From the article: Don’t watch this video if you have a soft spot for seagulls…being hit by a rider’s helmet on a speeding racing motorcycle. The incident you see here happened during last weekend’s Australian Moto GP and no, the bird didn’t make it.
I've always wondered... does the Alka-Seltzer tablet trick at the beach really work? (I'm waiting on Crusty to tell me if the toilets flush backward down under...)
I can tell you that alka-seltzer just makes them shit even more than usual... which is great when you're standing around underneath them trying to eat your lunch in the school yard.
If it had hit the fairing it would have deflected upwards. Watch the video again. Sure looks like it hit the helmet. The frame rate isn't high enough to see the hit, but the angles of incidence and refraction (to borrow some terms) coupled with the bird's trajectory appear to support a helmet strike.
How fast was he running at the time? A seagull will remove the rider from the bike at any real speed. A single jack weighs 2 lbs. A seagull weighs more.
It slid up the fairing, right into the helmet. Reversed direction from there.
Good reflexes. I've hit a Crow at 45 mph, right in the chest. Hurt too. I think the Crow flew away.
That gull did not. If that had hit him in the neck or chest, it could have dismounted him.
In Pheasant country you have to be alert. They are programmed, when startled, to take off across the nearest open ground, low and fast. Right at car wind shield height. Works at escaping coyote, as it gives them the best acceleration, where as a higher angle climb would slow them. When I lived in South Dakota my Dad hit 5 of them. 2 grills, 3 wind shields. Dense bastards. Good eating though. ( but not after going halfway through a wind shield. )
Back on the subject of Alka-seltzer and other such bird-related hijinx...
A few feet of 20 pound monofilament line with a hook at each end... a piece of cheese or other such treat on each hook... throw it into the air in the midst of a swarm of gulls.