- May 18, 2017
I was on my way to work. Was a little early so I decided to take a small detour. There's a small stretch of road next to some open grasslands which is nice because I don't think I've ever seen another vehicle on there and I get to enjoy the typical Dutch view of long stretches of nothing but flat grass. Going about 50-ish or so (kph) I decided to open up the throttle a bit. I was going about 90kph when I noticed a group of birds sitting to the left side of the road. One of 'em decided to cross the road in front of me. So I subtly hit the brakes to slow down a bit and give the bird a chance to cross the road before I got to him. Being focused on the crossing bird, I initially didn't notice another bird still sitting on the side of the road deciding now would be a good moment to take flight across the road. I noticed it after it took off and saw it coming straight at my head. I kind of ducked so it would hit the top of my helmet rather than the visor. I guess I hit the animal at 65-70kph or so. It felt pretty heavy but didn't hurt at all. I stopped to check the bird was ok. Was a little difficult to identify the one I hit but I didn't see any ones dazed or hurt so I guess it's ok. I checked my helmet for any damage but there was none. Do you think hitting a 1kg bird at 70kph does any internal damage to the helmet?