Owl strike, ouch.....

[Tallbloke]

So there I was Saturday evening riding along the A352 at dusk, maybe 50mph, and an owl flies out of the hedge directly in font of me
No time to react just this huge shape full in the face, whack unbelievable feeling of weight & pressure, head snaps back, everything goes black, just for a second, then all is normal again, well normal?
I'm still on my side of the road, still upright (somehow) visor is hanging off the left hand side, bits missing, tasting blood, nose is clearly bleeding and hurts like hell
I pull over and walk around a little, somewhat stunned, take off my lid and see what you do below, only the visor was hanging off. My nose is bl00dy and bl00dy painful, and my top front teeth are tender too. Clearly in breaking the visor (and removing chunks of it) the visor came in and clouted my nose, ouch!
Anyway carried on to my destination and came back today probably past half of you looking at the number of riders I passed after they had been to the Wooton Basset gathering
Learnings, watch out at dusk for low flying owls, and always use a double glazed visors, if mine hadn't been, where would the missing chunks of visor be now??

You can see it took off the LH air vent cover here also

 

[raginmund]

Pinlock: Now with added Owl Proofing!

Glad you came through that OK

 

[stolzy]

Fcuk! and you didn't come off?


I caught an owl a glancing low on the side of my helmet once - I can just imagine what a full frontal would be like

 

[Tallbloke]

I know Stolzy, I cant quite believe it meself.....
and thanks Raginmund, me too

 

[ogri-nic]

You are lucky....

in the news recently was a bloke that hit a pheasant at 70mph..... major injyuries from strike and from coming off back of bike!

 

[Tallbloke]

Yes it doesn't really bear thinking about if it had taken me off , mind you stiff neck and sore nose still.....
But healthy and still here, so very happy chap!

 

[Vern]

I hit an owl in France about 15 years ago on my Kawasaki.80 odd mph,and just caught a glance of something out of the corner of my eye.Next thing,it hit the mirror,then my chest then straight up under the chin bar and into my helmet and I got a very close up view of an owl.Other half sussed what it was,grabbed hold of mr owl and chucked it away.Didn't half make a thump when it hit the road.

I don't bother with anything with less than an eight foot wingspan any more

 

[Shep]

Am i the only one here with sad feelings for the Owl


RIP Barney

 

[Tallbloke]

Hi Shep, not only are you not the only one I am sure, but nearly everyone I have told has gone orrr for the owl just before they say wow weren't you lucky! I have huge misgivings about the whole 'if I hadn't been on the bike I wouldn't have hit the owl' bit, funny I doubt I would have felt the same if it had been a black bird, or thrush??
Anyway, no you are not the only one!

 

[cartejo5]

Am i the only one here with sad feelings for the Owl


RIP Barney

Quite right - Owls have feelings too.........

 

[MattW]

Lucky escape

I hit a male pheasant at about 60mph last year. It flew into the side of the bike, bounced of the beak took out my right indicator and hit me in the right shoulder / chest area with a right thump (like having an oven ready chicken thrown at you at 60mph ). I stayed on but it flippin' shook me up - I'm constantly looking out for low flying pheasants now...

It was a right pain changing the indicator too

 

[twizzle]

I had a rabbit run through my front wheel once at about 50........ feck me i was covered in fur, guts, blood....... i was cleaning bits out of the fins for weeks..

Glad you stayed on though!

 

[David Nimrod]

Phew! you're a lucky guy

Could've been a lot worse

 

[thauma]

years ago I was hit by a magpie (big fekker) on my ZXR 750. Forunately the fairing took the brunt of the impact, and I just got showered with the remains. Did a lot of damage to all that plastic on the front of the bike.

However I didn't catch the full impact in the face, and I dread to think what that would have been like, although from the pictures I can now imagine!!!

So you have my sympath for the damage and pain; but also respect for being able to keep it upright.

 

[Sho]

I was on my fireblade once with around 20 other bikers on our way from Birmingham to Wales. One of the roads in Wales (how can i describe it, hmm like a snake on a snake and ladders board), i followed a rather large biker on a R6 up a little hill then proceded down, as we got to the bottom it was straight back up the hill but as he started to climb the hill his bike bottomed out and his number plate hit his back wheel and decided to detach itself. The number plate then went wizzing past my helmet what seemed to be about 300mph just like a throwing star. I think an inch more to my left and i would have lost my head.

It's really an eye opener when things like that happen and i can imagine how you felt. Just goes to show if it's your turn for something to happen there is not much you can do about it. Thank god your ok really and for those animal lovers out there "Poor Owl" RIP

 

[robc]

I hit a pheasant a few years ago. It hit my crash bars and burst all over my leg.

Last year I hit another pheasant at around 60 mph. It hit my mirror first then thumped my shoulder. Fortunately the armour in my jacked took the brunt of it so it didn't hurt much. I couldn't find the offending fowl afterwards so no pheasant and chips for dinner that night.

Anyway, sod the RIP owl crap. Nobody says poor butterfly when it peeled from the oil cooler. That owl has cost tallbloke money to replace his visor. Maybe things would be different if he were shortbloke.

Regards

RobC

 

[Mutley]

No time to react just this huge shape full in the face, whack unbelievable feeling of weight & pressure, head snaps back, everything goes black, just for a second, then all is normal again, well normal?
I'm still on my side of the road, still upright (somehow) visor is hanging off the left hand side, bits missing, tasting blood, nose is clearly bleeding and hurts like hell

No, seriously

Thank god you stayed on and didn't hit anything


Oh and a rose of insincerity for Barney

 

[carrera2]

Blimey - sounds like you were very lucky to stay on and not get hurt more.

I've always wondered what would happening hitting a bird and now I know. The only beast I've slaughtered was a rabbit under the wheel - I braced mysefl and felt nothing. Saw it fly up in the air behind me though so it clearly 'got it'.

Well done.

 

[King Rat]

What does owl taste like? Did you collect it for posterity? Worth about £500 to a taxidermist (would pay for a new helmet)
What kind of owl?

White one? = Barn Owl
Brown (dark) = Tawny Owl
Bout the size of a blackbird = Little owl

Wearing glasses = Hedwig

 

[raginmund]

This is turning into the Fisherman's Tales thread

I've never been hit by flying poultry while on a bike, but I once had to dodge a tray of chips & gravy.