What have you hit while riding? NGC

[inditx]

Ok so Dave Swanson’s post got me thinking about what, we who are still riding, have hit and the results.

Oct. 2012 I hit a deer out of nowhere and broke a hand and got some road rash on a foot. Buck ran off and I idled the bike home. Thankfully it was only a half mile and it was a Rocket 3.

Some time after that my headlights attracted a bat! Yep a bat and it was DOA after slamming into my windshield/instrument cluster. Again on the Rocket 3, liked that bike but glad I got rid of it before hitting anything else!

inditx

[Yeahoo Whoyah]

As I posted in the other thread, time to order Road Kill Animal Hit Tally Decals!

[s1120]

No four legged stuff...  I did run through a swarm of june beetles...  That was fun, I was covered with welts!!  Next was a swarm of lightening bugs....  I glowed for a bit after that.

[Turin]

Early morning commute to work during the summer on my Quota. Helmet on, jacket partially open, I cut through a residential neighborhood. The noise of the bike startled a flock of pigeons that were feasting on freshly laid grass seeds. The birds took off crossing the road in front of me. I felt a pat against my chest. Must of hit one. Hop on the freeway, head across the city, exit the freeway, and stop at a light. I felt some movement at my ribcage. Looked down and saw my stow aways beady little eyes staring back at me. Fully opened the coat and shooed him off. He sat there for about 15 miles.

[MarkMk]

I hit a 'Roo, it tried to turn around to hop away,  just in time to poke my gear lever into it's eye socket, which promptly snapped off, I didn't go down, but my left leg took a pounding,
 After stopping, I hobbled back to check the 'Roo, who was in a bad way, so I put it out of it's misery with a large rock to the head, "POP", out came the gear lever end, which was later welded back in place & remains so 35 years later,,,,

[Guzzistajohn]

Hit a rabbit coming back from the races in DuQuoin one time. It landed in the lap of a BMW rider behind me.

[Daleroso]

Years ago. A turkey buzzard, a possum & a huge yellow/black supper sized bee that hit my visor & then YOWEEE, something bit/stung me in the crack of my ass. Got to the side of the road asap doing a jig for a few moments & found it dead on the seat. Stung me through my jeans.
Got home, told the wife who laughed to tears at the 50 cent size welt 2" down the crack of my ass.
Remember it like it was yesterday.

[cliffrod]

I've never hit a deer on a bike.  Even if typical Guzzi protocol frowns upon it, the "Loud pipes save lives" mantra seems viable. Riding out to see my current wife at her camp (on a large peninsula) while dating on the Guzzi, I never saw a deer anywhere.  Shark gill silentiums with no baffles, mainly because I never had them. During some monsoon-level rain, she told me to just take her truck home and pick up my bike later.  Driving the same route in a quiet, proper muffler truck, there were easily two dozen deer each way every time except during the midday sun.  She said seeing many deer every trip was normal, but they could hear me coming into camp as soon as I left the main road so expected the deer did as well.

I have collided with two large diving hawks- one on the V7 Sport in TN and one on the FLH in VT.  Each time, it was like having a giant tank bag attacking you. I saw it coming on the Guzzi- no real problems.  Hawk came straight in, tried to stop but still ending up between my chest/arms and tank. Open face half shell, so there was a lot of feather thrashing on my bare face before he left.

It was different on the FLH. 70ish mph on the interstate, saw a little blur moving in over right arm, then had something between me and the windshield flogging me.  By the time I understood what it was, I was able to turn enough for it to get away without too much wobble on the bike.  There were some small feathers stuck in my full face helmet when we got home..  Wife was riding on the back that time.   Didn't crash either time, but may have without the leather jackets.  Each one was scratched up.

Riding alert but relaxed helps.  You've got to be ready to simply (no pun intended- simply meaning automatic & reflexive, not hesitating while thinking) react.  Seeing a first deer means expecting the next one right behind it,,probably moving faster to catch up.

[Green1000S]

Fat groundhog, rabbit, squirrels, few birds, chipmunk and snakes.

No dogs, cats, deer or bears.

[inditx]

These are great stories, keep em coming!

My brother, won’t say which one, had a bee or wasp fly up his nose while riding a dirt bike. Pulling out wings, legs etc., he finally got the bike stopped and did a "workman’s" cough to blow it out his nose!

We were young so we did what brothers do, we laughed when he came home because his nose had a big goose egg lump on it from the swelling!

