Bird Strike!

[LuftGansa]

While driving on a secondary road south on my v85 tt , A hawk (mottled blur) struck my front right full face helmet.  This happened in a split second in which I saw it very briefly before the strike.   I think I had enough awareness to tense up my neck and head muscles and that was it.. Sure glad it wasn't the black panther (true sighting) I saw over a year ago in the same general vicinity. 

How many other Guzzistas have ever struck a bird?

[Tkelly]

Had a turkey nearly hit me while going around 60.I was laughing about it until my friend suggested it would be like getting hit in the head with a bowling ball.

[guzzisteve]

I hit a blackbird going 60 in my chest and it knocked the breath out of me. I hit a Guenny hen on my Sp1000 and it rolled off the windshield spinning in the air.
A friend of mine got killed by a turkey a few years back, JB. It was at night.

[cmgies]

I hit a vulture (or should I say he hit me) on a twisty road in Oregon. Right smack on the front middle of my helmet. I was riding my old K75S and had my head down and all of the force went straight down my spine. When I looked back, he was down on the pavement. Called my chiropractor and told him I would be at his office in a 1/2 hour. He still tells people the story.

[michaell32]

I never hit a bird but I did have a bat fly into me back when I road a gsxr. It hurt and left blood on my shirt. 

[Kildareman]

I head butted a pheasant years ago.  Had to stop until the "stars" stopped. Had a sore neck for a couple of days. There was actually two pheasants.  Both burst out of a hedge ahead of me. One went high, the kamakazi went low. He bounced off the side of my helmet and left a few feathers fluttering in the breaze as he flew off.

[Kev m]

I've narrowly missed a few over the years with a well timed duck. But a year or two ago a low flying one hit a cylinder head and got wedged between the fuel tank and valve cover slowly cooking till I realized it was there. I'd seen it fly across the road in front of me and had thought I'd narrowly missed it.

[inditx]

Caught a bat on the widnshield of a Rocket III Triumph
Killed the bat but not thew shield, weird
inditx
p.s. Now the dear was a different story, same bike…..sold that bike.

[blackcat]

A bird hit the left side of my helmet while I was in a turn, fortunately it wasn't a large bird but I didn't see it coming and it scared the sh#t out of me.

[mechanicsavant]

Current count 1 duck , i was going very slowly through a city park@ 6am . About 30 ducks were sleeping on the road . I yanked in the clutch & idled the engine . About 3/4 through the flock they awoke & alighted ! One came up under my left arm & was flapping against my chest . I let go of my left arm & Donald rolled over my shoulder!
When I got to the park exit , going onto the highway I looked down to see duck shit all over my jacket .
Second bird up close incident was a small (fortunately) turkey @ 40 MPH or so . It bounced off the motor & kept going .

[Gliderjohn]

I knew a couple that had a vulture just clip the top of the screen, causing it to barf. The barf hit his wife and was so bad that by the time he got stopped she was throwing up in her helmet. Another had a turkey come up and land in his lap fighting to get away by banging against him and the inside of the fairing. It worked itself out without him crashing but the turkey had clawed through the leather in places on his jacket. Strikes are rare but dangerous.
GliderJohn

[2WheelsUp]

Two weeks ago, I was coming back from Suches GA going 80+ mph on my Ducati 939 SS on a long hilly straight, a hawk swooped down in front me and struck my cowling before cartwheeling up against my shoulder. Result was this ...



Bike got a bit unsettled but thankfully it didn't hit my head or upper body. Felt bad for the hawk, can't believe it survived, suspect it was focused on some prey.

[cliffrod]

I’ve hit two hawks.

One in tn on the v7 sport. I was riding alone on a sunny Sunday.  He flapped & stood straight up wings out like all the pics, then hit me feet/claws first, dead center right in chest like I was dinner.  Flapped around between my arms and got out before I went too far.  That one was like slow motion and I thought my little half shell helmet meant I was going to get a face full of claws.

The other one was while 2-up on our shovelhead. 75-80mph on interstate in northern VT in cold rainy Sunday in Oct.  never saw him, just all of a sudden some big brown & white fluffy thing was furiously bouncing around between my body arms and windshield.  I first thought it was road trash that had blown up, then saw feathers in the flapping.  Held the line and it quickly went over my shoulder and my said “what was that?  Looked like a hawk”. We decided it was diving across road towards dinner when our paths crossed. it apparently flew in from side and never hit the windshield, just landed between my arms.

[John Warner]

I stunned a Pheasant many moons ago.
Quiet back road, CX500EC, riding in a very 'spirited' manner.
Pheasant came out of a hedge at knee-height like an Exocet, barely saw what happened, it hit the R/H Cylinder area.
Could see it flapping about on the road in my Mirrors, thought I should do the decent thing and finish it off (was not looking forward to that at all).
By the time I'd stopped and turned round, it was gone.
I checked the undergrowth as much as I could, nothing.

