What items have you dodged or hit on your commute?

[ItsPhilD]

In another incident I was riding across 70 heading west in Kansas to visit a friend in Denver. It had been a hot day and the night was cooling down nicely. I had decided to ride until about 10:00 PM. I could see lightning in the distance but it seemed far enough away and as it was only 8:30 PM I didn't figure on running into a storm.

At about 9:00 PM a flock of ducks flew up from the median strip of the interstate across my path from my left to my right. One of them didn't make it and flew under my left arm and got caught between the gas tank and the windshield. While it was flapping its wings wildly I carefully took my left hand of the grip, put it on the ducks butt and lifted it up and away into the wind flow above the windshield.

At that point I decided to just pull over at the next exit with a hotel. I was on my 89 K100RS/SE so it was probably 1991 or there about.

[akbeemer]

I've had that happen with a bee but with a duck... no.

[Darryl Cainey]

Speaking of birds.... I was on my way home with one stop sign to go and as I approached a small stream that goes under the road I looked to my left to see a crane coming in for a landing. I tracked it's path and in a split second surmised that it's track would cross mine. With no time to stop or slow down I ducked as low as I could and the crane's feet ticked the top of my helmet as it went by. Time to stop for a beer!

[dieselyoda]

I wear ATGATT even when we get some blistering hot days. This past summer I was on my way to do a little side job for a friend and decided an early morning bit of a boo was needed for some cerebral well being. It was a beautiful morning. It could have been a line out of Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance.

Just into a twisty along the river, "SMACK" off my left foot. It was a stinger too. Shook off the sting and the buzz, no problem I'm thinking.

Get to my buddy's, try to use my left foot for the side stand. WTF!!.

Put my left foot on the gravel thinking that I still got the buzz. I'll just hold the bike up and use my right foot for the stand. No big deal, right?

I think I made a sound like a dog that just got smacked by a rolled up newspaper. Some people will swear on an oath I sounded like a teenager that just saw there first zit. After balancing the bike on one foot, help was pretty quick to come. Comments followed. I should have let the bike fall on me.

In my own defense, I will say I might have sounded less masculine than I should have after seeing the schmutz and dead crap all over the side of my clean two-wheeler. To this day, I maintain I'm a tough old bastard and I don't cry. It was getting my boots dirty and needing to scrape dead crap off my bike that made me sound like a cat with it's tail caught in a door. Those were tears of joy from having a spectacular, "Zen" like ride.

Broke my little toe. The bruise was a good one. I wouldn't let the ER girl, who I thought could be my next wife, cut my boots off. Since I'm kinda of a horny old toad, she got her way. My brain was not really doing a lot of thinking for me at the time.

She is beautiful and I'm dating her now. I will report on our progress in the future as long as she doesn't find out what I'm really like. I got her hooked on bikes. She loves to be a passenger and she is just learning to ride herself.

Now, the story of my adventure has become an urban legend with my friends. It is the truth and I can man-up and say that a broken little piggy hurts almost as much as a broken nose but still a long way from child-birth. I'm a big, tough, short, fat, bald guy and still maintain child-birth is a woman's right to tell us that we really are sissy's.

I'm good with that. I love my kids and I love the wonderful lady that gave so much of herself to bring my kidlets into the world, and helped me grow up.

Back to the original post, something bounced and sacrificed itself so it could break my little toe and give a nasty bruise and cost me new boots. It then proceeded to spread it's remnants all over the rest off the bike. I still can't get all the little bastard off my bike and I have no idea who/what it was.

Little bastard wins.

