What's your worst encounter with a bug?

[Fritz The Cat]

Years ago, I rode without a windshield, I thought they were for sissies. That all changed one day when I was coming back home up I-95 from Fla. It was right at dusk so I didn't have my sun glasses on. I saw it's approach, well at least the last 90 nano seconds. It smacked me so hard right square between the eyes that I almost lost it. I frantically slowed down and pulled over. Felt like I had been shot. It took me a good 30 minutes to recover enough to get back on the roads. an older couple and a group of 3 Harley riders stopped to help. One of the Harley dudes remarked that the hit could not have been more perfect in that it clobbered the space between my eyes but my eyeballs seemed to be intact. My vision seemed mostly ok. After a while I slowly limped the rest of the way home. Next few days were days of misery. Mucho swelling, could barely see and much pain and soreness. In time I made a complete recovery and ordered a windshield while I was convalescing. Haven't road without one since.

[Toledo Mark]

I don't know what I hit but it was right below my left eye.  It splashed like a water balloon and left yellow crap all over the side of my head.

[Michvalk]

Same situation...different bug. Ball faced hornet into the side of my helmet. Stung me near my eye, and in front of my ear. Took a few days for the swelling to go down. Have not owned a bike without a shield since

[RP#62]

Two lane country road, doing about 45.  Had a windshield on the bike and a visor on my helmet but the visor was up cause it was a nice day.  A bumblebee came in at a quartering angle.  Missed the windshield and the visor and lodged in the bridge of my glasses.  Nowhere to pull over as there were ditches on either side of the road.  Finally pulled over in the first driveway I saw about a quarter mile up the road.  By then he had stung the crap out of me right between the eyes.  When I pulled my glasses away from my face, he flew off.  Had to hurry up and get home before my eyes swelled shut and my head go so big I couldn't get my helmet off.  I'm sure he was traumatized as well.

-RP

[Oss]

bee(s) flew into my half helmet stuck by my ear on a 2 lane 55mph

friend riding behind says I was smackin my head till I pulled onto the grassy ditch and jumped and
ran around like a crazy man

The street sign right near by said


BEEHIVE LANE

you cant make this up folks

Took 2 benadryl and drank a bunch of water and rode home

Got a street shield ex for the vulcan right after that one

now I always carry an epipen

[ulflier2001]

Years ago, while riding with  some buddies on a good ole country lane, I made the mistake of talking to one of the guys who pulled up along side . Just began to say something when out of nowhere a huge Junebug hit me in the mouth and down the hatch he went......couldn't get the bike stopped soon enough....finally got stopped and tried to puke the sucker up......that didn't happen either ! For about 20 minutes could feel the Junebug crawling around in my stomach  and then finally just quit,felt much better then. Lesson learned ....I don't talk while riding , I wait until I'm stopped .

[R J]

Back in the late 50's, I had a Snortin Norton.   The CHP Motors all had shields.  Both of these times were on my day off.

Running about 80 on a back road, came around a curve into a swarm of bumble bee's.    Somehow one got in my mouth, he stung me, I crunched my teeth down on him and like a damn fool, I swallowed him.

Another time, I got a hard shelled bug in my mouth and like a damn fool, I crunched him also.   That SOB tasted like what I'd envision a turd tasting like.

[Jess from VA]

Bee in the 3/4 helmet on the freeway.... he couldn't get out, so he began crawling into my ear as an escape route (for their size, insects are very strong).  Wiggling, buzzing, fuzzy bustard crawling into my ear was creepy, and fun at 75 MPH.  Good emergency stopping practice. Never got stung, but I got PTSD.  

Working on my bike in shorts squatting over a fire ant mound.  My first experience with those creatures at Maxwell AFB AL. That was painful.  Went out and bought a cartload of fire ant killer and murdered all I could find.  The cockroaches in the my BOQ there were huge, and could supposedly be saddled and rode around.

Came across a few of these in Turkey.  Nasty!
Turkish Centipede

[blackvalk]

All of the previous posts are hilarious (because they didn't happen to me)

The only thing that happened to me was I felt something in my fingerless gloves. When I touched it, the bee stung me.

See......mine doesn't compare. I loose!

