This is why you wear gear.

Awesome. I just ate E36 M3 about 30 minutes ago. I almost gave two suicidal deer their wish. I panicked and locked up the front brake and low sided it. If I'd have locked the rears, I'd just have a story to tell at work.

The bike is surprisingly in good shape with a dent in the tank were the bars made contact, a crushed turn signal, and a shift lever that looks like a Twizzler.

My gear,however, is wasted. The helmet, Kevlar pants, gloves and jacket all took a beating. My right thumb got tweaked going down and is swollen and sore, and I have a small strawberry on my left knee were I slid down the road, but that's it. If I was one of those "tough guys" with a vest and a do rag, this would be a different story.

Jesus, take a look at the knuckles! Sorry for the blurry pics, I'm still tweaked from Adrenalin. I'm gonna go chug some Bourbon (kidding) and go back to bed. Fuuuuuuu...

Wow, glad you're OK. I can't imagine how bad your hands would look if you weren't wearing the gloves.

Ouch. Sorry to hear of your bad luck, but on the bright side everything worked out rather well. Gear can be replaced, bike can be fixed and your relatively safe. Go get checked out, don't wait.

Glad you're OK. Take more pics when you're not shaking.

Glad to hear it was your gear that got shredded and not you! Looking at the knuckles on those gloves, though, makes me rethink what I'm wearing. It looks like those gloves have a protective plate over the knuckles; am I seeing that right?

Yup. Thick, white Nylon. The pointer finger's knuckle on the left hand, the one that's not hurt at all, is noticeably crushed in. There's also spots of white paint that rubbed off the tank when it dropped on my hand. Maybe that's why its in OK shape, sliding on my fingers instead.

Yikes, good job on wearing your gear! I got in a more minor incident a few years back (low speed high side) and my gear kept me from having to go to the hospital. I can't imagine riding with flip flops and a tank top.

ATGATT Sorry about the crash, but your insurance should pay for the gear. What bike were you on?

I lowsides on the track once and got my ring finger stuck inder the clip-on and wore away the glove and most of my fingernail. That was a fun day.

Glad to hear you're doing ok, and thats exactly what the gear is for.

The gear did its job. Glad you're still here to post about it.

Good call on the insurance. I'll give them a call with a "hypothetical" question.

I ride/rode a Honda CM200T, BTW.

Glad you are OK. Nothing to reinforce ATGATT like going down. (ask me how I know)

I am getting Kevlar pants for the summer!

Glad you're okay. I was out for a ride and saw a few dozen deer around in various places. Very annoyed the traffic behind me when I slowed. Getting terribly hurt because of striking an animal is one of my biggest motorcycle fears.

Need any help fixing up the bike, let me know.

If you or anyone else can find a shift lever for a 1980 Honda CM200T TwinStar that would help me greatly. E - Bay was no luck, but a CM185T should work, and maybe one from a CB250 Nighthawk. Rebels are forward controls. I also think a CR125 lever might work, too, I just have to research it. Any help will be appreciated. And thanks for the sympathies guys.

Dam near broke my neck once hitting a low flying turkey.... thank god I saw it and ducked down to the tank. still clipped it but stayed up. I have a friend who towed with a Gold Wing his 500cc Ascott flat tracker who hit a deer on his way to the track.. he had to borrow a set of leather to race that night his were all road rashed and bloodied. It's not just the cell phones and GPS out to harm us its the small brain mammals too.

Glad you are ok, I hit a deer a few years ago and broke my collar bone

In reply to 44Dwarf:

Yea, I smacked a crow with my old helmet last year.......my neck still hurts thinking about it.

Had a close call with a deer a couple weeks ago. Luckily I was just tooling around a local back road near the lake at 20mph but still managed to come within a foot of it. I was looking to my left and just caught a glimpse of movement out of my right side peripherals. Damn thing ran right out in front of me. I didn't brake just swerved but it was very close.

Glad you're OK.

Glad your ok, my cousin hit a deer on his crotch rocket and it looked like he sliced it in half, except for the backbone. It was crazy, I'm not sure how fast he was going though.

Glad you're OK man. That could've been a LOT worse if not for your gear.

Dog ran out into my RD350 front axle turning the wheel about 45 degrees and went out directly under the rear wheel. Launched the rear high. Rolling cluster berkeley there. There was dog hair in the axle nut, pipes, chambers, under frame. Spent some time at the local tavern de-tuning after that one.

Can't ever imagine hitting a deer.

Glad you're OK, be safe out there.

Glad you're okay! Deer are jerks. Gear shopping is kinda fun at least. I recommend webbikeworld.com for reviews and recommendations on riding gear.

In reply to Appleseed:

I'm curious about your Kevlar pants. How much worse off would it have been if you were just in regular jeans?

Regular jeans tear like tissue when they hit asphalt.

Not sure if it'd been worse, but most jeans, the cheap ones I'd buy, are crap for strength. I've destroyed them just doing simple, upright work. Ideally, I would have had pants with CE armor in them, but considering my hand took most of the impact, its a tough call about the jeans.