Helmet strike

[dcarver]

Ouch! Glad you're OK Don. I wouldn't want to hit a bird with my head at speed.

Do you think the visor makes it worse then just glancing off the top of the helmet or the upper shield?

I said visor, but meant helmet shield. It hit right at eyeball level. I imagine my eyes were pretty big - I tend to not close them when crashing or during general mayhem.

this lesson Mister is NOT to have anything mounted to the cockpit that is distracting

Hello Pot? Mr. Kettle calling..

Lesson Learned?

Nothing I can think of.

I think the lesson is to keep your visor closed. Good job on that! Can you imagine taking a bird to an unprotected face?

Glad you're OK.

EXACTLY. I ride 'open' faced often, e.g. shield up, sunglasses the only 'protection' for the eyes. That would have hurt more. It was cold, so all systems were down.

The lesson learned is "look where you are fookin going". :yahoo: :yahoo: :yahoo:

R

I think you should have cried fowl.

Best reply ever!

Glad you are OK Don! I've hit birds with a glancing blow before but never dead on. I just missed getting a turkey in the chest a couple of weeks back as a flock of them were flying across the road. I can only imagine that would have resulted in some very serious injury.

I hit a turkey vulture on a R100 BMW and the results were ugly. Broken bike windscreen, headlight. A turkey to the chest would be fatal.
I once ran across a guy in a bloody tshirt by the roadside. He had struck a bird, the beak entered the chest cavity just below the sternum. I got him to the hospital, him still holding the dead bird to keep the wound plugged. Those were good times.

 

[Burnspot]

Timely topic! Anyone else see the Mythbusters episode last night where they measured the force of insects impacting a motorcyclist? I've had a low flying bird tag my boot before, but it wasn't anything too bad..just a flash of feathers off to my right.

 

[Old Michael]

Poor bird. Last thing he saw was your mug.

 

[rogdeb]

Poor bird. Last thing he saw was your mug.

I dunno ----- THIS -- could be the best reply :lol:

Hope this doesn't develop into a whiplash deal for you Don.

 

[wfooshee]

I saw that Mythbusters. They were trying to see how big a bug at what speed would crush your larynx and kill you. It took a damn big bug, a goliath beetle, and those aren't generally found flying around over here anyway.

A bird strike on the larynx might do it, though, if it could get under the helmet chin . . . .

 

[beemerdons]

Poor bird. Last thing he saw was your mug.

I dunno ----- THIS -- could be the best reply :lol:

Hope this doesn't develop into a whiplash deal for you Don.

+1, Gunny! Sorry Ty, rogdeb is right: Old Michael one upped you!!!

 

[SacramentoMike]

Lesson Learned?

Nothing I can think of..

:lol:

Way back in the '60's, a friend on an old Honda 160 hit a pheasant on the way to work. Hit him in the chest and fell dead in his lap. After work he took it home and his wife cooked it. Said it was delicious.

Don, if you like, I could probly make you up a bird strike avatar like my bee. . .

 

[dcarver]

Don, if you like, I could probly make you up a bird strike avatar like my bee. . .

Now that would be fun!

 

[El Toro]

Way back in the '60's, a friend on an old Honda 160 hit a pheasant on the way to work. Hit him in the chest and fell dead in his lap. After work he took it home and his wife cooked it. Said it was delicious.

Similar story, but my friend was on his Ducati Monza Jr. (the 160 cc little brother of the sporty 250 single). It was early morning riding to work in a rural area, and a bird hit him square in his brand new Bell full coverage helmet. Lucky him, he was OK, though a bit shocked. Sadly, it wasn't a pheasant, and he didn't have a wife, so he didn't get to eat it and extract that most primitive form of vengeance on an attacker. He just went on to work, and the bird died. The End.

 

[SacramentoMike]

Way back in the '60's, a friend on an old Honda 160 hit a pheasant on the way to work. Hit him in the chest and fell dead in his lap. After work he took it home and his wife cooked it. Said it was delicious.

Similar story, but my friend was on his Ducati Monza Jr. (the 160 cc little brother of the sporty 250 single). It was early morning riding to work in a rural area, and a bird hit him square in his brand new Bell full coverage helmet. Lucky him, he was OK, though a bit shocked. Sadly, it wasn't a pheasant, and he didn't have a wife, so he didn't get to eat it and extract that most primitive form of vengeance on an attacker. He just went on to work, and the bird died. The End.

LOL. My bud's was a hen. And it tasted just as good as the other kind, so I heard.

 

[Old Michael]

Don, if you like, I could probly make you up a bird strike avatar like my bee. . .

Mikey, where's your "Rock in the middle of the Road" strike avatar?

And your "The road turned and I didn't" avatar?

....And the "How long were those lights flashing behind me?" avatar.

Speaking of killing birds.

True story.

Dr. Rich (on the way back to California from NAFO in Golden) killed an owl.

I don't think he even actually hit it.

