Riding home last night after work on Broadford-Kilmore Road around 8pm, came around corner to a section where the 1st overtaking lane starts. Saw movement on left shoulder made visible by my additional lights (worth there weight in gold). I got ready for something to come at me, next thing I see is a large Kanga in the middle of the lanes staring at me . He was facing towards the right so I thought should I swerve around behind him to the left or stay straight. I have thought about this scenario lots and although instant reaction is to swerve around, I believe staying straight and slamming on breaks will lead to a lot less damage to bike and rider should impact occur and hopefully save sliding into a tree, guard rail etc. So my decision to continue straight and slam on the brakes paid off, Mr Kanga did an about face and attempted to jump off the road to the left. Although I reduced speed from about 100km/hr to about 60km/hr, we still impacted. My front wheel hit approx at the top of his legs, which bunnied my front wheel off the tarmac, I felt his backside and tail impact against my left knee, and with a bit of a pop from the back wheel it was over and I collected myself and pulled over. Obviously Kanga was a tough bugga, as he was gone by the time I had pulled over and turned around. Feel very lucky that I didn't swerve behind him, had I done that when he did a turn around to hop off the road it would have been dead centre/side on impact which would have certainly knocked me off my perch. I have read many a posts about cost of farkles, lights, crash bars etc. Without my engine guard he would have impacted right against some vital bits. My saving grace however apart from ABS was my AUX lights. Now all AUX lights help no matter the brand/cost etc. I chose the F^&^*&Kin expensive clearwater darlas. Due to their small size and that they pump out a crap load of light, and last night they saved me an off, $1000's in damages and injury. Following this ordeal and narrow miss I recognise the safety of great lighting and although the lighting on my bike is exceptional with HID low and Hi and the LED AUX i am getting more. Upgrading to the bigger ERICA clearwaters. Yup insanely expensive, but like their smaller sister DARLA if they save me from just 1 accident or off then its money bloody well spent. Apart from a rush of adrenaline and a bruised left shin/knee no damage or loss. RIDE SAFE everyone...... See you out there......
Wanna sell you Darla's when you upgrade? Second hand and accident damaged of course. Glad you stayed upright and thanks for sharing. I know l should upgrade my stock crap lighting.
spotted a roo on the side of the road yesterday watching me go past, thank god he didn't hop out in front of me, his head was higher than my helmet and I was on my 990. big bugga he was.
Never even thought of selling them, was going to hang onto them and use them later on. Although can't use the ERICA's and the DARLA's simultaneously, too much draw for the 800. I might sell them..... and no they don't have any damage or even scratches on them. Kanga kindly chose engine guard and my knee instead. LOL. Let me know if your interested. Ill post a pic of them, once the ERICA's arrive they'll be removed either this week or next week. May also have some F800gs AUX brackets also as ERICA's will be mounted to upper crash bars on order.
Yay, like being involved in clubs. RSL, have also joined the WSL last year, hoping to not add cow, horse or larger animals to that...
I am a member of the the rival league. The Wallaby Survival league. The little dark swamp wallabys come out of the bush at the last moment with a head low posture, making avoidance difficult. The one that got me put his nose through my DRZ's front spokes. Needless to say he died and I survived, but my head ached for a week and my ribs still do.
I am a member of another rival league : The Euro Survival league. Hit one at speed at last years Flinders Ranges Classic..:eek1
Goat Survival league, Hit about 3 of em in one impact. Buggers just stood there, started Bleating on impact..... then moving....... I did the stay straight and the bars twitched and jerked but all was good. PSL Pig survival league, bush piglets to be exact, I won easily Lizard.
G'day fnatic, were you going from Kilmore to Broadford ie overtaking lane past Kellys Lane on Greens Pinch or coming out of Broadford going towards Kilmore past Jeffreys Lane up Prospect Hill? As winter draws in be careful on Greens Pinch, can get quite frost/icy there at times, have seen more than one car on its roof there, wouldn't be fun doing the same on a bike. (I used to live in Broadford for about 12 years.)
Was heading home coming out of broadford heading towards Kilmore. Coming from work at the Winton V8 Raceway, so had been riding for about 1.5hrs ridden up and down for about 2.5yrs now first kanga. Had a deer on the road a while back that one I did swerve for, was at dawn and bugger couldn't give a shit about truck in opposing lane blaring his horn at him and hardly noticed me swing around behind him but that is a big exception to my no swerve rule.... Yeah the road gets a bit dicy when wet/cold...
...done a handful of emergency-braking manouvres this year so far...:eek1 one was for a texting woman..... the rest was for roo's, cows, koalas etc :eek1 ride safe peeps and +1 for good spotlights
I got taken out by a sheep.... Three of us had been out for a ride, all riding WR450f's and we were racing to the Dalton pub at the end of the day for a few refreshments. Doing about 100kph down a good dirt road when a sheep came from my right and took out my front wheel. My bike tumbled and rolled down the road while I tried to avoid it, the bike finished up on its handlebars, in all my crashes it is the first time I have seen a bike finish up side down. I never seen the sheep again and as for me I was in a daze, if it were not for the scrape marks running down the road I would not have even know which direction I was traveling. Thanks to the Teflon tape under my controls the only damage to the bike was the headlight surround, a pair of zip ties and I headed home for refreshments not to the pub as planned.
just back from the flinders should move the national park to clare and surrounds more kangas and deer around here than the've got there
Yep the critters can ruin your day -not far out of Tilpa - late arvo, by myself pushing on aboard 1200GS and trying to make the pub before dark...movement in the shrubs on the side of the track and a bloody emu came straight out, head down and running. Luckily for me (not for him) he stuck his head straight through the spokes of the front wheel which neatly took off his head and lobbed it past my eyes!! The front wheel and head guards took care of the rest and I pulled up about 100 metres later with feathers jammed between the front tyre and rim (that stayed with me for another couple of thousand km) and emu crap splattered all over the engine feeling very lucky indeed. Something to be said for riding a BM I guess?? Made it to the pub for a meal and a celebratory survival drink
Had another 2 intruders on my ride home from work last night. 1 Big bugga happily hopping right in the middle of the Hume freeway southbound lane around 10:20pm last night just north of the Broadford-Kilmore exit. Second misfit on the Broadford-Kilmore road heading to Kilmore, jumped clean out of the bushes on my left not giving me much time..... Without the AUX lights there would be no way my ordinary lights would have made him visible prior to impact. On both occasions I was able to see the Kangaroo well in advance, the one on the hume I had loads of time to slow down, put on hazards and warn truck and other drivers behind me. The one that jumped out of the bushes I was able to see with enough time to slow down and avoid him. Although I felt certain he was determined to surprise me. I rode the rest of the way home chuffed at the new ERICA's I had installed a few months back, bucketloads of light everywhere..... Yes, I would have felt happy and chuffed if a $20 LED pair of lights from EBAY had done the same thing but I am very happy with my purchase and their output of light. Live to ride another day....