Wow! Talk About A Close Call.

[Steve K (IA)]

I was out for a ride late this afternoon.  Was following a car and it slowed down to make a right turn off the highway.  This was on top of a hill and sweeping to the right.  No concern.  I'm paying attention to the car, it makes it off the highway and I accelerate and all of a sudden a Turkey Vulture that was on the right shoulder jumped up.  I didn't see it until it jumped because I had been focused on the car.  If you have ever seen one of these "try" and get off the ground....their so big you wonder if they will get airborne.  Scared the you-know-what out of me.  I didn't see it until it was about 4 ft away from me coming at me from my right. I was sure I would hit it.  Backed off the throttle and ducked behind the W/S.  It just missed the W/S and it's left wingtip brushed my right shoulder. 
If it would of hit me, it might have knocked me off the bike.  God only knows how heavy these ugly things are.

[Chrisj CMA]

Good job. Sounds like you did everything right. I had a similar but not as close call with an eagle. They are a threat for sure.

[cookiedough]

same here, but a turkey was so close to my windshield heard its wings a flapping a few feet above me doing 40 mph or so.  I think most turkeys are slightly bigger than an eagle or turkey vulture, but not much and none I want to find out hitting at least....

A big black bird about 1 month ago hitting my Valk windshield dead center doing 60 mph was enough for me flying up 20 feet up in the air behind me fluttering to the ground dead.

[DirtyDan]

Took a seagull of the windshield in Nova Scotia back in 2004

Dan

[Jess from VA]

I had tuned up my CB750K (back in the Air Force in SoCA) and took it for a test spin down an old WWII road on base to the ammo/bomb dump (empty road).  Bike was running fine, but I was paying attention to it and not the road.  I come to within 15 feet of a stop sign before I notice it has a giant Golden Eagle perched on it, and I go full stop.  He was giving me the evil eye and seemed highly agitated.  There's no reverse on these things, and behind my shield, I didn't want to give him my back.  So we just sit and look at each other for a few long moments.  He leaps airborne, with slow flaps of his huge wingspan right toward me.  I duck down and nail the throttle (clutch in) to make noise, and he veers upward over and past my head.  Those big yellow talons and beak are impressive a few feet from your face.

Well that was different.  (they hunt those big scraggly desert jack rabbits out there)







On really hot days, the Turkey Vultures around here sit on low limbs along the country roads with their wings spread for cooling.  You ride by and get off the throttle so they don't launch across your path.  They lose a lot of altitude before they gain altitude.  Man that is one ugly bird.







  

[da prez]

  In South Dakota a large bat flew between me and the windshield. Quite a wake up call.

                                  da prez

[Skinhead]

In highschool, my buddy was riding bitch on my 650 Yamaha.  Passing a row of hedges I saw something coming at me from my left and ducked.  My passenger took a pheasant to the face at 60mph.  Good thing I had a sissy bar or I'm sure it would have knocked him off.  He was ok, just shook up.  The pheasant not so much.

[Westernbiker]

I remember I was about 14 yrs old and had my Yamaha 360 flying down a dirt road when I caught a June bug square in the chest. They are hard as a rock and at about 65MPH it hurt so bad I had to stop the bike. Lifted my shirt and had a huge welt the size of a golfball. Always wore my chest protector after that.  

No big birds but hit a quail on the Valk square in the windshield, it went up and over my head. Hit a Dove in the faring of the F6B doing about 60MPH, feathers everywhere! Had to pull the faring apart as it had feathers in with the speakers. Poor birdie.

[Black Dog]

Steve,

Glad ya missed the 'flying garbage truck'...  I caught a Starling upside the head a few years back.  A big flock of 'em, were on the side of the road as I was passing, and the one that I hit, decided to go his own way (back across my lane) as the rest of the flock took off as a big black cloud, away from the road 

Got smacked in the ear, just below my 1/2 helmet, as I turned my head to the left, to avoid a mouth full of feathers...

Texters, Teen agers, Daydreamers, Deer, Birds, Racoons...  Seems We've got everyone, and everything, out to get us. 

Black Dog

[0leman]

Been pretty lucky about missing birds.  Have had a few close calls with Redtail hawks and eagles trying to grab critters along the roads I ride. Not to mention turkeys crossing the roads.  But the most disturbing is when you are on the lonely road, look up to see vultures circling you.   

[Pappy!]

Inzane 16....starting the long journey back to Florida from West Va. Bronx Boy and I were on a beautiful winding 4-lane on a cool crisp morning. The Valks were feeling their oats in that cool weather and we were doing around 80 or so.
Bronx was right behind me as a full sized Crow slammed into the left side of my helmet visor. He said it looked like an explosion!
The impact was wicked and had I been wearing anything less than a full face I may not be here to tell the story. Certainly if I had been wearing a half helmet and shades I would have gone down as he would have slammed into my left eye.
We stopped and I had some clean up to do to get the crow debris off the helmet and out of the visor grooves, off my neck and jacket, etc.   

[Willow]

LOL!  Steve, you're fortunate the bird didn't fear you were going to hit him.  Fear in that species prompts them to empty everything in their digestive systems from both ends.  It might be less pleasant than the impact itself.   

[Wizzard]

LOL!  Steve, you're fortunate the bird didn't fear you were going to hit him.  Fear in that species prompts them to empty everything in their digestive systems from both ends.  It might be less pleasant than the impact itself.  

Yes it does. I saw that happen once to a biker and he missed the bird but not
 what came out of the vulture and he stopped, got off and immediately puked. What a mess.

I took a red tailed hawk off the right throttle in Canada, a quail off the left mirror in Nebraska, and a woodpecker off the helmet in Iowa. Scary stuff
Had to clean off the guts from my jacket but that is all.

[Disco]

Glad you avoided impact!  Fellow VRCCer BuzzKill, formerly known as thaganday, was not so fortunate.  Think Randy Johnson and the dove, but with A LOT more feathers.  

[Steve K (IA)]

LOL!  Steve, you're fortunate the bird didn't fear you were going to hit him.  Fear in that species prompts them to empty everything in their digestive systems from both ends.  It might be less pleasant than the impact itself.   

Yeah...worked with a guy who has a large grove of trees on his property.  He said several Turkey Vultures have found that space favorable and have been roosting in the trees for as long as he can remember.  He said when walking through that area the stench from their crap was unbearable. You have to consider what they eat....they have no sense of smell.