I wrote this back in Sept/Oct not long after the incident.

This is long, but I'm kind of bored sitting on the couch with my foot propped up...

During my time as an MSF RiderCoach, I heard all kinds of mishap stories from riders of various experience levels. One of the common phrases you hear when a rider is telling a story about an accident is, "I didn't have a choice, I HAD to lay it down". In an effort to keep the classes moving and everyone in good spirits, I would rarely challenge the rider on what led them to "have to lay it down". I have been in some pretty hairy situations throughout my 25-plus years of riding motorcycles and one thing I know to be true is, I have never faced a situation where my only option was to lay down my motorcycle.

As long as a rider is doing their part to minimize risk (speed, head on a swivel, not being distracted, proper maintenance, etc) most dangerous situations can be mitigated. In those scenarios where a car darts out in front of a rider, they should utilize skills learned in the BRC (swerve, progressive braking, being especially alert approaching intersections) in order to avoid an accident.

Now, with all that being said, there comes a time when the planets align, the universe conspires against you, and all you can do is keep all hands and feet inside the vehicle until the ride comes to a complete stop.

Here's my latest instance of planet alignment and universes conspiring...

Friday, Sept 26, at about 7:15am I was riding my 2015 Dyna Street Bob to Mount Pleasant, Tx from my house in Atlanta, Tx. Mount Pleasant isn't my usual post, but I've worked it before and I am very familiar with the roads I needed to take to get there. Nevertheless, I gave myself an extra 15min cushion on top of the 15 mins I normally give myself to make sure there weren't any surprises. This time of year, the sun rises around 7:00am in this part of the country; 7:09am to be more specific for Sept 26.

As I was riding west down Hwy-77 through Cass County, I was enjoying the cool morning air and thinking about my day ahead. I quickly reminded myself about the increasing threat of wildlife on the roads as the weather starts to cool off. I stepped up my vigilance in scanning the sides of the road; looking for any movement, reflection, color differences, etc. The sun began rising behind me and gave me some great back lighting to enhance my view.

Unfortunately, the sun was rising directly behind me. As I made my way through a shallow dip in the road, the sun popped up in both of my mirrors, effectively blinding my vision in any direction except directly in front of my motorcycle. That's when it happened. I caught a glimpse of a large white dog in my periphery just as it slammed into the right side of my motorcycle.

In case anyone is wondering, hitting a full-size Great Pyrenees at 75 mph on a motorcycle isn't fun. There's no sugar coating it. All a motorcyclist can hope for is surviving. Proper training and personal protective equipment are essential in these situations.

One piece of protective equipment I installed on my Dyna was a Bung King Crash Bar. The right side of the crash bar took the brunt of the impact (followed shortly thereafter by my right foot) and thankfully did its job. Even with my front wheel in the midst of the most extreme death wobble I've ever encountered (seriously, it was a tank slapper) I never even considered laying the motorcycle down as an option. And even though the impact broke my right foot and sent me careening across two lanes of traffic, I managed to keep the motorcycle on two wheels and come to a controlled stop.

I briefly considered continuing on to Mount Pleasant before assessing the damage, but quickly realized I was injured and would only be putting myself at a higher risk by trying to ride a mechanically compromised motorcycle in my condition. I called my supervisor to aprise him of the situation and then called my wife. I knew she would be stalking me on Life 360 and be freaked out when she saw that I was no longer moving at 75mph down Hwy-77. She said she would hook up the trailer and start heading my way.

At this time, a couple of fire fighters from a neighboring town saw me sitting on the ground next to my motorcycle and decided to pull over to check on me. After a little bit of persuasion, I agreed that calling an ambulance was probably the best idea.

A short ambulance ride, some pain meds and a couple of x-rays later, it was determined that I had in fact broken some bones in my foot and what wasn't broken was severely sprained. I had to miss about a week of work to let my foot heal before I could put a boot back on and resume normal operations.

The moral of the story is: Don't let "laying it down" be your only option. We should all be practicing progressive braking to keep that skill sharp for when the time comes to use it. Keeping our situation awareness up and staying alert of what's happening around us will give us that crucial extra second or two allowing us to make a decision that could be the difference between a quick trip for some x-rays or something much much worse.

Thanks for reading.

-Robert

 

Robert, thank The Lord it was not more serious. Dogs are a hazard, I ran over one but did not go down.

 

"As long as a rider is doing their part to minimize risk (speed, head on a swivel, not being distracted, proper maintenance, etc) most dangerous situations can be mitigated."

Riding 75 mph in the dark/at sunrise doesn't sound like you were doing your part to minimize risk. God speed your recovery.

John

 

That was the posted speed limit, and like I said, the sun was rising behind me that gave me great visibility to the front.

 

Sometimes, following the "basic speed law" is better than doing the posted speed limit. And, visibility wasn't actually that great, was it, if you hit a huge dog. Not an MSF instructor, but I've got almost 55 years in the saddle.

John

 

Did you even read the sequence of events? I crested a hill and started down the other side "into a shallow dip". The sun hit my mirrors which precluded me from seeing the sides of the road. Dog snuck in....at least I kept it upright and didn't "have to lay it down".

 

Yes, I read it, and it sounds like you were travelling way too fast for the conditions. JMHO.

John

 

The conditions were perfect! Clear skies, dry pavement, good visibility.....up until the freak timing of the sun reflecting in my mirrors at the exact moment a dog runs out from the side of the road. Thank you for your opinion, John.

 

I was riding to Quitman Tx a few years ago with my friend on his 2017 Ultra in front of me. We were riding about 60mph. We rode around a turn and I saw several Pyrenees running across the road and hit my brakes hard and missed them. My friend ran over one but was able to keep it upright. We stopped and checked out his bike and to calm down. A man from a house came by and said they were chasing a coyote. We looked to see if the dog was hurt, but we couldn't find it and no one in the area claimed they knew who the owner was. His bike came off the ground and I only hope the dog wasn't hurt bad. Between pigs, deer and dogs you have to be careful and lucky.

 

How about heading into the wall on a divided interstate?