Bug Season Is Coming.

We rarely have that problem here in the UK. For various reasons, including the large-scale use of pesticides, our insect population has crashed. I know it's not yet the middle of March but we've had some warm days and I've only seen 2 bees and 1 butterfly. Even in the summer insects are scarce.
So you may see 'bug season' as a PITA but I wish we had that problem here.

 

I quit washing bikes back around the turn of the Century. Instead I clean the bikes and even the front of my cars, with Lemon Pledge furniture polish. Make sure it is LEMON pledge. I tried Orange once because I like the smell better but it left a rather nasty film on the paint.

I usually use the spray can and a cotton T shirt with no print on it. Lately, I've been using microfiber towels as they work just as well. Do NOT use paper towels. Paper is pounded wood and will mar the finish. Polish it up goos and if you get bird droppings or bug splats, repolish it with the pledge and it will come right off. Here in the Ohio river valley, we get bugs heavy in the summer and I polish the front of my car and especially the headlights with it too. They clean right up.

Soaked towels will help if it's really bad and you let the debris sit too long. Now, one caveat! Don't use this around bee hives. You'll spoon have bees all around you.

 

Get your bike really clean and then spray the mechanical parts with ACF50 and the bodywork with a ceramic polish.

 

Sometimes you can really be in the wrong place at the wrong time. This is the result of an evening trip on the A1 just north of Peterborough a few years back. Whilst riding I knew that they would just smear something awful if I touched them. It wasn't until the following morning that I saw how many I had collected.

 

I remember once having gone through a bug area and I wish I'd have been that lucky. I was on a C-10 Concours and my failed came down ALMOST in line with my windscreen. In the gap between the two, a large, hard shelled bug sped through and hit me on the lower lip. I looked like what female movies stars do for big money. Collagen injections. For a couple of day I looked like I went in the wrong bar and said the absolutely wrong thing.

Still and all, it wasn't as bad as driving through Florida during "Love Bug" mating season. I drove a truck back in the early 70's and had to use soapy water and an ice scraper just to see out my windshield

 

When I first started riding I wore an open face helmet. One day I was unfortunate to catch up with a honey bee that promptly stung me right on the tip of my nose, leaving its barb and venom sack stuck in me. the pain was unbelievable, that and trying to pull the stinger out with gloved hands whilst doing 50 mph was somewhat challenging.

 

Bugs???
I had a pigeon fly out of a tree and swoop across the road in front of me and hit me square on top of the head at 80 mph.
I was on my Harley which had a forward reaching riding position and no screen to hide behind. It felt like my head had been hammered into my shoulders and I felt my neck crack. If I'd not been wearing a Helmet or it was an open face and the pigeon had hit me it the face I reckon it would have knocked me out and it would have been game over.

I had hit one me on my KTM as well once. SImilar situation. It just burst out of a hedge without warning and hit the screen. And I was going a bit quicker that time...There was blood and feathers all over the screen and down the side of the bike. I assumed the screen would be smashed up when I washed it off, but it wasn't. Somehow the headlight mask behine the screen had got broken but the screen its self and the brackets were fine.

Could have been worse I suppose.I could have lived in Australia and hit a kangaroo.

 

Actually, this thread got me wondering what the Rocket 3 will be like for bugs. I've been riding the KTM for years which has a tall 1290 SAS screen fitted which keeps most of the bugs off my visor. And on the Harely the little headlight cowl seemed to send most of them over my head.

I have a feeling the Rocket is going to be a splat-fest. All the more reson to get as many rides in as possible before the bugs come out in force.

 

I've got a nice red helmet I won't wear. It's rather comfortable but it has a little nick in the paint. The reason I don't wear it is the nick. I was riding, and for a change NOT in a spirited manner, when a dump truck pulled out onto the highway enroute to a road construction site. I started to pass when a LARGE rock a little larger than a mans fist fell off and bounced on the road. I ducked but couldn't really dodge and on one bounce, it came through my windshield and hit me in the head. It stunned me enough to see double for a moment and gave me a headache.

I keep it around to remind me to WEAR the brain bucket!

 

I've got a nice red helmet I won't wear. It's rather comfortable but it has a little nick in the paint. The reason I don't wear it is the nick. I was riding, and for a change NOT in a spirited manner, when a dump truck pulled out onto the highway enroute to a road construction site. I started to pass when a LARGE rock a little larger than a mans fist fell off and bounced on the road. I ducked but couldn't really dodge and on one bounce, it came through my windshield and hit me in the head. It stunned me enough to see double for a moment and gave me a headache.

I keep it around to remind me to WEAR the brain bucket!

 

Highly recommend "Bug Slide"!
I usually keep a travel spray bottle and microfiber cloth on me for longer rides. It works as a water free helmet and bike cleaner, and on nearly everything else too! Car, electronics etc... plus it smells great