On Feb 21st, a pickup truck ran a stop sign and shot out from behind an abandoned building right at the corner of the intersection I was approaching at 5:40 a.m. on my way to work. In that tenth of a second I only knew that I was going to hit him. I was running about 50 mph. There are more damning details but the lawyer advises not to discuss more here until my substantial medical bills get paid. (Other driver was cited right on the spot.) So much for my Screaming Eagle Road Glide.

Aside from the pics below, both saddlebags and the tourpak pretty much self destructed from the sudden stop collision, and the front fairing took almost all of the direct impact.(The fairing was later swept up off the roadway and shoveled into a large garbage bag.)

I lost consciousness on impact. It appears that I hit his left rear wheel well. The front wheel somehow actually got in there and concentrated the force onto the his fender and my fairing. The wheel and tire survived, but the forks and everything above that got whacked pretty good.

To speed up the property damage claim, I filed with my insurance company who totaled the bike and then subrogated their payment to me back to his insurance company. In this way I got the settlement (along with my deductible,) for the bike within a week while the other medical stuff stays out there as long as necessary.

They gave me $10,200 for my 2000 S/E Road Glide. (At 141,000 miles on the odometer, having been offered that amount more than satisfied me.) But I didn't want to give up my bike. The damage was all up front. The motor/tranny/primary/foot boards-even the front lower fairings, remained intact and appeared untouched. So I settled for a check for $8,200 and they brought my now salvaged bike back to the house. I keep my title but have to sign off on the 'salvage or underwater' option that they have here in NC if I ever sell it.

I realized that I could never rebuild the Road Glide at any sort of reasonable cost. It's a salvage bike now and the value will always be limited because of it. But a Road King conversion? Yeah, I can do that. So I bought a new set of forks and cans and triple tree bearings. Then I bought a Road King nacelle off of Ebay. And I figured out which wires are needed to run a Road King and which ones were now unnecessary. My Ebay Road King Custom saddle bags arrived last week. Here's what 'Mad Max' looks like now. My windshield (another EBay find,) will be here this week. And I found a nice front fender on Craigs list (right color too!) and will pick that up within a couple of days. The frame's fairing bolt holes took the majority of the force, tearing 3/8" holes into a 1" slots right in the middle of the beefy box frame, just behind the triple trees. That's the strongest frame member on the bike.There is no evidence of damage anywhere else on the frame after partially stripping the bike down for inspection.

I rode the bike for a hundred miles this past week and everything checks out fine. Tracks straight and true and understandably is quicker than it ever was as a Road Glide.

Now for the speedo, and I'm still considering my options there. Everything that otherwise should work now does: turn signals, 4 ways , horn, headlight, brake lights and ignition. Cruise is lost and because this is a budget (salvage) build, a new HD speedometer won't be installed. (Besides, a Road King speedo sits on the dash right where my Road Glide fuel tank gets filled.) I'm thinking some type of mini GPS unit perhaps.

So I originally gave $2000 for the bike. Everything else was on sale and has added about $1500 more (so far.) Just about the time I'm done I'll be right around $4,000 invested. Not bad at all I think. Here are some pics.

 

Bike looks good considering the damage. Hate to see an original go down hard. Glad you choose to save even tho its a king.

 

Bike looks great,but the most important thing is your health. I hope the lawyer takes care of you and makes sure you are well compensated for this ordeal. I feel your pain because I'm going through a similar situation,and it sucks!

 

Very sorry for your injuries and the damage to your bike!
You are both survivors. Can't keep a good man or bike down I'd say.
I hope that you can recovery completely and quickly, with a good settlement.
Best wishes
Art

( the bike looks like it is coming along just great )

 

Thanks everyone! I appreciate the thoughts (and the compliments on my ride.)

I took it to work for the first time today and the guys were equally supportive. I also got caught in the rain on the way home and can't wait to get the fender and windshield back on too.

 

Can the 2000 bikes use the power vision? It would make a neat guage setup.

 

Damn Stiggy, I don't know how I missed this....I didn't know you got got ....I think it's when I had to fly to Canada for my sisters death....I am glad you got the bike converted into something rideable, looks pretty cool.....Glad you are still either us, I was wondering why your bike looked different ? Thought maybe you got tired of the look .....

 

Saw a reference to this thread on another one, missed it first time around. Every bit of energy absorbed by something else reduces the impact on your body, I suspect that smashed fairing absorbed a fair amount. Never really thought of that till I looked at your pics. I'd still rather not test it out on my Tour Glide, though. Since you could fix the bike and ride again, guess you've healed up pretty well, and that's always good. That Road King conversion is probably a lot easier than rebuilding a shark nose, and will be so much easier to change fork oil now - I've had my Glide front end off, and it's the most complicated I ever got into.

 

looks great