[sugerbear]

early 70's, about 85 mph, t-shirt, june bug, center of the chest.
had a bruise for 5-6 days.  ouch

[Psychotic Bovine]

Felt something hit my full face helmet while riding my GB500 north on 469 around Fort Wayne.  Looked cross-eyed at the very irate wasp that was still alive crawling up inside of my faceshield two inches from my nose.
I stopped in record time from 70mph and tore that helmet off even faster!  Thankfully, I didn't get stung.

I am just happy we don't have these in the US.

[Dogg]

Traveling down a small two lane in the cou try. Beautiful day, corn on both sides about 3feet tall. Could see for what seemed like miles. A friend and i were heading to a nearby state park and then over to the island for a cold beer. Well, running around 55 or 60, i saw this thing cork screwing toward me, the close it got, the more i realize i would be able to avoid ot no matter what i did. It looked like a small flying green apple. Well, it was a full grown secada bug and hit me in the forehead just above my left eye. Knocked me stupid. Slowed way down, and finally stopped, got the kick stand down before i fell over,which i did. I slid off the bike into the road cover in yellow crap, with a knot on my forehead. My friend stopped and ran back and just started laughing because of the mess the bug made. Well that soon end and i gathered myself up to finally leave and get to the park for some water and soap. Got back up to speed and wouldnt you know it? A tractor towing a trailor full of corn for salage went by at like 70 mph, we were doing 60. A chunk of corn the size of a biscuit came outa that truck and hit me in the throat, just to the side of my wind pipe. Guess what? I staggered and almost dropped the bike. Pull over and stopped again and just laid on the tank once i got the kickstand down. The only good thi g about that ride was the cold beer at the bar. I sweating like a pig from ingesting a few too many the night before so, the beer cleared my head, and gave me back my sanity. I went home on a few larger roads that day...

[saddlesore]

I got the bee between the eyes too. (just over the glasses) I had a windshield, wear over the glasses shades with side covers.  How he turned around so he could drive his stinger in at 70 mph is beyond me.
I pulled into a little town,took a benedryl, bought a cold soda and held that on my head for an hour.
I thought the worst was over till I woke up the next AM and my eyes were reduced to little slits.
Took a while to get over that one.  The main thing is NOT TO PANIC!

[Fudd]

DISCLAIMER:  I DO NOT ENDORSE OR RECOMMEND DOING ANYTHING THE WAY I'M ABOUT TO TELL IT !

I caught a swamp bug just under my right eyeball while riding a marsh road in Sothern Louisiana.  It felt like somebody had gotten me at point-blank range with a slingshot.  I stopped in the middle of the road somehow without wrecking.  When I tried to open my eye, it felt like I had battery acid in it.

I was by myself with no way to get in touch with anyone for help.  I rode off knowing I had ten or more miles to go before I'd get a cell signal.  Nothing I did helped with the pain, so I continued to ride with my left hand shielding my right eye.  

I drove past a hospital, full well knowing I needed to stop.  I had convinced myself that I could make it all the way across New Orleans to 'let my ex look at it first' before I did anything.  It being rush hour didn't help.  That was the most miserable ride I've ever made.

A few hours layover at Nancy's house helped.  I still could not open my eye for the burning, but decided to ride the remaining seventy miles home, anyway.  Part of my thinking was, "if I can't touch it, I damn sure don't want anybody else to touch it either."

I made it home.  By the next day, some of the swelling and eyeball redness had gone away.  It continued to improve over the next couple of weeks, but a hard knot in the soft tissue of my eye socket remained.

One day I got to picking on the hard spot and a head, like on a pimple, formed.  With further picking, I caught something black with my finger nails.  I extricated the foregn object and we gave it an inspection.  Who would have guessed it, the bug's entire back leg had been imbeded just under my eye!

Another fraction of an inch higher, the bug's leg would have impaled my eye.

[ValkFlyer]

Early last spring I was flying down one of our back roads and quickly approaching a number of tree whose limbs arched across the roadway.   All of a sudden I got hammered, and I mean hammered.  My first thought was that I run into a wall of pebbles.     All of sudden everything became blurry; it really stunned me.  Slowed down a bit and it didn't take  long to figure out that I'd hit a swarm of honeybees.  I rode down the road for another 1/4 mile to ensure I wasn't being chased, and then dismounted. I can't believe I didn't get stung, was most likely going so fast that what I hit just exploded.......talk about a sticky mess, they were loaded with honey.  The entire front end of the Valk was coated.  Windshield and face shield a gooey blur.  Thankfully I was carrying a rag and some water, which helped to spread the goo.  Had to wash all down when I got home.

[BnB Tom]

Glad I was wearing my helmet this time.

         

[csj]

On my first bike many moons ago, had on a full face helmet, visor down, seemed safe enough.

Riding down the highway, saw sumthin big flappin up ahead, is it a monarch butterfly?, yep,
swerved a bit to try to avoid it, nope, smack dabb in the middle of the visor, black and orange
everywhere.
Couldn't see anything, and the visor was Glued shut by the guts. No idea how i got pulled over.
Somehow cracked open the visor, got to a gas station, took 30 mins to squeegee the
remains off the visor.

[qc-teky]

Was riding my jet-ski on the Mississippis river back years ago, heading upstream, running about
55 mph (waterspeed). I see a good sized bug crossing the river, at about head level, and I adjust course to go behind it. Right before it crosses in front of me, it turns straight towards me and hits dead center on the right side of my eye glases. Glad they were saftey glass - flattened them against
my face and just about took me off the ski. I estimate closing speed near 100 mph. Had a decent shiner for a few days.

[R J]

Wife was reading these and she reminded me of her encounter as a passenger.

We were on a Poker Run, and just coming into town.     Had one little curve to maneuver and we would be at the check point.

There was a gravel road in the middle of this curve and we were meeting a gravel truck.

This was back in our Harley days.  No windshield, no inter comm and very little comfort.

I did hear my wife say, SOB. really loud.  I slowed down and said what, she said I just got nailed by a rock zinged over by a truck tire.    Asked if she was OK, and she said I don't know but my hand is full of blood and I can't move my knee.

Pulled over, she couldn't get off, so I handed her my big ole red bandanna to wrap around it.    

Pulled into the parking lot, and blood all over her leg, and down the side of the engine.    As I pulled up one of the riders grabbed her, pulled her off and laid he down on a picnic table.   Hollered at his wife to go grab his bag pronto.

Got his bag and he asked her if she wanted her pants cut off or taken off,  her being a shy girl I assumed she'd take em off.     Fooled me, she said cut the f*ckers off just above the knee.

When he got her pants cut open, he pulled this little stone out of her knee cap.  He called for an ambulance.  Took her into emergency, he rode with the EMT's who had called ahead to get the operating room prepped and ready.    The little stone as he called it had broken her knee cap.    Called one of my partners in a squad car and had him come pick me up so as to get my bike.   I'd rode in with someone, couldn't tell you today who it was, but the bike was at the check point.

She was on crutches for about a month and then a walker, and finally a cane for a total of 8 weeks.     She has only ridden on a bike with me once more since then.   She always had an excuse to not go.

To this day her knee is the best weather vane in the world.    Better than my shoulders and other areas with Arthur-I-Tis in them.

[Varmintmist]

1986 in a 69 Vette convertable on rt 70 mid country somewhere at 1.5x+ the posted speed limit.

I can still remember watching the bumble bee in slow motion coming in from the right in a straight line just at stingray fender height, getting picked by the air over the front, dipping to the windshield, coming over the visor, and smacking me right between the eyebrows.

Pulled over and waited until I could see again, looked like a Indian princess with the reg dot.

[~ Timbrwolf]

...Back in 1981...had just moved back from Houston Texas the year before and had my first serious bike accident...the following spring I was lucky enough to be able to buy my second bike...a 1980 Honda 750 "Custom"...first bike i ever bought aftermarket chrome for....


....it was a beautiful spring day and I had just gotten off work and was headed over to my brothers to hang out...I had bought this really cool black Shoei mini "cafe style" fairing for my bike...it wasnt very functional, but looked cool as hell...back then  you didnt have all these selections for an after market fairing for your bike like you do today...matter of fact they were just coming out with these smaller, sleek looking fairings...Anyway...I was cruising down the road and had just started to crross the over pass for I-295 when I saw it....one of those huge friggin hornets that are over an inch long ...he was swooping in from above and hit me dead in the face right next to my nose at about 50 mph....back then I used to wear a black full face Shoei helmet with no shield...it stung me on impact not once...but twice...and then proceeded to fall down inside my helmet....I felt like I had been shot in the face and immediately pulled onto the dirt shoulder and tore my helmet off...I looked in the side view mirror and saw where he had nailed me the first time...a tiny red dot next to my nose...and right below that was his stinger..still in my face with the tiny sac of poison still pumping away !!

