Oh Sh*t, Oh Deer

Enjoyed the nice weather this weekend - riding some country roads. Looked up and seen a small deer on the road. Hit brakes and downshifted. Deer startled almost fell down and ran to the other lane and off the road. I am guessing I was about 20 yards from him when I first spotted him, going about 60mph. Didn't lock up the wheels, but put a nice panic into me. Shorts stayed dry, barely. Always think about this happening, but this was my first encounter while on the bike.

 

Glad you're ok. It sounds funny, but just like in a car "Brake but DON'T swerve". A bike is much more maneuverable that a 4-wheeled cage, so you think you'd be better off steering around... but in your efforts to avoid the dumb bovine, you can inadvertantly become a hood ornament yourself. And generally, where's there is one deer that you see, there is at least one more you don't.

A few people on here have had close calls with Bambi this year.

 

Nicely controlled braking! Glad to hear this was only a near-miss and everyone's ok!

 

In your area, you also must contend with the animals. There have been a couple of fatalities in this area this year already. Many have been passengers. I was glad to be alone, as I feel much more in control by myself of the bike.

 

Rules of Deer: Deer will invariably react incorrectly and bolt back in front of you--braking without swerving IS the best idea. This is especially true for the dumb ones that do not run, but just STAND THERE in the middle of the road. Deer VERY RARELY wander about alone, when one runs across the road there are usually two, three or more yet to cross. Deer seem to WAIT for a vehicle, watch for them back a few yard from the road, and don't assume that since they are 10yds back and obviously saw you that they won't run in front of you anyway---they will. Last but not least: Deer do not pay any attention to those little yellow 'deer crossing" signs, they can be found ANY WHERE along rural or sububan roads. I have had them come out of freshly mowed, manicured front yards as often as wooded thickets. Good job, stay sharp!

 

Always have to stay alert. ALWAYS

 

It was wild turkeys on our ride this weekend, they seemed as surprised to see us as we were to see them.

The deer musta been off plotting....

 

Funny ypu mention the turkey. A young fellow in my area took one to the head not long ago at about 60. This resulted in two things:
1 - He will never ride again
2 - He is now a HUGE helmet advate doing a few PSA for the cause.

Helmets save lives, loud pipes just let em know your commin'.

 

Not a deer but a small furry rabbit.
I ran that fur ball over with the XJ and the bike didn't flintch.
You are right though the rabbit ran across the road and back again to get run over.
He was home free but needed to see that vintage XJ up close one more time.
Silly rabbit.
:lol:

 

^^^ My experience, too. Rabbits, mice, squirrels, possums. They all seem to double back and get hit. It makes no sense at all. Deer, on the other hand, will usually move with a purpose. That's why I say never try to outrun one. Always steer behind them. They very rarely reverse course on you.

 

Yes, a deer took out one of motorcycle safety's best spokesman and teachers - Larry Grodsky - back in April of 2006. The interesting thing was that, knowing that deer were even more unpredictable than cagers, he had predicted that's how he would die. (see article at

http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06101/681096-122.stm )

There is a bike cam video at ride2die.com of a fellow hitting a deer. It shows how quickly they can pop out of the ditch or brush alongside the road.

Glad to hear you got her whoa'd up and avoided the face to face encounter with Bambi!

Stay safe-
Herb

 

Kayaker,
Yup, them brown speed bumps are about everywhere. Lots where you are but if you think you have a lot there, just come up here about 70mi northwest of you and I will show you so many you cannot believe it. We basically do not ride after dark here anymore, it has gotten that bad.

 

I have had numerous encounters with deer. I have hit a few while driving a car. Last year in the car, I had one run out in front of me and it was so close that I barely hit it with the bumper. I heard the thud. It didn't slow down, but I sure did. I was only a couple of miles from home and drove 15 mph the rest of the way.
I live in the country where deer are everywhere. I have had a few run out in front of me while on the bike. One was about 5 feet from me and luckily just bolted right across without slowing down.
That one made me try some of the deer whistles on my bike. Since I put them on, I have not had even a single deer run out in front of me. Although I know they won't work 100% of the time, I am certain they do help a good bit.

 

Save a biker, Hunt deer!!!!! They're mighty tasty!!

 

Try a moose there a lot bigger but just as scary I almost hit one in my car it was so close as we passed eachother i could have smacked it back side with my hand very suprised there wasnt fur in the corner marker light.

 

Craptastic!

Here's a link to the video: http://home1.gte.net/res0ak9f/bike-deer1.mpg

Damn right, they are. Meat on the hoof!

