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What have you been hit with?

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Had a 4x8' sheet of plywood fly out of a trailer in front of me. I swerved to the left to avoid it and would have succeeded had it not exploded next to me when it first made contact with the freeway. I had expected it to hit the ground and hold together and I would pass by ok. Such was not the case. Took a fair size piece to the right shin. Not too sure what the relative speed was in that case.

The grossest one was big. Don't know what sort of bug it was since it was 6am and dark. I just know I felt something hit me in the shoulder and then I couldn't see from the left eye through my visor. When I pulled over, I had a single exploding point of impact mark (I assume bug since it was greenish guts) on the windscreen to the left of center, completely cover the left front of my helmet and visor, and my torso from about mid chest across to my left shoulder and down to the elbow.

I don't know what it was. I was on FM50 headed to Brenham at that time.
 
The reason why I now wear a full face helmet is because I was riding just outside of Ft. Hood heading towards Copperas Cove when I hit a HUGE grasshopper. I hit it right at the leading edge of my half helmet and it exploded across my face - splattered guts went everywhere - even got a pretty good chunk in my mouth!!!:eat:

I had to pull over because I could barely see out of my sunglasses. When I pulled over, my wife thought I was injured or bleeding but it turned out to be nothing but bug guts that were all over my face!!! Bought my first full face helmet the next morning and haven't ridden with an open face since!!!:mrgreen:

Like everyone else, I too have ridden through a couple of swarms of bees, hail, and West Texas dust devils. Nothing huge - thank God!!!
 
A tumble weed was about the only real unique thing I can think of hitting. After exploding into a million pieces, the real suprise was when I looked down I had a sliver of the stalk sticking straight out of my shin.
 
Well, the oddest thing I saw happened to a rider that I observed while driving on 190. No clue how it happened or where they came from, but I saw him clotheslined by a pair of balloons tied together by some string or twine. Was headed in wrong direction to see the rest, but as they were not tied to anything else, I assumed he kinda drug them along or they popped before he could stop.
 
swallack said:
Well, the oddest thing I saw happened to a rider that I observed while driving on 190. No clue how it happened or where they came from, but I saw him clotheslined by a pair of balloons tied together by some string or twine. Was headed in wrong direction to see the rest, but as they were not tied to anything else, I assumed he kinda drug them along or they popped before he could stop.
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Wow, I'd love to hear that story from the riders point of view! That's got to be hilarious!
 
Gravel and rocks...nothing major...

A beer bottle throw in broad daylight by a truck full of rednecks...

Caught it on the top of the helmet... no injury...

I drew an "Aces and eights" on a video poker machine about 1/2 hour before...

:eek2:

Ran over an rabbit but luckily was on a straight-away...

Near miss from a vulture...
 
Tourmeister said:
We processed the honey every year, which meant bees everywhere all the time around the house and in the garage. We'd setup new stack boxes with a honeycomb base sheet which helped the bees be more uniform in their construction of the honeycombs. A big problem was fire ants though. Fire ants could destroy a hive in no time at all. We lived in Alvin at the time and Fire ants were EVERYWHERE!
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OK, this is off topic, but I have the answer to this one. I made little stands out of rebar for my brood boxes. Put each leg of the stand into a can and fill the can with water. The ants won't cross the water. I never lost another hive once I started doing that.
 
I have had a big stick come up and whack my leg. I turned the corner in a neighborhood and it was RIGHT there sticking out from the curb. I tried to go wide in the corner but clipped the edge of it and it catapulted right up into my right leg! I was only going about 10mph so it wasn't too bad, left a good bruise though.

I also ran over a truck tire carcass on the way to Weatherford on I20, scared the crap out of me, but I didn't even really feel it!
 
I caught a dove in the chest at 70 + mph last summer. Hurt alittle but I was laughing too had to feel the real hurt. Friends with me said that it looked like a feather matterss exploded, but I picked him off and tossed him in the ice chest. Later that evening he was the star attraction at dinner.
 
Caught a 4x8 sheet of fiberglass insulation, the kind with tar backing on one side. I was riding up the 435 in Overland Park KS doing about 65-70. It was not heavy just big and full of wind; fortunately I had enough strength to push it up and over my head without losing control. Came off a 10 wheeler about 3 lanes over; he had a tall stack and only one hold down strap. They were coming off like cards off a thrown deck. If you have ever spent any time in Overland Park, you understand what I say when I say it was WINDY. Thought that was going to be IT for a moment or two.