..I reached up and pulled it out then  searched all around the bike, trying in vain to find that lil sucker...I wanted to STOMP him into the ground ! ...I never did find him and after a few minutes gave up and turned around and rode home. With in an hour the entire side of my face had swollen up and I looked like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. I remember my mom came home from work and was horrified when she saw me. She insisted I go to the emergency room at the hospital and threw me in the car and schlepped me there. The doctor gave me a shot of adrenaline and a prescription for something or other and sent me home. I took the next day off from work as my face was still pretty swollen the next day, but it eventually went back down. If I look closely I can still still that small hole next to my nose to this day...  

[MNBill]

I had a bug get into my 3/4 helmet. I was finding a safe place to pull over to get it out and before I did I no longer felt it. I figured it got out. When I got home I took my helmet off and felt some thing crawling down my neck, reached back, rubbed it and it stung me. Bee must have wanted a ride, holed up in my helmet and came home with me.

I also had a bee get into the air pocket behind my windshield and land on my sunglasses then disappear. After the last bee encounter, I pulled over to find the stupid thing, nope not in helmet, can't feel it in my hair or on my face, looked in rear view mirror and he was walking across the top of the frame of my glasses. I sent him on his way.  

[R J]

...Back in 1981...had just moved back from Houston Texas the year before and had my first serious bike accident...the following spring I was lucky enough to be able to buy my second bike...a 1980 Honda 750 "Custom"...first bike i ever bought aftermarket chrome for....


....it was a beautiful spring day and I had just gotten off work and was headed over to my brothers to hang out...I had bought this really cool black Shoei mini "cafe style" fairing for my bike...it wasnt very functional, but looked cool as hell...back then  you didnt have all these selections for an after market fairing for your bike like you do today...matter of fact they were just coming out with these smaller, sleek looking fairings...Anyway...I was cruising down the road and had just started to crross the over pass for I-295 when I saw it....one of those huge friggin hornets that are over an inch long ...he was swooping in from above and hit me dead in the face right next to my nose at about 50 mph....back then I used to wear a black full face Shoei helmet with no shield...it stung me on impact not once...but twice...and then proceeded to fall down inside my helmet....I felt like I had been shot in the face and immediately pulled onto the dirt shoulder and tore my helmet off...I looked in the side view mirror and saw where he had nailed me the first time...a tiny red dot next to my nose...and right below that was his stinger..still in my face with the tiny sac of poison still pumping away !!

..I reached up and pulled it out then  searched all around the bike, trying in vain to find that lil sucker...I wanted to STOMP him into the ground ! ...I never did find him and after a few minutes gave up and turned around and rode home. With in an hour the entire side of my face had swollen up and I looked like someone had beat me with a baseball bat. I remember my mom came home from work and was horrified when she saw me. She insisted I go to the emergency room at the hospital and threw me in the car and schlepped me there. The doctor gave me a shot of adrenaline and a prescription for something or other and sent me home. I took the next day off from work as my face was still pretty swollen the next day, but it eventually went back down. If I look closely I can still still that small hole next to my nose to this day...  

Timbr, dat be what gave ya dem good looks, right?

[sugerbear]

wild hogs........

[Valkahuna]

In the early 70s I was riding a 750 Norton. Also had a full beard. No windshield and rode without a faceshield.

Hit a wasp or yellow jacket (or something that stung like crazy) that flew into my beard which cushioned it enough that it only pi**ed it off instead of killing it. Whatever it was it stung me several times, once in the corner of my lip. I cursed hear fell off my bike trying to get it out of there.

My face swelled up like crazy, though I had been stung by plenty of wasps etc, before, and knew I was not allergic to them. Never again have had that type of reaction, and hope to never have another like it.

