Car wheel hits Harley on freeway

[muleskinner]

One of the young Marines that rents housing from me escaped with his life yesterday!!!!!!! He was riding his 2012 Harley Davidson Dyna series Street Bob East bound on HWY 60 in the Moreno Valley, CA area. He was riding in the car pool lane around 75MPH, when the left front tire and wheel came off of the Toyota Camry driving in the fast lane next to him. What are the odds of this happening!!!!

(In this area, HWY 60 is a large ten lane asphalt surface freeway with five lanes of traffic and a car pool lane traveling East and West. There is a five feet tall concrete barrier in the center divider of the roadway separating the opposing lanes of traffic)

Being the fast thinking Marine he is, as the tire came towards him he kicked the tire deflecting the impact of the tire some what. The tire still hit his right front fork breaking the right front brake caliper bosses off of the lower right fork. That exposed the interior of the fork, causing the fork oil to spray all over his bike.

The tire then hit his right front foot peg snapping the bolts that hold the peg mount onto the frame. The tire then hit the rear brake foot lever snapping the foot pad mount off. The tire then hit the front cylinder exhaust pipe caving the pipe in. Luckily, having no brakes he was able to keep the bike upright and get the bike stopped.

His only injury was a broken right foot due to him kicking the tire. The bike is damaged, but repairable. His right foot is in a hard cast.

He is so lucky he was able to keep the bike up!! The bike is only eight months old! I built him a motor when he first got the bike. It's a nice, tricked out bike. Hopefully Harley won't total the bike when his insurance agent goes to look at the bike. I don't think they will. I do know if the right front foot peg mount had bent the frame, Harley would total the bike.

One lucky dude!!!!

 

[webmaster]

This happened to my brother roughly two weeks ago. An SUV pulled out in front of him on a busy highway and touched is front tire. He bought his Harley new earlier this year.

He hasn't always been wearing his gear, but did so that day. He works out (former Navy), but his body took some bruises as he skidded on the highway. He is doing Ok, but it is going to take a while to recover and get his bike back.

 

[breeze]

im glad hes okay tell him I THANK HIM FOR HIS SERVICE

 

[RKTNMYPKT]

I actually thought this was a joke and kept waiting for the punch line......

He really is a lucky man! how he managed to keep the bike on two wheels is a miracle.

I was once coming back from SoCal on 99 on my Rocket, and a Toyota in front of me had a tire disintegrate I ducked behind the wind shield as the tread of the tire flew right over my head as pieces of rubber bounced all around me.

You never know whats going to happen out there....

 

[Ugarte]

Scary stuff, it could have been a lot worse. HTF does a wheel just fall off a car? The lug nuts must have not been tightened. Things that are just a minor annoyance in a car can be a catastrophe on a bike. I remember coming home from work one day on the Rocket and about 200 yards ahead of me a car started spinning across the freeway lanes, hit the dirt and flipped over twice. It was like watching a movie stunt. You never know when the S is going to HTF.

 

[mexican]

Glad he is alive and he is a marine, tougher than nails!!

 

[scot in exile]

Remember years ago I was driving home on Hwy14 heading to Palmdale CA I was in my truck doing about 80mph when a wheel from a car quite a bit in front of me was bouncing all over the place the freeway was pretty empty but the bloody wheel had target fixation I would swerve left the wheel would swerve to its right anyhoo ended up missing it by inches just glad I was not on my bike.

 

[muleskinner]

Glad he is alive and he is a marine, tougher than nails!!

Oh yea. He is the head "Hand to hand" close combat instructor at the 29 Palms base. He is 29 years old, a Staff Sergeant, 6'3" and about 235 pounds of pure muscle. It would figure with his martial arts back ground that he would react and kick at the tire. Not me, as I would not be able to think that fast and most likely have taken a direct hit and went down! Ah to be young again!

 

[1olbull]

Scary stuff, it could have been a lot worse. HTF does a wheel just fall off a car? The lug nuts must have not been tightened. Things that are just a minor annoyance in a car can be a catastrophe on a bike. I remember coming home from work one day on the Rocket and about 200 yards ahead of me a car started spinning across the freeway lanes, hit the dirt and flipped over twice. It was like watching a movie stunt. You never know when the S is going to HTF.

Real good to hear that the Marine Sgt. is recovering and doing well. I thank him for his service to our country. I do have one question, however . . .
HTF
does this mean "how the fu*k"?
or does it mean "hit the fan"?
or does it mean "hope this helps"?
Best Regards,
1olbull

 

[muleskinner]

I think he meant "How the F,,k." I guess the story the Toyota driver told the CHP officer was he had just had his car in for some kind of service and they "Must have left the lug nuts loose."

I guess this could be a good thing for the Marine, as he has already completed a tour of Afghanistan and was going to volunteer to go another round with his group of trainees. Ya know how these young guys are. They all want to go over there and kick some ass! His last duty station before he came up here was Camp Pendleton, where he was a Drill Instructor.

My son you see standing next to me in my Avatar picture took one tour of Iraq in 2007 and now wants to go to Afghanistan. I told him "HAVE YOU LOST YOUR MIND!!!!!" As a parent, my wife and I were scared to death and watched the news every night hoping not to see him in the news story!!!! I have Grey hair now. Another tour in the sand box will give me a stroke or a hear attack!!