Ducati Monster Forum

So... the other day I had got off my bike after riding and felt something crawling on my arm (not cool). I don't know why but my first reaction was to feel it with my other hand to see if there was something actually there. Upon touching my sleeve something bit/stung me so I immediately dropped my back pack, ripped my jacket off, and watched a bee fly out of my sleeve. This got me thinking about how I would have responded had I been riding at the time of the sting. Or if it had been a spider... I freakin hate spiders.

Does anyone have a good story about being bitten/stung while riding and how you handled it without flipping out?

Heaven forbid I have a spider crawl across the inside of my visor as I'm traveling 85 on the e-way. I'd loose it.

yes do tell. i am deadly allergic to bees,wasps, yellowjackets, etc. that is prob my biggest fear. i know i would just freak out.

I actually had gotten stung on my neck while I was riding a few months ago.  I was going maybe 40 or 50 on the freeway in moderate traffic conditions.  I felt something kinda tickling my neck so I did what you did, took my left hand and put it on my neck.  Right then it stung me, just left of my adam's apple.  It was such a unexpected shocking sensation that I almost let go of my throttle grip (don't ask why, it was an involuntary reaction).  But I realized what I was doing so I gripped really tight and sort of swiped at my neck frantically.  Luckily, I didn't flip out and lose control.  I pulled over as fast as I could (almost side-swiping a car in the process).

I took off my helmet and looked in the mirror, it was throbbing, and the stinger was still in my neck.  So I pulled it out and chilled out for about 10 minutes to calm down.  I guess I got lucky, but I always ride with my head tilted slightly down now.

i was on a ride with a bunch of local ducs and going through the mountains, i ran into a bee, hit me right in the adams apple.  i didnt know it was a bee but it kept hurting moreso than normal when i hit bugs(im like a bug magnet) so i waited til we stopped for gas and asked someone to take a look at it.  they took out the stinger and we kept riding.

The space between my helmet chin and jacket collar feels really vulnerable right now.

The only bug experience i've had was on the freeway, i saw a gnat crawling around the inside of my face shield.  Got all crosseyed looking at him and started to get dizzy, so i just ignored it.  Good thing gnats dont sting!

Yeah, It always makes for a fun ride when you get one of those little buggers  stuck inside your helmet after he got sucked in through the gap in front of your chin + your helmet, isn't it??   [roll]


Usually openning my visor lets'em out. I would imagine it's only a  matter of time before a bee stops by to say hi!!   :-\

Someguy once had a bee in his helmet on a group ride (he was sweep).  We wondered for a little while what happened to him, but he managed to get rid of it and catch up with us eventually.  I did have to tease him afterwards about having a "bee in his bonnet" though. [cheeky]

Well, it wasn't an insect, but a few years ago a friend of mine was riding his bike over to my place for a few beers.  He was running a little late so I gave him a call to see if he'd left his place yet.  Turns out the reason he was late was because he had just laid down his bike.  He had been going about 45 mph down the road when the driver of the car in front of him, flicked their lit cigarette butt out of the window of their car and it hit him in the eye.  He lost control and low-sided.  He was wearing a full face at the time but had his tinted visor up because it was getting dark. 

I drove out to meet him, and wait for the [leo] to finish up their paperwork.  His bike was rideable, so we took it back to my place, and then just let the beer flow. [drink]

BTW... the driver of the car in front of him was cited at-fault for the accident, and was fined for littering.  8)

I was riding near Deal's Gap when I felt a sharp pain on my left chest.  I kept riding and tried to not let it take up too much of my attention.  Wehn I got tot he hotel about 3 hours later, I discovered I had a swelling.  Something had bite me through one of the perforation holes in my Vanson leather! 

I think know that a bee/wasp was on me or in my helmet would be more scary than actually being bit.

That's awesome. [thumbsup]  Sorry about your friend's accident, though.

I just got back from a ride and found half a bee(forward half) crawling around on my thigh.  This thread came to mind as I looked dilligently for the "hazardous half."    Never found it. 

remaining calm, when it comes to bees, is easier said then done  :-\

I was stung by a bee a few months ago just after I left San Luis Obispo heading north.  I hit it at 65 mph and it managed to strike the four square inches or so of bare skin between the top of my leather jacket and my helmet.  I was stung on the right side of my neck about half an inch below the top of the collar on my jacket.  I knew right away by feel that it was a bee sting, even though it had been a few years since my previous bee sting.

I pulled off to the side of the road and felt on my neck, but couldn't feel anything.  So I put my glove back on and headed on up the road.  It was still stinging occasionally and once in a while when my collar touched my neck just right, it felt like more poison was being pumped into my neck.  Lucky for me I'm not allergic to bees.  This was also the trip where my clutch was starting to fail due to an air bubble or something in the hydraulic fluid.  Not a real enjoyable ride up Highway 1 and back home.

Four hours later when I finally made it home I looked in the mirror, and the stinger was still there.  Apparently every time anything touched the venom sac on the stinger, it would pump a bit more into my neck.  With a proper mirror, I was able to easily get it off.

I'm sort of surprised that a bee can hit you a 65 mph and still sting you.  I'm sure the bee died, either from the impact or from losing its stinger.

I got stung while out riding to get my open license, I was cruising on the highway with a group of about 6 people with the Instructor following along in last place, part of the ride involved a cruise up a local mountain range to the look out/turn around point, I got stung on the neck just before the base of the range (Meaning no place to stop and check what it was) and spent most of the ride up wobbling around trying to retrieve this little bastard (Not knowing what it was, I didn't want to stung again)
Got to the turn around point and jumped off the bike and ripped off my helmut and jacket, by this stage the instructor was standing beside me laughing his ass off!
He had come up to tear me a new one for my careless riding, once he saw what I was doing he realised what had happened.
Pulled out the stinger, but my neck was sore for days afterwards, passed the test though!  [thumbsup]

A bee bounced off my chest and landed between my pant leg and the tank going about 45mph.  Didn't know until I felt the sting, looked down, flicked it off my leg and rode the rest of the way home with a sorta painful thigh.  Obviously would have been worse if I was allergic, but I'm not so bees have never bothered me too much, but I was grateful it didn't bounce up into my full-face as some smaller flies have on occasion.

I had an "interesting" variation of this today...was riding with my visor up and took a bumble bee in the face at about 70. Fortunately I saw it just before it hit me and I (barely) realized I needed to stay focused and going straight or I'd end up in a whole lot more pain.

same thing happened to me yesterday.

my visor had broken earlier in the weekend, so i just pulled it off and used sunglasses for the trip home.  coasting up to a stop sign i saw one coming straight at me, then felt it wedge in by my right cheek.

side note: i am NOT an open-face helmet guy.... must buy new helmet immediately

[threadjack]

What kind of lid do you run?  You might just be able to replace the visor and hinge mechanism.

[/threadjack]

Haven't yet had a bee/wasp incident on a motorcycle (knock on wood) but have had several while bicycling. Worst was inhaling a bee at speed and feeling her crawl around for a couple of seconds on my uvula before stinging me on the back of the throat. Because I knew she wasn't coming out the way she went in (and I fervently hoped it was a bee with one shot, rather than a wasp with many) I kept swallowing hard and chugging from my water bottle to get rid of her. Ick.

As if I needed yet another reason for a full-face helmet while riding on the Duc....

i can and will fix the existing (cheap HJC) and keep it around as a spare... always a good thing to have.
basically i'm using it as an excuse to upgrade, since i wanted to anyways.  ordered a shoei RF1000 this morning.

When I first started riding, I was on my way to work and had bug hit me in the neck.  The initial impact felt rather hard for the speed (10-15 mph pulling up to a stoplight) I didn't know what it was.  Then it stung me.  Crap a Bee!  I thought.  I kept control of the bike as I swatted it away.  Little bastard fell down my shirt and continued to sting me on my chest and stomach.  Then I knew it was a wasp so I kept slapping at my chest and stomach to try to smash it.  When I got around the corner to work I jumped off the bike and threw off my shirt and out came the wasp not dead just dazed, he fell to the ground and I took care of him the only sure.  With the boot

ice cold.  8)

LOL!!

I have yet to be stung on my bike, though was stung in my truck.  Had my hand out the window and a bee stung me in between my fingers.  It was the first time and my entire lower arm went numb and swelled up to the size of my bicep/tricep.  The swelling finally went down after 3-4 days.  I fear the same thing happening on the bike since the doctor said it could be worse the second time.

