jaybiker
Race Dog
So Tuesday being Women's day, three other considerate friends and I decided to treat the wives to a day at home while we went for a ride.
And there we were, riding the scenic Woody Cape farm road from Alexandria to Boknes. Due to security concerns, in the past this road had manned boom gates, but for ages now these have been redundant and so we rode straight through the Alexandria end and continued our beautiful ride past Bird Island, Woody Cape, some unpredictable cows, and their less than competent herders.
Approaching the next boom gate now, and, no excuses, I simply assumed that it would be open just like the other one. WRONG!
Okay it was a plain white unpainted pole against the background of a light sandy road, with a low early morning sun in my eyes, and dust in the air.
But like I said, no excuses. Doing about 90 I suppose, I heard something, but felt nothing, however I realised what I'd done so I immediately dismounted and naturally checked the bike first. Just the lens cover was dangling on one of it's velcro buttons, and that was all! Then went to examine the shattered remains of the boom, only to find it perfectly intact! My buddy following saw what happened, and decided not to follow suit, but to stop and operate the boom properly which it did perfectly as though nothing had hit it. The strange thing though is that the boom could only raise and lower vertically, there was no way for it to deflect horizontally. The impact could only have knocked it upwards, and yet I felt no impact whatsoever.
Had it been a steel pipe it would have been a different story for sure, but it provided a good (relieved) laugh, and we carried on and had a fantastic 400km or so of riding, then home to see how our beloved wives had enjoyed their day of domestic solitude. :biggrin:
And there we were, riding the scenic Woody Cape farm road from Alexandria to Boknes. Due to security concerns, in the past this road had manned boom gates, but for ages now these have been redundant and so we rode straight through the Alexandria end and continued our beautiful ride past Bird Island, Woody Cape, some unpredictable cows, and their less than competent herders.
Approaching the next boom gate now, and, no excuses, I simply assumed that it would be open just like the other one. WRONG!
Okay it was a plain white unpainted pole against the background of a light sandy road, with a low early morning sun in my eyes, and dust in the air.
But like I said, no excuses. Doing about 90 I suppose, I heard something, but felt nothing, however I realised what I'd done so I immediately dismounted and naturally checked the bike first. Just the lens cover was dangling on one of it's velcro buttons, and that was all! Then went to examine the shattered remains of the boom, only to find it perfectly intact! My buddy following saw what happened, and decided not to follow suit, but to stop and operate the boom properly which it did perfectly as though nothing had hit it. The strange thing though is that the boom could only raise and lower vertically, there was no way for it to deflect horizontally. The impact could only have knocked it upwards, and yet I felt no impact whatsoever.
Had it been a steel pipe it would have been a different story for sure, but it provided a good (relieved) laugh, and we carried on and had a fantastic 400km or so of riding, then home to see how our beloved wives had enjoyed their day of domestic solitude. :biggrin:
