What is the strangest thing you hit/almost hit?

A furry mildly confused lynx crossing the road in the fog. I was going at 140km/h on a deserted stretch (500 kms long) of road. A very surreal feeling, the fact that it could have been a smallish werewolf crossed my mind.

A sunroof. I was on I-40 behind a beater of a cage. Passenger reached up to open the sunroof. I am assuming it was an aftermarket cheapie, but as soon as it popped up it came out of the frame. It danced around in the air for a bit, and it took me a while to even figure out what it was. Luckily I wasn't close behind.

I came up behind a car with a heavily laden roof rack waiting at a junction onto a major road. The main road was quite busy and when a gap appeared the car driver took his chance and accelerated away. As he did so the entire rack of luggage slid off the roof, bounced off the boot/trunk lid and landed upright on the road in front of me. Fortunately I had not followed the car out as I deemed the gap nin the traffic flow too small, so I did not run into it. As a testament to the car drivers luggage packing abilities though, not one single item fell from the rack.

<meta http-equiv="Content-Type" content="text/html; charset=utf-8"><meta name="ProgId" content="Word.Document"><meta name="Generator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><meta name="Originator" content="Microsoft Word 11"><link rel="File-List" href="file:///C:%5CDOCUME%7E1%5Cfairchdp%5CLOCALS%7E1%5CTemp%5Cmsohtml1%5C01%5Cclip_filelist.xml"><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:WordDocument> <w:View>Normal</w:View> <w:Zoom>0</w:Zoom> <wunctuationKerning/> <w:ValidateAgainstSchemas/> <w:SaveIfXMLInvalid>false</w:SaveIfXMLInvalid> <w:IgnoreMixedContent>false</w:IgnoreMixedContent> <w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText>false</w:AlwaysShowPlaceholderText> <w:Compatibility> <w:BreakWrappedTables/> <w:SnapToGridInCell/> <w:WrapTextWithPunct/> <w:UseAsianBreakRules/> <wontGrowAutofit/> </w:Compatibility> <w:BrowserLevel>MicrosoftInternetExplorer4</w:BrowserLevel> </w:WordDocument> </xml><![endif]--><!--[if gte mso 9]><xml> <w:LatentStyles DefLockedState="false" LatentStyleCount="156"> </w:LatentStyles> </xml><![endif]--><style> <!-- /* Style Definitions */ p.MsoNormal, li.MsoNormal, div.MsoNormal {mso-style-parent:""; margin:0in; margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:12.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-fareast-font-family:"Times New Roman";} @page Section1 {size:8.5in 11.0in; margin:1.0in 1.25in 1.0in 1.25in; mso-header-margin:.5in; mso-footer-margin:.5in; mso-paper-source:0;} div.Section1 {page:Section1;} --> </style><!--[if gte mso 10]> <style> /* Style Definitions */ table.MsoNormalTable {mso-style-name:"Table Normal"; mso-tstyle-rowband-size:0; mso-tstyle-colband-size:0; mso-style-noshow:yes; mso-style-parent:""; mso-padding-alt:0in 5.4pt 0in 5.4pt; mso-para-margin:0in; mso-para-margin-bottom:.0001pt; mso-pagination:widow-orphan; font-size:10.0pt; font-family:"Times New Roman"; mso-ansi-language:#0400; mso-fareast-language:#0400; mso-bidi-language:#0400;} </style> <![endif]--> Years ago, riding down a back alley, only going about 15 mph, a little robin flew into my right coat pocket. I stopped and tried to find him, but couldn’t see a thing. Next thing I knew, the little guy popped out and flew off. It was the strangest thing.

HWY 44 South had to dodge a square bail. Saw the guy 3 seconds later after another couple fell off. That would not have been a fun ride at 80+ mph. I would have ramped off it because it broke apart.

+1.
Couple of seasons ago I was hit quite hard in my chest by a little sparrow-like bird. It fell onto my tankbag. I slowed down to a stop, not knowing what to do with a dead bird - when it woke up and flew away. Resilient little bastard.

1988 Nickajack Lake Tn, I-24 at midnight. A bat. In the headlight beam it looked just like the Batman sign!

Not on the bike, but my ex and I were driving over the Q Bridge going into New Haven, when a cap on the back of a pickup lifted off and landed in the road right in front of us. Cut off a Trans Am swerving around it. But no contact. Scary shit.

A few years back a friend of mine, Kelly, and I were on I-20 east just west of Atlanta, heading back into town. Traffic was pretty dense with everyone doing 70 or so, maybe a one or two second gap between all the cars. We're staggered in our lane with him ahead and the left. In front of us is some kind of work truck, a pickup with a rack on the bed, loaded up with ladders. I don't really think too much about it until one of the ladders, a big, aluminum, extension ladder, slides off the rack directly in front of us. I'm just kind of staring at it as it falls, thinking to myself "what the hell do I do now?" Kelly waggled back and forth in the lane trying to figure out where to go. I kept on staring, waiting for it hit the ground and bounce up and grab us both. Luckily for us it landed, stayed down, and slid along behind the truck at 70mph, like it had been driving all its life. The cars around us slowed down a bit and we took our chance to escape. Kelly changed lanes to the left, I went right, and we passed the ladder as it slowed down.
We were still 20 miles from home but we got off at the next exit to let the shakes die down before continuing.

4/3/2010 after sunset heading back to Marlington on RT 150 just missed a Bobcat !!!!!! was the frist time seeing one in the wild

I know exactly what you mean. When I was a kid a friend and I were driving a bit recklessly at like 2am in two separate cars. We were driving on a twisty mountain bit of interstate 80 from Reno to Truckee in the left of 2 lanes next to the concrete wall. I was getting blinded by unusually bright oncoming lights so I pulled to the right, when a drunk driver passed me on the left between me and the wall going the wrong way on the freeway.:huh Luckily my friend did the exact same thing as me and pulled into the right lane behind me rather than continuing the 'race'.

I was going about 90-100 and I think he was doing the same or more than that. The closing speed was so great I never had time to react. Me and my buddy pulled over to confer and ask each other if what we thought happened really just happened. And neither of us could really function for several minutes.

Didn't happen on a bike though so it didn't count for here

I thought a couch would be a rare thing to see in the road, but seems like a few of us have been in the same situation.
Mine flew off the back of a truck, literally, up in the air and I thought for a second that I could go underneath it, but stopped instead as it slammed to the pavement in front of me. The truck kept going and I heard skidding behind me, but didn't get hit. I was so pissed I picked up the couch and threw it down the embankment.
F.. your couch mister!

1. A bird hit me square in the chest. Glad i had my roost deflector on.
2. A butter fly flew up in my helmet.
3. Dodging big rig rims and tires doing 80mph will definatley wake you up.

relitivly new to the dual sport gig, just the other day while approaching a 3 way stop a old lady pulled into my lane... :huh...and drove all the way down the road in my lane. I jumped the curb not wanting to go into oncoming...the truck behind me wasnt so lucky...

:eek1

Pulled into your line like a head on collision or just cut you off?
Did you call the police?

I smacked a deer last year and we both lived. I was just hitting third gear (on a KLR that's 20mph) and it ran in front of me at a right angle (literally) and smacked him in the ribs. How I didn't wipe out is beyond me. I've laid down my bike for waay lessor reasons.

A deer.

The strangest thing I ever almost hit was a deer.

Now I hear you all saying "a deer? so what?", but if you came around a corner on, say, the Natchez Trace parkway or the dragon tail thingy and found yourself face to face with a kangaroo, you'd probably consider that pretty strange too.

So I am claiming a deer on the Beenak East road near Gembrook as my strangest thing thank you. After all it was the first time I had ever seen a feral deer in Australia.

Here's where it happened...

I took a bat off the top of my helmet last summer. I saw the thing darting in my headlight just before it thunked me. I stopped at the next gas station to make sure the helmet was undamaged. It was and I could find no evidence of our meeting, but it made a gawdawful smack and I'm glad it didn't hit my shield.

I almost ran over a wild turkey on the way to work the other day. They are pretty big birds. Luckily I saw him and stopped and he just ambled across the road, I'm assuming he wanted to get to the other side...

I also have hit a darting sparrow like bird. It flew into my shield and it was like getting punched in the face. Another hit my friend once when he was right in front of me. I saw the bird come screaming in for a dive bomb, but he hit my friend right in the chest. We were going about 80 so, according to him it didn't feel too good. Left some welt marks, but he kept it together and didn't panic when it happened. I just was thinking, "that bird is going to fly right into..."
then smack.