I've always respected the guys who have shared lessons learned here so here's my donation.

I was riding into work this morning (perfect 70 degree day).  I got to a right-hand, cloverleaf offramp that connects two highways here in Memphis.  I always set up for the outside of the lane and transition to the inside of the lane as I get into the turn.  As the turn straightens out, I transition back to the outside of the lane to set up for the merge onto the new road.  I had just set up for the offramp, wide left in the lane - about 35mph, when I looked in the mirror and a pickup was bearing down on the inside of the lane with what seemed like a 30 mph overtake.  Holy crap, this guy's gonna run me over!  I rolled on the throttle to minimize the overtake and had to start leaning really hard to make the turn now.  I kept leaning until the right floorboard started to scrape hard.  I was out of lean and about to lowside.  A guardrail was coming up and a lowside impact would have been ugly.  (The guardrail had already been hit and the first 20' or so was peeled back into the grass.)  I immediately went to plan "B".  I straightened up the bike and grabbed as much brake as I could and aimed to depart the offramp and miss the end of the guardrail to the left side of it. The truck blasted past me to the right.  I hit gravel on the shoulder of the offramp and headed into the grass.  I looked across the grass at the opposing lane of the offramp.  No cars coming, I might just pull this off!  Boom!  The backend broke loose and I went down.   I probably slid 20'.  (After piecing it all together, my right tailpipe had clipped the end of the bent back guardrail and that's where I lost it.) I got up and there were plastic pieces everywhere and grass in the fins of the motor.  I gave myself a mental patdown and everything seemed to be intact.  A cop pulled up on that opposing offramp lane  and asked if I was ok, literally 30 seconds after I went down.  Right behind him was a guy from work.  Three more cops showed up within a minute.  I was wearing my silver EXO-100 helmet, black Victory jacket, black Kevlar jeans and black boots.  Apparently cop #1 thought I was a motor officer down and responded accordingly.  My buddy from work recognized the bike and when he saw me talking to the cop he thought I was another cop at the scene and that I had already been medivac'd somewhere.  All he saw was the guardrail peeled back 20' with my bike laying there and thought I'd ripped a leg off, if not worse.

I assured him I was ok, just a little shocky.  No concussion or even bruises.  The cops and my buddy were stunned that I didn't even have a blade of grass on me.  The bent back guardrail with the bike laying next to it was ugly.  It looked like I had hit the guardrail at 90 mph and ripped it off the 4X4 posts. 

Lessons learned: 

- Having to do it again, should I have held my speed, kept my line and hoped for the best?  I don't know.  I honestly felt like I was about to get runover.  Between the truck and the guardrail, I thought I was going to lose either way. 

- I read a lot of safety articles and have a couple of books, along with the Ride Like a Pro DVD's.  This is the stuff that saved me.  I knew I was about to lowside and instead of letting it happen, I straightened up and looked for my out.  Instead of boresighting on the guardrail, I focused on my path to miss it.  The end of the guardrail clipped my tailpipe about 6" from the back end and that's how close I came to pulling off plan "B".  By that time, I was down to about 20mph.

- Gear - As long as I missed the guardrail with the soft parts of my body, I knew I would walk away from any impact with asphalt or grass.  I always wear an armored jacket and at least Kevlar lined jeans.  On cold/rainy days I have armored overpants.  I wear Held gloves and armored boots.  The gear combined with the tipover protection of the Vision is very comforting when this scenario unfolds before you.  I actually thought about the tipovers as I was going down and focused on keeping my feet on the floorboards.  Don't try to "save" anything by sticking a leg out.  I wear the EXO half helmet on hot days (over 90) and a full face Shoei the rest of the time.  The silver EXO was worth it's weight in gold when it came to the police response. :-)

The bike is in pieces but I'm not.  I crashed at 6:20 this morning and was home by 7:45.  As far as motorcycle crashes go, this was as good a result as anyone could have hoped for.  My endless thanks to Victory designers/engineers for the protection.  Good gear is worth every penny in peace of mind.  Learn from others mistakes and practice to be better.  Focus on the "out" not the obstacle.

Ride safe.

Thanks guys.  My family feels terrible about the Vision but I told them that losing it means nothing at this point. 

Visionary - I'm really anal about that exact same scenario.  I'm constantly scanning my mirrors when stopped at an intersection.  That is a major reason I felt so strongly about the 99 LED brakelight.  I've seen cars coming up on me and I'll pop that brake light a few times just to make sure they see me.  I've never had to make that move around the car in front of me but I have watched the front end of the car coming up on me suddenly dive when I pump the brakes to light up the LEDs.  I'm always thinking about that out around the car in front of me.  Fantastic move. 

Nothing like a giant "WHEW! That was close!" to make your day.  I feel very fortunate.

You guys are awesome.  I forwarded the link to this posting to my friends and family so that I wouldn't have to tell it over and over.  Anyone reading this thread can see why I have such a strong draw to this place.  Many thanks all around.

T-Man, you are unreal.  The very first thing I noticed after I shook off the cobwebs and really started trying to put the pieces together was where the guardrail hit the exhaust.  There's about a 6" dent in the heatshield that ends about 3" from the turbine tip.  My very first thought was "Dang, I'm glad that didn't hit the turbine tip.  That would have really bummed me out!"  It makes me laugh to think about it now but those pieces are the crown jewel of my bike.  Even if it is totalled, I'm keeping those tips as a momento.  Your offer to replace them humbles me to the core.

I guess the get-off wasn't as uneventful as I originally thought because after talking to the buddy from work who stayed with me the whole time, I have about 10 minutes that I can't account for.  My boss called to check on me and told me that I had called in three times to let him know I wouldn't make it in today.  My helmet has a scrape from the grass that I didn't notice before (plus a red line across my forehead) so I probably have a mild concussion.  No nausea or dizzness but just taking it easy at this point.  One of the ironies is my bum hip doesn't hurt at all. 

Thanks again for all good wishes!  I wish every wreck I hear about ended up this mild. 

I'm getting the bike towed to my boys at FRS Powersports tomorrow so I'll keep you guys updated.

Hey Po,

Nope, did not ride it home.  Did ride it up onto the flatbed towtruck though.  It's at an impound lot tonight and I'll be coordinating with the insurance co to have it delivered to Denny and the boys tomorrow.

Po and I go way back.  (He bought the very first Vision in Memphis and is one of the two bikes I have ever seen riding around here.)  He is younger than the typical Vision Rider and thinks it is great fun to go riding when the heat index is 114.  Gets his feelings hurt if you turn him down from such a golden opportunity.  Don't let his goofiness on this forum fool you, he is an expert rider and literally ran circles around me in a parking lot skills test.  Great riding buddy.