A bee in the bonnet...

[Anonymous]

Here's an event I've not forgotten. I was blasting west across Iowa on my
GS1100GZ with Windjammer. I was wearing sunglasses under an open
face, Shoei helmet. I felt/heard a small thwack on the right side of my
head. But I paid it no mind.

Five seconds later I experienced astonishing sharp pain on my right
ear, over and over. I was on Interstate and there was an off ramp in
view. I downshifted to get the bike stopped on the shoulder and ripped
my helmet off as fast as I could. A yellow-jacket came tumbling out
and flew away. Apparently the frame of my sunglasses acted as a
chute or wick for this creature to be blown into my helmet.

Am I the only one to experience bee stings while riding/touring?

Ed

 

[Anonymous]

My dad was riding his 71 Honda CB500 to work one day and had a wasp fly up his nose... He said it hasd to have been quite a sight to see a grown man hopping up and down on the side of the road, crying, with his index finger jammed up his nose to the middle knuckle...

And, I was riding home from work one summer evening on the same Honda when I was in high school (helmetless :roll: ) when I got smacked in the middle of my forehead by a wandering bumble bee at 70+ mph... I actually blacked out for a moment... Kinda scary...

 

[WifeofDink]

Dink was sitting at the traffic lights waiting from them to change, he flicked his visor open only to have a bee decide to check out his ear, it must have been quite a sight as he struggled to find the bee and squish it before the lights went green. Luckily he is thick skinned , now the visor stays down.

 

[Anonymous]

I had a bumble bee fly through the vents in my fairing (windjammer) while going down the road at 50 MPH. The air flow curved that bee up and into my throat. I thought I'd been kicked by a mule. Good thing it wasn't on I5 where the posted speed limit is 70 MPH and speeds of 80 MPH is just keeping up with traffic.

 

[Anonymous]

And yet another time I had a "rumble" with a yellow jacket wasp. I was pulling into my driveway heading towards my carport where I collected a wasp at low speed. I had my full leathers on at the time. This %^$#@#$% insect must have been smarter than the average bear. Any way I got stung in about the only place I could have been, about 2 inches from my "privates" on my inner thigh. Needless to say I got the bike stopped, but ended up dropping it on its side in my haste to get off. And...I should mention that my 13 year old daughter was riding behind me. Needless to say she went down with the bike, but thanks to the engine guards and bags, she simply fell off and wasn't pinned under. I spent the next hour cursing a blue streak and tracking down every wasp nest in the vicinity to exact my revenge.

 

[Anonymous]

WHEN THAT HAPPENS TO ME I JUST YELL IN PAIN AND JUMP UP AND DOW--SIMON IS THE TOUGH ONE--HE EATS THE BUGGERS 8O

 

[MichaelHoward]

:evil: I was cruzin way out in the country one day with my wife aboard.Everything was beautiful,, my wife,my1100GZ things were great and peaceful. I topped a long narrow one lane hill and the next thing I knew was,,,, POW!! Something hit my forehead, shield was up but had on sunglasses. After I came to myself I shut the shield and continued on down the long narrow winding hill that led down the mountain type decent. About the time I was half way down I saw that stinkin thing lookin at me from the outside of my sunglasses and crawling towards my nose.

before I could stop and let my wife off and remove the stinkin helmet, it stung me three times on the left eye :evil: :evil: :evil: :!:

I made it home with one eye closed shut!! Wife took me to the Emergency Room and there they were nice enough to give me two nice long needles in the A**!!! As I was pulling my drawers back up out fell MR.WASP!! Dead of course but I SMASHED him anyway! Michael

 

[Anonymous]

WHEN THAT HAPPENS TO ME I JUST YELL IN PAIN AND JUMP UP AND DOW--SIMON IS THE TOUGH ONE--HE EATS THE BUGGERS 8O

Bees (especialy bumblebees) are light on the palate, while wasps have a delightful after-kick. Moths are dry at first bite but this is soon followed by the rich succulence of abdominal juices. Mosquitoes, gnats, mayflies and other light fare are best consumed as between-meal snacks.

Simon

 

[Anonymous]

Locusts and grasshoppers are light and crunchy. You just have to careful how they are inhaled at 55MPH or the legs can hook up in the back of the throat.

 

[Anonymous]

I was on holiday a couple years back and I was stung on the neck while
riding, the pain I could handle but it was the fact that i'm allergic to bee stings that had me very worried, aswell as the fact that I was at least an hour away from the closest town.
So I did the only thing possible I wound back the throttle and went like a bat out of hell. Now to add insult to injury I ended up crashing my bike, in fact I wrote it off, but amazingly I emerged unscathed.
After the scare of the crash I completely forgot about the sting on my neck, and it wasn't until later that day I realised that I must have grown out of the allergy as nothing apart from a large red spot had happened.
I was glad when that day ended.
One of my mates came up with a spooky theory later on, and it was maybe the adrenaline rush from the crash counter acted the poison in the sting.
I'm just glad i'm still riding

 

[Anonymous]

bees-n-things

bees-n-things

I was riding two up with my wife. A bee had made it's way inside the back of my shirt. When my wife leaned forward to tell me something she squeezed the bee enough for it to nail me right in the middle of my back. It was painful alright but I can't imagine getting stung in the eye or UP YER NOSE! OWWW!

