To cycle is to live dangerously...

[Andre Jute]

And I thought my magpies are psycho. Short video:
To cycle is to live dangerously...

[jags]

Nowhere safe Andre.

[julk]

A buzzard did that to me one day out riding near the Moorfoot Hills, I was in a heavily wooded area.
Wearing a helmet worked well that day!

[John Saxby]

I thought my magpies are psycho

Serious bizness indeed, Andre. Evidently the juvenile eagle has not been socialized...

Last Feb/March, cycling around the Gold Coast Down Unda, I noted a number of cyclists who had 6" zipties sticking up out of their helmets. The effect was so dorky, that I thought this might be some kind of statement, though I wasn't sure what was being stated, nor who the audience might be.  I asked my son, and he said it was a common anti-magpie practice: seems the critters don't like the pokey things. Once or twice, he had been buzzed by the magpies, and he was considering the ziptie counter.

[Danneaux]

Here, it is red-winged blackbirds -- especially in the Spring. Two of my regular training loops (84mi/105mi or 135km/169km) has a common portion that runs along a highway with tall bushes planted on each side. This is where the red-winged blackbirds nest. I can't get away from them, and the "Thwok-thwok" if them hammering my helmet is unpleasant, so I may try the zip-tie trick.

Thanks, John.

Best,

Dan.

[Andre Jute]

A buzzard did that to me one day out riding near the Moorfoot Hills, I was in a heavily wooded area.
Wearing a helmet worked well that day!

It's a carrion-eater, getting presumptuously ahead of its own wishful thinking. We saw one the other day while out riding, hunting over a grassy hill next to small clump of trees.

I too shall try the trick John brought back from Down Under, zip ties sticking up from my helmet.

I don't know what it is about bikes, but the magpies don't bother me when I'm on foot and directly under their nests in our back yard.

[Matt2matt2002]

The first time I was bird hit, I thought someone had thrown a brick at me.
It was so wierd since I was in the middle of nowhere.
No-one around but I had received a big whack on the back of my helmet.
Spooky.
It happened to someone else a week later and, long story, it made the news in The Sun newspaper.
Must have been a slow day!
Slightly miffed that I had missed out on a claim to fame.

[Andre Jute]

Slightly miffed that I had missed out on a claim to fame.

To paraphrase Sophie Tucker:

My dear fellow, I've been obscure, and I've been a talking head on television, and on the whole I prefer being a cycling recluse.

But the one thing I absolutely deny is ever appearing on Page 3 of The Sun. That was done by Photoshop.

[jags]

i painted a page three  girl appartment  in london a fine bit of stuff.

[Andre Jute]

i painted a page three  girl appartment  in london a fine bit of stuff.

Living dangerously!