Yowee!

[Scud]

I have hit some interesting road debris, most notably, a big truck in front of me kicked up a pipe that was in the road, and it came straight at me. All I could do was curl up into the tightest ball I could while still controlling the bike. I heard the impact, but didn't feel anything... so kept riding till safe enough to exit the freeway. This was on a 1996 BMW R1100RT. The pipe punctured right through the saddle bag - and the saddlebags on those late 90s RTs were heavy, double-walled, ABS. I spent about 2 minutes thinking about what it would have done to me... asked myself what I could have done differently, decided I was following a big truck too close, instantly adopted a new habit and moved on.

Long ago, when I was young and thought wearing shorts on a motorcycle was a good idea, my shorts acted as an air-scoop and took in a wasp... which is more fun than a bee, because wasps can sting you several times. Fortunately, it was low speed and I was able to get off quickly. That was the end of riding in shorts.

So.. while I did not intend to do so, both of my stories ended with me deciding to change my own riding habits. Is that a theme anyone else?

[Rochey42]

Narrowly missed a black bear cub yesterday morning.  It was trying to cross the road at the end of a sharp blind turn and the poor thing didn't know what was going on.  Luckily I got out of there before mom crossed.

[80CX100]

     I'm very conscious of the deer close to home around the farms, I don't like to ride at night, been lucky so far, I don't see as many deer back in the bush. I used to be an avid traditional bow hunter, so I'm very aware of funnels, edge lines, fences etc, the topography that the deer usually follow.

     But deer can be so unpredictable, a fellow rider on a Suzuki Bandit at "speed" close by, hit one on a main road, middle of the day broad daylight,cut the deer completely in half,,, insurance wrote the bike off,,,, the rider walked away with a few bruises.

     I came close to getting a turkey in the head&shoulder area, but was luckily able to duck down low to the tank as he flew by,,, I took out a little Sparling with my right elbow, and the front fork/fender area has taken out a large black Crow.

     The scariest thing I almost hit, happened on a late night 40 yrs ago, ripping along at 75-80 mph on old hwy #16 on a 76 KZ900 w Windjammer, I couldn't see clearly at night because of the reflection of the gauges off the windshield, but I noticed what seemed to be a long wiggly line of what I thought was white toilet paper in my lane,,, as I went by the end of it, I realized it was a fire hose that had fallen off a truck; when I saw how close I came to the huge 2' long thick brass nozzle,,, severe sphincter moment at that point 

    Kelly

[normzone]

I can't match these -

Sparrow to the crash bar once, just had to wash him off.

Bees inside the helmet twice, stung once, the others flew away when I took it off.

I met a riding girl who said an empty plastic gallon milk jug came up and hit her in the breast, hurt significantly.

Tractor trailer crunched a pallet to shreds, I went through the kindling cloud without injury on my Eldo but began thinking about fairings.

[stubbie]

On the road along the coast there is one particular park with a lot of low coastal scrub and a flock of swallows that at certain times of the day like to dart around the road catching bugs. Forgot about them one day and had one hit the fairing on my Le Mans at about 50mph. Another day driving home past the local golf club saw something hit the road about 10 feet in front of me. Luckily I decided to duck, a golf ball slammed into my helmet if I hadn't ducked I would of wore it straight in the face.

[TodkaVonic]

Just birds, thank goodness.

1) A red winged black bird hit me square on my helmeted forehead and then dropped like a stone into my lap. I lifted my butt off the seat and the wind swept it away.
2) At highway speed hit a tom turkey running with wings aflappin' across the road. I swerved a little to the right and braced myself. It hit my fairing and then my right bicep then it went into the ditch. The impact caused my right hand to inadvertently flip the kill switch so it was swerve, brace, bam!, wooooooooosh. Just the wind and boy was it eerie. The impact also sent my front brake reservoir off to who-knows-where, so no front brakes, a throbbing right bicep, and a banged up front fairing/missing windshield for about 80 miles. The insurance guy says "yeah, I seen a turkey knock the roof off a car!" Don't know about that but they're more hearty than they look. (Almost said taste...stupid bird). 

