Dead deer, dead Valkyrie, broken rider....

[jshram]

i'm going to miss her.  Just got out of 11 days in the hospital where they completely re-fused my right hip (fractured all over) and my collar bone which was again fractured all over as were several ribs (inconsequential to the rest).  4-6 months recovery.

55mph impact, no warning, remote road, fully on my game.  wearing full armored/kevlar gear (saved my life).  No recollection of anything until I was life-flighted to Murray, UT.

Interesting conversation with my surgeon, who is THE trauma guy for motorcycle injuries.  I asked him about his personal opinions about demographics of those getting injuries and his response was (Utah is a no-helmet law state):   I don't know, but if they aren't wearing a helmet, I don't usually have to fix them.

John

[KY,Dave (AKA Misunderstood)]

Wow, glad you wear a helmet and can recover. 

[Jess from VA]

Very sorry to hear this John.  Wishing you fair and painless skies, and a full recovery.

Riding motorcycles with deer in the woods (almost everywhere), is really like playing the lottery.

[wiggydotcom]

That sucks, John. Sorry to hear about your injuries.  I hope you heal quickly and completely. I had the same thing happen after Inzane this year. A doe came out of a ditch and I didn't even have time to brake before hitting her full on at 65mph.

Unlike you, I was just fortunate to keep the totaled Interstate upright. There's always a ton of factors involved on whether we walk away or not---and one of them is pure luck.

Good luck in dealing with your bike. If you haven't settled yet, PM me and I can give you some tips on settling. I've been through it twice and have done very well.

[RainMaker]

Wow! So sorry to hear you got so banged up. Heal quick - prayers on the way!

[MarkT]

I really watch closely for them after my incident in 2001.  Tons of forest rats around here - sometimes multiple avoidances in one evening ride.  Glad they are mulies rather than white tails.  Less skittish.  Still I don't relax with the road all to myself - actually watch the edges more attentively than the road.  Very powerful lights on Deerslayer, and now on Jade, installing three Cyclops LED H4's.  The spots I'm installing are actually headlights.  Still don't always use a helmet.  

[The emperor has no clothes]

Glad you made it 

[hubcapsc]

55mph impact, no warning, remote road, fully on my game.

You know how you're riding down the road and all of a sudden *splat*
a bug hits your windshield? That's what I imagine hitting a deer
would be like...

Glad you made it and are out of the hospital...

-Mike

[Kirb]

Hope you heal fast. And I would suspect Deer are just like a damn bug and come out of nowhere. I have never hit one in a car and o a bike.
Blessed.

[Valkorado]

You just lived through one of my biggest motorcycling fears!  Sorry about your wreck and injuries, hope you heal fully. 

[98valk]

Man, so sorry hear this. Thank God u are alright.
what brand gear were u using? I use motoport.

Heal quick in Christ Jesus' name.

[DirtyDan]

Damm dude

Counting my blessings more and more

I spent all my luck

Dan

[Crackerborn]

I am glad you stayed on the green side of the grass! This is one of my two biggest fears when riding; the other guy and forest rats, in that order. I wish you a quick and complete recovery.

[jshram]

thanks for all the well wishes!  I sure miss my Valk and my Valk Bros. I wouldn't wish this on Obama.. well..   

as for gear, there are so many options out there, the bottom line is wear it.  I have about four levels of gear depending on temperature and hardening.  Course the colder temperature gear has more padding because it doesn't need to flow air.  I was wearing my light summer gear with fully vented Scorpion Jacket, hard armor points, kevlar reinforced, soft back pad.  It performed amazingly, but was worn down on the shoulder and elbow pads... so a 80mph crash?  The pants were my most "casual" which were my Iron Built kevlar lined and padded jeans.  They ruined the EMT sizzors when they cut them off my body.  I would call those jeans minimum pants, but was very surprised at well they worked and for $80 at Cycle gear are a steal. Leather boots, pass...  scoprion full face helmet, pass with flying colors.  light summer gloves, big fail... n all my road rash is around my hands/wrists.  No more super light gloves.