Mine bee story is the same as most of the riders here.  I was out on a country road minding my own business when I fetl something hit me just below my neck.  I didn't think much of it, but after a few seconds my chest started to burn.  I knew something was up, but didn't know what and didn't have a place to stop.  When I reached the next town I pulled over, ripped my helmet and jacket off and there he was -- a little black and yellow bee.  He met his end quickly. 

As far as I can tell, the bee hit me and bounced down into my jacket a few inches.  Luckily I don't have an alergy, so I just ended up with a sore chest for a few days.

I used to ride with my visor open on surface streets a lot but not anymore. I've been hit in the face by flies a couple of times already but usually they just hit me and bounce out of my helmet so I go, "Aw crap," and then it's gone and over. Not this last time.

I was in a parking lot riding with my visor open when I noticed I was right about to hit a fly of some sort. First reaction is to dodge my head since I've been hit in the eye by a random fly a couple of times already while riding with my visor up. Well, the other times I didn't have glasses on but this time I did and instead of bouncing off my glasses it went UNDER my glasses because I had ducked my head.

So I lay on the brakes and I'm kinda freaking out with my eye squinted shut as there's a bug crawling all over my eye under my glasses. I take off my glasses and shake my head but the bugger won't fly away. I didn't wanna just brush it off with my hand for fear of knocking it farther down into the chinbar area of the helmet since I have one of those chin net things and that would trap the bugger. Then I came up with the stupid idea of trying to flick it off with the arm of my glasses. I manage to get the arm of my glasses under the bugger but the flick didn't knock him off and the bugger turned out to be a wasp and stung me right between my nose my and eye! Of course after he stings me he flies away like nothing happened.  >:( I'm happy that it wasn't a bee. Bees may only sting once but they hurt like a pregnant dog. I still had to ride my bike around the building to park in the parking garage too.   :-\

Yeah, I don't ride with my visor wide open too much anymore... Other than that I've found a silver fish in my helmet. Don't leave your helmet unused on a shelf for too long.  [roll]

I was riding with my visor up and iwth my sunglasses. I see this massive object come at me ( i was going 40mph) and it get hit in the face.  right between my left lens and the helmet. I thought it might of been a sparrow due to its size, but i found no blood anywhere. Nad something was stuck inside my helmet. it start pinching me. I thought it was a beak or something. then it started moving. so i freaked out, and i ripped my helmet of.

a huge dragon fly came out. he broke his wings. :(

I've had the bee in the sleeve treatment twice - but never in the helmet (thank god!).  The first time it happened, I didn't even know the damn thing was in my sleeve until I had finished the ride, parked the bike, walked the 50 yards to my building, scanned in and made it all the way to my office.  I felt like something was poking my forearm - like  a rogue pin from the dry cleaner - so I naturally started to massage my shirt...only to piss off the wasp that had so cozily been relaxing on my arm for the last 10 minutes or so.  Man, was he pissed!  He stung me about 8 times before I could rip off my tie and shirt - which, along with the yelling and pregnant dogesque screaming, attracted a bunch of unwanted attention from the secretaries down the hall - talk about adding insult to injury.  :-[

The second time I was wearing a short sleeve shirt under my leather jacket and felt it sting me at 70 mph.  I just smashed it with my left hand and kept going.  Thankfully not as dramatic as my first encounter.

Now I wear a tighter sleeved jacket and full face helmet...although I think I may do more riding with the visor down after this thread... [bacon]

Had a bee go up my sleeve in a tight set of twisties, started stinging and I couldn't stop do to no shoulder on the road.  The damned thing got 3 stings in before I got him out. 

Buying gauntlent style gloves soon [thumbsup]

Got the bee in the neck, my riding buddy stopped to help me pull out the sting(he's got fingers like sausages by the way) just succeeded in making sure all the venom was injected before pulling it out. ouch!

As much as I would love to post a sting to the face or neck story (bare with me) my sting came about 2 inches from the "twins" while entering a pretty nasty curve.  I was on my way to my Physics class and was wearing my jacket and jeans.  I was getting ready to enter the curve and shifted my weight off the left side of my bike and apparently pinned a hitch-hiking yellow jacket between my upper leg /crotch area and the tank.  He tagged me twice.  I was in a very compromising position and couldn't take the pressure off my right leg in the curve so the only option I had was to press harder against the tank and hope to kill it.  The bee got the worst end of the deal (I guess) cause at least I was still breathing, but the pain was pretty intense and the swelling made for a very uncomfortable 3 hour class.  We won't discuss the following days of itching.