Bonneville America Forums Forums Off Topic Discussion Forums Lounge As if live deer were not enough to worry about

Went for a nice ride for father's day. Only marred by one thing. I was riding along a rural road and there was a deer carcas on the other side of the road. 2 turkey vultures were at the buffet, and as I approached they took off. 1 went left the other curved right, directly into my path. They are very big birds and dont take off that fast. I had to slam on the brakes to avoid hitting it. I would estimate that thing had about a 5 foot wingspan. I was ducking and braking hard, but I think I might have been able to grab a feather if I had been any closer. I hit a starling or some other small bird a couple years back. That flexed my windshield enough to crack it at one of the mounts. I think that vulture might have been enough to take me down if I had hit it. Oh well. No harm done, but I'll definitely slow down if I see another one of those things feeding along the road.

Good thing your alright.That big ugly would have taken you down for sure.Did you know that turkey buzzards vomit as a defense mechanism?Imagine if that would have happened at the same time it hit you!

Glad you're ok my friend.
See you in September.
I hope.
Uncle Charlie

That's a crazy story. I almost hit a vulture in my car once. The thing was as huge as you are describing with a 4 or 5 foot wing span. Scared the crapallo out of me and that was in my car.
Glad you're OK...and the bike too

Yup, things that fly can be a problem alright. I was once hit in the face (wearing a full face with the visor down) and was darn near knocked off my bike. And don't get me going on bumble bees!! But a vulture, wow.... that WOULD be scary!!!!

I was tooling up RT 93 in Nevada a few months ago. I thought I should see what this SM could do. I had been cruzing at 60-65 MPH and I gradually got it up to 90. Everything was OK. Empty road. Good surface. Straight as a string and went on for mile I got it up to 100 and ran along for a few mins. It had more to go but I though about the consequences of hitting a large bug in the face visor.

I rolled off the throttle and got it back down to 60 and I felt if I was crawling. Ahead I could see some stuff in the roadway. I slowed down to 10 MPH and I could see where somebody did a U turn and ripped up a bunch of gravel and rocks as big a baseballs and they were all over the road.

Then I thanked my guardian angel for slowing me down from the 100 MPH foolishness. I had been alone and the area has no cell phone service. If I had hit this stuff at a ton I would have been hard pressed to keep the bike on the road or from taking off and splattering me all over the roadway.

Ya just never know. On the way back from Alamo I hit a flight of grasshoppers or Locusts or something and suddenly my windshield was covered with green goo and debris from large insects.

Again I was able to slow down to 25 before I hit this flight of bugs and had I been at a high speed I do know things could have been dicey to say the least.

Gotta love those guardian angels, eh Dan!! Take 'er easy out there everyone!

Yep Carl, sounds like you lucked out there, ol' buddy! Glad to hear your encounter with that vulture turned out to be case of..."Close, but no cigar"!!!

I had this very thing happen to me just about a month or so ago, but the big azz bird that almost got me while I came up upon it at speed was a large horned owl that was eatin' some kind'a dead rodent right smack dab in the middle of the road.

(btw...ya know, I wonder if one o' those vultures you encountered just might'a been this guy who's "Momma done told him, to go find a rabbit", but found that deer carcass instead )....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RuN-tFvgRc0

made me think about the scene in the movie wild hogs when travolta gets attacked by the bird

I took a seagull to the chest @ 50+ mph. Knocked the wind right out of me. Good thing I was much younger then.

You just can't trust birds (and the wife's Blue Front Amazon is eyeing me suspiciously as I write this).

I had a similar experience on a rural Highway a few weeks ago.

Traveling at 55 MPH, just cruisin' on a really nice day, I rode over a small bridge covering a heavily wooded creek. Out of the creek came a large bird of prey, unknown species; very dark brown about two feet of body with about a six foot wingspan. I was heading east. The bird came from the south and took a flight path directly into me at a northeast angle. It was screeching and angry. I instictively looked over, ducked down, and tightened my lower sphincter. The bird flew right beside me and hit me with its large wings. I let go of the throttle to shield myself and the bird flew with me, fwapping me as I rode. The bird flew with me for several yards. After a while, the bird flew off to the south and I resumed control of the bike. It all happened in a few seconds, but we covered about a quarter of a mile with me riding on momentum and not in control of the machine in any way.

Freaky stuff Cory. The stories told here are a certain reminder that we can never be careful enough!! The birds and the bees can be a problem in more ways than what mother told us!!