So, you just want to skip ATGATT this time, huh?

That was a big ass doe Randy, he's lucky to be alive. Had a huge mule deer jump over the hood of my truck in Montana. I was only going about 35 but it was huge and would have been through the dash in another second. I looked back at my kids and they were wide eyed with open mouths.

 

Yeah thats generally true and doing that has saved me a few times but that was at the track with a more consistent surface. Like FJ said another possibility was as he described. Low sides are so much less of an evil. Usually. lol

 

Yup. It was. It was a good thing Jeff was a bit ahead of us. He was able to pick himself up and scramble up to the roadway just in time to wave down Brian who was next to come along. But just barely. If he had not gotten up that embankment, we would have driven by him not even knowing he went off the road until god knows how long. Could have turned out much worse for sure. In addition to the armoured jacket and pants, he wears a back protector under his jacket as well. There was deer fir and deer shit all over his jacket and pants too. He and the bike also hit a tree after hitting the deer and before going into the ditch so there was actually three collisions he survived.

 

ATGATT .... 3 1/2 weeks ago I was in a head-on collision with a semi-truck.

I was able to minimize my exposure and the gear did the reason. My left foot and shoulder are still messed up but slowly getting better, but I'm already riding thanks to my gear.

I'm also a huge proponent for riding with intercoms - my buddies knew something had happened before they even came around the corner. We were constantly warning each other of gravel on the road or letting each other know if we were low on fuel / had to stop.

(for those who aren't familiar with my plight - the semi was moved after the accident occurred - he was partly into my lane originally)

 

Gawd!!! Just so you know, if I poke fun at you I don't mean anything unworthy towards you with that. But I am still inclined to do so.

 

BTW. Did you clean up all that oil and shit off the road or leave it there for someone else to deal with?

 

NP bud ... I was making light of it two days after it happened, much to my wife's chagrin.

Hell no, all that liquid on the road was the coolant that leaked out of the truck. the Bike didn't leak anything as far as I know, except the fuel since the tank was flattened like a pancake.

 

HOLY FUCK Jeff, your a 1%r to walk away from that. You deffinatley had a angle watching your hiney

 

1% perhaps ... but not lucky by any stretch. A plan and the ability to almost fully carry it out (along with my gear) saved my ass.

 

Now this thread is just nutz, Talk about Angels, yea I've seen em in person, brings back a few not so great moments. or great moments depending where you're sitting. Thanks Randy for the enlightenment, gets me asking, why do I ride all over again, just when i thought I had put that in the back closet.. ya know, outa sight outa mind Crazy.. Just Crazy ?

 

Welcome back Jay. Took long enough though!

 

This is pretty much what happened. Just regular acceleration out of a turn, nothing crazy, but it was a lot of large gravel and sand. He didn't stand a chance.

 

Glad your healing up and riding again. I'm curious about the jeans your wearing in that photo. Kevlar or not I don't consider jeans ATGATT.

 

I wear Joe Rocket Blaster Armored jeans.

They are both kevlar reinforced and have hard plastic armored panels - because of the armored panels I consider it ATGATT. If it they didn't have armored panels, then I'd agree with you.

I can't fully comment on that incident just yet - but let's just say that it reinforced ATGATT for me.

 

So what exactly is this plan? I'm a little confused because you can't really plan on how to handle a crash, I mean if you see a semi coming toward you, it's hard to say, "Ok here we go, time to execute plan b"

 

This is the "tricky" part about ATGATT... the first A is somewhat undefined or subjective.

 

This was actually a scenario I had always thought about and rehearse in my mind every time I get on a bike ... this is the the absolute worst case scenario.

The plan was to put the bike in a position where I could bail out of the way .... easier said than done, right? I agree, especially after being through this. Had the speeds of the collision been any higher and there would have been no way to react fast enough. I would have died, hands down.

That said, it's no different than sky diving, base jumping, or scuba diving - you plan for the worst case scenario, rehearse, and have that exit strategy to give you the best chance for survival should the situation ever arise. Keep a calm head and hope that you're able to pull it off.

Better to have thought about it in advanced than to be surprised and having to think about it when you should be reacting.

 

That's a good plan, also you might want to consider to always jump on the brake by default. I know in your situation it was unavoidable to simply stop in time but at least it would slow you down just enough so it wouldn't be a fatal impact.

What works for me is I always have 2 fingers resting on the clutch and 1 finger resting on the brake lever. It may be a little uncomfortable at first but you get used to it after a while and it pays off IMO in the rare case when you need to stop immediately.

Good you made it alive!

 

I actually did stomp the brake ... it's what helped give me that additional reaction time and reduced the force of the impact ... I locked the front brake up and put my weight over the back tire ... knees bent and ready to make the jump off.

I don't always ride with a finger on the brake ... I will assess road conditions and risks and move my finger there accordingly. On a 4-lane highway with little traffic and open terrain, I won't bother. If there are tight trees / high density of wildlife or vehicles, then my finger is resting on it.

 

I ride a lot with a finger on the brake and often thumb on the horn.