Beloved Norge is toast

[Adk.IBO]

Glad to hear you both survived the crash. Hope you mend quickly.  Makes me wonder if those deer whistles work?

I've had them on quite a few bikes for quite a few years. They've seemed to work better on some bikes which leads me to believe it's dependent on placement. They won't stop the deer but they tend to wonder what the heck that strange noise is and they pause. 3 deer at dusk in Wisconsin paused as I was leading 1 of 2 buddies couldn't avoid 1 of them. Fortunately zero damage and no injuries, fatal mistake for the deer. The front axle nut of the R90S clipped the deer on the side of it's head doing it in. Really lucky. Many other instances where they pause just enough to get me by. So yes I think they work.

[Kev m]

Ouch, very sorry to hear. But I think we're gonna have to give you a new moniker - isn't that the 2nd Guzzi you've killed?


Blackbuell nah - GuzziKiller

 

[Two Checks]

I imagine the deer whistles would work but how do you get the deer to blow on them?

[John A]

that's rough news, bad as it is, Im glad it wasn't worse. I hope you both heal quickly.

[wirespokes]

Well done escaping with only minor injuries. Consider yourself very lucky!

I hit an elk at 65 - possibly slower than that, but not sure if the ABS was working or not. Kind of think it wasn't. Went over a 20ft embankment and got knocked out. Had an out-of-body experience and thought I'd died. Normally I'd have been super depressed about hurting the bike, but instead when I came to, was super happy just to be alive. Looked at the bike and figured - there are more bikes, not a big deal. Really out of character for me!

Sounds like you're doing well, and hopefully, unlike me, carried full coverage on the Norge.

[H-E-ROSS]

Wishing a speedy recovery to you and yours!

[pete roper]

Well, that sucks bigger than a very large sucky thing! Heal well.

Then go out and grab an 8V!

Pete

[blackbuell]

Ouch, very sorry to hear. But I think we're gonna have to give you a new moniker - isn't that the 2nd Guzzi you've killed?


Blackbuell nah - GuzziKiller

 

Yep, this is the 2nd Guzzi lost in 3 years, the first, of course, was the very cool jackal that I bought from you. The jackal was rear-ended by a young lady playing with her cell phone, I wasn't hurt too bad in that wreck; this latest deer-strike was a lot more painful; it is my second motorcycle deer-strike in 13 years; the earlier one was NOT on a Guzzi; it was on a Kawasaki ZZR12. These wrecks are starting to take their toll on my body and on my enthusiasm for riding.

Jon

[Kev m]

Yep, this is the 2nd Guzzi lost in 3 years, the first, of course, was the very cool jackal that I bought from you. The jackal was rear-ended by a young lady playing with her cell phone, I wasn't hurt too bad in that wreck; this latest deer-strike was a lot more painful; it is my second motorcycle deer-strike in 13 years; the earlier one was NOT on a Guzzi; it was on a Kawasaki ZZR12. These wrecks are starting to take their toll on my body and on my enthusiasm for riding.

Jon

Deer strikes are the worst because there's so little we can do. Around here the forest rats are thick and you might come across em in broad daylight too so I try to be extra careful. At least most of the big forest roads are extra wide (large bicycle lanes on each shoulder, so it's like having at least an extra lane of sight, plug there's usually some cutback past the shoulders too. Still, I don't do much night riding as they get extra busy.

Didn't safety guru Lawrence Grodsky (sp?) get taken out by a deer at night too.

I totally get the rethinking thing. I shattered my right radius (Shotokan training) just behind the wrist almost 2 months ago now and it made me rethink a lot of things, but in the end I'm still riding and still training, just trying to remember I'm not 25 anymore.

Heal up man!

[Northern Bill]

Again, I am glad you two are on the mend.

I think I will put on one of those whistles .

