Not a motorcycle/bird story, but a friend of mine is a helicopter pilot and was transferred to Viet Nam during the war. On his first flight, he was flying over the jungle about 5’ above the trees and 100+ mph when there was a big noise and he was hit in the chest very hard, wind turbulance filled the cockpit. He looked at his chest, saw a bunch of blood then screamed out “I’m Hit! I’m Hit!! ….... and what are hell are all these feathers?” It turns out he hit a large bird that came right through the front plexi of the helicopter and hit him right in the chest. Luckily, the blood was from the bird and all he had was a very sore chest. Brian Adrian > On Apr 23, 2020, at 5:48 AM, ducati-request@list.ducati.net wrote: > > Message: 5 > Date: Thu, 23 Apr 2020 08:48:08 -0400 > From: Stephen Abramson <desmo900cr@gmail.com <mailto:desmo900cr@gmail.com>> > To: Ducati Owners Group <ducati@list.ducati.net <mailto:ducati@list.ducati.net>> > Subject: Re: [Ducati] Feather River Canyon crash... > > > Great story, Peer! Although I did not make contact, I was blitzing along a highway out in Pennsylvania headed out to see Pags for a MotoGP morning and had a large bird of prey looking creature just take off out of the scrub in the median between the highways and with NO time to change the bike trajectory, I thought there was no way I was not going to get hit straight on, so I tucked my head and prayed. For anybody out there who has ?crashed, but just didn?t know it?, it was a crazy thankful moment and a huge feeling of disbelief that I was still upright and intact. I?m glad everybody was OK with their story. Still can?t get that stain out of the ass of those pants..... > > STeve > STaying Safe > >> On Apr 23, 2020, at 7:54 AM, Mario Baroz <mariobaroz@hotmail.com <mailto:mariobaroz@hotmail.com>> wrote: >> >> Thanks the story Peer!! As I came to the vital moment, I thought I was going to read that you had crashed and gotten hurt. So glad you were ok. >> >> My bird story isn't quite as dramatic as that but it was still a moment to remember. Many years ago me and a couple of buddies were out riding in the middle of nowhere outside of Lubbock, Texas. We were switching bikes between ourselves and I was on my buddy's 1997 GSXR-750. I was third in line after my two friends and we were going pretty quickly, around 90mph. I was semi-tucked in and noticed this very big, black bird coming into sight on the right. It flew across my friend's nose and the turbulence upset it and it tumbled back towards me. Before I could even react, it smashed into my left shoulder forcing my torso up and tearing my hand off the clip-on. It hurt like a mother. >> >> I pulled onto the shoulder to gather myself, catch my breath, and assess the situation. My shoulder hurt like hell and there was a feather stuck in the seam where the jacket sleeve meets the main body. I walked back several yards but couldn't find the bird. I'm sure it was dead. I was just glad it didn't hit me in the head. >> >> V/R, Mario