 

[Anonymous]

A dead bee sting

A dead bee sting

I remember this like it was yesterday. Back in '85, I was riding to work on my 1981 850G. I was doing about 35 mph when a big fat bumble bee struct the very top edge of the windshield of my Vetter fairing. The bee's lower extremity broke off and flew on to hit me in the face just below my glasses! I was wearing a helmet and big rim sunglasses and I still got stung! By a dead bee at that! what are the odds? :?
GY

 

[argonsagas]

Worst strike I've had was at 80-85 mph, on a long stretch with nothing but cornfields in any direction for miles. Something hit me in the knee so hard it pulled my foot off the peg and my leg right away from the bike.

It hit so hard, and it hurt so much, I seriously thought I had been shot, and when I looked down all I could see was blood over my whole knee. When I finally stopped and pulled my pants to check it out, it turned out all the blood was on the outside. It must have been a small animal of some sort, but I never saw it.

 

[Bill + Karen]

Bee in the bonnet

Bee in the bonnet

Last fall on the way home from work, when I still had an open face helmet. I was coming around a 40 mph corner (at about 50) when a yellow jacket hit me and stung me in my left temple! 8O 8O After I straightened out and finished the corner, I almost lost it trying to kill / dig that thing out of the helmet. The only good thing is I was two miles from home ,so I didn't start swelling until after I got there. Then there's that little bird incident, kinda like a really big bug, 8O 8O 8O oh, thats another story. Safe Riding, Bill

 

[earlfor]

Re: Bee in the bonnet

Re: Bee in the bonnet

I was going down the interstate one day in heavy, fast moving traffic when a yellowjacket went up my sleeve coming to a sudden stop in my right armpit. Immediately got stung there, then the little booger started a walkabout around my chest merrily stinging along. Not knowing what had gone up my sleeve, the first sting was a real surprise and I almost jumped off the seat. Finally got the bike worked through the traffic and pulled off on the roadside and stopped. The last time the sucker nailed me, I nailed him back with a good punch to my chest. "Gooshed" the little varmit and scraped the remains out of my shirt. I dont mind bugs in general, but I really hate the Bee's etc.

Earl

Last fall on the way home from work, when I still had an open face helmet. I was coming around a 40 mph corner (at about 50) when a yellow jacket hit me and stung me in my left temple! 8O 8O After I straightened out and finished the corner, I almost lost it trying to kill / dig that thing out of the helmet. The only good thing is I was two miles from home ,so I didn't start swelling until after I got there. Then there's that little bird incident, kinda like a really big bug, 8O 8O 8O oh, thats another story. Safe Riding, Bill

 

[Bill + Karen]

"But I really hate bees" Earl,.... Yellow jackets and hornets are the worst, I guess because they were already mad before they hit you. I have actually caught (under my shirt) and released two small bumble bees. I guess they were too loopy to even think about stinging. Safe Riding,Bill

 

[Anonymous]

Well this fits in with my last post under 'well since the forums are up and running' or something similar. On my way home from my accident, I was hit by a bee in the throat at 110 km/hr or so. Ouch, choke cough! I never slowed or pulled over as I'd been dinged before and nothing came of it.
So about 10 minuted later, I'd forgotten the hit and was concentrating on getting through a curve when WHAM! OUCH! That bee woke up after his first hit and hit me back right in the collarbone. Well since I'd just had an accident I thought that maybe I'd broken my collarbone and just didn't notice til now. I sweated the last ten minutes home and took off my jacket to find the little jerk, whom I smushed into a paste. Phew, I was okay!

 

[Jeff Tate]

I was on my way home from work one day and had the visor open on my helmet, I heard a clunk and then saw what had caused it. A bee had bounced off the padding near my face and on to the INSIDE of the left lense of my glasses. This thing was still alive and was crawling around the lense. I was doing about 50 or so and couldn't just yank on the brakes so I tried taking off my glasses with one hand. (try this if you wear them with a full face helmet). I did get them off and as soon as I did the bee took off. Cool! now I can't see s**t and I've got my glasses laying in my lap. Getting them back on one handed is even tougher. So I finally got stopped and got my eyes back on and let the adrenalin flow out... I think ( hope) it was adrenalin....

 

[Don Lobacz]

I've had a few dazed bees in the helmet, no stings, just near-crashes trying to get the bike stopped. I did get stung on the inner thigh after a bee hit my knee and was deflected in. The most memorable impact was on I-70, coming down from the mountains into Denver. I had a full fairing and a full face helmet (visor down) when something (large bug or small bird) came from the right and nailed me at about eye level. It scared me more than anything, especially since I had assumed that the fairing would keep little critters out of my personal space. I'm quite sure that something serious would have happened if I hadn't been wearing the helmet. I think of that incident when I see kids here in Indiana riding their sportbikes without helmets OR glasses/goggles! I'm sure there is a law prohibiting that and I wish the police would enforce it for the kids' own safety. I wonder if there is a sportbike forum out there with the topic heading "How a bee stung me in the brain after flying through my eye socket..."

 

[Anonymous]

It's almost funny how ironic some of these topics are and the timing in which I read them. Last Friday, I was riding home after a trip to Baltimore Maryland. I had the visor on my helmet open trying to vent a bit due to the heat. Along came this huge bee and smacked me right in the right cheek at 65 mph. "Ouch", I think, but all is well. About 5 seconds later,I feel the critter moving around between my cheek and the padding, working his way toward my ear. Ok, now we have a problem 8O !!!! I know that I must have looked quite comical ripping my glasses and helmet off as fast as I could! I could not help but laugh afterwards because I had read this posting just a short time ago. Timing is beautiful....