This happened to me one eve last week and I forgot to post it. I was out for a blast coming from the ace and doing my usual country lanes. I wasn’t going to fast about 75 ish and I see a baby rabbit jump out of the hedge just up ahead. I slow and the rabbit runs back into the hedge.
The the rabbit proceeds to come out of the hedge and run along the kerb away from me. By this time I am on top of it start braking and move to the middle of the road. Just as I get to the rabbit it runs out into the road and I lose sight of him as he seems to disappear under the left hand side of my fairing. I tense up and wait for the bang but nothing. I stop pull over look behind me and the rabbit is on the other side of the road. A mate following said that the rabbit managed to run underneath my belly pan between my wheels!
I tell you I shat me pants cause it would have had me off for sure and one lucky rabbit too!!!
Have any of you hit any animals on the bike and has it had you off?
I can only lay claim to hitting a bird at over 120 when ragging the ring a couple of years ago. The impact was that violent that it smashed visor and mechanism. The bird proceeded forwards with the impact where it was severely sliced by the fairing cradle. Somehow I stayed on although at first I thought someone had thrown a rock at me. My ears were ringing for hours afterwards. The guy behind me said there was a loud bang and then he got showered with fluffy bits, he thought the exhaust had gone!
I have had many near misses with wildlife, including rabbits and deer but the bird is the only thing (other than obligatory bugs) that I have ever actually hit.
Bloody hell! Those are two amazing stories! Lucky frigging rabbit! It’s so hard to train yourself not to tense in a situation like that, but it’s exactly what you’ve got to do, just got with the flow and let the bike flap about, hoping it’ll straighten itself out.
I got hit by a piece of cardboard on a motorway a couple of years ago, it came out of nowhere and I just had time to think “****, that’s coming at my head” before it SLAMMED into the visor, creating the loudest noise I’ve ever heard, and hurting my neck a bit. I was stunned, but rode on. A bit of cardboard for gods sake!
Tell me about it Jay. It’s the same feeling when your out for a blast on country lanes you don’t know and get a bit too carried away with yourself and over shooting a corner. That horrible feeling of seeing the grass verge and it coming towards you at a rapid rate of notts. Survival mode kicks in ohhhhhhhhh sh1t and hang on hope for the best! lol
i hit a small dog one sunday morning doing about 40 ish it was about 8 in morning and it just run out from a garden i didnt do anything just happend to fast flew up side of my fairing and cracked it i stopped and tryed to find dog but could not see it there was fur in the crack was to early to start knocking on houses so when to police and reported it freaked me out big time…
Unfortunate. If the dog’s not dead, it’ll cost a lot in vet bills, I know as I’ve just had to lay out a big wedge for my cat which was seemingly shot with an air-rifle/pistol (if I find out who did it, they’ll wish they never bought the gun).
Man… some scary stories there… I got hit in the chest by a pigeon at about 110 and it was fecking agony!! Got to the cafe I was heading to and looked in the mirror in the gents and I had a massive pigeon wing shape bruise…
My bro hit a cow once… straight in the side at 50mph on a mito… cow got up and walked away and bro went to hospital for plates and screws in wrist!
all I have managed to hit is a pigeon in kings x at 70, luckily a glancing blow that just left some silvery powder on the side of my helmet and a [presumably illegal] chinese lady who ran into the road at the wardour st / shaftesbury rd junction as i was in the middle of the turn . . . . in the space of just a few meters I managed to pick the bike up and stoppie it as i hit her, exploding the 2 paper grocery bags she was carrying … stunned I sat on the bike for several seconds surveying the mayhem, contemplating the lynching, jail, lonely cellmate, life ban etc. etc…whereupon she jumped up unhurt, her husband appeared from nowhere - no meat cleaver - rushing around shouting “sorry sorry sorry” everything was collected in 3 seconds flat and they disappeared instantly into the crowd
the best story I remember was a mate who went down for a surprise visit to his mums after a long days despatching, tired exhausted and covered in daily grime he crossed salisbury plain and was in no state to avoid a rabbit that “ran under his wheel” … being a despatcher a little bump was no problem, so he carried on oblivious to mums rural cottage. She gets a knock on the door after 10PM and is rather perturbed to find something only vaguely human standing on her doorstep covered in liquefied rabbit bits - fur, skin, flesh, guts & poo … it seems bunnykins had actually run through the gt550’s front wheel
“I hit a couple of birds in the car does that count?”
you drive a car ? I wouldnt go admitting stuff like that round here mate, next thing you will be telling us it is a Volvo … or stories about your fantastic career in the police …
Mentle story’s guys… Apart from idiots doing U-turns and walking out infront of me, I can safely say I have managed to avoid animals of the innocent kind!!! A big bee once!!!
i hit a stag beetle once… a few of us were out down chobham way, i was doing bout 125ish and this thing was so big i actually had enogh time to think ‘what the **** is that??’ and 125mph before it hit me in the chest… i ended up with a cracked rib but managed to keep it together
The only animals i have hit are the ones in White vans, blindus nobus i think is the latin name for them. But i’m sure there are a few more choice names you lot will call them.
Is it the headlight that attracts them i wonder why do they putt out in frt of me and, when im filtering why do they want the same bit of road im using, but that another thread…