He just scowled at it as he rode by, and -- poof! Killed it.

 

[Tyler]

True story.

Dr. Rich (on the way back to California from NAFO in Golden) killed an owl.

I don't think he even actually hit it.

He just scowled at it as he rode by, and -- poof! Killed it.

OM, you're on fire today... :lol:

 

[Joe2Lmaker]

Don, if you like, I could probly make you up a bird strike avatar like my bee. . .

Now that would be fun!

Don,

Your kidding right? Have you seen this avatar:

You're accepting help from the guy who thinks that's a good avatar?

The bird strike was obviously serious. You have suffered some significant brain damage.

 

[madmike2]

He rocks in the treetops all day long,

Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' his song.

All th little birdies on Jaybird Street

Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.

Helmet knockin' Robin, tweet...tweet, tweet

Helmet knockin' Robin, twee-deedle-lee-dee

Go helmet-knockin' Robin

Carver's comin' down the road tonight.

:clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Glad your near-normal, Don.

 

[dcarver]

Don, if you like, I could probably make you up a bird strike avatar like my bee. . .

Now that would be fun!

Don,

Your kidding right? Have you seen this avatar:

You're accepting help from the guy who thinks that's a good avatar?

The bird strike was obviously serious. You have suffered some significant brain damage.

Eeeeooohhh. That's just not right. 'Sack' Mike wouldn't do that to me... I hope.. Oh hell. I'm a goner. :blink:

He rocks in the treetops all day long,

Hoppin' and a-boppin' and a-singin' his song.

All th little birdies on Jaybird Street

Love to hear the robin go tweet, tweet, tweet.

Helmet knockin' Robin, tweet...tweet, tweet

Helmet knockin' Robin, twee-deedle-lee-dee

Go helmet-knockin' Robin

Carver's comin' down the road tonight.

:clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping: :clapping:

Glad your near-normal, Don.

Not so good today Mike - surprisingly, (yeah right) it's alot worse today. Chiro tomorrow. IcyHot too.

I'm still riding, the commute today was a bit tough, but I did it.

Followed by a nice weekend.

At least I'm still around, and looking forward to a nice weekend ride.

Most pain is tolerable. My threshold is high.

Something about.. a place I've not been before on a motobike.

Gotta Love It.

 

[Big Sky]

Back in the early '80s, I took a bird on the throttle hand at about 85 mph. Felt like an inside fastball down on the handle. Also took one on the shin back then. No bird strikes for next 25 years or so, then in the last couple years: One to the helmet (above the visor, made a loud THWACK!), one to the windscreen (left feathers and a red smear), and just this year, one to the front wheel area (left a mess in the radiator), one to the brake foot (left a bright red and yellow smear of gross goo which also got onto the wife's boot) and another to the same boot (just saw the corpse tumbling on the road behind). What gives? Either birds are now far more plentiful or they are slower or they are stupider. Also, about 7-8 years ago, I had to brake hard to avoid a bald eagle that swooped into the roadway from the timber on the right (I then gassed it and gave fun chase), and again this year I had to brake to avoid a golden eagle that had been feeding on a deer corpse in the right ditch. As Rosannadanna said, "It's always something..."

 

[BikerGeek99]

Well, Carver, that explains the hollow 'GONG!!!' sound I heard all the way here in Ohio!

Dayum.

Glad you're OK. Coulda be a lot worse.

Hey, OM - what I was gonna say was, "What was the last thing to go through that bird's head before it died? Carver. What a ****** way to go."

 

[Ignacio]

No big deal really, but damn, I have a serious head ache and my lower right filling is loose.

All from a small bird.

I'd suggest going faster!

Those birds get together in their little powerline chat and say, "Dude's going 70....I'll fly straight into him at 40 and survive....because I'm tough." The net impact of 110...even for a small bird...is serious business.

If you do 130 instead they say, "Whoa! No way am I going to fly into him!" And the ones that you accidentally surprise will be going 40 mph away from you for a net impact of 90. That's what I did in Nevada in July one fine rally morning. I felt it certainly and rang my bell, but no loose filling. 130 was way safer than 70.

...yeah....that's the ticket.....I had the Mythbusters verify it.....yeah!

pretty amazing how such a small mass can make such a big thump...and makes you happy you have a full face.

 

[Big Sky]

Kamikaze birds make me think of Hunter Thompson's observations on rabbits:

"People who claim to know jackrabbits will tell you they are primarily motivated by Fear, Stupidity, and Craziness. But I have spent enough time in jack rabbit country to know that most of them lead pretty dull lives; they are bored with their daily routines: eat, ****, sleep, hop around a bush now and then....No wonder some of them drift over the line into cheap thrills once in a while; there has to be a powerful adrenalin rush in crouching by the side of a road, waiting for the next set of headlights to come along, then streaking out of the bushes with split-second timing and making it across to the other side just inches in front of the speeding front wheels."