Ouch !!.... That HuRtS !!

Yeah that 'corkscrew action' is very familiar to me. Every time I'm out enjoying the backroads and stop for fuel, if I clean the faceshield this will never fail to happen: within three miles back on the road I'll see that black dot out ahead, slowly spiraling in. It always hits right on that between-the-eyes spot where I can't look around it or pretend it's not there. Always a big red or yellow or some-unnamed-colour splotch. Dunno how those bugs got so good at always hitting me right there, but they do.
Thank goodness I've always worn full-face designs.

Most memorable altercations with other life-forms over 35 years:

Bee up the right jacket sleeve (stung me)
Bee down the shirt (stung me)
Hornet or wasp sting between the fingers (couldn't move my clutch hand for about 2 hours)
Gypsy moth catepillar hanging from a tree in the dark got me right between the eyes (YUK!!)
Small dog (dog did not survive)
Another small dog (it survived and never chased me again)
Pheasant (just about took me off the bike)

In every case, I was able to keep the rubber down. I never want to meet anything like Bambi.

My least pleasant encounter with living road hazzards was a sparrow that took flight from the shoulder of the road while I was going by and bounced off my knee-cap.

I was riding on back roads with one of my Harley rider buddies. He had his legs stretched out on his highway pegs and a bug flew up his trouser leg. He immediately went to the side of the road and by the time I got turned around, he had his pants around his ankles, digging out a big ol' grasshopper. Apparently they bite, hard.

Last week, while riding the trusty S, a small wasp flew up the loosened wrist cuff of my jacket. I could feel this guy "just going to town" with real attitude on my right arm. I quickly pulled into a local post office parking lot, and ripped off my jacket like a madman, all the while dancing around like I was having a serious "Woodstock quality" drug flashback halucination, and muttering damnable curses on the entire phylum of arthropods.
When I looked up, several people were staring at me. I can't blame them, it must have been a comical sight.
The wasp? He flew out of may jacket without a scratch, but of course! My arm is just about back to normal. I suppose that I got off lightly....it was a typical warm Florida day and I was riding with the helmet visor half up. If that little fella had hit me in the face......YOWZA!

I remembered a artical in one of the hunting and fishing magizines about how to make a bee sting go away. I have used it and it works very well. You take your jumper cables and hold them about one inch apart and stroke the area of the sting, with the sting in the middel. The 12 volts will neuterlize the proten in the veniom. In a few minuits all is forgoton.

My entry into full face helmets was caused by a wasp that flew into my helmet and stung me 3 or 4 times before I could get stopped. I couldnt see, and thought I was going to die. I had to sit by the road a couple hours, and then couldnt get my helmet back on. Stingers sure do suck.

Hello; I remember a bird strike in Tennesee, it was a Cardinal it hit me in the middle of my chest like a Larry Holmes uppercut. It knocked my hands off the bars but I squeezed my legs on the tank and didn't fall off. The impact actually knocked the wind out of me. I got stopped and had some anxious moments getting breathing again. Oh yea it knocked my eyeglasses off too. So there I was 3000 miles from home with no eyesight and unable to breathe.

Bee strikes; I ride with a Nolan 100 usually closed, unless I'm going very slow or stopped waiting for a light. About twice a year I've had hornets get into the ear cup and if they survive the trip, sting away. You have to sti there and take it until you can get stopped. Thank goodness I am not allergic and just have the pain of the sting to deal with.

I also remember getting hit on one shoulder by a June bug in Ontario on a late autumn evening. It pulled my arm off the bars, and nearly caused a crash. I had a passenger on the back, and the impact nearly knocked us both off. June bugs are great big, hummingbird size crusty rocks that can just barely fly.

I have hit dogs too, but you usually get enough warning from them to get braced, so even though I actually cut a beagle in half, I didn't fall off.

Once while in Nevada in heavy freeway traffic I came upon a load of four by four strewn across the highway. With traffic at about 75 mph about all i could do is hang on and thump through it all. I couldn't believe that my Yamaha just danced over the mess of diagonal 12 foot 4x4's at 75 mph without even knocking me out of my lane. That happened in 1983.

[img]http://www.conary.org/bike/post/beeclosecall.jpg[/img]

I've only been riding since last April and so far, in 4200 miles, I've had 2 birds head right for my head, a big fat bumble bee practically repaint my white Shoei, and the Geico squirrels try and take me out by doing that switchback manuever that they're so famous for!!! And that's just close-calls from ANIMALS!!! Bad drivers have tried in vein to do me in on several occasions, too. It's a tough world for us riders to co-exist in out there!!! Unfortunately, a guy died in Hunterdon county NJ this summer from when he was hit in the chest by a turkey buzzard. The bird didn't do him in, but rather the head-on collision he had with an oncoming motorist who had STOPPED when he saw the rider battling with the bird--a very bad and sad turn of events.

"I also remember getting hit on one shoulder by a June bug in Ontario on a late autumn evening."

This dude (dudette?) was big and a highly accurate flyer. I had on a full face with dark glasses while crossing OK. Had my visor up since that bike had a fairing. This bugger nailed me on the forehead between the top of my glasses and the helmet. My vision tunneled down to black and then slowly opened back up again. It was scary, but fortunately the freeway is arrow straight so I just held the bars straight until vision returned.