[rangerreece]

Also known as a flying squirrel. It was late just past dark, speed limit went from 55 to 65 between Daleville Al and Dothan Al on hwy 84. Keeping a sharp eye out for the prolific cager with cell phone and the deer in the headlights I failed to notice the furry projectile high and left making a "bee line" for the bike...BAM!!!!! The whole bike shuddered with the force of the impact. Lodged between the gap created by the adjustable windscreen and the faring, was what looked like the remains of an owl? Because owls are the only birds that fly at night? So, I continued another 29 miles at speed, and eventually came to a red light at Wicksburg across from teasers, yes, that kind of establishment. There were a couple of cars around me at the red light, I put the side stand down and the hazards on to collect the remains of the owl that hit me and check for damage. And that is when to my great surprise I saw the fully intact but very dead flying squirrel lodged in the gap of my windscreen and fairing. I gently removed the body and carried it to the traffic island, said a few words in memory or Rocky as I laid him on the concrete before returning to the bike parked in the road on the now green light by the redneck gentleman's club (yes, an oxy-moron) and continued down 84 to dothan for some non ethanol gas. As I recall on impact I may have made a loud exclamation in reference to the pope defecating.... But I digress what does the pope have in common with rocky the flying squirrel? Surely nothing.

[ClassicVW]

Things flying off the roofs of cars and sailing and fluttering toward you are out of your control, BUT.... If you are constantly running over so many things that appear from under the car in front of you, I think it's time you increased your following distance to give you some time to react. One of these days, that piece of angle iron may not hit your CAT after bouncing from under your front tire, but just might take your foot off at the ankle.

[ClassicVW]

Get to my buddy's, try to use my left foot for the side stand. WTF!!.


Now, the story of my adventure has become an urban legend with my friends. It is the truth and I can man-up and say that a broken little piggy hurts almost as much as a broken nose but still a long way from child-birth. I'm a big, tough, short, fat, bald guy and still maintain child-birth is a woman's right to tell us that we really are sissy's.

I must say that as I was reading about your pain and being unable to use your left foot to hold up the bike, I was expecting you to eventually describe how your lower leg and foot looked like a grenade took bits away. But a broken pinkie toe!? WTF you really ARE a wuss!


And I'm sick and tired hearing how all these women throw the pain of childbirth in our faces and call us wusses. You know, after a woman gives birth, about a year or two later she might say she wants to do it again and have more children. I say getting kicked in the nuts is far worse. Have you ever been kicked in the nuts? Have you ever felt that all numbing, searing pain all the way to your ears? You never ever hear a man say: "You know, I got kicked in the nuts last year and you know what? I'd like to get kicked in the nuts again someday soon..." Case Closed.

[txtinman]

Coming home at 2:00 am a construction barrel was in my lane. I couldn't see it at first because it was laying end wise with the dark end facing me. I saw it at the last minute and swerved but my foot rest on the left side struck the barrel and was ripped off. If I had my foot on there I might have broken my leg.

[Paul_F]

I just barely dodged a black bear on the Blue Ridge Parkway. I was only about eight miles from joining up with the Skyline Drive when the black bear ran out in front of me moving from my right to my left. After hard braking I barely (excuse the pun) missed it while staying in my lane. I found myself in the wrong gear all of a sudden and was rolling in my lane at the same pace as the bear in what was the oncoming lane.

While it seemed like minutes I'm sure it was only seconds. I could hear the bear breathing hard and also the sound of his paw pads and nails on the pavement. It then turned left off the roadway back into the forest. This was probably in the late 90's when I had my 95 R1100GS.

I had the same experience on the Cabot Trail in 2006. Strange but there were only moose signs. I briefly looked down to check my speed, looked up and there was bear galloping across the road, a few yards ahead of me. There were no "Watch for Bear" signs!

[Danielle]

A two square foot piece that remained from a 4x8(ish) sheet of 2" thick rigid foam board. It had come off a flatbed semi that was absolutely stacked with them and went into rush-hour traffic. I did see it, but only fairly close because there was a cluster of roughly 2" piece of foam around it being blown about by traffic, and I decided that going straight over it was the best bet. No damage, unsurprisingly.

I had to duck a buzzard once. On another ride I saw a buzzard's wing clip the trunk of a Goldwing ahead of me.

Years ago, around Binghamton NY, my sweetie hit a crow with her shoulder at 70MPH. Surprisingly, no debris on her.

[GTRider]

Things we've dodged, eh? Let see, in southern Utah headed into one of the parks there was the full can of beer hucked at me from the window of an oncoming pickup truck. I ducked and swerved, the can went over my shoulder and exploded on the road behind me. On I-25 between Cheyenne, WY and Denver I dodged an aluminum extension ladder that suddenly appeared from underneath the truck in front of me. Dang thing had been hit once or twice already but fortunately was lying nearly parallel to the roadway so I could miss it. I allow a lot more space cushion than I used to when following vehicles!
Things I've hit? Excluding wildlife (deer, rabbits, javelina, various fowl) the only thing I've ever hit was a two-foot-high traffic cone coming into Grant's Pass, OR. I was traveling eastward and blinded by the crack-of-dawn sun and didn't see the cone until it went WHAP! and disappeared under the left cylinder then bounced down the road behind me. It was a good sign I needed to stop for a coffee break, and besides--for some reason it struck my funnybone and I was laughing so hard I damn near fell off the bike!

Let's all be careful out there,

GTRider

[JoeDabbs]

Things flying off the roofs of cars and sailing and fluttering toward you are out of your control, BUT.... If you are constantly running over so many things that appear from under the car in front of you, I think it's time you increased your following distance to give you some time to react. One of these days, that piece of angle iron may not hit your CAT after bouncing from under your front tire, but just might take your foot off at the ankle.

It's not always possible to follow in safe distance. Other cars will pull into any open space in front. Angle iron bounced down the road from a jeep that hit around 75 yards in front, and sent it flipping and hopping.

Me hitting things doesn't really happen that often, but I've been commuting since '76, so things are bound to happen. Thanks for the word of caution, though!

[JoeDabbs]

Oh, Hey Wezul: I finally got my old username back so you're the only one, again...

[NCmotomark]

I have dodged many things along my travels,a few stand out more than others.Like the time I was on interstate 26 north of Charleston S.C. following a roofers truck not too closely and I noticed that the ladder on the truck was moving from side to side on the ladder rack.Then all at once the ladder stood straight up,stood perpendicular to the rack and then flew completely over and behind the truck then was dragged a short ways behind it until it broke free and pirouetted around and around the three lanes in front of my bike.I was all over the brakes and swerving around tring not to run over the ladder and not get hit by other traffic.The truck continued on down the road without even slowing down, ladder slid to side of passing lane and stopped parallel to the road.On another adventure I had also been following a Summer camp bus pulling a trailer full of canoes,out of the one of the canoes blew out what appeared to be a 5 gallon bucket,it bounced all over my lane if front of me,I swerved to miss it,thinking that I was about to crash,I braced and hit it full on and it bounced off my engine protection bar to the side of the road.I did not crash,pulled over to see what I hit,it turned out to be a nice new Slumberjack sleeping bag.I tried to chase down the bus to return the bag to its owner,could not catch up to it after securing it to my bike.I now have a very nice sleeping bag.On another trip as I was following a fishing lure bouncing down the road in front of me on a long straight stretch of highway,way up ahead of me was a bass boat on trailer,the lure was attached to a nice fishing pole and reel that was in the boat, the pole bounced out of the boat and now its mine.Has caught many freshwater fish for me.

[ClassicVW]

It's not always possible to follow in safe distance. Other cars will pull into any open space in front. Angle iron bounced down the road from a jeep that hit around 75 yards in front, and sent it flipping and hopping.

Me hitting things doesn't really happen that often, but I've been commuting since '76, so things are bound to happen. Thanks for the word of caution, though!

Your argument is weak and a cop-out. Do you remember your high school drivers ed? A student will always say what you said, that another car will fill the space you were keeping for safety. The reply to that is, ease off and increase your following distance.