BMW meets Bear @ 60mph

Three weeks ago my dad and I set out on vacation for what was supposed to be two weeks of riding and camping through Alberta, Montana, Idaho, Washington and British Columbia.

On the second day out we were heading towards the border on Hwy6. Nice road, though we were getting a little rain. We passed a group of riders pulled over on Goldwings and when we were about a mile from the border crossing a grizzly yearling ran out from the left side of the road and in front of my dad.

He had no time to brake or avoid it and went down. I had opened up a larger than normal following distance for going through the turns (2-3 secs) and was able to stop in lots of time.

Here be the pictures:

All packed up and ready to set out


The beemer before


Aand after


The cause



You can see where the front wheel went right over him. He then got stuck underneath as the bike went down (my dad was fortunately free of the wreckage) on top of him and slid for a bit until something caught and the bear got left behind as the bike rolled into and down the ditch.






Don't worry, all the blood was the bear's


Bits


After checking to see my dad wasn't too badly injured I rode down to the border post and one of the CBSA people called for the cops and ambulance




I stood the bike up after the cop came and had checked it out




The trail you can see is where the bike went down on top of the bear. Where the cop car is parked is where the bike ended up in the ditch. Up ahead you can also see the border crossing



Next two are not for the squeamish :laugh:



The gear
Some road rash on the gloves



In the bottom left of the picture is the visor of his helmet, it popped of when he hit the ground.



Of course he was wearing his rain pants instead of the armored ones that were in his bags



One elbow

The other




Cam cover:


The tow truck driver was also a rider and had a handy wheel lock/winch deely on his big flatbed which held the bike nice and steady and made things easy once we got it out of the ditch



All in all my dad did pretty darn well for going down at 60mph, just a couple cuts and scrapes and a big bruise on one side plus some skin gone from rug burn from the mesh on the inside of the jacket when he hit. He's pushing 60.

I had a few more pictures but I took them with my film slr and can't get my scanner to work so they'll have to wait.

My dad got a ride with the cop back into town and my bro in-law came out to give him a ride home the next day and I rode the 500 miles back that day too (more than what it sounds like when you're on a bike that's about as comfortable as being stabbed after about 60 miles). When we got home we found out our weeping tile system which drains straight into the sewer had blocked up and flooded part of the basement. We got that unblocked and pulled some carpets and left again in a couple of days for a condensed road trip in my dad's other BMW (rag-top car). On our third day out we got rear-ended by some old bat in Kallispell, Montana. Of course she didn't have insurance . Anyway, we kept going and eventually made it home.

The bike was towed (covered by insurance) to the biggest BMW bike place in Canada in Calgary and we're waiting to hear if it'll be totalled. Everything looked straight (forks, frame, etc) but the plastics alone cost upwards of $3000

This vid is a sample of the road we were on when he crashed as I'm on the way back down. The short clip at the end is a sample of one road from around Sandy's part of the world. The wide angle lens straightens out the corners and makes things look pretty slow (I was up to about 100mph at a couple points in the clip) so I included the regular camera footage for comparison!



I know what you're thinking and yes I know, I should have had the camera on during the accident! :laugh:

Moral of the story? Don't go on vacation with us

ATGATT

Wow! So sorry to hear of your dad's multiple collisions on one trip. I know that this vacation seems like it sucked, but trust me, you'll laugh and tell stories about it one year later. Struggling through adversity together bonds people, and who better to do bond with than dad. Thanks for the story and pictures. Kinda surprised that mama bear wasn't anywhere in the vicinity.

Thanks for sharing...hell of a story. Lucky man (:blink:). Personally, I think it is about a BMW curse.

WOW!
Talk about a lucky near miss with the Reaper!
I bet Dad is Really glad he had the rest of the Armour on!
A lighter/ smaller bike may have endoed and flipped instead of sliding off into the ditch.
I suggest a Lottery Ticket Purchase after that, might have just enough luck left.:laugh:

testarossa wrote:

I know that this vacation seems like it sucked, but trust me, you'll laugh and tell stories about it one year later.

Don't worry, I tend not to take life too seriously so we were joking throughout

Kinda surprised that mama bear wasn't anywhere in the vicinity.

So were we, the park ranger who came to pick it up figured it was probably a smallish yearling and so was probably on its own

Wow, I'm glad your Dad was relatively unscathed. Great pics. That's some bad luck... two crashes and a flooded basement.

But wouldn't a yearling bear cub have a mother around? Not running into her probably used up all the rest of your luck. I would've been out of there asap!

Holey s#!t Larry you guys are lucky, glad your dad made it pretty much unhurt for killing a bear with a bike. Those pix are rad. I think it should be OK to vacation with you now, it can't get any worse.

Mark

All I can say is WOW! Glad everyone was Ok and appreciate the great pics. Next time just go to Disney Land! LOL :woohoo:

loudhvx wrote:

But wouldn't a yearling bear cub have a mother around? Not running into her probably used up all the rest of your luck. I would've been out of there asap!

I couldn't tell ya, I was going off the park rangers word. Maybe he was operating on the "If they don't run I can get away from momma bear" principle :laugh: . We were around there for about 2 hrs and didn't see any sign of another bear

Mark Wing wrote:

Holey s#!t Larry you guys are lucky, glad your dad made it pretty much unhurt for killing a bear with a bike. Those pix are rad. I think it should be OK to vacation with you now, it can't get any worse

Larry? Ain't no Larry here :laugh:
We do seem to have interesting luck with vacations. Went to Ireland a couple of years ago in august. It was the gloomiest august in 168 years (20 hrs of sunlight in the entire month) and the airline we flew over on folded while we were there so we had to pay extra to get back around the original return date :laugh: :lol: :laugh:

Wow Tim,that's so shitty for you guys and mostly your Dad.Really happy he's gonna be ok.
Bummer that we didn't get to hook up.Maybe next summer hey.
Tell your Dad to take care,and you too of course.

Glad to hear it turned ok for you guys.

Highway 6 goes right past my house. I think I saw you go by.

Is that US 6? becouse I live a few miles south of there in Northeastern Indiana.