Magpies

[Mandy]

Does anyone have any suggestions about stopping magpies swooping you? Where i ride for training during the week ( the only place near me to ride) it seems every turn has a magpie waitting to swoop you. Its becoming very hard to do any of my training when every 10 minutes im getting swooped!

I was wondering if maybe its the colour of my helmet (black and silver)????

 

[TonyG]

Does anyone have any suggestions about stopping magpies swooping you? Where i ride for training during the week ( the only place near me to ride) it seems every turn has a magpie waitting to swoop you. Its becoming very hard to do any of my training when every 10 minutes im getting swooped!

I was wondering if maybe its the colour of my helmet (black and silver)????

I do Mandy, put an old pair of sunglasses on the back of your helmet and this should stop them swooping. They won’t swoop while you are looking at them, and the glasses give that impression. I noticed someone doing this at golf on Saturday and it worked.

 

[Wildchild]

Scary stuff

Mate i know your exact problem, i use another route when going to school now just to prevent the magpies. They swoop you for 50m's sometimes which can be pretty scary....would suck if you were going uphill as well. So far all ive been told is to put stickers on the top of your helmet that look like eyes so they go for that instead of your real eyes. I found that usually when im wearing red they go for me this may be bacause they consider it a threat (so dont wear bright stuff)......the seasons beggning u aint seen nothing yet!!!

 

[Mandy]

Yeh i heard that worked too but just now being swooped id turn n look at the f**er and it just swooped me anyway. Thats why i think it was my helmet once i took it off to smack it with, it left me alone. Then i get back on my bike put the helmet on n the stupid thing was back

 

[G-Man]

Try this ..

Hey hows it going ..

i'm in the sutherland Shire and there are tons of the little
turkeys in my area but remenber - they are only doing what
comes natural to them ..

I have had luck with "Eyeball stickers" on the top/back of my helmet
placed as if i was looking back at them when i am looking forward ..

I tried blue ones , black ones , even pink ones as i was making
them myself on the computer but found that Chrome/silver outer with
a lime or fluro green eyeball seemd to keep em off ..

there is still the odd daredevil that gives me a scare ..

my Nan ( good oll Nan ) suggested it and it has worked ..

I think it works the same as the old icecream container theory , if the
birds think you are looking at them they are less likely to swoop ..

It has worked for me any way ..

give it a go ,, see how you go ,, hope this helps

Catch ya

G-man outy

 

[Mandy]

Oh great! I ride weekends at the national park/Loftus/Heathcoate in the shire are they gonna get me there too now!!!!!

 

[Dozer]

I get hit every morning by a real cranky sucker! I see it's shadow come behind me and crack! It doesn't bother me because it isn't really touching anything except for my helmet...which is also black and silver .
I used to wear an ice cream container on my head when I was little walking to the bus stop and I didn't get swooped......I wondered why people laughed at me, now I know why.

 

[Mandy]

Yeh they just go for my helmet to really, but i have a fear of birds so they worry me alot!!!! My bf has a pet galah and i run away if it comes near me! Magpies are alot bigger expecially when they are coming straight for you

 

[craigb]

ive been thinking maybe a couple of those small l.e.d bike lights mounted on my helmet might work. i have'nt tried it yet but im thinking the red flashing may put them off

 

[farkus]

i usually carry a saw off shot gun strapped to my bottom tube (loaded of course), just wait and see if that little sucker will swoop twice.

 

[cdfeto]

Mount a few pocket-fans on your helmet.

 

[shore_2]

I went for a ride in the royal the other day. Going past Heathcote oval is the most aggressive persistent magpie i have ever come accross, it gave me hell for about 150m and i couldn't outrun it no matter what.
If you want to test magpie theories it's the place to go.

 

[Balfa_Oli]

haha yes.
it's funny though when you ride past and you're filming and they swoop.
my friend was playing cricket with his brother a few years ago and he was wearing a silver bucket on his head when he batted.
the magpie swooped him because they like shiny things and the magpie got knocked out,

 

[Wildchild]

150m!!

I went for a ride in the royal the other day. Going past Heathcote oval is the most aggressive persistent magpie i have ever come accross, it gave me hell for about 150m and i couldn't outrun it no matter what.
If you want to test magpie theories it's the place to go.

150m is really really really long....did it go from one telephone post to the other and just when you thought it had stopped it goes down again lol (experience)

 

[sikpuppyonglory]

fullface & googles, probably the only way to go, other than that, turn around & scream at the little f!!ker, i did that once, it stopped straight away, landed on the ground with a "what the f!!k just happened" look on it's face, & i nearly fell over pissin myself with laughter.

 

[Shrekmeister]

I went for a ride in the royal the other day. Going past Heathcote oval is the most aggressive persistent magpie i have ever come accross, it gave me hell for about 150m and i couldn't outrun it no matter what.
If you want to test magpie theories it's the place to go.

yup found him on saturday morning....will avoid that area for the time being.....

 

[Refreshinglygood]

Yeh i heard that worked too but just now being swooped id turn n look at the f**er and it just swooped me anyway. Thats why i think it was my helmet once i took it off to smack it with, it left me alone. Then i get back on my bike put the helmet on n the stupid thing was back

what colour is the helmet??

 

[Refreshinglygood]

ride faster!!!


I was out riding a few months ago, came across a maggie on the trail feeding, it took of, it was a few feet in front of me at sholder hight, I got closer to it, (trail was cannopied) and reached out and smacked it on the tail.

So the score is


Magpie 1,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,000,032

MTber's 1

 

[Da Extreme Free Rider]

this is kinda like the answer TonyG gave u, get stickers of eyes bout 2cm big and put em on ur helmet. becasue magpies do not attack wen your looking at them

 

[Customjimmy]

Yep, there's no way to stop 'em. The 'eyes on the top of your head' thing slows them up a bit and a silver/red IronHorse seems to turn them into evil little kamikazes. If you get to know them on a regular trip and they don't make contact then you can build up your confidence at least. Otherwise wait for a pedestrian. A wide brimmed hat wedged under a helmet can help as well. But I'm no expert - I got absolutely hammered last spring. Can't wait to see what happens on my fire engine red commuter this year!!