What is the strangest thing you hit/almost hit?

[mrbreeze]

Originally Posted by Jan from Finland

Shock value was higher than the actual risk of hitting.

I gotta get me one of those!

[rthuey]

have you seen this clip?

[red450]

Yesterday, I almost hit what looked like a 4ft wide putty knife with a 6ft handle. I have no idea what it was but I missed it by a few inches, the SUV that was on my tail didn't .

[Stromski]

I was leisurely riding my decrepit yet reliable Pacific Coast on Howard's Lick Road through Lost River State Park between Mathias and Moorefield, West Virginia. Just before entering the park, I saw a turtle crossing the road. It was making pretty good time and I almost kept going. I thought better of it and stopped to hurry it along.

As I was tapping my foot behind the turtle, I heard the sound of multiple motorcycle engines coming around the curve. I picked the critter up and got it off the road. Good thing, as about a half-dozen ADV types rode by, one of which would certainly have created a bunch of guitar picks. OK, that was the easy part.

I turned around and continued West, behind the riders. In the road, after a curve at the far side of the park, I saw "Is it a cow? No. Is it a dog? No. Is it a guy in a bear suit? No." IT WAS A FREAKING BEAR Fortunately, the bear had a greater level of situational awareness than me, got out of the way and kept running.

I stopped as soon as it was level enough to park the bike and ran back to get a picture. No luck. Then I started thinking "That bear looked young (3 feet at the shoulder on all fours and maybe 200 pounds). If I had hit it, who would have arrived at the scene first, paramedics or Mama Bear?"

To the guys who passed me at 11:30 a.m. on Sunday, May 27: Did you see it, too?

[singletrackslayer]

I was riding in the front of a small group of riders. We were movin at a descent clip when I spooked this hawk out of a tree in front of me. It tried to fly away across the road, but was too heavy. So it dropped its squirrel lunch that landed in my lap. We were probably doin 30 or more.

There was blood all over my pants. It was the coolest, yet grossest interaction I've ever had with an animal. And I grew up on a farm.



Then one time I got kicked by a cow while I was trying to ride past him. Feisty lil' fella!

[Rossland Rider]

I just got back from an 8 day ride around much of Idaho. Was riding down upper Imnaha Rd in Hells canyon and almost hit a peacock. Not the most common thing to be looking out for in the middle of nowhere Oregon.

[Wakizashi]

In the last twelve months:

Driving to dinner in Chiang Mai one evening, it was dark as I rounded a corner on a dual carriageway at about 45mph to find a six feet wide freezer chest being pulled across the road. An amateur ninja, dressed entirely in black and almost invisible, stood on the traffic side as he pulled the freezer. I adjusted my line twice, first to miss the freezer, then to miss the ninja. Why he didn´t push it, I have no idea.

Again, in the dark but this time at around 5am, I was driving briskly over the mountains () to the north-east of Chiang Mai. There´s very little traffic at that time of day, BUT... As I hurtled down the road, something a little hazy made me roll-off the throttle. I couldn´t figure it out so I braked. Still, it was unclear. I got down to 20mph and lifted my visor. Even at close range, it was hard to recognize the home-made flat-bed tractor travelling at 10mph, laden with an enormous pile of green plants. No lights. No reflectors. No registration. Perfect camouflage.

From the northern-most tip of Thailand at Mae Sai, there´s a fast stretch of road that runs due south. At around 60mph I noticed a man 200 yards ahead leave a colleague and walk across the road. With Spidey sense on full, I rolled off the throttle. As the man reached the far side of the road, he lifted his arm to bring a wire to neck level across the three carriageways. A medium fast stop for me, and a surprise for the cars ahead. I think the man was intending that the cars drive underneath the wire while he held it.

On the outskirts of Mae Rim, driving towards Chiang Mai at around 60mph, I encountered a massive truck reversing onto the highway to block all three lanes. A man standing in the road beside the truck waved his arms to the driver to indicate he was clear to reverse despite oncoming traffic. Result, a hard, fast stop, looking at the diminishing gap between the rear of the truck and the concrete lane divider.

