It comes in three's...

[Tierhog]

Half city, half rural. It seems a Spyder pilots paradise. Working a night shift allows warm evening rides and brisk morning returns.... UNLESS...
.
.
.
.
The rider's plague of three's chooses you as its next victim.

1. The racoon race- Full of attitude, slow, and hard to see at night. These critters are quite the bronco billy ride if you happen to hit one (luckily near miss.. But very close)
2. Crop duster- Aggressive S turn over a bridge and hitting the flat at 75mph. I look up to see a LOW yellow plane skimming almond orchards and banking for a return trip. Cool... I would have missed that in a cage. WHAMMO! Insecticide hits the bike and I like it was purposely planned. I'm white, the spyder is white, and I cant see. Felt like a giant dumped 80 lbs of confectionery sugar on me. As if the spyder doesnt attract enough attention, now it looks like I returned from a trip down the matterhorn.
3. The curious bumble bee- Its in slow motion... Here it comes.... CONTACT. Bumble bee trapped between skin and chin strap at 65mph. I can feel him crawling, attempting to escape. I turn my head to assist him... He gets pushed under my visor (3/4 helmet) by my forehead along helmet pad. I raise visor... Whoosh, he gets pushed to the center of my forehead (he's going to sting me I know it) SERIOUSLY? I turn my head to the left... Whoosh, the drag sweeps him into the abyss of corn fields and asphalt. Hmm, glad thats over with. Drop visor, accelerate to 70.. SPLAT! What the **. The biggest bug on the planet... Smack dab in the center of my visor...

You have to really love the ride to find the humor in such things. Had it been any other ride, I would have taken a week off.
Enjoy the ride... And beware of the plague of threes!

 

[Bob Denman]

:shocked: Wow! With all of that "entertainment" on just one ride, you sure don't need any coffee to stay awake! :yikes:
Would it be "self-defense" if you took a shot or two back at the crop duster? :joke:

 

[Tierhog]

Well.. One and a half rides... The racoon at 1030 PM, the crop duster at 7:30 AM, and the bee/monster bug going in early at 6:30 the following day.

Yeah... I need some James Bond stuff for the Spyder.. That would would stop his dusting in a hurry

 

[Bob Denman]

Would this help?

 

[SpyderAnn01]

I encountered a crop duster on my way to the Owners Event and my first thought was look at that airplane and how low it is flying then I thought oh no don't let him spray me. Thankfully he didn't as I was about 500 miles from my destination and it would have sucked to ride all day covered in fertilizer or pesticide.

On a different trip I wasn't so lucky with my encounter with a wasp under my helmet. I got stung 3 times just trying to get the chin bar up. I couldn't find the bug and was going to put the helmet back on when I finally spotted it on the rubber at the base of the chin bar.

 

[JkRbbt]

OK, I would say that just about does it. You are no longer being considered to lead the rally rides at next year's SpyderFest!

 

[Bob Ledford]

yea but, you got rid of the suspense of what can happen next an when all in one fell swoop!

Almost reminded me of one of our late evening rides some fifty years ago.. One of our group riders got hit in the chest at fifty by an owl. We found feathers but no body and he found that he had a big black an blue bruise that got him sympathy for a week from the single girls!