Hi All,

A friend of mine on ZX14R 2013 mentioned to me that he has experienced a lot of bird strikes on the 14, something that hasn't happened regularly on his previous bikes. He also said that he rides with Hi-beam on and think that it might be related, especially due to the fact that 14 has very good standard lights.

Any opinions and/or experiences similar to this?

I personally also rides on Hi-beam on the open road and haven't noticed anything to back up his theory.

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are they hayabusa or blackbirds? why would you ride on high beams? turn them off to debunk his theory..

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You ride with the high beams to be more visible to traffic during the day.
Bird strikes are a result of hauling ass.

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riding with highbeams just annoys people,
ive hit a couple of birds, a fox, a rabbit,a badger, and... a frog!

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Got a bird on my previous 14R, and +1 on the hi beams during the day. I want to be more visible and i don't know about annoying people during the day (but could definitely understand annoying people night time).

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"riding with highbeams just annoys people"...LOL...at least they SEE ya...that's a good thing.Not at night though...That's a BAD thing.

Only bird strike I've ever had was on a 1000 exup back in the early 90's when a Seagull hit the screen. I saw it at the last minute and just managed to get my left arm up to stop it hitting me in the visor. Could've been nasty, those birds are big.

X2 on the high beam annoyance factor. If someone's coming towards me with full beams when I'm in the Landcruiser I give them a full 600+watts back and they soon dip 'em! If someone's following me with full beams on I let them pass and then do the same! They soon get the message.

Had some flash me during the day...couldn't tell if they were warnin me about LEO...or sayin'awesome ride man'...

+1 for high beams always on. If they can see you thats good!

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I took a pigeon in the visor at 100ish back when I had my CBR600. Felt about like a taking a shot from a baseball bat in the helmet.

I almost hit a goose with my busa (daytime, ~90 mph, high beam was probably not on). It seemed to be a case of the bird underestimating my speed.

I don't see why anyone (human or otherwise) would have a problem with high beams in the daytime. Night time is a different story. I ran my high beams in the daytime for 47k miles before they both burnt out.

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I always run high beams in the daytime.

Maverick it felt like someone threw a rock at me.
Hit a guinea fowl on my hayabusa and a pigeon on my zzr 1100. (And a monkey) it might be areas with higher concentrations of birds and wild life have higher chances of hitting something.
I ride hi beams all the time with luminous green lenses so super visible.

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Running high beams in daylight conditions is a NO brainer for anyone on a motorcycle! Most accidents involving cars and bikes the car driver tells the officer......"I didn't see him!" Well, he is telling the officer what happened, and they are loading you up into the ambulance or calling for a medical examiner to come to the crash site and pronounce you dead.

So.....visibility is the answer for bikers, including high visibility jackets, and helmets too! Most riders are wearing black jackets, gloves, and leather pants, and black boots. So in low visibility conditions....you don't stand out.

The name of this sport is fun and survival, so you can ride again tomorrow, next week, and next year......

Don't use up all your chances.....

Get the brightest bulbs you can afford and light em' up.......always!\

Ninja

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Running high beams in daylight conditions is a NO brainer for anyone on a motorcycle! Most accidents involving cars and bikes the car driver tells the officer......"I didn't see him!" Well, he is telling the officer what happened, and they are loading you up into the ambulance or calling for a medical examiner to come to the crash site and pronounce you dead.

So.....visibility is the answer for bikers, including high visibility jackets, and helmets too! Most riders are wearing black jackets, gloves, and leather pants, and black boots. So in low visibility conditions....you don't stand out.

The name of this sport is fun and survival, so you can ride again tomorrow, next week, and next year......

Don't use up all your chances.....

Get the brightest bulbs you can afford and light em' up.......always!

Ninja

* Last updated by: ninjawarrior1244 on 9/22/2015 @ 10:09 PM *

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I've hit one bird. I caught it on my shoulder.

The last study I read regarding MC accidents , came to the conclusion that in a majority of the accidents involving a turn in front of a motorcycle, with the car approaching from a side road, IF, the driver acknowledged the mc, it was usually mistaken for being a car / truck which was much further away.. Think about it.. A car when first noticed on a long hwy/road appears as one light. This is what the brain registers..If a driver is not familiar with motorcycles, and the great majority of drivers in the US are not, then it says " car , plenty of time".

Everything helps but bottom line is ride like you are totally invisible........... except to LEOs ;)

Took a bird to the forehead at 75mph once... once!... no helmet.

The only thing funny about it was my buddy was riding behind me a told me he was trying to figure out what the hell happened.

And I quote "It looked like someone slammed two chalk erasers together"

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Sorry I know we are risking topic drift here, but I used to have a Honda Varadero. It has twin headlights with a little bit of separation between them. I had a hell of a lot of trouble on that bike with people pulling out in front of me at night. In the end that's what I put it down to, was that people thought the twin headlights close together was actually a car further away so it was OK to pull out. On some occasions I could simply cross the centre line and go around them without slowing down. On many of those occasions I clearly scared the stuffing out of them by passing them so soon. More than one of them dived off the road in a blind panic when they realized I was so close.

My Honda Blackbird was under and over, and my Tiger only runs one at a time because of the semi-successful projector configuration. So nowhere near as much drama.

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I've had two near hits--one at about 180 mph and the other at about 130 and both were within a couple of inches.

* Last updated by: skewedTotheLeft on 9/25/2015 @ 5:33 PM *

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Funny Bumpfire, a turkey tried to outrun my brother on a dirt road once. The turkey just kept running down the middle of the road in front of his bike.

I've had two near hits--one at about 180 mph and the other at about 130 and both were within a couple of inches.

I was talking to grn a while back about animals ability to calculate time and space and use simple logic to make choices about that. It seems likely to me that both predators and prey would need to do that all the time to survive. Like people, most animal decisions are probably based entirely on the assumption that their prior knowledge of situations applies to all similar situations. It would take much too long to analyze every situation encountered during the day and I don't believe most animals are capable of thought that is that complex anyway. The point is that I believe animals near the highway are assuming a car that is an eighth mile away will always reach them in about 3-4 seconds (logically analyzed that's, 60 mph) because they've seen that happen a thousand times. When something twice as far away reaches them in the same amount of time or less, it must be quite a surprise if their assumption was that they could make it across the road in 4 seconds. I recntly came upon a deer by the roadside and I saw him do something very close to a double take. Exact same response I would have if I were about to run across the road and then thought better of it. Animal thought, don't underestimate it but don't count on it either.

* Last updated by: Rook on 9/25/2015 @ 7:50 PM *

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riding with highbeams just annoys people,

Someone turning me into a hood ornament annoys me.

Hit one bird this year fortunately no damage to the bike (fuck birds), never happened before. Several close calls. I'm on a general forum and riders there have reported several bird strikes this year.

My opinion is it's an increase in the bird population. It's just like deer, the more there are directly correlates to increased human encounters.

* Last updated by: VicThing on 9/26/2015 @ 5:22 AM *

I hit a goose on my TL1000R a couple of years ago. the dumb thing flew right into my from the side of the road. The glass in the mirror popped out and it brake the crap out of my Zero Gravity screen. It then bounced off my arm. I'm glad it didn't break the upper fairing. I hope that thing died.

Bill
13 ZX14R
08 BKing

* Last updated by: BillAz31 on 9/26/2015 @ 10:11 AM *

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