In Thailand, the rules of the road are simple; don´t drive faster than you can see and stop, priority goes to the largest vehicle, and expect anything.

[Offcenter]

In 1974 I hit a brick dead on with my new BMW. The tires held but it cost me two wheel rims.

But previously in 1970 I was heading down a local street on my CB350 when a big Collie dog
tried to ambush me from between two parked cars. His timing was off and he missed.
A short while later when I came back up the same street, the same dog tried again. He charged straight
at the right side of the bike with that big mouth full of fangs open wide. Somehow, he missed getting hit
by the crash bar which surely would have killed him. Instead, the front of my right shin hit him in the
side of the face (at about 30 mph) I still remember seeing his feet go by, to my right above my eye level, as he
did a snap roll from the impact. He picked himself up and headed into the backyard of the house he
had come from with an unearthly howl that I could easily hear over the engine of the bike.
He left the imprint of that open mouth full of teeth on the front of my shin. Hurt like hell for days!!!
But I guarantee you, that dog never chased another motorcycle!!!

[Plataokamoca]

I was doing around 100 km/h (60mph) in a flat and wide avenue through the down town of Lisbon when a pidgeon appeared coming from the left side of the road and tried to fly past right in front of my bike, it didn't make it and as a result I heard a very loud bang and just saw the pidgeon "crashing" onto the road by my right side. When I stopped to access the situation I found a big messy yellowish stain on the front of the fairing and headlight, and a cracked joint on the fairing... I was actually very lucky it didn't hit me on my helmet...

[Mambo Dave]

I've seen a lot of road debris / mattresses / etc., but I'd say the strangest thing wasn't all that strange...

Just a dog, in his own front yard, that was barking and running out after my buddy (at a 90-degree angle) who blew the turn (really, the turn wasn't the issue as we never saw it - many feet beforehand was gravel that we didn't expect in a dip in the road, with the top of the road hidden by trees on both sides that, ideally, we would have braked well in advance for and eventually judged - but there would be no good braking on that gravel) and ended up, luckily, skidding through a conveniently placed front yard (we both thought each of us were in for an ambulance ride, and the bikes totalled against trees). As mad as that dog was, and as hard as he was charging, he seemed shocked when he realized that even farther into his yard, and 10 feet behind the motorcyclist he was chasing, another biker was headed right for him.

At that point the dog stopped both barking and running just in time to watch me skid across the wet grass right in front of him (probably one foot from his nose), then across his gravel driveway at the far end of the property, then across the wet grass at the northern end of the property. Interestingly, he was so shocked that he didn't bark nor chase after us afterward, either, lol.

[KX50002]

I ran over an Opossum once in the apex of a corner with my wife on the back of my 79 KZ650. Amazingly nothing really happened just squirmed over about 8 feet to the outside of my lane and kept going. I say nothing really happened because it didn't startle me, just kinda smoothly moved over, it was weird!

I hit a golfball with my forehead at about 100mph, luckily I had my trusty bell fullface helmet on, it just about took me off the bike, I was very lucky that day.

[MADurstewitz]

Pigeon in the rain, in the chest, on the Palisades Parkway in NYS. Felt like a big, wet bean bag.

[High Country Herb]

I almost got swatted off the road by an oncoming big rig fish-tailing on black ice. He was pulling double trailers, and I had to ride the fog line to avoid him. He was doing about 40 mph, and I was doing about 60 mph, so it would have been the end for sure. I was driving my '91 Geo Metro convertable, but it had a 1L Suzuki engine so maybe my story still fits here.

[JDK111]

Originally Posted by Wakizashi

In Thailand, the rules of the road are simple; don´t drive faster than you can see and stop, priority goes to the largest vehicle, and expect anything.

Been there (Northern Thailand ) and you're exactly right.
..... spectacular biking though, especially in the Chiang Rai area.

[Rinty]

Almost collided with an Eagle, on the Rattlesnake, Washington side.