Damn birds got me again

[DucLeone]

last summer i got hit twice in one day
one flew into my leg and the second jumped uf from the side into the side of my helmet
good thing they were small

[ducpainter]

I've hit hawks twice.

Once in the cage and once on the bike.

It's kinda weird when it happens.

[Porsche Monkey]

I've heard of people hitting larger birds like buzzards and it knocks em right off the bike.  I don't like buzzards.

[LA]

A guy I know hit a Canada Goose at about 60 mph on a BMW airhead.  Direct hit and damn near kill him.  Greg was as big.  As one can be and still get on a Nuc Sub.  He's 6'8" and when over 350 looked gaunt and skinny.  Otherwise, it would have killed him.

LA

[silentbob]

A guy I know hit a Canada Goose at about 60 mph on a BMW airhead.  Direct hit and damn near kill him.  Greg was as big.  As one can be and still get on a Nuc Sub.  He's 6'8" and when over 350 looked gaunt and skinny.  Otherwise, it would have killed him.

LA

He's lucky.  You would have to be pretty big to survive a hit from one of those.  There was a story on here about a guy who was almost killed by a turkey.  The initial hit broke his neck and knocked him out cold.  Then his bike went off into a ditch.

When I saw the bird coming at me I braced my head on the tank to absorb the impact.  The bird broke the windshield in two, hit my helmet, and launched straight up into the air.  The dead body came down, missed Jake on the 848 and hit Chance on the Monster.

[Popeye the Sailor]

When I saw the bird coming at me I braced my head on the tank to absorb the impact.  The bird broke the windshield in two, hit my helmet, and launched straight up into the air.  The dead body came down, missed Jake on the 848 and hit Chance on the Monster.

Ta da!

[DesmonsterS4RS]

He's lucky.  You would have to be pretty big to survive a hit from one of those.  There was a story on here about a guy who was almost killed by a turkey.  The initial hit broke his neck and knocked him out cold.  Then his bike went off into a ditch.

That was Fastwin on his Hayabusa, that's a crazy ass story only he can tell.

[red baron]

and hit Chance on the Monster.

How's Chance doing?

[fastwin]

I must give off some kind of weird electromagnetic radiation that attracts birds be cause I feel like I am in an Alfred Hitchcock movie sometimes. 

I have sucked sparrows into my intakes, been hit in the head by countless pigeons, almost got killed by a wild turkey, get attacked when I walk into the bird cage at the zoo, and today I had a football sized bird crash right through the windshield of my 1098.

Strange stuff.

Holy s#@t! Not you too? I almost got killed by a wild turkey in May 2007 on a DML ride to Arkansas. Got hit, kamikaze style, by a huge tom turkey from the side of the road at 1:30 on a sunny Saturday afternoon with all my friends in tow... I had the lead. It hit me so hard it destroyed the front end of my Hayabusa (my sport touring bike) and because I had a big tank bag on the bike I couldn't duck any lower than it would let me so the turkey hit me square on the top of my Arai Corsair and exploded. The guy behind me said it looked like it ate a grenade! I cut the damn bird in half with my helmet. It crushed the top of my Arai, knocked me unconscious, gave me a concussion and crushed four vertebrae in my neck.

Unbelievably, I still stayed upright even though I was knocked out. I slumped over the bars and kept rolling, with a chopped throttle in 6th gear through the oncoming lane (thankfully no one was coming) and over their shoulder and into the bar ditch. I finally rolled to a stop in the ditch and fell over 600 feet from impact. The first car that pulled over had two off duty EMS techs and the highway patrol was called. More good luck. They shut the highway down and Care Flighted me to a hospital in Arkansas. A friend in the group had to make "that call" to my wife. Bummer.

She came to Arkansas with a friend for support. They stabilized me in the hospital over three days and she had them ship me to a Dallas hospital via ambulance to be operated on. A few surgeries later I ended up in a rehab hospital with a bionic neck. SOB hurts me right now but I am still alive and not paralyzed from the neck down... and I had the privilege of taking the dumbest turkey in Oklahoma out of the gene pool!! I'm alive and well (sort of...) but more importantly still riding. Does it get any better? Thanksgiving has turned into one of my favorite holidays... all because of turkeys.

[silentbob]

How's Chance doing?

He's fine.  I took most of the momentum out of that bird.  It hit him in the arm and caused him to wobble a bit off course but he's a pretty big guy.  Amazingly none of us ended up covered in feathers or guts.

[red baron]

Who ate the bird?

[silentbob]

Holy s#@t! Not you too? I almost got killed by a wild turkey in May 2007 on a DML ride to Arkansas.

I remember reading about that.  Scary stuff.  Glad you're still here taking out at least one more turkey a year the right way.

[silentbob]

Who ate the bird?

I guess the homeless software engineers that wander the streets of Sorrento Valley.

[red baron]

I guess the homeless software engineers that wander the streets of Sorrento Valley.

[the_Journeyman]

Wow... right through the screen!  Glad you survived.  I took out a crow with a bus.  Flew straight into the windshield, not sure how it didn't break ~

JM