How often do you get stung by bees while riding?

[DADODIRT]

Jeez-Guess I'm in with the lucky ones.
I have about 130,000 street miles since 1991 and no encounters with bees or wasps.
Mostly wear full gear, but I do like to ride with the face shield open.
I am allergic to two types of vespids. I carry an epi-pen but have never used it. It's been about 13 years since I've been stung and that was in my house.
So there-'Houses are so dangerous.'

[tokyoklahoma]

One time when I was young, between the fingers on my left hand.
But a couple of years later, a riding buddy caught a rut and wedged his bike into a hedgerow, upright.
He was not stung, but every black surface on the bike was COVERED by pissed off bees.
He happened to hit right next to a 4' tall hollow stump......well... hollow except for the huge honeycomb.

[LuciferMutt]

Fortunately you have to REALLY piss off honeybees to get them to sting.

Wasps, yellow jackets, hornets, africanized bees, ground bees, etc all sting with much less provocation. I hate those assholes.

[390beretta]

Once, while in undergraduate school at Ohio Univ. I was riding home to Springfield thru the Hocking National Forest; a very nice twisty rd. I was riding a Triumph 500cc Courier bike, the one with the Big rear fender and riding with some alacrity. I came around a tight corner, leaned over pretty far and there was a "swarm" of bees about the size of a VW right over the road....I had nowhere to go and sped right thru them. Got stung by at least 10-12 bees in a split second. Stopped soon as I could and dug out the stingers and got rid of the bee bodies I'd accumulated. Hands and neck mostly.

Another time, I was on my way home from my job as a lifeguard during Summer break from college and a pheasant flew up out of the ditch right in front of me. Only had time to duck my head reflexively and bounced it off my helmet, killing it. My damn neck was sore for a week.

[cloudshaver]

I have more problems with birds and dogs for sure. I got nailed last summer by a huge grasshopper while doing about 95, it hit my helmet dead center on the forehead and about took me off the bike; my ears rang into the next morning.

[fast4d]

came out of a corner on hwy 33 and directly into a swarm of bees.

pop pop splat splat tick tick

found bee carcasses in my helmet vents, all over the front of my bike and radiator. 2 bees (still moving) fell out of my boots when I got home. luckily no stings

[randyo]

Originally Posted by fast4d

came out of a corner on hwy 33 and directly into a swarm of bees.

pop pop splat splat tick tick

found bee carcasses in my helmet vents, all over the front of my bike and radiator. 2 bees (still moving) fell out of my boots when I got home. luckily no stings

honey bees are most docile when swarming, they are loaded with honey looking for a new home

I collected a swarm this weekend and put them in a new hive

[Go Irish75]

Never a bee, but I had a hornet fly into the top of my zipped up jacket going about 35mph in dense traffic. Sucker got me about 4-5 times before I was able to get pulled and whip my jacket off like I was on fire. That really sucked.

[390beretta]

Not a bee, but.....a friend of mine, while on an iron but ride and motoring with alacrity had a lug nut, which had undoubtedly come off a wheel, bounce off his helmet. He saw it bounce on the highway and had just enough time to "flinch/duck" and took it square on the front of his helmet. Said it damn near knocked him off the bike and did ruin his helmet. Wonder what a no gear all the time rider would have done with that?

[bbagwell]

I got stung last Summer on my way to work. I am pretty sure it was Yellow Jacket. It flew under my helmet and stung me on the neck. It hurt like hell, nothing I could do but keep riding.

[Ginger Beard]

A few times a year. They always seem to make it up the sleeve of my shirts or jackets. I have the distinct pleasure of having to find a safe place to pull over and then remove my jacket to get the stinger out. Good times.

[GaM]

I had one get up my shorts and sting me twice a couple of weeks ago. If it's hot and I know I'm going to be on dirt, I'll wear shorts with shin/knee guards and motocross boots. I didn't even use the clutch to stop, just shuddered to a stop with brakes, jumped off, and shucked down right in the middle of the road. Luckily it was a FS road with no traffic.

[ikonoklass]

Originally Posted by jules083

I saw this mentioned in another thread and it got me thinking about weather I'm unlucky or everyone gets nailed often. I'm usually good for at least 4 or 5 stings a year.

I've had a few go up jacket sleeves and get me in the arm, a few go up my pant legs, one in the helmet. That was a good one, I was wearing a 3/4 helmet on the Road King and it hit just right, made it to my ear, then got me there. Sometimes they make it surprisingly far up the jacket sleeve before stinging, at least one got me in the armpit.

I got four or five last year, for sure. Most in one day of mountain riding.

[gasandasphalt]

Once in 1961, between the eyes on my nose. was riding my brand new 61 Ducati Monza home from the dealer. And last week, one went down my glove....

[LuciferMutt]

Originally Posted by 390beretta

Wonder what a no gear all the time rider would have done with that?

The evening news, and probably run over by a following car/truck. I hear about a fair number of HD accidents on the interstates in this town which have seemingly no apparent cause. The rider is riding along and just, almost randomly, goes down! I really wonder how many of those are due to taking a rock to the center of the face, a bug in the eye at 60, getting stung, etc. Gear protects you from a lot more than the crash!