Bird strike

Took a robin on the way to work this morning below the partially extended windscreen on the LH side. Got a crash course in stripping the side panels and front cowl/headlight bucket.

Most of it came up under the windscreen, but a good (?) portion blew through the adjuster slot. Saw feathers moving on the adjuster cable & knew I needed to clean it out. LH top side of the black center panel was unsnapped by the impact.

Pretty sure the service manual says you can pull the center cowl before the headlight bucket. Was one screw in the center between the headlights going forward that said otherwise. Cost me a little time that I could have saved if I had just yanked it all in one piece.

Aside from the whole scrubbing all the pieces with a toothbrush was just a matter of putting it all back together.

Small crack on the inboard side of the adjuster slot on the center cowl. Played squid-boy and safety wired it.

Wondered how it all fit-together/came off, just really hadn't planned on figuring it out today...

In about 1968 a friend riding to work at Mather AFB hit a pheasant with his little Honda Dream. Actually he hit it with his chest and it fell dead in his lap. When he got to work he plucked it and cleaned it and put it in the refrigerator. That night he took it home and he and his wife ate it for dinner. Robin's probably too small for that tho . . .

It almost seems that birds have a hard time seeing the Liquid Graphite of the 2015. I killed more birds in the first year I rode the '15 than Dad and I had collectively in all our other riding.

So far I have not had to disassemble anything to clean after, they have all been surface strikes. At least now you know more about your bike and how to disassemble the Tupperware.

Glad it was only a scare and a superficial cowling crack. That episode shows one advantage of riding a heavy, big-girl motorbike: little animals don't knock you off-balance.

(Didn't mean for that to sound as cold blooded as it came out ...)

This big girl on her big girl bike hasn't hit any birds to prove that theory yet... however, I have had a few "off-balance" episodes all on my own.

Be glad it wasn't a turkey vulture.

Been there, done that, a few times. Caught the last one on video which is where this still came from. Happened in WY on the way up to Burgess Junction. Found him packed into the vent next to the mirror cowl on my ST.

My 2013 is a killer too. 4 so far. They have an unnerving tendency to get hammered right into the vent at the base of the windshield and end up in my lap as they get spit through the vent tunnel. I have relocated my GPS over the winter, it now sits in front of that vent between the bars...hopefully it will survive the next strike.

I hit one with the mirror stalk on the left side last year. The way the stalk is designed it looks like the bird went into it head first. The wings and backstrap were still on the stalk, and the rest of the bird went through the opening and was spattered down me and the left side of the bike. Jeez, what a mess!

I've hit a bird too, and I've wondered about this. With the small profile, you wouldn't really think moto/bird impacts would be so common. Or maybe bird vs. car impacts would be more common. My theory is the bigger vehicles make more of a "bow wave" that birds ride over or around, where a moto just slices through the air, straight to the um, victim. (This theory does not apply to deer, however. ) So how many have hit a bird with a car? What's the count, car or truck versus motorcycle on bird fatalities?

^^^^^ Maybe FredW will build us a survey ....

few years ago I watched a crow launch of the double yellow-smacked the left mirror and folded it back-bounced of my helmet and cartwheeled into the lap of the guy on the bike behind me. covered both of us with blood and crow shit.. oh yeah- he was riding a Blackbird...

SacramentoMike said:

I've hit a bird too, and I've wondered about this. With the small profile, you wouldn't really think moto/bird impacts would be so common. Or maybe bird vs. car impacts would be more common. My theory is the bigger vehicles make more of a "bow wave" that birds ride over or around, where a moto just slices through the air, straight to the um, victim. (This theory does not apply to deer, however.

) So how many have hit a bird with a car? What's the count, car or truck versus motorcycle on bird fatalities?

Click to expand...

I found one in the grill of my pickup one time and found one in the pan in front of the radiator another time. But I'd agree I've hit more birds with bikes than cars. And bugs. I can go out for a little 400-mile ride on a bike and come back with the bike encrusted with bugs. I don't think I get as heavy a coating on a car ever. Maybe it's where I ride.

Uncle Hud said:

^^^^^ Maybe FredW will build us a survey ....

Click to expand...

You asked (somewhat nicely)... and so it is done.

The FJR Bird Striker Poll