Lucky Bird.

[Motormike]

Two weeks ago, I was coming back from Suches GA going 80+ mph on my Ducati 939 SS on a long hilly straight, a hawk swooped down in front me and struck my cowling before cartwheeling up against my shoulder. Result was this ...



Bike got a bit unsettled but thankfully it didn't hit my head or upper body. Felt bad for the hawk, can't believe it survived, suspect it was focused on some prey.

Looks expensive!

[jcctx]

Hit a big stork like bird about 50 years ago on my commute to work on my 175 Bridgestone. Hit something about the size of a dove about 20 yrs. back; my brother behind me said the feather storm was impressive. The Stork actually made my shoulder pretty sore from the impact.

[Guzzistajohn]

Had a meadowlark hit my full face helmet just over the windshield. Looking in the mirrors, I saw yellow feathers flying.

[John A]

Deb was following me when we went over a lighted overpass. There were birds flying back and forth under the lights eating bugs. She said she saw my head move suddenly and explode. A bird had hit near the bottom of the face shield. I felt around to see if there was any guts or crap, I  had gotten off clean so we kept rolling.
Another time I was passing a line of cars and trucks on a county road, going over a hundred. A vulture took off from the right and about the time I figured I wasn’t going to hit him , he crapped. Missed that too, it sure stunk!

[LuftGansa]

 I guess from all the bird stories, it pays to have a real winshield and a full face helmet!

[Tkelly]

Riding in KS for the WG rally saw may vultures on the road.They would slowly take off as I approached them.It was rather nerve wracking,I couldn’t see why the didn’t take their roadkill to go .

[Gliderjohn]

Looks expensive!

Could be worse. Flying Magazine writer Dick Karl bought a nice used Beech Premier jet. Had owned it only six months when had a bird strike on a wing leading edge leaving an indentation about the size of a baseball. It was found that it couldn't be repaired safely. Beech was no longer making the plane or parts. Search of used plane wrecking yards could not come up with a full wing so the plane was considered non-airworthy and totaled. Now that is an expensive bird strike!

[n3303j]

Acquaintance took an Owl in the face about 20 years back. Broke his neck. Fatal....  Something to think about.

[PeteS]

Nothing big. I think something like a sparrow hit my helmet and bounced off. I saw it flopping around in the road in my rearview.
Another time about 5 miles from home on my way to the Wisconsin rally, a bird hit my rearview mirror and broke it. We took the long way around over the Great Lakes so I stopped at a Canadian Tire and picked up a stick on mirror.

Pete

[blackcat]

Riding in KS for the WG rally saw may vultures on the road.They would slowly take off as I approached them.It was rather nerve wracking,I couldn’t see why the didn’t take their roadkill to go .

I slow down when I see them based on Wes Stephens experience with those birds. He assumed they would take flight on his approach, which they slowly did but he got too close to one and it shit all over him and his bike which he said was pretty disgusting.

[StuCorpe]

I hit a Wild Turkey.  It broke the windshield and cracked the fairing before hitting me in the chest.  I don't know remember how I got stopped but the man driving the car behind me was standing beside me holding the handlebars when I finally caught my breath and became aware again.  Not one of my favorite riding memories.

[LuftGansa]

Wow, that guy holding your handlebars was likely from the other dimension. Glad he stopped.

[Tom]

No bird strikes but I ran over a skunk coming back from Shreveport.  I thought I hit a pothole.  I was eyeballing the traffic in front of me and merging right after accelerating to pass traffic.  The guys behind me told me that I had run over a skunk.  6 of us.  Last rider in the pack got the full aroma.     We were going back to Lindale for the GRIT.  That's what you get when you have the guy from Hawaii in front as speed bait for the State Police.   

[Stretch]

Wow! More folks than I would have thought have had fowl encounters on a bike.....

I took a pheasant in the kisser at dusk one day. I was going
about 55 or so and saw it just before impact. Good thing, too -
or it probably would have knocked me off the bike. Headache for
a coupla hours - me, not the bird. Bird flew away.

I also had a duck shit all over my head one morning. I was 17 and
had just bought a a brandy-new orange Bell Star II helmet. It changed to
white for a little bit there......

                               Stretch

[LowRyter]

Close encounter with black bird on the side of the road.  I was on the Ducati and it flew from the right wide of country road, blinked my eyes awaiting impact and gone.   I thought was a black vulture.   But later I am convinced it was a Wild Turkey.   The Turkey was at least 3 or 4 times heavier if it has hit me, thank goodness

[yosemite]

hit a crow on a motorway (Uk) , at about 85- 90 mph wearing an open face helmet, had to pull over onto hard shoulder. to clean mess of exploded crow, and restriaghten broken nose, again
while doing this the police stopped, to ask if i needed help, gave me a load of blue paper to wipe mess off face and mouth. wouldnt let me sit in back of shiny new jam sandwitch while doing it though.
trust me raw crow tastes disgusting.