Caught a quail in the chest at 70 mph and a yellow jacket in the helmet above my ear. Both were memorable events. Got re-tread rubber off a smoking 18 wheeler tire on the leg. That one HURT but did no real damage.

I'm still riding...

-AL-
 
Hmmm... Since the time of this thread, my kill list has gone up.

In October of 2009. I hit a deer with my KLR. It ran off afterward, so I am not sure if it died. I hit it square on between the ribs and the rear hip. There was hair embedded between the tire and wheel rim about 2/3 of the way around. I was running maybe 35-40mph at the moment of impact. I was watching a different deer on the other side of the fence that was running on a line that would eventually bring him my direction. I did not see the one already on my side of the fence in the high grass. The moment my eyes came back to the road in front of me, I was already impacting and heading for the ground. I never even had time to flinch or tighten up before hitting the ground pretty hard. The bike came down on my left leg and snapped the bump off the inside of my ankle. That bump is on the main leg bone and is what keeps the bones of the feet from sliding out from under the leg bones. Two screws later, and it was held in place. I had a cast for about 10-11 weeks. I still have the screws.

I also took out a sweet dog while leading a big group ride in Arkansas. I was on the KLR running about 70mph on a highway. The dog shot out from the grass on the left side of the road. I veered hard right and braked for all the KLR was worth trying to give the dog time to change direction or avoid me. No dice. Right as I was about to run out of pavement, my engine guard/highway peg caught him right in the side of the head. He was trying to get to his drive way on the right side of the road. I managed to stay upright and come to a controlled stop. I went up the driveway to look for the owner only to see a couple little kids playing in the yard with their mom... She sent her husband out and I explained what happened. He was understanding. One of the other riders was sitting on the side of the road holding the dog as its finally stopped wagging :-| We stopped for lunch about tend minutes later and you never saw so many down faces. We were all pretty bummed about that one.

I had a big turkey vulture come out of the weeds beside a gravel road about headlight high on my 1200 GS. I was running about 65mph because it was a WIDE and STRAIGHT gravel road. The bird slammed into the windscreen and right side mirror stalk. Then it bounced up into my right shoulder before going off the top of my helmet. I started hearing all kinds of wild grinding noises as my senses were coming back to me and I managed to stop, upright, and put the kick stand down. I looked back and the vulture was laying dead in the road. His buddy that took off at the same time but did a better job of avoiding me was already circling back for a warm lunch... When I was ready to get back on the bike and continue, it would not move when I gave it gas!? It was then that I realized the right side controls had been spun on the handle bar, rotating the brake lever up against the sloped inner surface of the hand guard. This had caused the front brake to lock up when the bird hit, but the ABS kicked in, which is what was making all the racket as the bike chugged to a stop in the deep coarse gravel. Had I been on my KTM, I'm pretty sure the outcome would have been very different...

I've had other close encounters with deer, but so far no more impacts. I don't play around with those big vultures. I try to give them LOTS of room when I see them.

What are your stories?
 
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Bees by the dozen and singles, I once got a Carpenter Bee in the cheek bone about a 1/4 second after opening my visor because I couldn't see from the last bug splat, gave me a great shiner for a few days. Butterflys, moths, lovebugs etc. Hail was not a fun experience but there was nowhere to pull over and nobody else was stopping so not a good time to try the very slim shoulder of the road. Dust storms are worse and contain some big stones, had to buy a new helmet after that one.
A crow hit the handlebar next to my hand, huge explosion of feathers and gore, took me 2 days to clean the bike! One of the worst was a small wild turkey who decided to fly over a hedge and into the road in a corner, smashed through the windshield and into my chest, broke the front cowling, a couple of ribs and bruised me from neck to belt. Also caused me to miss the rest of the corner but my buddies helped me get the bike out of the ditch and get home. Once got a 1/2 full beer can in the helmet from some idiot in Georgia, thank god for good full face helmets. Close call that scared me badly, 4 cows on the road just after a wonderful 40 miles of great sweepers, going pretty quick and came out of the last slightly tighter turn and there they were, shot the gap between 2 of them at about 60mph couldn't believe I made it through, about 8 inches to spare. 3 close calls with deer but no collisions thankfully. There's plenty more but those stories require alcohol, cigars and a fireplace.
P.S. never take a motorcycle taxi in Bangkok, those guys are nuts.
 
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