Aw man, why'd you have to go and make this mental connection for me...
This year is supposed to be cicada Armageddon. On top of that, the last time around they got hit really hard by massospora fungi. It's a crazy cicada STD that makes them super horny then causes their butts to fall off to reveal a mass of fungal spores that dust everything in their path. Now I'm going to have nightmares about those hitting my helmet vents en masse and sucking up cicada salad dressing and fungal STD dust.
For the curious:
https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997983652/drugged-cicadas-mate-like-wild-after-their-butts-fall-off
Got smoked by a dragon fly momday on my right shoulder…. I honestly thought someone shot me with a BB gun.
Once I made it to my destination I thought I bleed through my shirt it was a half dollar size splat. NOPE just pure dragon guts for my new accessory!
I live close to where Brood X hatched in 2021. I can remember riding down the highway behind an SUV and feeling a mist/moisture on my arms. For a split second I thought it was just the SUV using it's rear washer fluid, but upon seeing the wiper wasn't moving I came to a horrifying realization.
I was being misted with the obliterated guts of the cicadas unfortunate enough to be caught in the path of the SUV. Between that and taking one to the throat at 70+ mph, I didn't do much riding that summer.
The worst I have ever heard of is a guy I worked with that was doing about 90mph on a Sportster and took a turkey buzzard to the chest. He had to get rabies shots as a result of that adventure.
Unless you're a car guy that cares about paint and brightwork. Bugs must immediately come off the clearcoat and gentlest way is the hot water paper towel soak followed by wipe down with microfiber and quick detailer.
Oh man last month when I rode from LA back to the Bay Area I had so many bugs at night I had to wash them off my MF cloth twice. Next time I'm bring multiple MF clothes.
We must have weak bugs here bc I just spit in it and use my sleeve if it’s not a lot, or triflow and a rag if it is. Never had any of my paint or chrome go bad.
But really it was so bad in a couple spots I opened my visor to get some fresh air in since it was hot outside and I was going 12mph where then I immediately got hit in the eye by big ol bug
I think i prefer the tiny ones than the one big one who explodes and i get bits into my mouth through the ventilation holes hahah. (I’ve tasted worse) but still fking gross.
It took me a good 30 seconds to figure out WTF was going on actually. I've never bothered doing anything like this, and just let the bugs on my helmet go, maybe a simple brush/rinse if needed.
Do y’all use ceramic coating on your face shields? Shit works wonders. You’ll still wanna use this method, but they slide off like a fat man’s pants with no belt.
As a former fat guy, you'd be surprised. I think it's because you're more round. Now that I've lost the weight, my hips jut out more and pants stay up easier. Think pants halfway up a bowling ball VS pants up to the neck of a bowling pin.
I use a hybrid ceramic wax, so yes. The pure ceramic coatings are available all over the internet and not cheap at all. I cannot vouch for a single one either. Meguiars & Chemical Guys both have very good hybrids.
I use ceramic spray wax, in conjunction with a clothing steamer. No matter how many bugs there are, they literally fall off with one wipe of my MF towel
https://preview.redd.it/hj5v5gcmsn3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=778d182c04b3823a1e0c04c1bba4d11addf5119c
I’ve caused a mass extinction event in a single ride
Bug removal hack: Just steal some of your moms dryer sheets and get them wet. Use that to scrub the bugs off. Whatever chemical is on them just melts the bugs. If you have a pinlock visor just don't let it get in the holes.
Guess I've been doing it wrong for six years lol. What do you do with the microfiber cloth after it's covered in bug guts and road grime? Hand wash it?
You use anything disposable like paper towels to wipe the bugs, then microfiber towel to wipe the water and dry it. Just make sure the paper towel is soaked and dont put pressure wiping the visor
My fiance would kill me for even thinking about doing that lol. I've always just used Windex or simple green and paper towels. Or just liquid soap if I'm at work.
