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I shook hands, so to speak, with a turkey vulture a couple days ago while riding the '84 RS. I was out in the middle of nowhere in central Texas just a couple days ago riding back home after a visit with mom. Since it was a 200 mile ride one way I had done a hundred times, to break up the trip I took a number of back roads. There seemed to be a fair amount of road kill to watch out for, not so much for the carcass, but the number of vultures that would be in harm's way.

I made a turn onto a small two lane highway and stepped the speed up to about 65 mph. I soon rode over a hill that was hiding a group of vultures just off the right side of the road. There was about one second to react. I hoped a couple beeps of the horn would spook them off in the other direction. Course, one had to fly right into my path. I was doing about 55 mph by that time. The bird hit the front fairing on the right just above the blinker lens then bashed across my right arm. It was definitely a solid hit on the fairing....ka-boom!

I noticed the right mirror was gone so I slowed and turned the bike right around to pick up the mirror. The poor bird was knocked out and on its back. Its chest was heaving in and out. No doubt the collision broke bones in its ribcage. I carefully pulled the unconscious bird off the road and onto the grass. Am sure the poor thing croaked after a while.

The hit caused a minor crack above the right blinker lens and broke off the right mirror. I found a used mirror locally for thirty bucks to pick up this weekend. Was lucky with this ordeal....just a split second later, the big bird would had hit the windshield then right into my helmet. Hate to think what could have happened then. Full size adult has up to a six foot wingspan and weights about 3 lbs.

Whoa Randy! Glad you survived the hit. We have turkeys here that would pack a similar punch... and goats and pigs. Just last week I was nearly clocked by a female pheasant! The same ride my friend had one fly inches in front of his face.

In Southern California, the greatest hazard is the soft breasted calling bird. They are everywhere and they will run your ass over! I have to admit that sometimes I become the wrinkled face flipping bird.

Chuey

Ha! I just looked at the title for this thread and it hit me. Not a deer, but the wording is great.

Deer! Let's be careful out there...Yes, Deer. Let's.

Chuey

Chuey wrote:Deer! Let's be careful out there...Yes, Deer. Let's.

ATGATT...

I am in Port Aransas for a month and have not been to the forum latley, but Randy directed me here, and here I am again.

My son took out a deer on his way down here. He was in his Jetta and he has a new set of dents on top of all the old ones. The deer got up and left, but I am sure he was not happy.

ME 109 wrote:These are claimed to be effective on bison, deer and kangaroos.

A bit unwieldy to mount on one's MC, looks tough to fire one-handed too. Probably .50 cal, eh? Ammo costs would be a bitch, unless one loads their own. And the neighbors might not like it when doing a little beer can plinking in the back yard with it.

One could probably obtain a machine gun like that here in the wild wild west of the US of A, if one has enough $ and the right connections, but such a weapon is probably rare down under.

bbelk wrote:I am in Port Aransas for a month and have not been to the forum latley, but Randy directed me here, and here I am again.

My son took out a deer on his way down here. He was in his Jetta and he has a new set of dents on top of all the old ones. The deer got up and left, but I am sure he was not happy.

Glad that Cavin didn't get horned around too much.
I rode the 'buzzarded' RS down to Mikey's at Martindale Cycle Works this Friday morning and bought and installed a nice used right rear view mirror. Unless someone notices there's one vulture missing in the outback, you'd never know the bike was hit by one.

Steve in Golden wrote:

ME 109 wrote:These are claimed to be effective on bison, deer and kangaroos.

A bit unwieldy to mount on one's MC, looks tough to fire one-handed too. Probably .50 cal, eh? Ammo costs would be a bitch, unless one loads their own. And the neighbors might not like it when doing a little beer can plinking in the back yard with it.

One could probably obtain a machine gun like that here in the wild wild west of the US of A, if one has enough $ and the right connections, but such a weapon is probably rare down under.

I tried mounting a dual XL canister pepper-spray gun on the handlebars to thwart deer, bears, vultures and the like from the roadway ahead. After several road tests, I came to conclusion this pepper-spray set up is
more effective (less painful) when the bike is not moving in a forward motion.

ME109, kinda hard to conceal isn't it? Otherwise I would be ordering one today. What is it?