How Eagle Leather Saved One Man's Life

A Newsletter Reader's Story

How One Man Learned a Safety Tip That Saved His Life

When we sent our newsletter a few weeks ago, it was business as usual. Little did we know just how much of an impact that newsletter would have on Chris, one of our regular readers. Our safety tip ended up saving his life. Chris wrote to us and touched our hearts when he told us his story. It means so much to know our newsletters are a part of your lives!

Here is Chris' letter:

Dear Mike,

I am an avid Eagle Leather shopper, and I enjoy reading the newsletters that you put out.

Recently you had a safety tip in one of your news letters that actually saved my life!

My buddy and I were loaded up and headed for Southern CA, then over to Vegas for our annual 10 day get out of the "grey" trip. We left Thursday night on the 21st of May. We had planned on camping every night until we got to Vegas but the big storm kept on plaguing us so we stopped early and grabbed a motel in Central OR. We headed out early Fri morning and once again we were greeted with a cold rain… Wanting nothing more than to get to a warmer climate we attempted to make the best speed possible down I-5.

Here is where you saved my life…. I had just read your safety tip about not using cruise control in the rain; fortunately I paid attention and heeded your advice and stuck with the throttle. I was leading therefore on the left side of the lane and we were passing a semi up a long grade. I managed to graze over to the yellow painted line with reflectors on it and that’s when the mixture of rain, 75 mph speed and the painted surface made me go out of control on my front end. What seemed like two minutes in two small episodes was in reality about 5 - 8 seconds; my front end was slammed left and right but I managed to catch it quickly enough and hold it straight. After I got it calmed down it happened again due to the fact that I was still going straight down the line. After all that we got off at the next exit so I could catch my breath and take a stroll in the rain…

My Harley has quite a lot of torque, had I been using my cruise control I would have been down in a second and probably under that truck!

Thanks for the articles and tips. I wouldn't be able to shop there anymore if I hadn't have read that one.

Thank you!
Chris