GRiSO and a bird

Hi all
Went for a ride today with the wife to a pub in Gerringong NSW Australia.
Wind was a blowing a gale.
Anyway lunch was good, and on the Kiama bends a bird whacked into my elbow and then into Leanne's shoulder.
Never have I been hit by a bird, the flying type anyway.
Then on the Jambarroo road a young fella misted a corner and by the look of it wrote his bike off.
Stopped and they had it under control and he was ok thankfully.
All up very enjoyable ride.  

Harry

Good ride Harry.
I startled a pheasant one day and it took off in the same direction as I was riding. It was getting ahead in the low speed area, then without even indicating turned right and flew straight into my helmet. Bastard.
Still it was delicious with spuds n greens.
Im not the pheasant plucker....etc

Yeah birds, I seem to connect about once a year...not bad if it is a sparrow....3 years ago it was a full grown wild turkey that hit the left hand fairing  and hand gaurd on the weestrom

the downside I was doing right at 60-70 on the cherohala skyway in a blind right with the foot peg on the ground... the lucky part was I had finally put an old scotts damper on the bike the week before (it had been in a box for 2 years).   And it worked like they do with fast sudden hits to the bars it locked for just a second and turned a crash into an ugly bobble...active dampers are good.


Now the funny one.. I thought something hit my left shin coming home a few years back...ok and I thought I saw something fall to the side of the road....think nothing big bug etc.  Now about 2 days later I start noticing EVERYWHERE I stop on the strom there is a dead animal smell  but it is spring in east tn.    Ok about a week into this I stopped by a friiends house and his boxer ringo stuffed his head into the vstrom in front of the engine guard and we can't pull him loose.   Finally extract the dog and find behind the radiator and on top of the head the most screwed up looking (very dead) female cardinal you have ever seen....BTW the stink that was everywhere went away  

From experience: Large Birds shit lots when you hit them 

Only one I ever actually hit with my helmet was a Pidgeon in London thirty five years ago. No way would you eat a London Pidgeon unless you wanted to die horribly! Rats with wings!

Over here I've had some very close encounters with sulphur crested cockatoos, they're bad enough but its the wedge tail eagles feeding on road kill at the side of the road that will really make you try and suck the seat cover off!

Pete

I've hit multiple pigeons, sparrows, etc.

A couple of years ago, narrowly missed a hawk with my head and the same year a low flying turkey right at chest level. Hitting a 20 pound bird is not an experience I'm looking to have. Even little birds and sparrows are painful. I can only imagine hitting a turkey would be similar to getting hit with a bowling ball.

Ha! You lot haven't experienced an angry Emu coming at you. On purpose.   

Many years ago , five of us decided to go on a night ride ...we did this often during the summer into the mountains pitch black with just our headlights searching out the lines, usually we would head to a park we knew of just outside of Banff Alberta for a few beers .
This particular night proved to be one that i will never forget and it involves what i would consider some kind of divine intervention or maybe just dumb luck.
As i was riding open face helmet on and focused on the road , my neck needed a stretch so i looked down at the tank for a second or two ,as soon as i did so i felt a very hard thud on the top of my lid, i looked up immediately  to see nothing but the road .
Soon we all came to the park and pulled up , my buddy at the time came up to me and asked if i was ok  , he was following me and told me a Great Grey Owl had swooped down hit me in the head and crashed off into the ditch ...  
Sometimes you just have to wonder at the way things work out , i was 17 then ..

Keener

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Fly by night...

I hit flying bird twice, in my face literally.

First was a swift at night on my Honda C65 moped in 1989, open face helmet with no face shield and glasses. It was dark and I felt a mouthful of warm feathers following by sharp claws all over my face. Yucks! bird flu was unheard of then, otherwise I could die from having close encounter with a sick bird carrying deadly virus.

The second time was on GRiSO at about 120km/h, probably a swift too. It felt like being hit by a tennis ball and I saw the poor bird grounded in the rear view mirror.

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Not a bird but DUCK.