Airborne critters

[Jackrat]

four of these I can remember.
#1. Was down by Napier,blating along enjoying the day when I spot a black thing,I had time to think, what the heck?? An splat a bumble bee on the end of my nose.PAIN,PAIN,PAIN, tears an Don,t know how I didn,t crash.Never had an opinion on bumble bees until then,Don,t much like em, now.
#2.Wearing full face with vizor this time,heading up the Kaimi,s.
Catch a movment out corner of left eye,An crash rattle,head thrown back.
Take helmet off cause can,t see a thing.
Visor covered in yellow bug guts,bits of legs an body parts.Don,t know what is was but it was big.
#3.Coming around a left hander,going hard.
A hawk jumps up from long grass on road side,no time for anything,I take it center of chest,feels like geting hit with pillow case full of sticks,Don,t come off but end up with big bruise an lap full of hawk poo,Yeeeeuk!
#4.Heading down highway 22 on me old GT250 Suzuki with mate Mike on back.Feel bug bounce off side of helmet,Don,t think anything of it,Then a minite later get first sting lower neck,Half way round corner going pretty good
I,m trying to slow to stop an it stings me again upper back this time,Now I,m trying to get arm up jacket,stop,an not come off an the bloody thing stings me again,lower back now,Just about in the ditch,mikes starting to yell something,an it stings me again,just above the ass crack this time.
We go into the ditch at about thirty kms,Bike lays down,Mike a I both over the bars an land in the dirt.Dented tank,dented muffler,broke mirror,broke head light,broke brake lever,No broken bones,just real shok up.The wasp died but I think he kind,a won in a way.I really hate wasps now.

[Hitcher]

Are you an entomologist? I've just come back from a run to the top of the Rimutakas to watch the sun set. Brilliant! But have collected at least one of every bug in Christendom on my way home. The leathers are encrusted. No stings but.

[MikeL]

I don't think I really wanted to know that. Surely such encounters are very rare, and the chances of a creepy-crawly ending up inside your helmet (or worse, inside your pants) are minimal???

[matthewt]

Worst I had was going down hill (fairly steep & slow) and a bee hit my eye while my visor was up. Pushed my eye back into the socket hard enough I thought I was going to pass out. Pulled over and stopped for a minute while I got it together. Never found the bee.

[James Deuce]

Riding back from Auckland on VFR400 from Auckland - as I pull out from servo in Bulls I see something out of the corner of my eye just as I close the visor. Become aware fairly rapidly that a wasp is crawling up my visor - on the inside. Wasp crawls onto lip and I take a chance - and bite the sucker in half. Back half stings me on side of face. Scream. Stop. Rip helmet off with glasses still on. After 10 mins of swearing try to get helmet back on over face which is now almost too big to go through neck hole.

[LB]

Many, many years ago I was pillioning - I think it was somewhere like coming out of Raglan back to Hamilton. See what looks like a swarm of sandflies, then a split second later they grow and I realise it's a swarm of bees. F**k. Stopped, ripped off jackets etc, bloody bees everywhere. We never got one sting - don't know how. I'm allergic to their stings too, so that was lucky. Scary stuff.

[LB]

And why is it that you always get the world's biggest bug splattering itself right in the middle of your visor when you leave the gas station just after you've cleaned it? They seem to know when to do it - they leave you alone when it's already dirty!

[Motu]

Coming home from work one day on my XS1,wearing an off road helmet with a big peak but no goggles,doing about 100kph,when a bee shoots under the peak at some speed and explodes in my right eye.This was on Waiheke Island - narrow winding roads with gravel shoulders....I just collapsed over the tank,pain in the red line,I managed to stop and tried to clear bee from my eye.My eye hurting bad from the impact and stinging from liquid bee,looking in the mirror I got most of it out,but the sting was in my upper lid,so I rode home with one eye,then got my missus to get the sting out - not easy,the lid just pulls out 100mm into the room! With the sting removed she gave me some homopathetic for bee stings and put an ice pack on my eye.I spent the evening on the couch planning what I was going to do with my day off next day.In the morning I woke up as if nothing had happened and went to work.

