I have noticed this lately and have been informed they are to deter magpies in case you were wondering. Still u would think a helmet itself would suffice.

This has been a public service announcement.

Still u would think a helmet itself would suffice

I'd imagine the zip-ties would produce a one foot safety zone around your head. With just a helmet you'd have the magpie making physical contact with your upper back or your helmet - sudden surprise while riding fast, or getting claws stuck is not good.

Maybe an actual bicycle operator can confirm this? This is all I can do from my arm-chair.

lol I have also notcied the increase in zip tied helmuts and was wondering wtf was wrong with the people that wear them.
Personally I find armadillo's would make better helmuts.

Magpies go for anything they can grab when they get close enough - usually ears. The result if you get done is a ton of blood everywhere. Worst case they even get past your glasses and at your eyes - it does happen.

As said, the cable ties provide something of a buffer zone, as they'll attack the ends of the ties rather than the persons head. Of course, it's not foolproof.

I have a magpie on my trip home, and I jsut wear a helmet, and it's dangerous as all f*** - the magpie matches the speed of the rider and just sort of hovers near your head pecking at your face. It's f***ing scary as, especially when you're also trying to stay out of idiot traffic.

I'd just attach an auto tracking anti-magpie laser device to the back of my bike.

when i was a kid walking to school i used to get attacked by a pair of plovers & in a different season, a pair of butcher birds. both could give ya a nasty nip if you let them. i used to flail at them with a squash racket until my mum made me a hat with huge false eyes like a frog on top. the birds still swooped at me... but they never actually struck again. :D

f***ing magpies

i was running last year some time, on my way home, totally exhausted, about to collapse, when all of a sudden

THWACK, it felt like a shoe had been thrown at me, i didn thave a clue what was going on.

i sort of stumble and put my hands up, blood everywhere pissing out of my ear and a smug looking magpie flying into land in a tree nearby

i couldnt get over how hard he hit me :(

I have never been attacked by a magpie, even when others around me have. I think it's because they can tell I like them, and leave me alone :)

I just carry around a grenade launcher. Most times i miss with a direct shot but it's the splash damage that gets em.

I don't think there's anything funnier though then watching someone get attacked by a magpie.

A combination of ducking, spastic shuffling and flailing limbs around like a tard makes me LOL.

Magpies are cunning f***ers, they know what bike helmets are after a couple of hits and they start going for the soft underbelly of the helmet (the face). It's very annoying, they're so far down on the evolutionary scale from us, but we've decided a few magpie pecks is fair trade for letting them live.

Who are the smart ones really?

I have to face one in the Spring when I head up the hill on KG road. Can't go fast up that hill, and the magpies love to hit over and over again. I try and use its shadow to duck when its diving, but it doesn't always work. Being distracted constantly isn't really an option.

Oh, and as for the cable ties, I put 3-4 cable ties on my helmet every season, but I'm not really a believer ever since I saw some guy with like 20 of them being attacked hard by a maggie who couldn't have cared less.

Next season I'm going to try painting eyes on a helmet cover and/or my backpack and see how that goes.

I just carry around a grenade launcher. Most times i miss with a direct shot but it's the splash damage that gets em.

I was playing golf one day and a guy playing through in front of us was putting on the green. Right next to the golf course is some model aircraft club and this dick was flying his a/c way too close to the golfer.

Golfer leaves the green all pissed off.

By that time we'd come around to another hole and we noticed the golfer was back on the same green, chipped in front of a group of four, so we were like, "WTF is going on here?"

Guy swings down his a/c again, golfer pulls shotgun out of the bag and blows the thing out of the sky.

Was funny as hell, but yeah, a little concerning. Greens keeper or someone from the golf club comes over and took the shotty of the dude and escorted him away. We were loving it from our 50m vantage point.

arrrrr what the?

you just made that up right?

Of course it's made up, how do you fly an airconditioner?

contrary to carrying a M4A granader and blowing up magpies on splash damage in the middle of the city cause that is highly plausible

A smart move would to have electrodes sticking out of the helmet, live electrodes... :)

I don't understand how the cable ties are attached?

They are large ties that are tied around the structure of the helmet (most helmets have holes through them everywhere) and it's their long 'tails' that stick up.

I think.

I don't understand how the cable ties are attached?

What's not to understand?

http://www.tuckahoe.com/images/bike-helmet.jpg

Bike helmets have a bunch of holes in them, you simply loop it around and have the end sticking up in the air.

Tada

EDIT: WTF, big enough picture./

LOL, now demon reposted it, fail.

last edited by CHUB at 12:12:29 28/Jan/10

http://home.pacific.net.au/~dasmero/images/magpie deflector 3.jpg

http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/83/Bicycle_helmet_with_zip-ties.jpg


heh :D

last edited by demon at 12:14:53 28/Jan/10

so this is going back a bit.....1988 or 1989 even
courier mail gave out hats with dame edna everages face printed on top.

i've seen a magpie go sick on a postie once.
postie had to just wait it out as he was in heavy steady traffic.

if you're walking, and you know where the nest is, or can see the adults, best thing to do is face them the whole time.

oh right. Yeh that's pretty obvious in retrospect.

this is pretty classic, as I saw this for the first time this morning and thought what is up with that woman and the porcupine helmet and told myself to investigate this when I got to work but forgot. Thanks for reminding me and answering.

demon i cant be bothered checking the size on that image you have in your post but dammmmnnn it loads slow for me... like 5minute load time slow wtfisupwiththat.

I don't get attacked by magpies, because they know I follow collingwood

I don't get attacked either, because they know i have no time to bleed.

I'm always in my car and they just know better