Triumphrat

Mean Teacher

Hello,

I am going to test ride a 99 TBS tomorrow. When I checked it out Saturday I noticed a small dent in the right side panel. The owner said that he had an encounter with several deer, one whose neck became jammed between the handlebars and the tank, thus slamming into the side of his leg and his ankle put the small dent in the side cover. He did not go down, replaced a broken turn signal stalk, and said that was the only problem. Otherwise the bike looks to be in pristine condition, well maintained, new Avon rubber, less than 10,000 miles, asking $4500. He is the original owner. He also owns a Sprint.

After having read all that, my question is: would you buy a bike if someone told you it had been hit by a deer? Thanks for any thoughts on this.

Big Red 08

Humm............IF he did not go down and IF the bike rides OK and IF he will let you take it to a mechanic to get the bike checked and IF you do not see any signs of paint flaking anywhere on the frame (especially the steering head/triple tree area) and lastly, if you trust him, all should be OK. But, get some more information. When and where did this happen? How many miles ago? Why is he selling the bike? I work in a service department for another motorcycle company and have seen bikes that have hit large dogs and deer and, except for bent tin are none the worse for wear. Just get it checked out.

Tbirdnz

As BR says, get it checked out, have the frame and forks looked at and have an allignment test done with the wheels which should show if it's bent or not.

May be as the owner says but play safe.


---------------
Ride on !

Greaser

You can always do an intial check by using two long straight edges placed by the *rear tire and check to see that they are parallel to the front. If they look like they are not, is there any more need to consider the bike? Not fool proof or very accurate but could answer your questions beofre spending big money.

* You will wnat to check that the rear tire is not crooked in the adjuster and you will need somebody to get the handlebars poited realtivley straight.

__________________
The picture says 1000 words, I want the negatives.

Mean Teacher

Thanks for the information and ideas. I spoke with the owner tonight and he said he would check to see how much it would cost to have it checked out the local dealer. I may get a TBS yet.

Petrol

I hit a deer on my thunderbird.The impact on the right hand side was so great that it sheared the footrest clean off,thought I had a broken foot for the first five mins ..The simple way to test if its straight is to ride with no hands ,preferably standing up(not recomended for rookies!) It`ll be obvious that it pulls to one side if its bent.I know it could be due to rear wheel alighnment,but hey to have a frame straightened is a mess of hassle, I know I had id done on a Kawi 1000.Hope it works out ok , Regards Doug

walshja

am I wrong thinking it would be near impossible to not drop a bike when a deer hits you, and gets its head stuck between the tank and handle bars? I am assuming this happened while the bike was in motion, as I never heard of any deer simply running into a stationary object.

seems like a sketchy story to me

joe

__________________
joe
1995 thunderbird, tiger cams, TOR pipes
1978 Yamaha 650 special
1983 Suzuki gs550
1979 WR250 Husqvarna, 1972 Honda MR50

oil-spitn-rat

I would look at the damage, if it is fairly minor and there are NO signs of the bike falling (this should be obvious scraps, road rash in normal places) then I would only be concern about the forks and the wheel. If there is a little more damage then a small dent then I would run.

I have hit deer on dirt bikes, it's not fun and has the potential for serious damage and death to the bike and rider. Not falling off is not that uncommon since a bike is harder to knock over than most believe. the gyroscopic effect of the wheels keeps that thing upright and it takes quite a bit of force (in a straight line path of travel now) to knock you over. when you go down after wacking bambi at speed it's pretty nasty. Theres a NX250 in a boneyard that looks like it hit a concrete wall head on from a medium sized deer. Not fun.

Unless the price is down right dirt cheap and you have a plethora of parts available to you don't EVER buy a wrecked bike as it will drain you dry.

__________________
I think your radar must be off...