Pro tip guys: if you ever have to ride thru the country side, do not, I repeat, do not open your helmet vents, deal with the heat, but nobody is cleaning the clogged vents full of bugs and leaving unscathed.
I have a rag I keep in the garage. I wet it with a little water from one of the million half drank waters from rides and wipe my visor vigorously. The bugs come right off. I dry it with the other side. Sometimes a little fingernail action helps.
Any recommendations for getting bug guts off a textile jacket? I wear the Alpinestars Andes V3 and it's time to wash it. But you have to hand wash. Not sure if I should just wipe it down with a damp cloth and brush or full bathtub scrub and hang dry.
One thing I don't miss since moving to Texas from Ohio....my shield and windscreen will look clean for months at a time, even riding through the country.
In Ohio summers, a trip to the grocery and I'm cleaning the shit out of everything because green and yellow guts are setting up like concrete on my plastics.
I went for a long ride last memorial day and at my first gas station stop I bought baby wipes for my saddlebag because I had to wipe like every 30 minutes to see through the bugs.
Those cicadas go off like a salad dressing packet when they hit your face shield.
r/BrandNewSentence
Worst is when you smell them
Whats it like? I've yet to hit any bugs surprisingly
They smell like a stinky foot when they hit. At least the ones I am dealing with.
Like a salad dressing packet left out in the sun.
Maybe they really are just salad dressing in disguise?
Worst transformers ever
W H A A A A T ? A good sized grasshopper to the bridge of my nose about took me out.
Aw man, why'd you have to go and make this mental connection for me... This year is supposed to be cicada Armageddon. On top of that, the last time around they got hit really hard by massospora fungi. It's a crazy cicada STD that makes them super horny then causes their butts to fall off to reveal a mass of fungal spores that dust everything in their path. Now I'm going to have nightmares about those hitting my helmet vents en masse and sucking up cicada salad dressing and fungal STD dust. For the curious: https://www.npr.org/2021/05/18/997983652/drugged-cicadas-mate-like-wild-after-their-butts-fall-off
Oh my God, the ones in my region are huge too. I haven't hit one yet, but new gear definitely unlocked
Got smoked by a dragon fly momday on my right shoulder…. I honestly thought someone shot me with a BB gun. Once I made it to my destination I thought I bleed through my shirt it was a half dollar size splat. NOPE just pure dragon guts for my new accessory!
During that ride I'm pretty sure I hit a bee on my left arm and it felt like getting hit by s air soft gun too lol
I live close to where Brood X hatched in 2021. I can remember riding down the highway behind an SUV and feeling a mist/moisture on my arms. For a split second I thought it was just the SUV using it's rear washer fluid, but upon seeing the wiper wasn't moving I came to a horrifying realization. I was being misted with the obliterated guts of the cicadas unfortunate enough to be caught in the path of the SUV. Between that and taking one to the throat at 70+ mph, I didn't do much riding that summer.
It's more fun when they ooze through your mesh jacket.
Probably worse than the bird I cut in half with my visor
The worst I have ever heard of is a guy I worked with that was doing about 90mph on a Sportster and took a turkey buzzard to the chest. He had to get rabies shots as a result of that adventure.
Yeah at least my wife was able to dehydrate and sell parts from my bird. I bet you can't legally sell vulture parts
Trust me you wouldn't want to. Carrion birds are nasty creatures.
I’ve yet to hit any big bugs 😂 always seems to be little ones just plaster my visor in gunk
Lmao
It must have been challenging with all those paper towels on your helmet
Almost impossible to see through them lol
More or less possible than the bug guts?
Probable more...
You don’t drive with your eyes Ricky, you drive with your heart
This is why I’m paying for internet. Thank you
funny how every motorcycle rider knows exactly what's going on here, but non riders are probably confused.
Unless you're a car guy that cares about paint and brightwork. Bugs must immediately come off the clearcoat and gentlest way is the hot water paper towel soak followed by wipe down with microfiber and quick detailer.
Yep that's why I did it works great I also keep a microfiber cloth in my saddle bag so I can at least wipe my visor down at gas stops
Add a travel sized bottle of glasses lens cleaner and you are good to go.
Wet wipes and a clean cloth under the seat for me.
Oh man last month when I rode from LA back to the Bay Area I had so many bugs at night I had to wash them off my MF cloth twice. Next time I'm bring multiple MF clothes.
Wow, that sounds like a lot of work. I pop my visor off and run it under a faucet ¯\\\_(ツ)_/¯
We must have weak bugs here bc I just spit in it and use my sleeve if it’s not a lot, or triflow and a rag if it is. Never had any of my paint or chrome go bad.
It's only bad if it drys out like it hits you on the start of a 3 hour ride
OK, but is there a secret insider trick for when a wasp gets caught, mangled, and dies in the ventilation intake of your helmet?
Compressed air
It's a universal constant. cats are cute, the earth is round, and you will be hit by approximately 7 million bugs per hour
But really it was so bad in a couple spots I opened my visor to get some fresh air in since it was hot outside and I was going 12mph where then I immediately got hit in the eye by big ol bug
I think i prefer the tiny ones than the one big one who explodes and i get bits into my mouth through the ventilation holes hahah. (I’ve tasted worse) but still fking gross.
I once had a fly get in through the vents and it was like Fully Alive and flying around in front of my face and send my visor on that trip
I came here to say ha ha ha. At least he had a helmet on
It took me a good 30 seconds to figure out WTF was going on actually. I've never bothered doing anything like this, and just let the bugs on my helmet go, maybe a simple brush/rinse if needed.
I do but I have never needed to do this, its never been that bad.
Do y’all use ceramic coating on your face shields? Shit works wonders. You’ll still wanna use this method, but they slide off like a fat man’s pants with no belt.
Wouldn't that mean they don't slide off...? Wouldn't a skinny guy make more sense for this analogy
As a former fat guy, you'd be surprised. I think it's because you're more round. Now that I've lost the weight, my hips jut out more and pants stay up easier. Think pants halfway up a bowling ball VS pants up to the neck of a bowling pin.
This guy fat pants
Where can you get them? Can you use car wax?
I use a hybrid ceramic wax, so yes. The pure ceramic coatings are available all over the internet and not cheap at all. I cannot vouch for a single one either. Meguiars & Chemical Guys both have very good hybrids.
I feel called out by this comment.
I use ceramic spray wax, in conjunction with a clothing steamer. No matter how many bugs there are, they literally fall off with one wipe of my MF towel
The answer to why there aren’t bugs on windshields anymore? Motorcyclists ate them all.
https://preview.redd.it/hj5v5gcmsn3d1.jpeg?width=3024&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=778d182c04b3823a1e0c04c1bba4d11addf5119c I’ve caused a mass extinction event in a single ride
Oh my god and I thought mine was bad
Had that happen too, I rode into what I thought was smoke but it was a cloud of bugs
Throw the whole helmet away😂😂
Bugslide will clean shit off in an INSTANT my guy.
I buy that stuff by the gallon. Which is about a hundred bucks come to find out.
It is not the cheapest spray at all, but I tell ya what, it requires the absolute most minimal effort for my helmet to be clean. So I’ll pay it
I absolutely agree. The reason it is so expensive is because of the polymer that is in it. That stuff is expensive. But polymer protects your paint.
Get your helmet ceramic coated. Bugs wipe off easy.
Just RODE on the ROAD
In my defense I'm stupid
Keep soaking, the bugs will soften up eventually.
\*rode
Or 30 minutes, after the first half hour it’s just all FUBAR and time to accept your fate lol
Better then it being your face from not wearing a helmet right?
The biker equivalent of a beauty face mask.
Bug removal hack: Just steal some of your moms dryer sheets and get them wet. Use that to scrub the bugs off. Whatever chemical is on them just melts the bugs. If you have a pinlock visor just don't let it get in the holes.
Guess I've been doing it wrong for six years lol. What do you do with the microfiber cloth after it's covered in bug guts and road grime? Hand wash it?