[Mr Whiskey]

Riding motorcycles with deer in the woods (almost everywhere), is really like playing the lottery.

Nah, your odds are much better with the lottery!

Heal well, ride soon, safe winds Brother!

[Bonzo]

Helmets and gear saved my wive and me also! Heal fast, heal well!

[CajunRider]

55mph impact, no warning, remote road, fully on my game.  wearing full armored/kevlar gear (saved my life).  No recollection of anything until I was life-flighted to Murray, UT.

Been there before... I know the feeling.  Except I was in an ambulance instead of a chopper. 
Car pulled out in front of me... no one else anywhere near us. 

My helmet save my life... I still keep it as a reminder.    

Hope you have a fast & full recovery! 

[Hooter]

I got run over by a truck on my scooter but never hit a deer. Corn is high and so are the weeds so this time of year I really watch. IF there is one there "usually" are more to follow. I love to ride this time of year but the corn is a concern.

[pago cruiser]

First, glad you were the winner this time.  Good gear helps with the survival odds, but there are just too many of those beasts.

Posted this over in the GL1800 Forum a few weeks ago.  Craig Vetter (most folks here should remember that name) just got out of ICU after hitting one of those vermin. Link to his thread here:
http://gl1800riders.com/forums/showthread.php?650314-Craig-Vetter-badly-injured-in-deer-strike&highlight=craig+vetter

From the GL1800 Site:
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dam deer. Kill em all.
Wish someone would come up with a solution to this. I commute (riding) from country to city about 100 miles/day on I10 outside Tucson. Easily half a dozen deer fatalities /month, usually a carcass on the side of the road, sometimes a bashed in car.

Those whistles (I have heard) are useless...
Have not seen any reviews of the powered versions. Supposed to be good for 80 feet or so; which might be useful if you are going 20 mph. That would give you about 2 seconds to recognize, react, and stop. Not so good at 75 mph...

Forget about bears, rattlers, and hanta virus from rats. From SLATE: White tail deer are the deadliest animals in North America. There are now about 30 million deer in America, about 100X that of a century ago. 1.25 million accidents/year, 10,000 injuries, 150 fatalities, and over $4 BILLION in insurance payouts annually.

I tell ya, if we can put men on the moon (wait, we can't do that any more... ) why can't we stop, or at least minimize, deer running into a moving vehicle...

Problem is... I really don't think anybody is working on this... "Oh well, what can we do. Drive slow, be careful at dusk, keep your lucky rabbits foot with you..."...

It's all Walt Disney's fault... I was in a gas station in Minnesota maybe 20 years ago, and a hunter drove up in an SUV with a buck tied to his luggage rack, the buck's rack facing forward; guess he was showing off... A 10-12 year old little girl was in the car next door, with California plates. "MOMMY MOMMY, HE KILLED BAMBI!!!: I think this has been a gag in a movie since then, but this was real-time.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
New stuff:

AFAIC, hunting season should be year round, and if the AMA had any cajones  , there would be a $20 bounty paid for each set of (4) deer hoofs delivered to collection points scattered around the country.

All that said, since I posted that I have been thinking a lot about this.  Night vision works great on a sailboat (still have em from our sailing days) but not so much for animals hiding in bushes.  Bright lights?  Loud music?  Coyote scent sprayed on the bike?  Not much reality here....

However, think I have found a real, workable solution; albeit a bit pricey.  Lookee here:



This is freaking awesome!  The IR camera to do this is about $2500, monitor maybe another $500.  Here:http://www.flir.com/cores/content/?id=62945
You have to click on the "Where to buy" button to find a distributor.

They have a great video to watch on the site.  Cheaper versions do exist, but I have yet to see any comparisons of different versions for something like our needs. 

$3k ain't chump change, but compared to dying?  Or best case, 11 (or more..) days in the hospital, missing work, major life changes, plus months of pain and rehab; it's a bargain.  This is the only means I have come across to actually give motorcyclists a fighting chance;  other than that lucky rabbits foot, or staying home watching TCB re-runs.

