Well, my otherwise pristine '08AE now has a battle scar from a drunk in a SUV. I took the afternoon off to ride 70 miles over to the Tuscaloosa, AL airport to watch the friday practice for this weekends airshow featuring the Blue Angels. After leaving the airport and while crawling along in stop and go traffic on the main 4-lane I got bumped, -hard- , from behind. I had just started moving forward and managed to keep the bike upright. After stopping to collect my reflector and eyeball the damage I walked back to the male driver of the 90's model Suburban and told him to pull over in the turn lane. His response that "you ain't hurt, I gotta go to work" was so slurred I knew he was drunk. Fortunately a city traffic engineer witnessed the event and stopped to help. He called the police and helped keep the guy from leaving the scene. An officer arrived in 2 - 3 minutes and within 10 minutes had the driver in cuffs for impaired driving.
The police were very professional and courteous, even offering a moment of levity when asking if I was wearing a seatbelt. I said "no, sorry" and he sheepishly looked at the bike and said "well how about a helmet"? I was full ATGATT with a bright yellow Nolan, red mesh jacket, Hyperlite tail/brake lights and even a Knight Eyes 3rd brake light, all of which are apparently invisible to a drunk. He didn't appear to have insurance, no surprise.
Damage seems limited to the a crease in the left exhaust pipe and the rear fender which was mashed into the tire which busted the reflector and split the plastic along the bottom. Could have been worse, especially if I'd dropped it.
A pic about 20 minutes before:
