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I've been stung 4 times since I started riding again and hit one small brown bird. Hitting the bird made me buy a windshield, but the stores you folks tell, makes me think about wearing a full-face helmet. Jeez.
1983: GINORMOUS Bug, right in the forehead, almost knocked me off the bike!
1984: SEAGULL, flew from the side, under my outstretched arms (MOSTLY)... hit me in the chest, then pinwheeled to the ground, in a burst of feathers!
Other, more recent are the SMALL rocks that feel big (one in the knee, which brought tear to my eyes, and the one into a knuckle (yeah, that one), which swelled so much immediately I couldn't use the front brake). And the bat that glanced off the Wimpshield the other night!
And then there was the big BUCK I almost took out with my HEAD a couple weeks ago... was ripping down an off ramp at a fun speed (okay, almost 70 mph).... and had to straghten it up and DUCK my head, before I kissed the deer standing ON the INSIDE lane line. Don't know who was more scared after that, me or the deer!
Took a June bug in the left eye at 80 mph. Good thing that I was wearing glasses. Snapped my head back and just about knocked me off.
Last summer I had a bird hit my engine guard and just explode. What a mess. The wife thought that I was spitting on her.
Worst was the burrowing owl. It was in 1980 and I was leaving the Glamis Dunes. It was about 2 AM , full moon, empty straight black top, and I was flying on a hotrod KZ when the owl came up and across from the left. He hit me just below and outside the left nipple. It knocked the wind out of me. I squeezed the clutch and when the bike stopped rolling I put my feet down. I still had the throttle pinned and was still trying to suck in some air when my buddy came up and shut the engine off. I was black and blue from my waist to just below my left ear and from my sternum almost to my spine. My jacket and helmet were completely covered with blood, guts, and feathers. I don't like burrowing owls much.
Bees, bugs, butts(cigarette!), birds, bird's turds(uuuuggghhh), but nothing that took me down. I watch for critters all the time as well as other hazards. This is the first bike I've owned with a windshield and I like it....
Heard and felt a hard splat as I passed an oncoming pickup, and saw something else fly by that didn't hit me. It left this incredibly solid, opaque mass on my windshield and I pulled over to look. I thought I'd hit some huge bug with about a half-pound of innards until I saw the can that missed me lying on the side of the road.
If that thing had hit me in the face, I would have been highly pissed.
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