Nate

[TodkaVonic]

Early morning commute to work during the summer on my Quota. Helmet on, jacket partially open, I cut through a residential neighborhood. The noise of the bike startled a flock of pigeons that were feasting on freshly laid grass seeds. The birds took off crossing the road in front of me. I felt a pat against my chest. Must of hit one. Hop on the freeway, head across the city, exit the freeway, and stop at a light. I felt some movement at my ribcage. Looked down and saw my stow aways beady little eyes staring back at me. Fully opened the coat and shooed him off. He sat there for about 15 miles.

That's terrific!

[Rough Edge racing]

 Years ago I was on a crowded 4 lane highway..A 4x4 piece of lumber fell off a flatbed truck and there was right in front of me laying across my lane with nowhere to go but over it...67 Triumph 650 going about 50 MPH when I hit it...The bike never wiggled just two jolts ...I pulled off when it was safe...A smile in the front rim, tire still inflated..
  Same bike  in the city going down a side street at maybe 30 mph when a car backs out right in front of me...I go left, miss the car, up and over the curb, hit a bunch of metal trash cans and lose control smashing into a house porch..The front tire poked through the lattice work but no real damage..I looked up and a hippie girl on the porch leaned over, handed me a joint she was smoking " you need this".

[kballowe]

I hit a big turtle, earlier this year. 

It wasn't too far down the road that I was smelling fried chicken.

[Ncdan]

Probably the worst and scariest, going on a wreck call, as a motor officer, running 80+ mph, coming up behind a large van truck which straddled a short piece of 4 by 4 in the center of my lane. I hit it straight on....BLUMP BLUMP and that was it. No damage to the tires or wheels. I guess the speed lessened the impact. However my arse ate a good size piece of the seat of my pants.

[rocker59]

Usually, it's just rocks or lumber in the roadway.  Bent rim, and not much drama.  However, there was this one time in 1984:

-1979 Pontiac Firebird.  Driver ran a stop sign, pulled out in front of me, then panic stopped and froze when he saw me.  I hit the left front fender and cartwheeled over the hood.  Landed on my feet and walked away.  Witnesses were freaked out and couldn't believe it.  1983 CB650SC was totalled.  Firebird had a helluva crease in that left front fender. 

[kirb]

A small bat- the aftermath was quite disgusting
Whitetail deer- broken ribs, Fib, rehab for 8 days with a totaled Stelvio.
Raccoon- lucky that was on a KTM with a 21" wheel- rolled right over him
Turkey- yea, those suckers are big.
Missed a small bear cub...didn't see mom, thankfully.
Various small rodents, nothing of note
Something skipped off the crash bar once...not sure what it was.
That little ankle biter of a dog in my neighborhood only runs after motorcycles. I keep an eye out for him, but one of these days his ticket is going to get punched.

[JC85]

A high like nothing else can give me. 

[paul in rochester]

Hit a pigeon at speed with the fork of my GL650.
Giblets all over my leg, and I was pulling feathers out of the radiator for weeks.

[severely]

Gosh, where to begin? Animals I've hit: dogs/5 or 6; cats/ 2 or 3; rodents/ too many to list; hoot owl/ at least 2; buzzard/ 4 ;wood  duck/1 ; wolverine/ 1; armadillo/5, to name a few. Animals I've ALMOST hit: bear, mule deer, whitetail deer, antelope, moose, elk, and last but not least a jaguar in Nayarit Mexico. Ride safely.

[larrys]

I hit a large, black dog at night that just happened to run across the road in front of me. I was going about 30 mph and saw black fur in my headlight and then I came to sitting in the road next to my bike and a dead dog. Got 60 stitches and a bunch of road pizza on the left side of my face. I met the future Mrs. larrys a week after the accident. I think she felt sorry for me...
My almost new SP had 998 miles on it.
Larry

[Beowulf]

Haven't been riding long. I got hit by a semi tire losing its tread. A foot and half long chunk hit me in the chest and part of my helmet going 70 miles an hour. Call me a wimp but that hurt. No damage other scratches to my helmet and tear on my old jacket. Glad i was wearing gear. What a noise!

[maquette]

Hit a turtle yesterday on the way home from the VA Guzzi Rally. Me-1  Turtle-0

[Guzzistajohn]

I hit a big turtle, earlier this year. 

It wasn't too far down the road that I was smelling fried chicken.

   MMmm chicken, they taste like chicken don't they?

[SteveRivet]

I hit a pigeon on I-95 going about 70 mph.  Point of contact was my left foot on the toes.  It felt like I'd kicked a medicine ball.  Pigeon liked it even less.

Steve