[scons]

I just went on a night ride along the coast, then along the road to the Capricorn Resort. This latter is a 4 lane beautiful divided highway with no traffic & is my test track.

Only riding at 60 km/h watching for roos which are practically tame (but no road sense) along that stretch. I was suddenly flicked on the helmet by a flying fox coming out of the bush about 10 metres to my left. He hit me hard enough to partially dislodge the perspex of my modular helmet & I had to stop to fix it in the dark.

Flying foxes are fruit bats about the size of an average domestic cat & a wing span over about a metre (at a guess from the split second I saw him in the bike lights). From the drops of something on my windscreen it looks like we both got a fright.

At least your deer can't fly.

 

[fossil92]

You're right Bob about the Deer, but you should experiance coming upon a rafter of Turkeys.

Glad the Bat didn't take a full swing.

 

[detdrbuzzard]

no problems with bats here but i did have a cat dart across the street and run into my left rotor cover while i was traveling at 40 mph

 

[Chopin]

You boys Down Under get it from under and over.

 

[scons]

You're right Bob about the Deer, but you should experiance coming upon a rafter of Turkeys.

Glad the Bat didn't take a full swing.

"Rafter of turkeys" now there's a collective noun I didnt learn at school. I haven't had the pleasure of close contact with a "mob of emus" either which we do have in small numbers along the coast road from here to Emu Park

 

[Eric]

Bob, I thought you would have a snorkel fitted to the wing and fruit bats wouild be the least of your hazards Eric

 

[LarryinSeattle]

That would leave a mark! Glad you are ok.

 

[scons]

Bob, I thought you would have a snorkel fitted to the wing and fruit bats wouild be the least of your hazards Eric

I've never thought to watch out for them either Eric.

If you'r referring to the floods down south, they're a long way from us. We havent yet had our normal summer wet season - hopefully it isnt being saved up for a cyclone. We're driving to Brisbane this weekend to visit family & see Celtic Thunder, so whats the odds this weekend will be wet.

On an aside, if there was a spot I could shore dive from around here (the reef is miles out), I'd be working out a way to put my scuba gear on the bike somehow.

 

[scons]

That would leave a mark! Glad you are ok.

Hey - that's the one. I recognize those eyes

 

[detdrbuzzard]

Hey - that's the one. I recognize those eyes

he's probally looking at a pic of you saying the same thing

 

[budoka]

You're lucky it was just one. When we were in Airlie Beach there were flocks (?) of them by the hundreds. Found it just a tad unsettling the first couple times. And we weren't on a bike

 

[fossil92]

You're lucky it was just one. When we were in Airlie Beach there were flocks (?) of them by the hundreds. Found it just a tad unsettling the first couple times. And we weren't on a bike

Colony

See you should have taken the quiz.

 

[budoka]

Ouch Bones, that hurt! I think 'colony' is too small a word for what we saw, more like the entire gathering of the bretheren.

 

[Old.Tony]

Bringing up an old thread with a new "danger" (well, two) ...

I live in regional NSW and have to drive through about 50km of farmland to reach the city. Recently encountered (and avoided) a decent sized Goanna (maybe a metre and a half, or 5 feet). Wiki the buggers if you want to know more about them - they aren't pretty. Almost collected two smaller specimens - and one that had been collected and strewn across the centre of the riding line in a bend. Nice.

The other one looks a little like a WWI army hat from a distance ... that moves slowly. Yes, turtles - I've found a number of them crossing the roads particularly in drier areas as they look for the dams. Thankfully they pull their heads in and stay still when a vehicle approaches so I can avoid them - but I was watching an oncoming vehicle deliberately swerve to hit one so now I'm stopping to pick them up and carry them off the road. Some drivers are lucky that we can't carry guns in Australia.

I haven't done a lot of night riding on my wing yet, but what little I have done has pointed out how inadequate the lighting is. Admittedly I'm hopping on the bike after stepping out of my 4WD which has a total of 580 watts of lights, driving lights and light bars on the front - so I've ordered some U9 LED spots for the bike. I don't have engine case guards - someone removed those - so I'm not sure where I'm going to mount them.

Which reminds me, I better go shopping for some engine case guards!

 

[NREMTP]

Wow, that would be disturbing.
Guards, lights, shields, sword...

 

[budoka]

I have some really good photos of goannas from our tour there back in '04. They like to frequent caravan parks to snack on food bits peeps leave on the ground. No idea if they are aggressive though...never asked; herself always jumped in the camper or up on the table when they came visiting. I think the Cayman iguanas are much cuter though. Bwahahaha But then again they have cute water critters and not so cute ones as well...kinda like in Oz.:wink2: