Dang Birds!

[Ron in MO_imp]

Well after 50 years of riding motorcycles, I had something happen on my ride today that has never happened before!

I was carving up some corners this afternoon and as I was rounding a bend in the road I see this pretty good size hawk munching on some road kill in the opposite lane. As I approached going about 50 miles per hour, the bird decided to fly away. The problem was that he wasn't to quick and he also flew into my lane!

He hits my left mirror first, spinning it and the clutch lever down about a quarter turn on the handlebars. Then he hits me in my helmet and bounces off my left shoulder before going off to who knows where. It felt like someone threw a basketball at me when I was coming at them very fast!

Good news is there was no damage to me or the bike! It certainly broke my concentration on the ride so I headed back home while It was quite an "aw cuss!" moment! All in all it was an interesting ride and first for me.

Moral here is don't trust big birds to get out of your way!

 

[the Ferret]

Scary moment I'm sure. Glad everything turned out ok.

The black headed vultures are horrible around here, hanging in groups around roadkill, stupid, slow to rise, slow flyers. You have to hope no critters die on a highway right around a corner or right over a rise, because you come flying around the curve or over the rise and it's like bowling. It's only a matter of time ....

 

[Rocky_imp]

Wow, glad you escaped unhurt!
I had a seagull do that very thing and only missed me by an inch.
I once had a wren sized bird hit me in the helmet at high speed which snapped my head back but otherwise didn't cause a problem.

 

[curlyjoe]

I'm glad you escaped without injury, Ron. Scary moment indeed!

Crows seem to be the primary eaters of road kill around here. I've seen wild turkeys on the shoulder of the road twice this last week which is an unusual sighting for me. None of them took flight though.

 

[Ron in MO_imp]

This must be more common than I thought? Guess I've been lucky over the years or I'm riding more backroads these days. :biker:

 

[emptysea]

I've had to duck for a goose once, which I found both scary and ironic.

Luckily, I have not had an actual impact with a bird and most of my bird motorcycle encounters are confined to flipping the former at someone who did not see the latter.

 

[Inhouse Bob]

Glad you rode away unscathed!
I was stopped at an intersection in downtown Berkley Springs, WV a couple of years ago when a very large bird of prey swooped down and attacked my helmet. I would have fallen down whimpering except for the large crowd of tourists standing on the corner, pointing and laughing. And my riding buddy was no help at all. He laughed louder than the rest. Jerk.

 

[Rocky_imp]

Glad you rode away unscathed!
I was stopped at an intersection in downtown Berkley Springs, WV a couple of years ago when a very large bird of prey swooped down and attacked my helmet. I would have fallen down whimpering except for the large crowd of tourists standing on the corner, pointing and laughing. And my riding buddy was no help at all. He laughed louder than the rest. Jerk.

:rofl:

 

[silverbub_imp]

Glad you/bike are unscathed from the encounter!... Most likely... that large bird was a turkey vulture... even larger than most hawks... they flock to road kill like college sophomores to a tail-gate football party!... Just yesterday...I read an article that they have extra-ordinary sense of smell & can detect carrion(dead critters) over several miles... remarkable! & they become airborne like a bomber fully loaded in the bomb bay!... and they seem to wait until the last split second to jump off the road-kill!

 

[Cormanus]

Glad you and the bike are OK, Ron. I've had a couple of collisions with birds, tales of which are told elsewhere on the forum.

 

[dsan1964_imp]

Wow that would have shook me up...glad you rode away from it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk

 

[riceburner_imp]

Birds feeding along the road react in much the same way as deer,unpredictable as to which way they will go and how long they wait before making a choice,avoidance is the same,brake hard when you see them,10 or 15 mph off your speed gives both them and you a little more time to avoid disaster.My experience has been they more often than not fly directly into my path of travel instead of away from it,expect it and ride accordingly.Glad you're unhurt but sorry for the raptor as it probably died.

 

[Haystack_imp]

I'm glad to hear that you're OK and that the bike is undamaged!

Pheasants are the worst around here in the central plains. They have a habit of jumping out in front of your machine from the roadside at the last moment. Very difficult to react other than to duck-and-dodge while sitting.

I've hit several in the past ten years or so. Each time was with a bike with a windshield. The collision was so violent that I was sure that there was damage to the bike, but there must've been enough flexion in the fairing/windshield that it only left a mark on the bike and feathers floating over the carcass laying in the road.

I once hit a dove while wearing my helmet at highway speed on my BMW R80 sans windshield...you're correct, it feels like getting hit in the head with a baseball. I can't imagine that happening without wearing a helmet and no windscreen. That taught me to always wear a full-face helmet while riding a bike without a shield.