AND HE LIVES TO TELL THE TALE.

[charlie]

Dear Fellow Riders.......”The sun shines on the righteous “ or is it “ The devil is good to his own”.
Six of us made the trip to Barraba and after some good camaraderie we set off for home in drips and drabs. I was riding by myself, and approx. 20 klms north of Manila whilst cruising at 110 klms per hour, a kangaroo hopped out from the scrub. It was only about 2/3 meters from me when I spotted it. In a split second we impacted with quite a thud! This caused the bike to go into a wobble and fortunately I was able to gain control.
So relieved was I after the incident that I didn’t even slow down . On looking in my rear vision mirrors I couldn’t see it. If it’s not dead it will be nursing a few wounds for some time.
Someone later in the day asked me if I got a fright ! I replied not really, however I will skip the All Bran at tomorrow’s breakfast.!

You will observe the Kangaroo Fur embedded on the broken crash bar cover in photo 1.
The scraping of the exhaust pipe cover in Photo 2. and. the broken trim around the pannier and rear light assembly caused by the impact in photo 3.
No doubt I will reminisce on this incident when I hope to celebrate by 87th birthday in September !
Regards to all, Stay Upright, (Just as I have demonstrated) ! !
David.

 

[charlie]

I omitted to add that I reside in Tamworth, North West New South Wales , Australia. I have ridden with a group of chaps for some years, This email was to inform them of my return trip.

 

[seagrass]

Well done Charlie, good to hear you are OK.

Kangaroo strikes are always unpredictable and you did well to "gather your senses" and continue on.

Seagrass

 

[DirtFlier]

Good to hear you survived without any personal injuries. Plastic is easy to replace while body parts/functions not so easy to renew.

 

[NewTo700V]

Yikes. Great that you stayed upright.

I think Kangaroos and White-Tailed Deer signed an international accord to jump into traffic years ago when motorcycles were invented.

 

[Warren]

Incredible that the kangaroo didn’t take you down. Considering what hit you I would say overall the damage is pretty light. Congratulations on your upcoming 87th birthday. God willing I hope to still be riding when I am 87.

 

[mikesim]

It appears from the damage that you struck the Roo with a glancing blow. It's a miracle that you didn't go down. Your guardian angel was certainly on the job. Thanks for the report Charlie... ride on!!!

Mike

 

[Phil Tarman]

Charlie, congratulations on completing your ride! You did well to stay upright and your bike came off well after critter contact! I've been hit by two deer and managed to stay upright both times. Bike damage was $2800 each time, both on my '99 Kawasaki Concours (GTR in Europe) and on my '10 NT. The second one did $12,000 damage to my left hand.

I'm always glad to hear of an older rider still going. I'm 78. Don't know if I'll make it another 9 years! Keep riding!!

 

[Macka]

Glad that you managed to stay upright.
I have had one similar incident although with less physical contact and no damage to the bike.
I saw him coming and had slowed from 100 to about 70kph.
Macka