VTR1000.ORG

Well...riding to the hop farm to do my next show i was traveling around 90 down the usal A road out of canterbury when i saw an entire flock of birds in front of me, i ploughed off some speed hard on the front but it wasnt ever going to stop in time! The birds, hearing me decide this will be the best time to take off......end results i have two large birds (dunno what they were....an no yella not lessas!) hit me, one on the sholder and one smack on the left hand side wing mirrow.

The fairing is snapped in two and plastered with a loverlly red pattern and feathers, i have a large bruise on my sholder! it was all i could do to stay on the bike....

what i was wondering was? is hitting wild life normal? ive bin riding many miles and a fair few years now and never once hit anything like this? well...part from that small innocent andrex puppy, but hey that was just for fun!

Ride Safe
Toby

Squiffy,

I don't know what it's like over there, but here it's common enough. Birds mostly. But the odd kangaroo, cow or horse have been known to cross my path on dusk or at night. A mate of mine hit a kangaroo late one night and turn it to mince and his ZZR 1100 in to a rather dented piece of machinery, but he manged to stay on and get home, how I'll never know
Then there was the modified dragbike which hit a kangaroo one night on a 1/4 mile strip south of here, just as it hit top speed. One roo vapourised, one expensive dragbike turned into junk and the rider seriously injured. See kangaroos are a vicious bike hunting animal Not the cuddly grassing eating things they have on TV
Sorry to hear about your bike though, at least you held on, nice riding.

I gather you got a good many beers in to yourself after it.

Nathan..

Pigeons? Pffft! You're lucky you didn't actually hit a wombat! A wombat is basically a 2ft by 1ft by 1ft brick with legs the size of matchboxes. Then again, the emu, perched loftily upon it's pathetically fleshless, but very tall legs, provides a hunk of feather-coated meat the size of a beer keg hovering just perfectly at rider height. Or perhaps the koala is the motorcyclist's worst enemy, with it's physique so close to that of the wombat...

Nasty, nasty business, these native Australian animals...

All sympathies to you, though Squiff. It's horrible hitting anything. Hope your war wounds are fading...

VTRgirl's got it right , the Wombat, has been known to wreck cars.

Glad we don't have wombats here, about 20 yrs ago I ran over a badger on my bike. It was like doing a kick start (long forgotten TV prog. showing my age again) log at about 50mph. Some how I stayed on and stopped, the badger just looked at me and then trundled off down the road to have a go at the next person coming down the road.

Had some close calls with bloody pigeons, but so far clear. Did however hit a sheep in my car at about 30mph, wrecked the front end ! Bloody sheep just got up and wandered off !!!! What are they made of ? And dont say lamb !!!!

I remember driving back from Newcastle to catch the ferry in Stranraer - coming thru some really nice road in the Galloway National Park - could see a dead straight road for a mile or two ahead with the exception of a small hump back bridge half way down - I opened up the throttle and as I came over the small hump there was a chicken in the middle of the road (no jokes!)... He didnt move one inch but as soon as I jammed the brakes, it was as if he sidestepped and I let the brakes off and rolled past him... the cheeky beggar. I could feel the bike slide in a straight line. Luckily I didnt require a new set of leather pants after that.

pmcq wrote:...there was a chicken in the middle of the road...

Do you guys have the term "chook chaser" for a trail bike over there? Might've been handy if you were on one, pmcq!

One of my brothers has ridden around Australia a couple of times on a KLR600. One time he instinctively kicked out at a dog who ran out at him. Dog got kicked, brother lost balance, brother fell off, dog bit brother. About a week later, he ran over his best mate's dog & had to pay for the vet. Moral of the story? Don't ride chookies, they attract dogs...

VTRgirl wrote: Do you guys have the term "chook chaser" for a trail bike over there?

Nearly VTRgirl, we call them "chicken chasers" and that basically refers to all slow scooters or mopeds, not big trail bikes. I think the reason they got that nick name is because the early 49cc bikes hardly went fast enough to catch a chicken (chook)

Chris.

put it this way, im glad im not an aussie! LOL


and yeah i know about the wombats....ive wrecked enough cars...bloody things keep creaping up on me!

we actually have a few badger bridges round here so that badgers can cross the road without turning into something elses supper!

VTRgirl we do get the odd bigger scary animal out on our roads sometimes

I couldn't resist taking that shot at one of our annual bike runs (Sunday gone)

Chris.

Gotta get me one o'those!

I've hit a Bramha bull and a cane train in cars over the years and I can't say either were pleasant experiences. But I did manage to bend a tiny piece of metal on the train, which I was happy enough with, since it had just destroyed the front end of my car, but I guess 25 tonne of train does that Add to that, Kangaroos, rabbits, birds, bats, pigs, etc and the strangest was a complete windscreen wiper arm from a car in front of me No idea how that came off, but it made a nice loud thump as it hit my bonnet
I do a lot of outback driving in some rather remote places, so you get used to the wildlife, they just never seem to get used to me

Compared to these tales of mass extinction, knocking the sh1t out of a blackbird seems puny
Sorry, I'll work on it

Keep trying mate, it's only a matter of time till you get a good kill