Riding on a beautiful 85 degree afternoon in rural north Georgia on a 2 lane country road, low humidity (for once!), crystal blue skies, the smell of the freshly cut alfalfa - well there is nothing like it!
On my old 1983 Honda V65 Magna, the one that I had painted myself, my very first paint job. Canary Yellow with some black pin stripes! The bike looked like a bird crossed with a Bumble Bee. Well in fact it looked that way to a bunch of 'soon to be friends'.
I stopped at a stop sign, no one in sight. A 4 way stop with fields and barbed wire fences lining the sides of the road. I was wearing a 3/4 shell old-style Bell helmet. Next thing I knew I was swarmed by a gang of Bees. They had crossed the road in a swarm and landed all over me, my arms, my helmet, my nose, my windshield was covered, and my tank. In those split micro-seconds one could have easily panicked. I was so struck by it, I in fact had no time to have any reaction. I then kicked into the logic mode and realized. Don't Move! I sat at the stop sign for another 3 seconds. A long 3 seconds! I then realized I had not been stung. Not being allergic to Bee stings - I then decided on a plan! I would let out the clutch slowly and start moving slowly (very - slowly) and cross the road,,,, I decided this was my only safe course of action. My new winged friends were blanketing me everywhere. I proceeded at about 2 MPH slowly moving. All of a sudden as if ordered by a mother ship, they all took off and swarmed left in less than 4 seconds while I increased my speed to about 3 or 4 MPH. All of them were gone as quick as they had come.
I breathed a heartfelt sigh of relief, pulled off the side of the road, and looked at my canary colored muscle machine (the 1981-1983 the Honda V65 Magna was the fastest production bike in the 1/4 mile in the world), and the next day repainted it to maroon. Then drove it to Key West, FL. the next weekend camping!
Don't ever do that, paint a bike Canary Yellow in any area with Bees!