So here I am on Father's Day, riding down I-271 (Cleveland area) heading home to my condo. I am doing like 65mph and I am behind this van in the middle lane on the freeway. At the last second, the van swerves to the right into the next lane and there right in front of me is a big-as* dead frickin' deer laying right across my lane At that speed in that split -second I really had no option to swerve into another lane... I would have if I was driving a car, but on a bike it didn't seem like the best idea (although neither did hitting the deer). But that is what I did... he was about a foot thick and when I hit his stomach my front tire went up and over it and then my back tire did the same thing... the last thing I remember is starting to fly over the handlebars... and the next thing I remember is laying in the middle of the interstate on my back with people running over to me... From the looks of my helmet and my riding jacket I must have landed on the back of my head and my shoulders (my jacket was ripped to shreds, but the armor and padding did their frickin job)... Honestly, other than some road rash on my right hip and knee and a frickin right inner thigh muscle tear I am in pretty dam* good shape (I still have trouble walking cuz of the muscle tear and am still a little dizzy when I first stand up or lay down). No broken bones, no MAJOR road rash, nothing too bad . Thank God

As for my bike, I picked it up at the impound lot on Tuesday and DROVE it to "Ohio Motorcycle" to get it fixed. From what I can figure, the bike must have just kept going after I flew off and eventually fell over on its right side and slid a little (it was about 100 yards down the road from where I ended up --- which was about 30 yards past the deer). The bike seemed to ride fine... the damage is pretty much isolated to the right side of the bike, as follows: typical gas tank dent from the handlebars, frame slider ground down, case slider ground down, bar end slider scraped up, mirror broken, brake lever bent all to hell, turn signals scraped up, right exhaust (Yoshi slip on) pretty scraped up, and some slight scraping on the rear tail section and my belly pan... not bad for wiping out at 65mph.

I am hoping that Progressiver agrees to replace the tank (that is less than a year old), cuz I'll through the dented (rather minor) one on eBay... and as far as the exhaust is concerned, I do want to get some opinions on the MIVV exhaust that PJ has... does anyone have them and how do they like them? My Yoshi's were the Tri-Oval slip-ons and although nice, they are a little too big for my liking...

Lessons learned:

1) Always wear my helmet, riding jacket, gloves, etc...
2) I need to leave a little more room between me and the vehicle in front of me... I wasn't quite riding his as*, but I had little time to react cuz I was too close to him.
3) And most importantly, I need to keep going to church and saying my prayers, cuz God was definitely looking out for me that day

These bike pics are from my cell phone...

Dude! Glad you were geared up and can now tell the tale! Good luck getting your steed fixed up and back on the road.

And yeah, deer suck!

Lucky, lucky man!
Ensure that the insurance company includes to have your forks/ yokes professionally inspected/ aligned as if it hit the lock stop hard enough, you may have bent your bottom yoke.
Pleased that you are ok.

sorry bout your bike, but am glad to hear your alright!

Glad you both came off well considering!!
Frame/Case sliders well worth there money!!!
For future reference, I fitted Renthal Streetfighters with flat bar ends, and on full lock they don't sit anywhere near he tank like the standard set-up did!!

God bless you walked away not too badly busted up! You had an angel looking over you that day.

Wow. Great testimonial for wearing the gear all the time. Glad you are okay.

Wow man, good story, glad to hear the happy ending. Hope you heal quickly and get the bike fixed up nice!

Nice to here your are relitively ok. We have a lot of deer around me and I've hit a few with the car, they make me more nervious rideing at night then other cars.Hope the bike can be fixed with out any major damage.

glad your ok. it could have been so much worse. good luck with the ins. i have to ask what kind of gear you had on. sounds like it did its job.

Originally Posted by ryanbelleau

God bless you walked away not too badly busted up! You had an angel looking over you that day.

Ditto...glad to see you are ok. Doesn't look like too much damage was done to the bike.

Amazing outcome. I'm glad you made it through without anything major.

Originally Posted by b_eastep

glad your ok. it could have been so much worse. good luck with the ins. i have to ask what kind of gear you had on. sounds like it did its job.

The major life saver for me (besides my HJC Modular helmet) was my Fieldsheer mesh jacket (with armor in the shoulders and elbows, a large pad in the back and extra padding all over the back). Without the jacket I would be one sore, bloody mess

My helmet is really trashed with some pretty good scrapes on the face shield and some MAJOR scrapes on the back of it...

I will post some pics when I can of both...

Good to hear your alive and kickin. Gear definetly saved you from major road rash and head injuries. I know cause I share your experinace and I am alive and able to talk about it thanks to my gear

lol, the picture of the brake lever is classic.

"Is it suppose to look like that?"