Our bikes come with a few handy dual-purpose parts, not all of which are found on non-agricultural-use bikes.
The anti-knuckle-busters - supposed to stop things smacking you across the knuckles. Only moderately successful. Sneaky mulga still gets a few good strikes in. Useful for propping bike up against tree trunks and posts. Tends to get bent out of shape when bike throws itself on the ground, after that it's also good at jamming clutch and/or brake levers at crucial moments.
Anti-dream-catcher aerial - first line of defence against spider webs, giving you an extra millisecond to initiate arm waving, braking and (on rare occasions) shrieking to avoid said web, especially the enormously sticky yellow ones. Can help with communication - some days you hear other people communicating excessively and wish you could unplug it. Don't. Has been known to turn nasty in the scrub and try to poke you in the eye.
Cargo carrier (fuel tank) - passenger seat for various livestock and small children. Carrying any of them improves your balance as they lurch their weight from side to side.
Of course, if you ride a motorbike long enough, you're sure to fall off. Reactions may vary but in the rural arena there seem to be two common ones. The nervous grin/giggle (I've been guilty of this one in moments of stress!), which the faller is never appreciative of, but really just indicates relief on the part of the watcher that the faller is still capable of speech/movement/stroppiness.
And the bike brush-down where interested bystanders (temporarily) ignore the faller to stand the bike up, make sure all dirt is brushed off and that the bike seems undamaged before turning their attention to the unfortunate faller.
While this seems like callous treatment, I think it comes from the days before electric start, when a dropped bike would flood and condemn the fallen one to a vigorous and prolonged bout of kicking to make the bloody thing run again, so getting it upright was often their first priority as well, before taking stock of any injuries.
Picking the bike up also gives both faller and watcher a little time to evaluate how serious the fall was and whether further picking up is going to be required. The bike brush-off happens post-fall too, mostly when friends hear about the accident and indicate their concern and empathy by comments such as, 'Geez you're rough on gear!'
- Wendy Sheehan, rangelands grazier
