Things that you hit or almost hit while riding

[Hogdoc]

The other day, an acorn (I think that is what it was) hit the front top of my helmet. The noise was so loud my ears were ringing after the hit. Also, hit a plastic bag that melted to the pipes. And, had to perform an evasive maneuver to keep from hitting a dog that was trying to cross the road. I was doing 65 and wondered what would have happened if I would have hit it. I was on a Road King.

 

[FRR]

Back in '92, a buddy of mine and I were coming cross RT 12 in Idaho on the way to Montana. Came off a mountain around a curve. A gigantic MOOSE was standing on the center line. My buddy, who was in front went into left lane and passed him. I had no time react, so I went right and passed him on the right lane. The moose just looked at us and didn't move, thank God. We stopped a little further down the road to clean out our pants. Those animals are BIG!

 

[cdculbertson]

This past Sunday my wife and I were riding a little two lane back road that we like. Just as I rounded a curve, a deer ran out of the woods, slipped in some mud in the ditch, and skidded out in front of us trying to regain its footing. She looked to be about 20 feet ahead of us, and I was able to miss her without running head on into the car that was approaching from the other direction.

About a year and a half ago, riding my former Road King down another road heading down to the coast, we were the only vehicle around on a long straight two lane. I looked up to see a hawk diving out of a tree on the other side of the road. As we got closer I started thinking to myself "Pull up! Pull up!", just about the time he crashed into my windshield and bounced off of my left shoulder. My wife was asleep on the back and missed the whole thing.

 

[Larry Sobczak]

In 2012 my wife and I hit a deer with our Tri Glide. It came from a tree line along the side of the road and ran parallel with us until it decided to zig when it should have zagged. Rode straight thru the deer with nobody hurt (except the deer) and my front fender.

In 2015 riding thru Memphis road construction they had a4- wheel jack hammer busting up the concrete on the Interstate, A 12" piece of re-bar flew over the concrete road barrier striking the right front fork cover on the Tri Glide. It hit so hard it left the rings from the re-bar embedded in the metal cover. It rickoched off the lower fairing just missing my knee. Again nobody got hurt.

 

[Jack Klarich]

People throwing trash out the window, case in point in Atlanta some punks thru a plastic bag out I ran it over and it melted on my exhaust no cops I had to pull over to the outside lane to put the fire out, If I could have caught those punks it would have been ALL over

 

[peteg59]

Road Rash for two...

 

[Gorilla]

Coming back from Glacier National Park just a few miles south was riding along a 2 lane road went around a turn and a big brown bear ran right across in front of me. Only about 30 ft when he passed in front of me. I was going maybe 35 to 40 and was surprised when he came out of the underbrush. He and I kept right on going.

 

[Uncle Fester]

When riding in high school in Tennessee, I had a wasp fly up my shorts. It lodged in my "nether regions" and stung me 4-5 times before I could stop and get it out of there. Needless to say, I haven't ridden in shorts since then.
Riding I Texas when a honey bee went up the sleeve of my T-shirt. He stung me in the small of my back but not enough to stop.
Had a June Bug hit me in the forehead at 70 MPH on the interstate. That DID hurt.

 

[Tusocks]

My First Road Kill

On my way home from picking up my new GL 1800 with Roadsmith Kit the entire muffler came off the car in front of me while doing 70 on the interstate. Hit it with my right rear tire but no damage other that to my heart rate which settled down after I realized how fortunate I was. Those experiences are what make riding a bike so memorable-just hopefully most are pleasant.

 

[RedOregon]

High school, Yammy 125. HUGE grasshopper in the middle of the chest at about 65mph. At the time I was 6' tall and weighed about 135 soaking wet... damn near took me off the bike.

Wasp in the side of the neck, bee in the forehead that bounced off and got me stinger-first in the ear. Both pretty ouchy.

Best one was on my '90 Sporty, about 70mph and a flock of crows flushed from the median. One heading straight for my face, I ducked from long experience and reflexes. My daughter behind me wasn't real impressed when my head disappeared and was replaced by a pretty damn big crow Luckily for all three of us... he missed.

My wife still laughs at me when we're in the pickup and I still duck when birds flush :shock:

 

[Captain H]

I was talking to a man & his wife last year , they were riding a two wheeler .:GL1800: He told me they were riding in Ocklawaha Fl. when an alligator was in the road . No time to react , just bumped right over it . Then he told his wife what it was they hit. Everything turned out ok .
This little guy, about 4 ft., showed up on the porch of my sister's ice cream & mini golf place she is trying to open up ,next to Lena's in Ocala Fl . I told her he wants to be your first customer , BUT DO NOT FEED HIM , you don't want him visiting when you get open . :afraid:It has been almost a year now , he hasn't returned . :clap:

 

[MikeyTX]

High school, Yammy 125. HUGE grasshopper in the middle of the chest at about 65mph. At the time I was 6' tall and weighed about 135 soaking wet... damn near took me off the bike.

Wasp in the side of the neck, bee in the forehead that bounced off and got me stinger-first in the ear. Both pretty ouchy.

Best one was on my '90 Sporty, about 70mph and a flock of crows flushed from the median. One heading straight for my face, I ducked from long experience and reflexes. My daughter behind me wasn't real impressed when my head disappeared and was replaced by a pretty damn big crow Luckily for all three of us... he missed.

My wife still laughs at me when we're in the pickup and I still duck when birds flush :shock:

I can empathise with that. Damn turkey vultures here in TX are very protective of fresh road kill they are eating. They wait till the last moment to get air born. Then, will circle back at you if they think you are going to interfere with their meal. :gah:

 

[OldNick]

hmmm....bike and trike? ...

..a parrot at 65mph is like a thump in the chest...flew of the rails on a bridge and described a beautiful ballistic curve after we met.

..a drunk pedestrian on a country road at 60mph saw me and my girl,rilling down the troad and wroter off the bike

...once when my full-face shield broke at the mount I used clng wrap to cover my face....and a huge bug hit me right on the tip of my nose and spread iteslf and its juices all over my face...I had to stop for a half hour and wash my eyes.

...and bees. I must have been stunbg a dozen times while riding. The most unfair was a bee flying into a 1/4" gap between my coat and my glove at 60mph. TRhe funniest was when I was stung twice on the same trip. My girlfriend decided that she would suck out the venom from my arm. Fine. But thgis VW Kombi passed us and was her standing there sucking my arm. Being a Kombi, we passed it not long after...then I was stung on the neck and we had to stop again.....you figure it out...the startes were amusing even then, stung and all

near misses..a kangaroo on a back road. We were doing maybe 30 along this rough side raod at nigh and a roo jumped out from the trees. It was luckily scared of the noise of 3 bikes and decided (in a fit of kangaroo genius) to not just run into me. But given the stupidity of kangaroos, having a 65' boomer bouncing along next to you for a minute or so is unnnerving.

Trike? So far nothing but near misses with cars, drivers staring right at you, then pulling out anyway.

Riding nothing but bikes for 15 years made me a paranoid rider/driver. I love motorcycle riding but every situation is one of threat. Even in a car.

Does being rear-ended while stopped wating to tuern count as hitting something? That one was unfair. I had no hope.

 

[Bikerbozo]

On 2 wheels in early 90's. A bat hit me in the leg at night, bounced off and got wrapped around my fuel line. Got cooked pretty good by the engine. Put her (obviously a bad flyer) in a ziplock bag and brought it to my M/C club.
Also got hit by a massive tumbleweed in Wyoming. Picking pieces out for weeks.

 

[paws]

On 2-wheeler just north of Ft. Davis, TX:
The road had been cut through a ridge making the ridge about 10-15 feet higher than the road. Was approaching the cut-through and saw a mule deer running across the top of the ridge .. I was running too fast to stop so I gunned it to hopefully beat the deer and held on tight hoping to keep it upright if the deer hit me in some way. I got through ok. Jim was not quite a quarter mile behind me on his bike and said the deer was able to skid to a stop then turned aside before he would have tumbled or jumped off the edge of the ridge onto the road.
That's why we ride at least 1/4 mile apart....we don't want to both be in the same accident!

Same thing happened to some friends while in Wyoming only they weren't so lucky...deer jumped smack dab on top of them, crashed. In the milieu a peg from his strapped-on tent entered the back of his skull and, amongst other head injuries (yes they were wearing helmets and leathers), it left him very mentally challenged the rest of his life. He was a licensed civil/structural engineer.

 

[paws]

Then there was the dang rattlesnake!
We were on a poker run when I heard my brother-in-law ahead of me on the cb say to watch out for that snake he just ran over and didn't kill. I came around the bend and sure enough there was very mad Mr. Rattlebug standing straight up in the air watching me approach. Luckily there was no oncoming traffic so I darted into the oncoming lane to avoid him but I sure tried my best to ride side-saddle from the opposite side of him!

 

[MikeyTX]

Emu's .................................

Damn birds .................. Messy, mean spirited, destructive ..... You name it. They were the rage for a while here in TX. Then, when the market for their skin, meat and oil tanked, the several emu farms around me simply left the gates to the pens open. Claimed it was vandals. Oh sure ...... Right ! Damn birds would approach you on the road and dare you to ride past them. It sadly got to the point where one had to shoot them where they stood in the road.