I did a trip a couple of years ago to Newfoundland.  It is said that there are more moose than people on the island?  Anyway I got off the ferry in a complete fog.  You could see 10 feet at best so I parked the bike at the Tim Hortons by the ferry and waited about an hour for a little more visibility.  I hadn't gone 100 yards and I saw an Astro Van with the whole front of it missing.  He had hit a moose.  After that I made a point of finishing every day in the light but one day I got caught out.  I had booked a B+B and I was a bit late getting off the Labrador ferry so I rode very slowly for about an hour in the dusk.  It was quite unnerving so when I finally got to the small town where the B+B was I started to relax but that was only temporary. There were 3 or 4 moose wandering down the mainstreet. Don't let the moose put you off though. Newfoundland and Labrador are great places to visit.

[nobleswood]

Glad to hear you survived. That was fast to be hitting a deer.

Rest & heal. Best wishes for you & your wife. 

[blackbuell]

Big surprise to me, but I just heard from my insurance rep (Progressive) that, in their opinion, the damage to my Norge is largely superficial and that the bike might be repairable. He is having it towed to the nearest MG dealership, Cadre Cycle of Cincinnati, to see what they have to say about the repair cost. Apparently the estimate made by Progressive is close to, but below the totaling cut-off.  I have mixed feelings about it; I do want the bike back, but I am concerned that some hidden issues, like a slightly tweaked frame, might remain, and that the bike will never be the same.

Turns out my wife does not need surgery on her arm; she is doing much better. I am still making periodic visits to a wound center to take care of my road rash, but am otherwise OK. Could have ended up much worse, given the circumstances.

Thanks for all of the well-wishing,

Jon

[Lannis]

Big surprise to me, but I just heard from my insurance rep (Progressive) that, in their opinion, the damage to my Norge is largely superficial and that the bike might be repairable. He is having it towed to the nearest MG dealership, Cadre Cycle of Cincinnati, to see what they have to say about the repair cost. Apparently the estimate made by Progressive is close to, but below the totaling cut-off.  I have mixed feelings about it; I do want the bike back, but I am concerned that some hidden issues, like a slightly tweaked frame, might remain, and that the bike will never be the same.

Turns out my wife does not need surgery on her arm; she is doing much better. I am still making periodic visits to a wound center to take care of my road rash, but am otherwise OK. Could have ended up much worse, given the circumstances.

Thanks for all of the well-wishing,

Jon

The "totalled" vs "repair" thing depends entirely on the shop.

We had a new Pontiac Firebird (1984 model).   In 1985, a woman hit Fay head-on - knocked the radiator off its mounts, broke the windshield (Fay's hand did that), pushed the left front wheel six inches back.

At the time, "book value" on the car was $8600, and the repair estimate was $8000.   I never would have believed they could fix it, but that's what the insurance decided to do.   We were very suspicious that it would ever be right ... but it was.   We couldn't tell it from new when we got it back.   A fellow named Dick Almony (RIP May 2017) from "Dick's Body Shop" fixed it and it was right, frame straightening and all.

So it might work out for you IF IF IF you have a caring, competent shop ....

Lannis

[jpv7]

Glad to hear things are looking a bit better.

I just got back from a few days of glorious riding in Virginia, and was surprised by the number of fresh, well-fed, deer road kills on the shoulders.  Pennsylvania was surprising too.

[mojohand]

So sorry to hear, but glad the injuries are fairly minimal.

FYI, I have an Atlanta-area pal who's selling his low-mileage 2008 silver Norge. Let me know by PM if you'll wanna talk about that, when you're up for talking about such.

[Arizona Wayne]

It doesn't take much to bend a MC frame.  If the frame is bent then the whole bike needs to be disassembled to straighten the frame properly and  just the labor cost involved doing that + reassembly is why MCs are usually totaled.

[Tennmoto]

It really hard to avoid deer at 70mph, at least there weren't any big trucks or cars to finish you off
I think those times that deer move is a bag time to be out but unavoidable sometimes.
I ditto all the support you're getting.