Deer Down, But Fat Lady Still Sings

[tarheel-one]

Well, I broke one of my cardinal rules yesterday evening.     I went for a ride just before dusk on my black 99 standard. I don't like to do this, cause I am askeerd of deer. The weather here in North Carolina has been cold the last couple of weeks, and I have not been riding.  I went out after work yesterday at 5pm for just a short 30 minute ride.  About 2 miles from home, 20 miles into a nice brisk 28 degree ride, and at a speed of appx 50 mph, I came into contact with a deer.    Amazingly, the fat lady did not veer off course when I hit that deer, but that deer sure did. That bike is sturdy. The deer took out my radiator, and bent the left crash bar, and knocked my left morror out of adjustment.  I still cannot figure out how more damage was not done.  I am glad that I did not T-bone the deer, or more damage would have been done to the bike, and to me.
This weekend, I will pull my radiator and look for any other damage.  The forks and front fender appear ok.  Any ideas on a good check for the forks?  Any other things I should look for?
I hate that I hurt the Valky.  She has been good to me. 
Also, do you know of any good cleaner for my ultimate seat.  I think I soiled it.

[Kaiser]

Sure hope you got a free meal (venison) out of it.  Glad to hear you and the bike are not in any worse shape.

You might start by lifting the bike in the air to take all the weight off of the front tire and with the front tire pointed straight ahead - place a level across both forks.  That should at least tell you if one got pushed back farther than the other.  You could do this up and down the whole length of the forks.  Also try turning the handlebars lock-to-lock, checking for free movement, to make sure nothing else got bent up.

[R J]

If the front wheel made any hard contact with the deer, you could have dimpled the steer head bearings.    Lower race on the rear, upper race on the front.  Very easy to dimple them.     I've seen them get dimpled by going up over a curb.

[N8171S]

Glad you survived.  I hit one two years ago.  750 miles from home.  I didn't go down but the deer died instantly. I had a broken radiator , bent engine guard & bent headlight mount.  I hit him in his front shoulder with my right side.  He spun around and hit me in the leg  putting a small dent in my tank and then taking out my right saddlebag and tour pack.  I patched the radiator with epoxy putty and had to add water every 25 plus miles to get home. I replaced the radiator and returned to Canada the next week.  My right fork seal developed a leak so I replaced that when I returned home.  Hope you don't find any severe damage.

[John U.]

I've heard you can use a piece of glass (because it's flat) to see if your forks are out of alignment. Just place the glass on the forks to see if they are in full contact with the glass. If they are out by a small amount you may be able to loosen the triple tree clamps and get them aligned.

[gordonv]

I've heard you can use a piece of glass (because it's flat) to see if your forks are out of alignment. Just place the glass on the forks to see if they are in full contact with the glass. If they are out by a small amount you may be able to loosen the triple tree clamps and get them aligned.

I hadn't heard of the glass method, sounds good. My bike mechanic used a cut piece of U channel.

What you are doing is placing it flat on the forks, and trying to rock the level by pushing on the diagnal corners, to see if it is off the fork. You do this on both the diagnals. My ACE T had twisted forks from a PO who laid it down. All I needed to do was loosen the lower tree and axle bolts, and it almost sprung back into place (the fender re-aligned it).