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Bug Magnet or just me?

stevenrankin

stevenrankin

Active member
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield. I am behind a slightly taller wind screen. The same thing happens when I ride my R80RT with a slightly taller windscreen. Mind you, I am looking over both screens.

So how in the heck do people ride with just sunglasses and an open face helmet on non wind screened bikes and not collect a billion bugs?

Is my face shield just a bug magnet? Curious me wants to know the answer. LOL. St.
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield. I am behind a slightly taller wind screen. The same thing happens when I ride my R80RT with a slightly taller windscreen. Mind you, I am looking over both screens.

So how in the heck do people ride with just sunglasses and an open face helmet on non wind screened bikes and not collect a billion bugs?

Is my face shield just a bug magnet? Curious me wants to know the answer. LOL. St.
Click to expand...

Thus the old, tired, cliche, joke about riders with bugs on their teeth.
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield. I am behind a slightly taller wind screen. The same thing happens when I ride my R80RT with a slightly taller windscreen. Mind you, I am looking over both screens.

So how in the heck do people ride with just sunglasses and an open face helmet on non wind screened bikes and not collect a billion bugs?

Is my face shield just a bug magnet? Curious me wants to know the answer. LOL. St.
Click to expand...

It's the mild-winter, cool wet spring, we've had.......lots of late hatches. My farm property is borders on a creek and the bugs are terrible, even at mid-day.
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield. I am behind a slightly taller wind screen. The same thing happens when I ride my R80RT with a slightly taller windscreen. Mind you, I am looking over both screens.

So how in the heck do people ride with just sunglasses and an open face helmet on non wind screened bikes and not collect a billion bugs?

Is my face shield just a bug magnet? Curious me wants to know the answer. LOL. St.
Click to expand...

Be happy. From my riding experience the number of bugs seems higher this spring. That's a GOOD THING. https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/as-insect-populations-decline-scientists-are-trying-to-understand-why/

As for bugs in the teeth, I used to be a Harley rider with a brain bucket and riding glasses (if I wore a helmet at all), and bugs in the teeth were bragging rights. My Shoei RF1200 needs frequent cleaning this spring.
 
It's even worse when you run into a big swarm of bugs about dusk (which happened to me on my 80-mile ride yesterday). It was a double whammy on visibility.
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield. I am behind a slightly taller wind screen. The same thing happens when I ride my R80RT with a slightly taller windscreen. Mind you, I am looking over both screens.

So how in the heck do people ride with just sunglasses and an open face helmet on non wind screened bikes and not collect a billion bugs?

Is my face shield just a bug magnet? Curious me wants to know the answer. LOL. St.
Click to expand...

That reminds me of a bike trip to Malone, NY. I had to stop at a McDonalds in Watertown, NY. My face shield was solid bugs and I could barely see. I had to bring the helmet inside and wash it off in the restroom. I apologized to the gal behind the counter if the sight of that helmet grossed her out. I've never seen that many bugs on a faceshield. I believe it was this time of year. And as you know, this year in New York it went from winter to summer like flipping a light switch.

Harry
 
When these dudes get out in the east it is going to be bug vs rider mayhem. It reminds me of the Mayflies along the Mississippi valley. We got into them one morning riding south along the river in Iowa, dead on the roadway an inch deep. It was like riding on slush. Not as bad as black ice but almost. We had to ride through maybe 20 miles of inch deep a carpet of dead bugs, at a much reduced speed for sure.
 
Last edited:
I have that type extension on my GSA, still see over top, but it catches a lot of bugs on those days when they are winning. I don’t have to clean visor but top of helmet still looks messy.

We were headed west one summer and got into the huge grasshoppers in WTX or New Mexico... felt them hitting legs like rocks and the cylinders/ exhaust bends were just a huge smelly mess:hungover
H was not impressed or amused since she took more direct hits on her Roadster. Only bright spot was they seemed to stay low and not into helmet zone.
 
I always thought that black riding pants looked like they stayed cleaner than brighter colors until I rode through the grasshoppers as described by Henzilla. Then my black Aerostich Roadcrafter pants looked like they had greenish-yellow patches on the shins. The mess did come off with a garden hose so I didn't need to resort to the car wash. :)
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
I just returned from a 150 mile loop ride on my 78 RS and had to clean off the nearly opaque layer of bugs on my face shield.
Click to expand...

How timely!

We had a halcyon March here in western Oregon; overnight lows were around freezing but days warmed up into the 60's. The net effect was NO BUGS.

Fast forward two months. This is the result of a little 60-mile jaunt on my local back roads. Fortunately the Quiet Ride deflected most of the critters away from my visor but it obviously paid the price. On the one hand, I'm glad to see that our local environment is teeming with life. On the other hand, ...

Bugsy.jpg
 
Bugs

With the price of meat going up, up, up you may want to ride with your moth open, cheap protein :)
 
Summer times

Summer time and the bugs they are a flying, and sticking. But I am still a riding, thank you Lord.

If I rode without a face shield and ate the bugs in my teeth during each ride, would I get 1500 calories a day?

Bumble bees are the best, they are big and juicy with the added kick of the sting and venom. Box elder beetles are the worst the make me want to stop and drink a beer. *I don't drink and ride.

St
 
STEVENRANKIN said:
Bumble bees are the best, they are big and juicy with the added kick of the sting and venom.
Click to expand...

While riding down a scenic rural road (Rt. 30 in Grafton, MA) about two weeks ago I heard/felt something fairly large bounce off my face shield. Nothing new, right? Ignored it. About 15 minutes later I felt something stinging me in the scrotum, right through my jeans! Must have bounced off my face shield and dropped into my lap. Managed to sweep away whatever it was with my gloved hand, while continuing to ride and without wrecking the bike.

Not the first time I've had to deal with stinging insects while riding, but certainly the most painful!
 
discoboy said:
While riding down a scenic rural road (Rt. 30 in Grafton, MA) about two weeks ago I heard/felt something fairly large bounce off my face shield. Nothing new, right? Ignored it. About 15 minutes later I felt something stinging me in the scrotum, right through my jeans! Must have bounced off my face shield and dropped into my lap. Managed to sweep away whatever it was with my gloved hand, while continuing to ride and without wrecking the bike.

Not the first time I've had to deal with stinging insects while riding, but certainly the most painful!
Click to expand...

You have to love it when the Hornet/Wasp spends its last seconds wedged between the tank and your inner thigh. For some reason, they never sting the tank......
 
I was completely covered with riding gear. Full face, jacket, boots, riding pants and gloves. About 2 square inches of skin under my chin was open and hit a wasp on the highway. It stung me acouple times in my neck then decided to crawl into my shirt and keep stinging me. It hit the gravel shoulder, locked up both brakes, slid to a stop and was stripping my jacket and shirt off, and hitting myself in the chest and abdomen at the same time, trying to squash it. I never killed it until it fell to the ground and I stomped on it a couple times. I looked like a pin cushion without the pins!
 
I am compelled to tell an Ardys Kellerman story. Ardys, then somewhere in her 70s was coming to visit us. We saw her pull up in the driveway. she rather sprinted to the door, came in, and hollered, "Paul get out of here. I'm undressing. I have a bee in my pants." As I headed out the back door she was already stripping down.
 
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