I've always trusted Hawks,sure they are a bit lazy clearing the scene of road kills,but they seem to have it under control.One day up Kaukop way I saw a big bird on the road ahead...ah,a hawk thinks I,as I get closer it takes off and I see it's a duck...still no prob,he's going left,off the road - but as I pass him he does a midair U turn and comes straight at me - I ''duck'' and he goes overhead!

So,sometimes even when we are monitoring a situation and have it under control,things can go wrong!

[marty]

on just tuesday this week - coming up to the arapuni road from the back of karaipro - going pretty quick with the VFR right behind me - see a hawk take off left - back off a little, then it suddenly catches a gust of wind and peels straight back across the road then towards me like a spitfire with guns blazing. stoppie the RS - the VFR just manages to change direction quick enough and goes whipping past. hawk wing clips the helmet of VFR dude, spiralling the hawk into the drain. nearly a very big mess for all

[Timber020]

Got home one day from blasting on the firebreaks, get off my bike and head for the front door when mum came out and let out a scream. I look down and my boot is covered in blood, its a right mess. I look back at my bike and theres a Quaill impalled on my gearshifter!

I used to practise on my F3 racer on the local roads. I hate mina birds and found that they always take off just before you get to them when your doing road speeds. Enter young hoon pulling race speeds....BANG! I hit one with my front wheel, Im stoked although I had to clean it out of my brakes and radiator. Kept the speed going, next day, same bit of road, this time I hit a magpie with the nose of the bike, it then bounced up the screen and hits me fair in the face, just about knocks me off and leaves me seeing red (literally). What a stinking mess, cracked the fairing, screen and popped my helmet screen off. I did get more over the year but started dodging them from then on and put stronger plastic fairing on!

I did put my googles on while doing about 100kmph while doing a enduro to find a wasp on the INSIDE. Almost crashed trying to stop the bike!

[fritter]

Yer I got a bigass moth in the eye at about 60k (ish) one night. Got legs and moth insides smeared all over my eyeball... freakin' painful that was - I tend to ride at night with a visor now. Safety squint doesn't always work too well.

Last year on the desert rd a sparrow flew straight at my head. Luckily it glanced off the side of my helmet and into my shoulder. I was going fast enough for someone in this site to no doubt give me a lecture ... bloody lucky it didn't hit me square on that's for sure...

Plenty of racers have been hit by seagulls at phillip island on the straight... Now THAT would be painful.

Bug wise I'd have to agree that bees are the worst. I've had one chip my helmet - I'd hate to have it hit bare skin

[Nouseforaname]

Why is it that the minute you raise ya visor to get sum nice fresh air a stone will get kicked up and smash you in the face? Countless times ive had to pull over with blood on my face from getting hit by stones, yet i NEVER get hit by stones with my visor down.... damn that murphy bastard!


Funniest thing ive had was pulling into the gas station at Paeroa in a supercharged 74 HQ ute with fresh blood splattered ALL over the bonnet and windscreen from when we did a bit off impromptue duck hunting with the ute.... the guy at the gassy was so suspect of us, it did look like we had just hit someone.

[Hitcher]

I was watching the 600s race at the Isle of Man a couple of weeks ago on Sky. The interview after the race with the dude who won talked about all the flies that we around amd how, when going flat out at 160 miles and hour, one handed with a tennis ball-sized sponge, he had to clean his visor to see anything. Woo Hoo!!

[LB]

Remember the Four Hour a couple of years ago at Manfeild where the duck went into the air intake of the SP1? It stayed there till the next pit stop, then they finished the race with the front of the bike covered in blood and a few feathers.

[LB]

And there was the time a few years ago when Mother Duck and about 12 ducklings crossed the track on the home straight, just out of the sweeper. About four guys came round the sweeper together, all hell bent on crossing the line first. The ducks were in the middle of the track. The guys all swerved to miss them, some went one side, some went another. How no-one biffed it or crashed into one another I'll never know. The ducks all made it safely across!

There's lots of ducks at Manfeild, I think it's got something to do with the ponds they've put in for the jetboating. Also lots of mosquitos.

Then there was that time at the Malaysian GP a few years ago when there was the (live!) snake on the track.