Another Reason to Wear a Helmet

[Aint Doody]

Beware! We have a route in our area that apparently has a new hawk who has a nest nearby. Several of our cyclists have been hit by the hawk. Fortunately they were wearing helmets. Otherwise they'd have had to have stitches in their heads from the claws! Scary, indeed. The first 2 or three that had that happen thought somebody had thrown something at them. So warn those non-helmet wearers that the helmets are good protection from hawks!

[Trekhawk]

Beware! We have a route in our area that apparently has a new hawk who has a nest nearby. Several of our cyclists have been hit by the hawk. Fortunately they were wearing helmets. Otherwise they'd have had to have stitches in their heads from the claws! Scary, indeed. The first 2 or three that had that happen thought somebody had thrown something at them. So warn those non-helmet wearers that the helmets are good protection from hawks!

Yikes - We don't have that problem with Hawks but we do have a bird called a Magpie that can get pretty nasty in Spring. Yep around these guys you need to wear a helmet even if you are not riding a bike.

Check them out below:
http://www.abc.net.au/science/scribblygum/July2002/

[OakLeaf]

OTOH, maybe it is the helmets. DH used to have a motorcycle helmet that caused all kinds of birds to dive-bomb him. It was red, white and black. As soon as he got a new helmet, the attacks stopped.

[crazycanuck]

Should you ever have a bird swoop you, just whip your bike pump off your bike & circle it above your head.

Hard to do while going uphill but it works

[Duck on Wheels]

I'm a bit puzzled by this bit of advice:

"- Wear an icecream container on your head when crossing magpie flightpaths!"

What size and material ice cream container are they talking about? Why, specifically, ice cream? Do they mean it should still have ice cream in it? Any particular flavour? or brand? Are people more likely to have an ice cream container handy than to have a helmet of some kind? Are ice cream containers more comfortable? ergonomic? protective? stylish? If any of those, what shape heads do people have where this advice arose?

[bmccasland]

Duck,
WHERE did you find that bit of advice?
I agree, your questions are very important. I think we should do a test, to see what flavors of ice cream are the best protection.

As for swooping birds in general. Once the baby birds grow up in a few more weeks, the parents will be less aggressive.

[Duck on Wheels]

Duck,
WHERE did you find that bit of advice?
I agree, your questions are very important. I think we should do a test, to see what flavors of ice cream are the best protection.

As for swooping birds in general. Once the baby birds grow up in a few more weeks, the parents will be less aggressive.

It's in the article Trekhawk gave a link to.

[Trekhawk]

I'm a bit puzzled by this bit of advice:

"- Wear an icecream container on your head when crossing magpie flightpaths!"

What size and material ice cream container are they talking about? Why, specifically, ice cream? Do they mean it should still have ice cream in it? Any particular flavour? or brand? Are people more likely to have an ice cream container handy than to have a helmet of some kind? Are ice cream containers more comfortable? ergonomic? protective? stylish? If any of those, what shape heads do people have where this advice arose?

LOL - because Aussies eat a huge amount of ice cream we always seem to have empty ice cream containers lying around somewhere at home. I guess they figure some protection is better than nothing. I have seen what a Magpie can do to the head of an unsuspecting runner and it was not pretty.