Greetings All
As you see I was not on THE far ride but headed off to Narrabri Wednesday about 2 weeks ago and left Narwee about 3am.
Going great guns till the 90 k area the other side of winery area in Hunter Valley.
Kangaroo ----right there on the left and I hit him. Well he hit me actually.
His , maybe shoulder area, hit left fork and front left crash bar on the Nomad, pushed it back against the running board and my ankle against the gear covering. Bum area of kangaroo (not mine) must have come around and smashed the rear crash bar back into the pannier and it flew open and ended up all cracked and split.The good news I focused on was the fact that I did not come off and the crash bars certainly did their work in protecting my leg.
Have had a quote and no damage to the actual bars but the 8mm steel that the bars are attached to took all the brunt and are bent out of shape. Bars and pannier to be replaced and so lucky that is the only damage.
Do not know the final cost for repairs but do know that the pannier alone is over $2500, astounding .--and the 2 new bars are around $350 for the both , reasonable --- but the pannier ( some moulded product--- I cannot comprehend the price . I originally checked out the cost to see if I would bother to claim the insurance. When I heard how much for the pannier ----eh yes ---insurance.
Continued on to Narrabri after tying the pannier up wih an occy strap . did what I had to or wanted to do and then came home arriving about 8.30 pm. Thankfully no trouble with the bike all ther way except for left foot being a little higher on the board because the bar had pushed the running board up a little .
Sorry guys and gals if I have waffled on and if you don't want to read this then you don't have to.Just thought I would pass on this valuable piece of useless information
Cheers for now Len