extrememarine
Well-known member
Forced Water Landing…
My luck has had a hiccup about every 4 years. 2008 (totaled FJR and life-flight), 2012 (totaled FJR in traffic), and now 2016 (FJR=1, Deer =0).
Here’s the cliff notes version – On Thursday, 9/22/16, about 45 miles from the EOM hotel, I hit a deer on my FJR. I didn't crash or fall over.
Here’s the rest of the story, as I recall it along with eye witness testimony…
We were traveling north on VA 16 just south of Troutdale, Virginia. (here) There was 5 bikes in the group, I was running 4th in line at the time. The 3 bikes in front of me had cleared traffic and continued to enjoy the road ahead. I had just cleared the truck and the 5th bike was ready to come around. I had moved right to avoid a blotted grease-spot of road kill, putting me right about center in the lane.
- I catch movement from the right, see antlers and scream (thankfully, no bike to bike or intercom open mic yet)…
- Hard on the brakes – front brake lever against the grip hard…
- Gripped the tank – my inner thighs are still sore.
- Initial impact – dead center of the deer’s body which punted it forward off its legs
- It tumbles and its legs rotate up on either side of the bike and slap the mirrors / LED lights, knocking them forward and around on their pivot points.
- I keyed the PTT for the bike to bike radio during this and yelled, “I’m down, I’m down, I’m down…”
- Off the brakes (I think) and rolled over the deer – it exited from under the bike and tumbled.
- I was angled towards the narrow gravel shoulder and ditch, but stayed hard in the brakes, looking well down the road.
- I stopped on the gravel shoulder, left foot down and unable to put my right leg down because of the ditch.
- FJRFarrier comes back over the radio and says, “No, actually, you’re not down”
- I had shut off the bike, but then realized I couldn’t get off the bike due to the pitch of the road and the drop of the gravel shoulder.
- I started the bike back up and realized it was in 1st gear (so apparently during the event I downshifted from 5th to 1st).
- I rolled up and across the road to the opposite side and parked.
- The deer got up and stumbled down into the bush – pretty sure he didn’t go far.
- Then what had just happened started to sink in – I hit a deer at speed, traveled over it and did not crash or fall.
The headlight of the bike was punched in and down about 3 or so inches. The fairing piece the wraps around the bottom of the headlight was broken and hanging by a wiring loom that holds my LED light harness. I pulled the headlight assembly up and out, and with a strip of duct tape courtesy of FJRFarrier I secured the headlight assembly in place. The nose section fairings all show the signs of being bashed by a 100+ pounds of deer body at whatever speed I was still traveling upon impact.
The gentlemen that stopped headed up the road and agreed to let the other riders know what had happened if he saw them. As we started to roll, JWilly crested the hill and we stopped at a small general store outside of Troutdale, VA. There was a VA State Trooper picking up a 2 liter of Coke. I asked him if he could help and described what happened. He said, “On that bike? And you didn’t crash?” As he took down my info, he said his son-in-law (a local sheriff) had just called him about a motorcycle that had hit a deer. Word travels fast in rural Virginia. During this, everyone else in the group had returned.
We continued on, arriving at the hotel a little later than planned. I was then reminded that I should probably call home right away; pictures were being taken and many of us are connect on social media – the last thing I wanted was for Annette to see this before I called. So that was not a call I wanted to make, but did…
Now the insurance process continues. This will be the first claim we’ve had with USAA. So far, the process has been smooth and prompt. Next step now that I’m home is to have an the initial inspection and estimate done. That will happen this week hopefully and we’ll see where we land. Saturday, FJRFarrier and I ended up down by Ashville at the top of Mt Mitchell. That put us in a pretty deep distance and time hole – We lit the afterburners and beat feet towards Wytheville. During that ride, reflecting on the events of Thursday, how the bike performed Friday (even during the 3-up ride back to the hotel with Jason), I realize how absolutely perfect this FJR is. I leaned down, patted the tank, and promised I wouldn’t send it to the scrap yard. Hope USAA lets me keep that promise.
Close up of the nose - it's hard to see, but the front subframe is tweeked and out of alignment; the windshield is shifted to the side slightly and all of the seams show sign of distortion of the panels.
milk dud…
Julie suggested I include this picture – as the adrenalin faded and we started to look at the bike, she pointed out that I scared the crap out of that poor deer. Indeed I had…
Road at impact. Thankfully, the road was straight at the point of impact. I was able to get stopped before dropping into the ditch on the right.
My luck has had a hiccup about every 4 years. 2008 (totaled FJR and life-flight), 2012 (totaled FJR in traffic), and now 2016 (FJR=1, Deer =0).
Here’s the cliff notes version – On Thursday, 9/22/16, about 45 miles from the EOM hotel, I hit a deer on my FJR. I didn't crash or fall over.
Here’s the rest of the story, as I recall it along with eye witness testimony…
We were traveling north on VA 16 just south of Troutdale, Virginia. (here) There was 5 bikes in the group, I was running 4th in line at the time. The 3 bikes in front of me had cleared traffic and continued to enjoy the road ahead. I had just cleared the truck and the 5th bike was ready to come around. I had moved right to avoid a blotted grease-spot of road kill, putting me right about center in the lane.
- I catch movement from the right, see antlers and scream (thankfully, no bike to bike or intercom open mic yet)…
- Hard on the brakes – front brake lever against the grip hard…
- Gripped the tank – my inner thighs are still sore.
- Initial impact – dead center of the deer’s body which punted it forward off its legs
- It tumbles and its legs rotate up on either side of the bike and slap the mirrors / LED lights, knocking them forward and around on their pivot points.
- I keyed the PTT for the bike to bike radio during this and yelled, “I’m down, I’m down, I’m down…”
- Off the brakes (I think) and rolled over the deer – it exited from under the bike and tumbled.
- I was angled towards the narrow gravel shoulder and ditch, but stayed hard in the brakes, looking well down the road.
- I stopped on the gravel shoulder, left foot down and unable to put my right leg down because of the ditch.
- FJRFarrier comes back over the radio and says, “No, actually, you’re not down”
- I had shut off the bike, but then realized I couldn’t get off the bike due to the pitch of the road and the drop of the gravel shoulder.
- I started the bike back up and realized it was in 1st gear (so apparently during the event I downshifted from 5th to 1st).
- I rolled up and across the road to the opposite side and parked.
- The deer got up and stumbled down into the bush – pretty sure he didn’t go far.
- Then what had just happened started to sink in – I hit a deer at speed, traveled over it and did not crash or fall.
The headlight of the bike was punched in and down about 3 or so inches. The fairing piece the wraps around the bottom of the headlight was broken and hanging by a wiring loom that holds my LED light harness. I pulled the headlight assembly up and out, and with a strip of duct tape courtesy of FJRFarrier I secured the headlight assembly in place. The nose section fairings all show the signs of being bashed by a 100+ pounds of deer body at whatever speed I was still traveling upon impact.
The gentlemen that stopped headed up the road and agreed to let the other riders know what had happened if he saw them. As we started to roll, JWilly crested the hill and we stopped at a small general store outside of Troutdale, VA. There was a VA State Trooper picking up a 2 liter of Coke. I asked him if he could help and described what happened. He said, “On that bike? And you didn’t crash?” As he took down my info, he said his son-in-law (a local sheriff) had just called him about a motorcycle that had hit a deer. Word travels fast in rural Virginia. During this, everyone else in the group had returned.
We continued on, arriving at the hotel a little later than planned. I was then reminded that I should probably call home right away; pictures were being taken and many of us are connect on social media – the last thing I wanted was for Annette to see this before I called. So that was not a call I wanted to make, but did…
Now the insurance process continues. This will be the first claim we’ve had with USAA. So far, the process has been smooth and prompt. Next step now that I’m home is to have an the initial inspection and estimate done. That will happen this week hopefully and we’ll see where we land. Saturday, FJRFarrier and I ended up down by Ashville at the top of Mt Mitchell. That put us in a pretty deep distance and time hole – We lit the afterburners and beat feet towards Wytheville. During that ride, reflecting on the events of Thursday, how the bike performed Friday (even during the 3-up ride back to the hotel with Jason), I realize how absolutely perfect this FJR is. I leaned down, patted the tank, and promised I wouldn’t send it to the scrap yard. Hope USAA lets me keep that promise.
Close up of the nose - it's hard to see, but the front subframe is tweeked and out of alignment; the windshield is shifted to the side slightly and all of the seams show sign of distortion of the panels.
milk dud…
Julie suggested I include this picture – as the adrenalin faded and we started to look at the bike, she pointed out that I scared the crap out of that poor deer. Indeed I had…
Road at impact. Thankfully, the road was straight at the point of impact. I was able to get stopped before dropping into the ditch on the right.