[fudgie]

Caught a horse fly in the upper lip and exploded into my right nare. Also caught a bee on the edge of my nose which stung me. Eyes watered like hell before I could get to a gas station for a break. Yrs ago Kit got stung on back of the valk right on the crack of her butt while wearing a thong.

[old2soon]

Can't remember the exact timeline but i didn't have my New 1973 Honda C B 500-4 very long when this transpired. Going in at night i'd left the house around 2200 hrs and headed in. Had a Bell 3/4 helmet with one of those sorta wrap around face shields. It was only about 25 miles one way and at about the 11 or 12 mile mark the face shield was so glued up with bugs i had to remove it. Got back on my scoot and about 3 or 4 miles later i saw this humongous moth in the headlight beam. Tried my damndest to avoid it but no gonna happen. He splattered on i think the right lens and the goop went over my glasses and into my eye. Amazing how quick stuff happens at 80 M P H. The crap that was the moth was like liquid fire in my eye. I came up to a gas station that was closed but they had"water"in the windshield wash stuff and i used it to try to clean out my eye. Time i got to work my eye was swollen shut and it looked lioke i had a golf ball under my eyelid. Worked my shift and stopped at my doctor on the way home. He flushed my eye out but it stayed shut for two more days. I still have encounters with bugs but this one stands out. RIDE SAFE.

[Willow]

I ride without a windscreen.  It's not so much that windscreens are for sissies, but it is an absolute given that sissies are for windscreens.  Not everyone who rides with a windscreen is a sissy, but for an absolute certainty, any sissy who rides for more than a short period of time definitely needs a windscreen.

We were crossing southern Illinois one fine autumn day with me in front and Mama trailing.  I was wearing my least sized half shell which allows a bit of a gap between my glasses and the bottom of the lid.  I caught a glimpse of something dark only a moment, well part of a moment, before it struck me solidly just above the bridge of my nose.  I was more than shocked at the intensity of the impact.   I put my hand reflexively to my forehead.  When I pulled it down I could see there was a crimson liquid on the fingers of my glove.  That's odd, I thought, what kind of bug would have both the size to hit like that and red blood?  I noticed the bike under me starting to weave a bit and I could feel my head getting lighter with that somewhat disconnected from the world around me feeling.  I'd better find a place to pull over pretty quickly, I thought, but then I was distracted by attempts to identify what kind of insect I might have encountered.  For just a few moments, or at least what seemed like a few moments, my vision blurred but then everything cleared up and the bike had straightened itself out.  It was a bird!  Yes, that was it, I was sure.  It was a bird and the blood was coming from the little puncture its beak had left in my forehead.

I held to that assessment despite the absence of feathers left behind.  It was either a big, heavy bug with a hard pointy front or a small bird.

Once while running down the flyway with my friends I experienced a rather unexpected and unique encounter.  I was wearing a full faced helmet with the visor opened and I was whistling a tune as traveled.  I never saw it coming and the first time I felt it was when it bounced off the back of my throat and plunged down the inner cavern of my neck.  I gagged, coughed, and spit but it was gone to wherever it went and my efforts were all for naught.  After I regained my composure I continued down the road with the visor up and whistling a tune.  After all, it had happened once; what are the odds of a second occurrence on the same day?

When I was young and not nearly as sensible as I am today I was riding though rural Maryland wearing a pair of cutoff blue jeans and, of course, my protective headgear.  Up ahead I could see a quad winged sextuped giving the appearance of a spider hanging by a silk thread bouncing on the breeze.  It was obviously traveling the same direction as I but was achieving nothing close to sixty miles per hour.  I was.  The collision was inevitable.  As it floated in the air I caught up to the little beast and managed to trap it suddenly between the fuel tank and the bare inside of my left thigh.  It was a wasp and she buried her stinger well into the soft tissue of my thigh.  I slapped it away with my right hand and most of it left on the wind.

What she left behind was an angry red welt that as time passed seemed larger and itched more than I would've expected from my past experiences with wasp stings.  Several nights later in the head at the barracks I dug out the remainder of the stinger with a pocket knife.  It must've been the right thing to do, because the itching subsided and the wound began to heal soon after that operation.

I'd have to say the most severe encounter I'd had with a bug was when I learned that the young woman with whom I'd been toying was considered to be the personal property of Bug Martin.  I was standing half turned away from him when he informed me of her status and being the young smart aleck that I was I replied with a flippant retort concerning his obvious inability to manage his property.  He hit me at least three times before I even knew he was angry.  I only got in fewer than a half dozen punches before I was on the floor with Bug atop me gifting me with an invaluable life lesson and repeatedly pounding the message home.  I do believe if those three guys hadn't pulled him off me he would have beat me to death that night.  One thing lingered from that experience.  After that night I was always a bit conflicted when someone would use the old adage, some days you're the windshield; some days you're the bug.

Honestly, I just made up that last one.  I think it was the wasp.       

[MAD6Gun]

 I too like Carl do not ride with a windshield. (dont like the turbulance they cause). But I do always wear a full face helmit.

I was coming home from a ride coming down highway 469. I had just taken the Tilman RD Exit when something big hit my helmit just below the closed visor. On my Shuberth helmit there is a rather large vent just below (you guesed it) the visor. The resulting colision with the bug strained his guts through the vent screen and into my mouth. YUCK. I stoped,pulled of the helmit and spit like crazy. I was there for about 10 minutes tring to get ride of the taste. I have never been stung but this was almost as bad I think.....

[Hef]

If you ride you will eventually encounter the DREADED BUG HIT even with a windshield. I have had many hits and some leave nasty results as previously mentioned in this thread. When I was much younger, I rode without a shield thinking the shield was for sissies......until a riding buddy was hit in the chest by a blackbird that nearly took him off the bike. He crashed and the result wasn't pretty. I also could not believe the ugly bruise that resulted from the hit. Since that time which is now 42 years ago, I refused to ride a motorcycle without a windshield.

[olddog1946]

Once upon a time, a few hundred years ago, there was this kid that liked spending the summer out on the gold course, caddying, digging lost balls out of the lake with his toes, getting the golfers out on the putting green and play 5 bucks for closest to the hole and once in awhile actually mowing the fairways or the occasional sappling and the greens.  
One day while riding my bike (bicycle),  up the steep, steep entry road to the course club house, huffing and puffing my way on the good ole one speed bike, I sucked up a wasp straight up into my nose.  You've never seen anyone blow his nose so hard and often to get that thing out. Weirdest damn feeling with that thing buzzing around inside my head, not to mention the swelling after it stung me.  I think that was the beginning of my fascination with full face helmets.

[YoungPUP]

Back when I had my XR650 while running down I 65 I  made the mistake of riding into a cloud of "smoke" that consisted of a large amount of grasshoppers and no smoke.....

[R J]

The year I retired, I bought a brand spankin new '84' Gold Wing.

The dealer talked me into getting a vent in the windshield.  Sounded like a good idea.

Moved back to Iowa and i met up with this dude who rode Yamaha's, but he did have a Honda dirt bike.   He was one of those kind that loved to route out the trip, cut up maps and put the little pages in his map holder with the route highlighted.

To make a long story sort, we were in Canada and run into some freshly, and when I say freshly laid asphalt it wasn't even cold yet, still hot to the touch.  Frank's trailer tire kicked up a small hunk of asphalt and slung it right directly into that vent and onto my upper lip.    He grabbed hold of my skin and would not let go, finally got it knocked off, and of course Frank never looked back when he was leading.  It was his theory that if you are behind me, you keep up.     When he did discover I wasn't back there, he turned around and came back, madder than an old wet hen.   I was also mad and told him to haul ass back to Iowa by himself.   He changed is attitude real quick.   That is one reason I wear a mustache.      It left a hell of a scar.   NO MORE firkin VENTS for me unless it has some window screen wire in it to stop crap from coming through.

[olddog1946]

The year I retired, I bought a brand spankin new '84' Gold Wing.

The dealer talked me into getting a vent in the windshield.  Sounded like a good idea.

Moved back to Iowa and i met up with this dude who rode Yamaha's, but he did have a Honda dirt bike.   He was one of those kind that loved to route out the trip, cut up maps and put the little pages in his map holder with the route highlighted.

To make a long story sort, we were in Canada and run into some freshly, and when I say freshly laid asphalt it wasn't even cold yet, still hot to the touch.  Frank's trailer tire kicked up a small hunk of asphalt and slung it right directly into that vent and onto my upper lip.    He grabbed hold of my skin and would not let go, finally got it knocked off, and of course Frank never looked back when he was leading.  It was his theory that if you are behind me, you keep up.     When he did discover I wasn't back there, he turned around and came back, madder than an old wet hen.   I was also mad and told him to haul ass back to Iowa by himself.   He changed is attitude real quick.   That is one reason I wear a mustache.      It left a hell of a scar.   NO MORE firkin VENTS for me unless it has some window screen wire in it to stop crap from coming through.

OUCH !!

[cookiedough]

Do hitting birds count with your front part of your lower legs with just shorts on.  Luckily it was the size of a sparrow.  Hurt like the dickens though going around 64 mph.  I've hit a few june bugs a few times on the arms/chest, etc. no big deal.

[F6CTrider]

Early 80's, riding my 81 GS1000G solo through the gorgeous back roads of Kentucky at well above the posted limits.  Maybe 60 in a 45 ??  From the 1 o'clock comes a large flying beetle / agent of destruction.  I am in a high speed sweeper so evasive action is minimal.  Damn thing just clears over a rather tall windshield, and just under a raised face shield.  BAM, right where my glasses cross the bridge of my nose!
Instantly BOTH my eyes are filled with guts and parts, and I am not seeing anything AT ALL.  I blindly stop in what I hope is the middle of the road.  I am in the middle of nowhere, no cars thankfully, but also no help.
Off with helmet, glasses....I try wiping stuff away, no success, maybe 5% vision.  And now it is stinging!
I find the ditch on the side of the road, and use some nasty ditch water to splash my eyes!  Bike still in road. I get enough vision back to get things safe and find a cleaner section of the ditch.  It was probably close to an hour before I could open both eyes and see well enough to drive home in what had become night.


A funnier one (it did not happen to me) from down near Houston /Galveston.  Same GS1000G with the tall shield including lowers.
My ridding buddy has the Racing Version GS1100E with nothing but motor and wheels.  We have the girls on the back and a small cooler of beer on my luggage rack.  Well Testosterone kicks in and we all want to know what his new screamer will do compared to my shaft drive "Sport tourer".  So now we are likely doing better than 100 (remember when spedos topped at 85) 
We now encounter a rather thick and extensive cloud of "love bugs"(little black beetles about the size and hardness of a BB, they mate in huge flying swarms)

I had to stop cuz my shield was completely opaque and dripping from guts and black shell fragments.

Did I mention that my buddy wore only sunglasses, a tank top, shorts, and tennis shoes.

He is also covered with guts and shells,EEEWWWW, that temporarily hide what must have been 800 - 1000 welts on his face, arms, legs, chest, neck, frickin everywhere.  Some were bleeding, and he was HURTIN'. 
Never made it to Galveston.
Three of us enjoyed the beer and his misfortunes.

[hubcapsc]

These marks are on the inside of my glasses:



The bee made it past my OEM shield, inside my full face helmet (its shield was up
because I was protected behind the OEM shield) and behind my glasses. But it
didn't sting me.

I regularly have all different kinds of hard and soft bugs smash into my face shield
like bullets. I figured there must be a bunch of horror stories to hear from
folks that ride without shields and full face helmets...

-Mike

[Mr.BubblesVRCCDS0008]

Ok this is by far the worse encounter a man can have with a bug. was in the john at work doing some business the window was cracked open and a big red wasp flew in. It landed in my pants and I didn't see it. As I pulled my shorts up the wasp decided to sting the hell out of one of my boys. I took no mercy on the sob and crushed him  but the damage was done. I tried to get the boss the file and accident report but he could not stop laughing long enough to do it.

[old2soon]

Near as i can tell the ones that make it OVER a tall windshield and UNDER a partially open shield on a full face helmet have to be either-1-extremely lucky on their part or 2-laser guided.  Just this past summer i had different bugs find almost the exact same area to hit numerous times in a couple of days-just above my glasses and just below my half shell helmet. Like bridge of the nose area repeatedly.    One of them hit me so frikkin hard i had to pull over fer a couple minutes to get my stuff back together.  RIDE SAFE.

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

Back when I had my XR650 while running down I 65 I  made the mistake of riding into a cloud of "smoke" that consisted of a large amount of grasshoppers and no smoke.....