 

[hocnsoc]

What to do

On two wheels going south from Daytona in right lane. A pickup truck with a stack of unsecured plywood passed us and I watched the top sheet lift off the stack and go airborne. It was spinning and drifting into my lane when it hit the road sliding. I did a quick physics calculation and decided it would not end well if I rode over it, so off to the shoulder I went missing it by a few feet. My bud riding 50 yds behind was able to avoid.
Also have hit deer twice here in western NY. First time put me out of work for 28 weeks with various breaks and complications.
Some of that chronic stuff (many can relate) led to getting the trike as well as the added safety for my bride of 50 yrs.
Press-On the horizon is all around us.

 

[MikeyTX]

On 2 wheels in early 90's. A bat hit me in the leg at night, bounced off and got wrapped around my fuel line. Got cooked pretty good by the engine. Put her (obviously a bad flyer) in a ziplock bag and brought it to my M/C club.
Also got hit by a massive tumbleweed in Wyoming. Picking pieces out for weeks.

Hate tumbleweed. Damn stuff will kill you for sure if it gets hung up in the bike in the wrong place. We get a lot of it in TX

 

[cjmitch]

I 71 north between Ashland and Medina/Cleveland
Rolling road, up and down. Went into a slight depression at 70 mph, came over the top of the rise and there in the middle of my lane was a 18 wheeler 3/8 inch thick embossed steel battery box cover / step. managed to do a quick cut to the next lane and get around it... thought i was going to life a wheel.

Was going to fast to go back and get it, and in any case I was not going out on the freeway on that blind hill to get it
So im sure someone behind me took it out one way or the other.

 

[paws]

Hate tumbleweed. Damn stuff will kill you for sure if it gets hung up in the bike in the wrong place. We get a lot of it in TX

Yep...blow-sand will get your paint and into the mechanics....BIG timbleweeds can get you as Mikey said. Smaller t-weeds usually crumble as soon as they hit. But if they hit YOU it hurts...they have little barb-like, or stickery things on them....OUCH!

 

[DK Custom Products]

Been riding for over 50 years, and have hit & been hit by more things than I can remember...near misses??? Things I have almost hit...definitely more than I can remember.

Biggest near miss (besides a car or truck) was a deer in the middle of a 1 lane road as I rounded a corner. It could not decide if it wanted to go forward or backward...it ended up falling down on the slightly icy road. It scrambled back to its feet and went forward. I had slowed for the blind corner, so watched the whole thing without too much braking to avoid running it over.

I can remember several other near misses of deer, but that one stands out as comical, watching it go forward, backward, down, up and then forward. :laugh:

Kevin

 

[thomastrike]

thomastrike

I am dodging deer all the time.
I have hit a couple with different trucks but so far not my trike

The strangest thing was Big Foot. Yes I said it Big Foot.
It was a foggy morning a long time ago and I swear some big hairy ape like thing passed in front of me. His Eyes were glowing in the dark.
I have never believed in Big Foot even though I am from Washington state but that day got me thinking..... maybe!

My son was driving an 18 wheeler down a highway from Jasper down to Beaumont through the Big Thicket area at night and tells me he saw something like a Bigfoot in front of the pine trees about 50 ft from the side of the road.

 

[oahe]

The most unnerving thing I've ever come across was a big round bale rolling down the hill I was riding up. It had the right of way!

 

[peteg59]

My son was driving an 18 wheeler down a highway from Jasper down to Beaumont through the Big Thicket area at night and tells me he saw something like a Bigfoot in front of the pine trees about 50 ft from the side of the road.

2Bigfoot sightings in 2 distant states...Who'da thunk it?

 

[DK Custom Products]

The most unnerving thing I've ever come across was a big round bale rolling down the hill I was riding up. It had the right of way!

That would be a crazy thing to see!!!

Whenever there is a hay truck (round or square bales) up ahead, I keep a good distance!

Kevin

 

[MikeyTX]

The most unnerving thing I've ever come across was a big round bale rolling down the hill I was riding up. It had the right of way!

Have to deal with that issue down here all the time. Sq bales are no fun either. So many with pick ups or tow behind trailers don't secure the stuff at all.

 

[Larry Sobczak]

At least the square bales don't roll and pick up speed.

 

[MikeyTX]

At least the square bales don't roll and pick up speed.

They now have these large square bails that are half the width of a flatbed trailer. I forgot how long they are. What I hate is the loose hay as the trailer goes down the two lane. I will pull off and let a car or two get in front of me.