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It's that time of year in Lower Alabama...the spiders are out!

I'm seeking input on a guard or deflector for the front of my bike.

There will be a web across the trail with a large black and yellow Garden Spider in the center. They are just now increasing in size and population. By late August/September there will be a web every 20-30 foot on the trail. The spiders wil be up to 2" in length. They look a little bigger than that when they are on your glasses climbing up into your helmet

I've been thinking of a forward firing flamethrower, or maybe a badminton racket mounted in front of the handlebar, possibly a powerfull blower to blow them away just before impact, maybe a beekeepers hat and net?

When riding in groups we generally put the fastest guy out front. This time of year, we'll spend 20 minutes arguing about how slow we've become all of a sudden....

Any and all suggestion welcome.

Uggghh, just wait till October. I hate spiders

When hiking in NW AL I took to just waving a long thin stick in front of me. You could tape such a thing to your handlebars....

It was a great vacation, but the insects were a little disconcerting!

In Illinois we have deer that take care of that kinda thing....

Sometimes a squirell will run down the trail in front of you. They seldom jump high enough to get ALL the webs, though.

Maybe a squirell tied to a stick taped to the handlebars....

KarlP wrote:Maybe a squirell tied to a stick taped to the handlebars....

Or a deer taped to the stick? (Might want to stiffen the front susp a bit).

I hate spiders and if theres that manyyyy... MOVE!
'crossing offf Alabama on my "places to go" list'..

It's that time of year in Lower Alabama...

Ride in UPPER Alabama?

"Ride in UPPER Alabama?"

"When hiking in NW AL I took to just waving a long thin stick in front of me. You could tape such a thing to your handlebars...."

It's an Alabama thing. We don't have cactuses, we don't have slickrock, we don't even have regular rocks around here. We got spiders and thick fast growing vegetation and hot in the winter and hotter in the summer. You gotta work with what ya got, adapt and overcome, man.

How about a clear umbrella? Red neck faring?

Y'all keep in mind I'm not being in the least bit serious, just having some fun, trying to get things stirred up. A fella CAN get used to spiders crawling all over him.

A fella CAN get used to spiders crawling all over him.

As long as the 'him' is YOU...I'm all set.

You're familiar with the Off repellent disc? How about a commercially sized one? A couple gallons of metroherprarachnidacide and a fan only a couple feet in diameter spinning off a couple HP motor might work. You could hook it up to your KIPS: See one in the way, blip the throttle...off scurries the 'lil bastage.

We have the spider problem here in the Jersey pines too! Im constantly running into webs. Sometimes, my girlfriend and I will go out on night rides and do some tight woods riding. One time, she was leading and came to an abrupt halt and started screaming. It kinda startled me because I coulnt see what was in front of us, I thought it was something bad! It turned out to be a huge spider and web, about head level, right in front of her face! We went around it.
We have tent caterpillars too, I was riding a tight section from my clubs enduro and ran into a nest. They ended up all over me and in my mouth!

Yeah, I remember those Gypsie Moth caterpiller nests from my NE days.



"You're familiar with the Off repellent disc? How about a commercially sized one? A couple gallons of metroherprarachnidacide and a fan only a couple feet in diameter spinning off a couple HP motor might work. You could hook it up to your KIPS: See one in the way, blip the throttle...off scurries the 'lil bastage."

NOW we're talking.
I think I'd linkage the fan to the front wheel, though. Faster you go, the harder it blows!

It reasons like this I always let someone else lead.