These things have been out a few years, and are now options on upper end autos.  I would think that with $4 BILLION in insurance claims/year, insurance companies would be all over this. Why hasn't Honda or BMW put a version of these on a bike from the factory?  It would be a game changer for the industry.  Kind of like if someone could have offered Amelia Earhart a Garmin GPS: "Here you go, your impossible problem is now solved." 

If you ride 30,000 miles/year, $3k is about a dime per mile.  About what I pay for gas on the Valk.   

[cookiedough]

Yep, they are starting to pick the corn this week and that gets the critters a moving.  I slow it down at night coming home from work around 11:30 p.m..  Knock on wood, no close calls on a deer but they have passed well ahead of me and one even stopped dead center in the road staring at me and I stopped and stared big BUCK back was playing chicken with me would NOT move until I beeped the horn at him very close to him and made him jump a little and wander off finally.  IDIOT deer thought he owned the road or something?   I have had though tons of close calls on racooons, possum, and skunk, among other small varmints mostly at night some very NEAR misses.  I doubt one of them littler critters would knock me off the cycle, but they could if hit it the right way am sure.

Glad you took your time to armor up probably saved your life.   I am an oddball, wearing shorts and t-shirt but with helmet on during summer hotter months.  I do get my protective heavy duty armor coat on during early spring and cooler fall months though pretty soon, time for shorts to go bye-bye sometime in October as well.  I also have a very nice set of protective gloves, but during summer months being hotter, I don't wear them.

I guess what good is all this armor if I don't wear it right?  Glad you did though, except for the gloves part.

Best of luck getting TOP dollar for your totalled Valkyrie.  Heal fast!!!!

[Robert]

Sorry to hear this but glad you will heal to ride another day. 

[Spirited-6]

Need to be buying Lotto Tickets !!!! God Speed on recovery. 

[srteach]

I hate skunks. wife and I riding two up hit one. twelve foot wide lane, no other vehicles, 10 inch long skunk. Ran over it. Got back on that bike about a week later, when I could stand the smell.

Nothing like your incident. Take the time to get better, man.

[Gary]

I hate to hear this. Glad you made it out in... re-buildable condition, wish you a speedy mend process!

[John Schmidt]

Wow, heal fast....heal well. I agree with your surgeon re. the wearing of a helmet. In response to a person that says they don't wear a helmet because it's too restrictive, I always say it's not as restrictive as a wheelchair for the rest of your life....assuming you live to need one.

[J.Mencalice]

Just a few comments:
#1 You're alive and that's a good thing.
#2 The "mechanic" did his job, got you restarted and fixed you up. 
     You will walk again, you will ride again.  That's a good thing.
#3 The helmet kept you from being a gork.  That's a good thing.
#4 This is a good story and a thought to remember for all our riders; please wear a helmet even when     you don't want to.  Yeah, that's a good thing.
#5 You can replace the bike and even parts of the body, but not the cabbage.
#6 Protect that cabbage, otherwise you may be one.

A speedy recovery to you, jshram.  There's another Valkyrie and road in Southern Utah as soon as you are able.

[Gryphon]

Sorry to hear about the accident.  Glad to hear you're going to be OK.  Been there, done that 2 years ago in April.  Hit a buck at around 65.  He just jumped out of the ditch and seemed to appear out of no where.  I tell folks I hit him somewhere be between OH and $h!t.  Totaled the Valk.  Shredded my mesh jacket down to the armor.  Left gouges in the chin bar and side of my helmet.  I was a bit more fortunate than you.  Light fracture and severe sprain of my left ankle and a few bruises were the extent of my injuries.  I had a new helmet and jacket on order and delivered before I was off the crutches.

Hope you heal quickly and wish you the best.

[97valk]

HEAL fast and live good, glad you were able to write this .
Very Lucky man

[jshram]

The gunk on the right side of the bike is deer guts.. joy... wish my leg hadn't been in the way when the deer scraped down the side, would have saved a lot of pain.

John

[J.Mencalice]

Ugly man, just plain ugly.