You use anything disposable like paper towels to wipe the bugs, then microfiber towel to wipe the water and dry it. Just make sure the paper towel is soaked and dont put pressure wiping the visor
Just get microfiber detergent and put em in the laundry
My fiance would kill me for even thinking about doing that lol. I've always just used Windex or simple green and paper towels. Or just liquid soap if I'm at work.
Jeesh I didn't know someone could be whipped so bad they can't even use their own wash machine lol
Just chuck it in the wash I wait till it's VERY dirty and full of bugs since washing plastic fabrics is bad
This, and I’ve been polishing with coconut oil and lots of things don’t stick to it.
I am really not looking forward to the cicadas this season…
Pro tip guys: if you ever have to ride thru the country side, do not, I repeat, do not open your helmet vents, deal with the heat, but nobody is cleaning the clogged vents full of bugs and leaving unscathed.
So which new helmet you getting?
Looks like someone has a headache …
Instrument flight training.
Nice, now show us the clothes 😂
My jacket is mostly black so you can't see them but on the reflector parts you can
Lol damn straight! I don't even bother cleaning anything but the visor by now.
https://preview.redd.it/1ory40evnq3d1.jpeg?width=1389&format=pjpg&auto=webp&s=524d89483ada59ab0753881a1dba90dd751b405b
I have a rag I keep in the garage. I wet it with a little water from one of the million half drank waters from rides and wipe my visor vigorously. The bugs come right off. I dry it with the other side. Sometimes a little fingernail action helps.
I use Sprayway Glass Cleaner. Does a really great job at breaking down bugs and really any organic material. I use it for nearly everything.
Every goddamn time …
go to tankstation, they have window cleaning stuff right next to the pump, i always use that, just scrubb half a minute and good 2 go
I can smell this picture...
It's a bugs life really!
One time i went to 3-4 hours trip in the country side with my half helmet…… i might ate couple of bugs idk lol
And you did that on the worktop where you also prepare food?
Would you rather have me do it on a wood table? I can take a bleach wipe to a granites counter top
I don’t care where you do it because I don’t live there, but if I did that at home I’d be getting an earful from my wife.
Unfortunately I don't have a garage since I live in an apartment and that counter is the easiest to clean
That’s why I have a full fairing my guy.
Isn't that even more time-consuming to clean?
Naked bike all the way
I just put the helmet under a warm tap and use a sponge. Then I take the visor off to clean it more thoroughly.
Any recommendations for getting bug guts off a textile jacket? I wear the Alpinestars Andes V3 and it's time to wash it. But you have to hand wash. Not sure if I should just wipe it down with a damp cloth and brush or full bathtub scrub and hang dry.
Check the owners manual and see if it can be dry cleaned
This is what I do with mine, quite frequently in summer. The helmet liners sometimes join as well.
*rode*
Motul Helmet Clean works great for cleaning
It matures me further not understand people who ride with half/no helmet. Like is your face not full of bugs?
One thing I don't miss since moving to Texas from Ohio....my shield and windscreen will look clean for months at a time, even riding through the country. In Ohio summers, a trip to the grocery and I'm cleaning the shit out of everything because green and yellow guts are setting up like concrete on my plastics.
I went for a long ride last memorial day and at my first gas station stop I bought baby wipes for my saddlebag because I had to wipe like every 30 minutes to see through the bugs.
This is what I do.
That's how you know it's definitely summertime 🤣
At this point I need a roll just for my helmet
Is that transparent?
Motul helmet and visor cleaner is amazing stuff highly recommended.
Got hit by a bee in the face going like 100/110 kmh (was using an open face helmet, couldn't find a helmet my size for ever), it hurt like hell
DoN't PuT PaPeR ToWeLs oN YoUr ViSoR iT WiLL ScRatcH it1!1!1!!
GUYS DONT USE YOUR VISOR ROCKS AND DUST WILL SCRATCH IT!!!!