Thoroughly enjoyed the entire write-up. Thanks!
Glad you didn't sustain more damage than you did when bambi got in the way.
Question - was your bag "pinned" or did you have any additional mechanism in place to keep them from coming off?
Thanks.
Very lucky the deer encounter it wasn't worse.
Nope, no pins or devices - just as it comes from the factory.
In my opinion, if it was pinned substantially or used some other method of substantially securing the bags, I would have gone down. I'm 85% sure that during the impact the front of the bag hit said deer square in the butt. The bags attachment point was the weakest point in the bikes stability, saddlebag and deer's mass - triangle. Pretty sure if it was pinned and didn't give way, the deer would have had a much harder time walking (leaping) away and it would have forced the tail of the Concours sideways and started me into a spin motion probably resulting in me essentially highsiding over the left of the bike with the bike chasing me. (all speculation of course) - but I'm glad the saddlebag let loose.
This is not to say I think people shouldn't pin their bags. I just think in this one very specific situation it turns out the outcome was better because I hadn't.