Ducati Monster Forum

   Sunday afternoon I decided to accompany Duck-Stew on a little ride to the local auto parts store to pick up some fuel line.  We decided to take the loooong way home via Balcolm Canyon Rd, S. Mountain Rd, and Grimes Canyon. 

   Stew waved me past on S. Mountain Rd. and I started getting into a groove on the fast sweepers.  Next thing I know, there's a thud on my front brake lever and I get a little front end shimmy action.   I slow down and pull over into a little turnout to see what the heck just happened.

   I dismount and as I'm taking off my helmet Stew pulls up.  I tell him that I think I got hit by a bird as he's pointing to my leg.  My right knee has blood all over it.  (not mine)   There are feathers in my brake lever, feathers stuck to my pipe, guts cooking on my engine case, the right side of my tank is covered in blood, and my turn signal is busted.   [bang]

   I was kinda bummed out that I had killed one of the Earth's living, breathing creatures, but Duck-Stew put things into perspective.  He said that there is only one me, one Rosie (my bike), and when you're on the bike you have to look out for number one... there are plenty of small avian creatures flying around, but I'm irreplaceable.

   As always, he's right.  Ride safe out there, my friends.

Here are links to some pics for the morbidly curious among you...
I didn't use the image code in deference to the squeamish.
Look at own risk... a couple are kinda gross.   :P

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-20.jpg (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-20.jpg)

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-16.jpg (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-16.jpg)

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-17.jpg (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-17.jpg)

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-18.jpg (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-18.jpg)

http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-19.jpg (http://i415.photobucket.com/albums/pp231/tazios/photo-19.jpg)

good thing it wasn't a turkey

glad you were able to safely pull over.

I saw the thread title and read how you went for a ride with Duck-Stew and thought stu had binned it.

Thought I saw gibblets!  [bacon]

Goddam suicidal birds!  >:(

bird hit by ball (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AbAZb1KgwFk&feature=related#normal)

Glad you made it out with all of your blood and guts where they're supposed to be.

good to hear it was only a bird, and that your ok , a buddy of mine ran into a deer at night at about 60mph he did a little tank knocker but stayed on the bike and kept going somehow, and him and the bike where ok the deer was in the ditch the next day dunno how that happened must have been divine intervention  ???

Glad you are OK!

Gross, kind of awesome, glad you are OK (glad the bird wasn't bigger), don't feel bad much for the bird.

SPLAT!!!! ;D.    Glad you are okay.   [thumbsup]

Thanks for the concern, everybody. I feel lucky to come out of it unscathed. 
  We turned around and headed home real quick...  well, not too quick.

I didn't want to push my luck, so we stayed well within the limits on the way home.


Didn't even think about that... 

 Stu's just fine.   [thumbsup]

Mmmmm...squab...

Or that low, probably quail!   I had a covey take flight right across my path on Cerro Noroeste Road a few months back.  That was spooky.  Collected a couple in the grill of my Miata a few years back. 

"Dirty... disgusting... filthy... lice-ridden boids"

Glad you're ok Ryan!! 

Could have been worse, you could hit an owl...http://www.rob.com/pic/weird/birdstrike.jpg (http://www.rob.com/pic/weird/birdstrike.jpg)

I've had to duck my head down to avoid a flying bird once, but Short-Bus's collision is the first I've been party to. 

When it happened, I wasn't looking where he was going but looked up and what I saw looked like a flock of moths hovering about but they were feathers from the explosion.

It was creepy to see all the guts really...

I knew a guy once who had a bat hit his chest while he was riding at night!!!

Glad you are OK!

I've had a few run ins with wildlife myself.  As I was going through a small town at 40 mph, I ran over a puppy that darted in front of me from some tall grass; my front wheel jumped over it, then it got caught up under the bike for a split second.  As I went over it there wasn't enough room under my bike so it got twisted between my bike and the road; it yelped as it's back was broke.  Man that tore my heart out.  Got the bike a little sideways but luckily I ride dirt bikes also so I think that helped save me because I was able to correct the slide and didn't go down.  I think the worst was when my ex and I were just cruising along on a small country road when I see a big black blur rising out of the road ditch just in front of me.  I didn't have enough time to take evasive action but "luckily" the black vulture (more commonly called a buzzard here in Texas) had enough strength in it's wings to rise just over my head.  The problem was it needed to lighten it's load to do so.  As it swooped upward it sprayed s_ _t; which coated my helmet and jacket.  I'll never forget my ex rolling on the ground laughing as I wash my jacket and helmet in the standing water in the ditch.

Capt. Sully says: "Pfffftt Amateur..."

(http://i.telegraph.co.uk/telegraph/multimedia/archive/01240/plane_crash_1240132c.jpg)

ha! did you eat the cooked bird?

wait is ur engine casing clean?  ;D sprinkle some salt and pepper!!!!


glad your okay!

Yeah, okay, good point. Touché...    [roll]   ;)     


There wasn't enough of it left...  :P 

That breaks my heart just reading about it!  :-\

Poor thing.

did you eat the puppy?


nah im just kidding.  [evil]  :P

In my 16 years of riding I've killed 1 bunny-rabbit and 2 squirrels.  Never fun, but when it's me or them?  It's me.

Mmmm, puppy.

I whacked a pidgeon with my left shoulder doing 90mph once.  I doubt the thing survived - I didn't look back.  Had a nice gray dust outline on my Vansons, but that was about it.

Asians  [roll]






 ;D

OWNED.
sparrow vs. duck? duck FTW.

MURDERER!

J/K.  Glad you are ok.

