Bird Strike - Lucky Shot

[Seaking]

Before I got the 2006 Midnight this summer, I rode my modded 2005 1100 Vstar a lot.. 80,000 kma in 2 years.. And in those two years I've had a lot of bird strikes while riding. Luckily, the three that hit my person didn't cause me to come off the bike but it hurt like hell. The others that hit the bike left a lot of mess. Most noteably was the pigeon that hit me in the shoulder and exploded in a large puff of feathers that my ride mates ran through.. (The wood pecker story is a whole page in itself.. ; )

 

And once I got my Venture, I figured my bad luck would follow since it's a bigger bike, a larger target for these birds to hit.. But after 4500 miles, no worries until recently.. sigh.

 

I'm riding along the back road in the lead with my ride buddies in trail when all of a sudden there's a loud sharp WHACK to the back or top of my helmet, scaring the living heck out of me.. I pulled over right away as I had NO idea what had happened..

 

yep, sure enough, a bird hit the left antenna and it bent all the way back and then snapped forward to strike my helmet with a nice whack..

 

My buddies behind me saw this happen, the puff of feathers from a small bird and then my jumping out of the seat at being startled by the hit of the antenna.. Good thing they were there to tell me about as I don't think I would have figured it out on my own.. I didn't think the antenna would reach that far.. Go figure..

 

I don't worry about deer in the road a lot.. its the dang birds I worry about..

[Eugene]

I know I should not laugh...but that really is too funny!!!

 

Never had the pleasure personally and I'm sure it would hurt like heck - glad you were safe through it all.

[BigD]

Thanks for telling us that story, I really needed a good laugh. :rotf:

[Seaking]

I know I should not laugh...but that really is too funny!!!

 

Never had the pleasure personally and I'm sure it would hurt like heck - glad you were safe through it all.

 

Go ahead and laugh, my buddies did.. good thing I wear a helmet, I can just imagine what that would have felt like without a helmet.. croid.. The pigeon in the shoulder left a huge blue welt that lasted weeks later..

 

But here's the "wood pecker" story that started my bird strike streak of bad luck (me and the birds).

 

Coming back into town from a photoshoot on my 1100 Vstar, I saw a large bird on the road, just before a curve.. The bird didn't seem to be bothered by the roar of my pipes as I approached it but suddendly it sprang up and flew directly towards me instead of taking evasive action. It struck me very hard in the left knee cap and bounced up into my face, flapping away as the wind was pushing it up against my helmet's visor etc. I couldn't see where I was going and I knew there was a severe turn coming ahead with a solid guard rail with ocean on the other side so I braked for all I was worth as I was shaking my head side to side trying to shake the bird free from my face.. All of this in a split second I suppose but it felt like a life time.. Then the bird suddenly disapeared and I was able to make the turn just in time.. Croid now THAT was scary, and not funny at all..

 

As I got closer to my coffee stop joint, I was stopped in traffic at the lights and a convertable car pulled up with cute girls in it.. they looked over at me and broke out giggling pointing at me and said something... but the light changed and off we went.. I had no idea what that was about. I pulled into the coffee joint parking lot and as I reached down to turn the key I notice what they girls were laughing about.. Right there, between my legs was a rather large wood pecker, sitting pretty and looking around, very much alive and well behaved.. My friend in the parking lot couldn't figure out what was sitting there but once they did, you can imagine the silly jokes and comments coming out eh? One of the ladies recognized the bird as an endangered species and called for someone to come get the bird.. Yeah no kidding, go figure.

 

That's why I ended up with a huge knot on my knee cap and the bird survived the hit.. It flew up into my face and fell down to between my legs for the long ride back into town. And I can only imagine the girls in the convertable car looking over and seeing this red headed crowned wood pecker's head jutting up from my crotch (as it were).. looking around as if I were taking my pecker out for a ride on the bike..

 

I'm not superstitious or anything but that's when all the problems with the bird strikes started, a few years ago...

[dynodon]

Thanks man, that was sooooo funny!

 

Just takin' your pecker out for a ride!

[Mariner Fan]

That's the best couple of stories I've heard in a long time! :rotf::rotf:

[SilvrT]

that is hilarious!!!!!!!!!!! good thing he survived to tell the story; how frightening! So much so, he did not notice the pecker; now that's a rare bird in itself...a guy not noticing a pecker between his legs....haha

 

[yamahamer]

Hit one a few months ago with headlight visor........scared the crap out of me cause it cut the bird in half. I never seen the bird just out of the blue the windshield had a streek of blood up it. when I stoped the other half was under the visor.

[az1103]

I laughed....My wife laughed...Thanks for the levity, it works better than medicine...:hihi:

[RoadKill]

Before I got the 2006 Midnight this summer, I rode my modded 2005 1100 Vstar a lot.. 80,000 kma in 2 years.. And in those two years I've had a lot of bird strikes while riding. Luckily, the three that hit my person didn't cause me to come off the bike but it hurt like hell. The others that hit the bike left a lot of mess. Most noteably was the pigeon that hit me in the shoulder and exploded in a large puff of feathers that my ride mates ran through.. (The wood pecker story is a whole page in itself.. ; )

 

And once I got my Venture, I figured my bad luck would follow since it's a bigger bike, a larger target for these birds to hit.. But after 4500 miles, no worries until recently.. sigh.

 

I'm riding along the back road in the lead with my ride buddies in trail when all of a sudden there's a loud sharp WHACK to the back or top of my helmet, scaring the living heck out of me.. I pulled over right away as I had NO idea what had happened..

 

yep, sure enough, a bird hit the left antenna and it bent all the way back and then snapped forward to strike my helmet with a nice whack..

 

My buddies behind me saw this happen, the puff of feathers from a small bird and then my jumping out of the seat at being startled by the hit of the antenna.. Good thing they were there to tell me about as I don't think I would have figured it out on my own.. I didn't think the antenna would reach that far.. Go figure..

 

I don't worry about deer in the road a lot.. its the dang birds I worry about..

 

I'm there with you! Part of the reason I got my nickname. Last week I hit 3, two on Thursday's ride home. One hit my Knee and the other the top of my helmet! Blackbirds/starlings seem to be my bird of choice

[Seaking]

I'm there with you! Part of the reason I got my nickname. Last week I hit 3, two on Thursday's ride home. One hit my Knee and the other the top of my helmet! Blackbirds/starlings seem to be my bird of choice

 

Last year I took one in the front wheel, it zoomed across the road but ended up in the cast wheel spokes and got chewed up and messed up all over the engine etc.

 

My friends note that if anything bad is going to happen, it's going to happen to me.. Not because I've got bad luck but because I'm on the bike so much the odds are against me. Hmm this is probably why they have me lead a pack ride... ?!

 

Luckily thus far (knock wood) it's only been the minor stupid little things like this and not the big bad dangerous things. I've ever so careful of cagers that I avoid getting into problems with them.. but end up in probs with anything and everything else ; )

 

Cheers

[Rocket]

Luckily thus far (knock wood) it's only been the minor stupid little things like this and not the big bad dangerous things. Cheers

 

The bird story:rotfl::rotfl::rotfl:

 

Like parking a CDN military helocopter on its side, on a Navy ship's landing pad..... For those that are un-aware, of what we are still attempting, to keep in the air (for now, replacements are ordered). Aprox 40 year old "Seaking" helocopters.

:mo money::fingers-crossed-emo

 

BTW do you crew in one of these?????