major surgery and was stuck inside for 6 months or something..crazy birds! poor things. haha. i've never been hit by one but one time i had my visor up at >100km/h to adjust my glasses i got smacked in the face by a bloody butterfly..was a shock more than anything, but still!!

I hear that you're so slow, there's a birds nest on your helmet.

[n0regret5]

I hear that you're so slow, there's a birds nest on your helmet.

i'm gonna take that as a piss-take, mate..i'm getting pretty fuckin sick of you getting on my case for no reason. get a life.

[n0regret5]

just noticed your tag is CEO of kiwibiker. so whats up with making physical threats on someone who's just joined the forums to meet some new biker mates? seems pretty goddamn unfair, really.

[Finn]

i'm gonna take that as a piss-take, mate..i'm getting pretty fuckin sick of you getting on my case for no reason. get a life.

........................

[n0regret5]

........................

sorry..didn't mean to make you cry!

[jrandom]

I took a glancing blow on the chest from something small and feathered while riding up SH1 just south of Huntly a few weeks back. Was only doing 70kph or so, so it was more of a slap than a punch. I imagine that the bird was only stunned.

(It could well have been a Norwegian Blue.)

In a more dramatic vein, though, following kiwifruit along a Closed Private Road (tm) in the back blocks of the southwest Waikato a while back (at a speed that would have been a little over twice the legal limit had the road not been closed and private) I observed a bird directly impact on his right knee. What an explosion! I rode through quite a large cloud of feathers and bird bits half a second later.

Thank goodness for CE armour and kneesliders (and closed private roads).

[Dodger]

I've had 2 sparrows bounce off the top of my helmet so far.

Also had a bee inside my helmet (that makes to pull over fast), and have clipped a cat with my front wheel after it decided to run out in front of me.

I've lost count of the number of stones I've taken to the shoulder/chest/arms/legs etc.

[Finn]

just noticed your tag is CEO of kiwibiker. so whats up with making physical threats on someone who's just joined the forums to meet some new biker mates? seems pretty goddamn unfair, really.

Made any friends yet?

[bucket boy]

[QUOTE=n0regret5;1467085]brothers mate got whomped by a pukeko a few years back out the back of rotorua on his NS250, smashed THROUGH his visor, nearly took out his eye (he was doing an estimated 140), dropped the bike and everything, ended up having major surgery and was stuck inside for 6 months or something..crazy birds! poor things. haha.
I no that feeling but some how didnt drop the bike

[gijoe1313]

I got coshed on the back of the ol'bone dome by a ninja assassin duck! Saw stars, managed to keep bike upright and pulled off to the side of the road ... all good till I put my foot down and onto gravel ... slid off, dropped the bike, did a roly-poly and ended up facing the bike flat on my face... :pinch:

Dang ninja assassin ducks, didn't have the grace to hang around for me to collect for dinner! :angry2: Only left with a few downy feathers on the back of the lid! :doh:

[EJK]

Got one with my shoulder on one of my first rides, didn't have a chance to identify the bird (well, ok, I don't know anything about birds).

Wasn't a Japanese MotoGP 250cc rider taken off by a bird (a seagull?) a few years back in Philip Island(?) and got injured?

Here is a good starting point if you want to see birds and MotoGP encounters:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lDIa-RymzeI

did the birdie found a new home? :blink:

[Hitcher]

Birds I have so far managed to pick up whilst motorcycling include a sparrow, a hawk and two quail.

A couple of years ago a rider on the Grand Challenge took out a duck. The front of his bike was littered with feathers, innards, broken eggs and two webbed feet. The duck didn't look too good either.

[Finn]

A couple of years ago a rider on the Grand Challenge took out a duck. The front of his bike was littered with feathers, innards, broken eggs and two webbed feet. The duck didn't look too good either.

I heard the duck offered to pay for the damages though. He said "Stick it on my bill"

That's not really funny.

[MIXONE]

just noticed your tag is CEO of kiwibiker. so whats up with making physical threats on someone who's just joined the forums to meet some new biker mates? seems pretty goddamn unfair, really.

Don't sweat it.:sweatdrop:no:He's got an Inferiority Complex because his arse is built too close to the ground.

[ManDownUnder]

Don't sweat it.:sweatdrop:no:He's got an Inferiority Complex because his arse is built too close to the ground.

Yeah but look out if he shits on you - it's not such a long shot so he's usually on target

[n0regret5]

Made any friends yet?

yeh! seems people like my wit, humour and suzuki..X-D

[NighthawkNZ]

Has anyone ever been hit by a bird!? I was just coming down the hill before coming into akaroa and out of the corner of my eye something gives me a hell of a fright.. it was a sparrow! i moved my head but it managed to hit the top of my helmet.. i felt sorry for the poor bugger getting headbutted at 100k.

Birds could pose quite a hazard? especially if it was a larger bird like a gull or magpie!

I was quite surprised as it was my first ride on the open road.

Going to the March Hare 07 I hit by magpie... lucky it didn't hit any fairing as it would have cracked it and caused damage, but it hit the engine, didn't kill it (we as far as I know) as it flow off to die else where.

However if it was any higher it would have hit me and hurt like buggery and or cause damage.

Another time years ago I was hit by a sparrow or something on the shoulder (at 100kph) and holy crap I had a bruise there for weeks..

[n0regret5]

Don't sweat it.:sweatdrop:no:He's got an Inferiority Complex because his arse is built too close to the ground.

yeh i had a check of the profile..was gonna ask if that was his profile pic for real but i guess thats answered now..sorry finn. didn't realise a harley was the only thing you could get your feet down on!

[Hitcher]

That's not really funny.

It quacked me up.

[banditrider]

Have hit quite a few over the years. Took one on the Helmet at 1*0km/h on one of the GC's and that snapped the old head back. Put a crick in my neck for a while too.

Got one on the 14 about a month or so back. It hit just above the LHS mirror and skidded it's way right across the screen to finally exit stage right. Blood, feathers etc everywhere.

They're a darn sight harder than bugs!