^^^ Hahahahaa...  Everybody funny today.   ;)
 ;D

looks like a new reason to wear knee pucks.

I'm just glad I was wearing Duck-Stew's pants... Mine are still clean and bird/blood free!  ;D

Uh...before this gets WAY out of hand, let me clarify:

Short-Bus was wearing an EXTRA pair of moto-pants that I own that day out for the ride as he's considering purchasing a pair just like them so this was a test-drive/blood-bath of sorts.

So you're pants buddies. It's not my place to judge.  ;D

No too-close encounters with wildlife (yet) on the motorcycle, though I've had several near misses with roadrunners around here. Maybe it's that I removed the Ducati decals and painted "Acme Motorcycle Company" on my tank.

My non-motorized road bicycle is a different story. 45-mph descent off the Blue Ridge in Virginia, a dove decided it looked like the coast was clear to fly through my front wheel; scared the bejeebus out of me & killed the dove. Squirrels in the Fall don't tend to see vehicles of any kind, so two of them over the years have discovered I can't brake or change direction THAT fast. An airedale that darted into the pack during a criterium race and took out me and three others (yet another reason for me to hate crits; by all appearances, the dog was no worse for the experience). A couple of near misses each with deer, turkey buzzards, crows around DC (the ravens around here in AZ seem a lot smarter), geese, cats, dogs, great blue herons and one very cool wild turkey.

OMG OMG i'm laughing out loud for real. crying even...

You guys do some time in the joint together?

Not that there's anything wrong with that...

This is going to get ugly  [popcorn]

Too late.

You know how it goes...  I cook dinner, he let's me wear his leather pants...  ;)


Nah, but we do live together... ;D





*ducks head and runs away to hide before Stew can smack me* [evil]

damn i was gonna post a captain sully reference but somebody beat me to it!

Tell us more of this fantastic life style of yours!

The worst experience that I had with wild life was while using a walk behind landscaping mower....

(http://www.greenindustrypros.com/images/article/1212460651580_walkMowers05.jpg)


...poor widdle wabbit didn't stand a chance when he poked his head up out of the wabbit hole hidden in tall grass...I felt horrible...

Tell me about it! I've got a ton of titanium and cadaver bone in my neck to prove it. :P Just wished I had gotten the NCR Ti upgrade!! [laugh]

Glad you're OK... wish I was.

Is that a crack in your swing arm in picture 17? 

It's quite pregnant dogin', actually...   :D

All kidding aside,  Stu, myself, and River share a house.  We've got Ducs in the garage,  dogs on the couch, and  [drink] and [wine] in the fridge.   [thumbsup]

A guy couldn't ask for better roommates, or better friends.  I'm a lucky guy.   :) 


Nah, just some goop that has slopped up onto it...  I had to go out and double check, though!  ;)

Guess no Shenanigans can be called since you were so kind as to provide pics
but next time
(http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v30/Batman50/Evil_Monkey_301.gif)

NO Shenanigans!!! They were swapping leather pants, what more do you need to call  "shenanigans"? :o



 [laugh]
 

Weelllll.......   ;)

No PICS! We don't need evidence this one time PLEASE!!!
 [laugh]


BTW you feel even worse when you kill a deer with your motorcycle.... just sayin'

That reminds me of one of the wake up calls I've had.  Running along on a narrow paved road leaving my cabin in the woods just about sundown.  The road has no shoulder to speak of, it just slopes into a ditch and right on the other side of the ditch is thick trees and underbrush; from pavement edge to trees is only around 6 feet.  Like I said, I'm riding along about 50 mph and all of a sudden I see a flash of movement to my left.  I immediately brake hard and just as I catch up and pass I realize it's a doe running full out along the ditch.  Luckily, she decided to run straight along the ditch because the only other option for her would have been right in front of me.  Ever since then I keep my speed down through that stretch of road.  Come to think of it, that's the same area where I had a litter of young feral hogs cross the road right in front of me in my truck once (cute little footballs they were).

Man, I could have had lots of  [bacon]

Real simialr situation... only she cut right in front of me. I don't think the Monster would have handled the impact as well as the old GS1100e I had did.

[laugh] [laugh] [laugh]

Or one of _these:_

(http://farm5.static.flickr.com/4040/4275550266_1ce5b6a94f.jpg) (http://www.flickr.com/photos/bigiain/4275550266)

big (there'd be some good eatin' on that one!)

Was about the closest reason that I will ever get to use the Evil Monkey from family guy   ;D

^^^ [laugh] [laugh] [laugh]

Wow... this thread went downhill.   ;)
(Through no fault of my own, of course!)   :D

The only other thing I hit, or hit me rather, was a Big Gulp cup full of ice that an old lady tossed out her window on the 101... at 80... in morning rush hour traffic.  [bang]

That one hurt.  The cup bounced once on the pavement, and right up into my shoulder.  Of course the lid came off on impact and my helmet and shield were covered in ice and whatever backwash was left in the cup.  >:(

Just looked at the pics of the incident.


I'd fix the signal, remove the innards from the engine case. ..

and leave the tank as is  [evil]

This reminds me of the time I was riding down the main road in town (3 lanes each way with a center turn lane).  I'm cruising along....right at the 40mph speed limit and a dog (size of a boxer) runs from the sidewalk right into my right foot.  I was in the left lane, too.  My back end slide a little and there was some hair on my bike, but by the time I shut it down, the dog was gone.

I only think about if that dog had been .25 seconds earlier, he would have hit the front wheel and I definitely would have gone down.

I had the same thoughts....  But I knew Rosie wouldn't like it.  She likes gettin' down and dirty, but this was a bit much for her.   ;)