Turbine

Ugghh!

I was riding the best 10 mile tt of my life today. I was crusin' around 28mph and this thing hits my lip. I swat it off and about three seconds later my lip begins to burn like crazy! I roll my tongue over my lip and I feel something poking out. I pulled off the side of the road then pulled what appeared to be a stinger out of my lip. My lip was throbbing and burning like crazy. The pain has mostly gone away after about four hours...my lip is a little swollen.

I'm guessing this isn't a rare occurrence. Anyone else have a bee incident?

wanders

Wasp in helmet vent w/ shaved head. He stung me twice before I could stop and get my helmet off.
Yellow jacket trapped in arm hair. Stung while swatting/untangling.
Bee caught in collar. stung...

Wait a... 28 mph time trial? Holy Crap!

laryanshabaz

You needed to keep going.
And he said he was going 28 when the bee hit him, not a 28mph TT.
Though, maybe he was.

CrimsonKarter21

That reminds me of when I used to race karts. A kid I raced with got a bee in his helmet and had to pull off because he couldn't get it out.

Turbine

a bee in the helmet is much worse! Wow

Btw...not a 28mph tt...There was a slight tailwind on the way out...ended up averaging 26.6mph

Edonis13

ive had them go in my helmet a few times, but theyve always buzzed right back out. that happened to my dad on our ride today too. but he panic stopped and almost took out a couple of us that were on his wheel.

ezoons

No bees yet, but I've had a head-on collision with something big and green. I was going pretty fast downhill, and that thing just splattered all over my sunglasses. That's obviously quite "eww" but I also got scared as hell.

threeoneseven

i got a bee in the lip last year. and another in the chest the next day. needless to day i didn't buy a lotto ticket that week.

ericm979

Wait till you suck one down. When they sting you on the back of the tongue, your tongue will swell up and soon you won't be able to swallow. When you try to talk, you'll sound like a racoon.

I've had it happen twice. I've also had yellowjackets land in my lap and start stinging me on the thigh right next to my, um, equipment. Real fun when you're screaming down a twisty descent and can't divert attention from the upcoming turn.

Then there's the yellowjacket down the jersey. Had that one while warming up for a race. I rode along beating my chest trying to kill the critter. All the other riders stared at me. I'm sure they thought I was doing some sort of primal therapy type thing.

JMT114

I've never been stung while riding, but I had a bee fly into the ear hole on my football helmet and sting me when I was in high school...not my fondest memory.

spinnaker

A bee on the thigh. Wow did that hurt. I've been stung off bike and it never hurt like that. Must be something about hitting them at speed that drives the stinger in further. Funny thing, it really did not start hurting till several minutes after I was stung.

Lip? That must really hurt!

Sapling

Bee or yellowjacket or whatever it was (who cares) flies inside jersey thru gaping zipper...can't get out, I'm trying to smash it (bad move), it throws down the stinger and I yell loud enough to startle the surrounding cattle.

scotch

never been stung on the bike but i've been hit in the face with a june bug at about 35MPH. left a nice welt.

Jasper Storm

I had the exact same thing, riding on a trail with clover patches in full bloom on either side. I got hit on the lip, but no inserted stinger (was a bumblebee-pretty docile). Weird chemical taste that lasted only 20 seconds, saliva must neutralize it.

I also had to do the quick helmet tear-off while flying downhill. Again, a bumblebee-lucked out. Glad it wasn't a bald-faced hornet.

tnor

Something similar happened to me, yellow jacket into a jersey. Absolutely horrible, I was flailing around trying to get the thing out of there, but that just pissed him off more...

EivlEvo

FYI the proper method for removal of a stinger isn't to pull it out as they are splinter barbed. (will peel away and leave the set barbs AND push them in deeper as you pull)

The proper method is to use a credit card edge and swipe the stinger out.

Such as

Stallionforce

Been worried about this one for a while, but have yet to experience its wrath: off the lips, the chin, the nose, the glasses -- luckily never down the mouth. I'm not allergic but I have a lot of histamines in my skin and I tend to swell a lot. I've had a sting in the shoulder from a wasp that got under my jersey on a ridiculous cooker of a RR: 45 degC. But that's it, luckily.

Stallionforce

In my opinion, it's the little varmints, such as squirrels and bunnies, that dart out in front of your wheel that are magnitudes more dangerous. Especially the squirrel, whose strange evolutionary neuro-programming seems to erupt into dizzing Savardian spin-o-ramas in front of your wheel. It's quite enchanting and carnivalesque before you hit the ground at 45km/h.

mezza

What if my VISA is maxed out? Can I use debit or Amex?

Ardor

I was packing for a week long touring trip the night before setting out and I sat on a wasp....not so good. Surprising comfortable tour though.

il professore

Haven't been stung yet on my bicycle.. But got stung a couple years ago on the racetrack on my ducati. Right in the neck at Fontana speedway. Ughhh. Can't pull over. Had to wait till I got to to pit in. Man that hurt.

EivlEvo

You can only use Amex if the bee knows your billing zip code.

Sapling

OK, anyone ever have a startled bird almost become shredded tweet trying to fly through your spokes? Almost happened yesterday...

orcanova

I got nailed in the mouth by one on a 40 mph descent during the Civil War Century. It felt like getting nailed by a rock from a slingshot. My lip was swollen and busted up for days...

It would up in my mouth somehow and I had to spit the guts out.

patentcad

When I was in Greece cycling in the mountains near my parent's summer home in 2006, I was stung just about every day. There are ton of bee keepers up there, they make a lot of honey. I'd be flying down a mountain @ 40mph and I'd thwack one. But those Greek bee stings didn't hurt too much.