 

I thought about this for quite awhile before posting, not sure if I should or not, anyway..
In June (Sat 14th at 8:40pm, dusk, to be exact) I hit a deer on my 650 while I was going south on US127 between Sheppard and Alma, Michigan.
I was cruising at 72mph when a deer jumped out in front of me. I NEVER saw it coming and had NO time to react. I hit the deer towards the rear and flipped it around a few times and it landed in the median. The bike stayed upright somehow and I pulled over to the side of the highway to check things out. I was covered in "stuff" but ok, the bike was ok and still running (??) - blood, hair and meat were on the left fork tube and the bike smelled baaad. Other than that, things "looked" great. I was more "pissed off" than anything else because I had hit something.
Got back on and rode home for another 1-1/2hrs to Battle Creek and parked the bike. Then it hit me, started shaking and thinking of what "could have" happened. Why I wasn't hurt and the bike wasn't damaged is beyond me.
Took almost a month before I got back on my bike, let alone ride. Mid July I finally got back to riding again, but have some paranoia about riding at dusk or at night.
I used to think I was aware of everything going on around me and that I had some "control" over the situation. Today I'm convinced that when it's "your time", it's going to happen and there won't be anything you can do about it. So... it wasn't my time! I may as well ride and enjoy it! Besides, what are the odds of hitting another deer?!?

Did I mention I really, really hate deer?? :evil: :evil:

BE SAFE & RIDE SAFE - Tom

 

Most deer are preconditioned to having moving vehicle near them. meaning they have become accustomed to living near busy roads.

some bikers here have gone as far as spraying coyote pee in areas where deer cross roads . ( I am not going to ask where they got it from.) and claim that it works

 

Germanator, great attitude. I have known people who have stopped riding after smaller incidents. I didn't hit the deer, but was shaken by the experience. Anyone riding a bike is going to have near accidents or actual accidents - part of riding. If it's your time, doesn't matter what you do. Might as well go doing something you enjoy.

 

Several years ago I purchased a small Honda Twinstar. I think it was a 180cc. I was tooling around down by the river at night (no street lights) in late August and a large adult Racoon ran in front of me. I had no time to swerve and was doing about 20. I ran right over the animal between his front and back legs. It was like riding a wave and I barely kept the bike upright. As I stopped the bike and looked back I saw the animal running like he hadn't been run over at all. When I got home and told the story my wife just shrugged and said OK? I said do you understand that it's kind of amazing that I was standing there after running over a coon the size of a dog. She still didn't get how close I came to at least doing an endo.
Recently I avoided (barley) running into a buck coming out between some houses in rural Iowa. As I saw the deer (about 30 yards) I slowed abruptly and laid on the horn. He heard the horn and made it to the other side of the street before my machine arrived where he had stood.
Scars the crap out of me because there have been quite a few fatal deer accidents around here in the last couple of years with bikes.
I wish they let up shoot with centerfire rifles in Iowa, I think more of these deer would end up on walls instead of inside the passenger compartments of cars and trucks. I know I'm better at 250 yards with a .308 than at 20 with a 12 gauge shotgun.

 

There's no rifle season in Iowa?

 

I've been riding bikes off and on for about 30 years and I've always lived in Deer country. When I was young and dumb, the thought of hitting a deer never even crossed my mind. My buddies and I were always riding back roads at speeds that I don't even want to think about now. I had a few close calls but it never seem to slow us down.

Now almost 30 years later, I've started riding again and my whole attitude has changed. I'm always looking for deer along the road and in the fields. It's almost tough sometimes to just relax and enjoy the ride.

 

That vid is linked to rideordie.com. While I am all for showing people about dangers(I'd like to show some of the kids here I've seen riding high-end sport bikes in flip-flops and shorts some of these pictures), if you're going to attempt to educate the public, try not to rewrite scientific fact. In arguing against loud pipes:
"The vast majority of bike accidents are from the front. To have any chance of alerting those motorists to the presence of a motorcycle with exhaust noise would require that the tailpipe be pointed forward. LOL. The chances of rearward-facing straight pipes making a bike more obvious are very slim. The reality of the loud pipe is that all you'll succeed in doing is irritating all the people behind and beside you who don't pose much of a threat anyway."
So now sound waves only go in one direction from the source, and don't bend. Sh*t, we're going to need to rethink that game of Marco-Polo.
The real kicker is that, while "[the people] behind you don't pose much of a threat,"(which if that were true, I wouldn't need mirrors on the bike) they have a video right above this statement of a guy being rear-ended by a truck while sitting at a stoplight. Credibility goes downhill fast with repeat stuff like this.

As far as deer, I love them- standing in my sights, chilling in the freezer and sitting on the table. Deer are plentiful here, and when you hear about an accident involving them, it's usually at/near dusk or dawn, and most often the rider was riding ahead of his lights.
When it's your time, it's your time no doubt, there are always those times when you're gonna get smacked no matter what, but you can weigh the situation, and make decisions that can make the grains drop through the glass slower. Educated risk.

 

3 years ago, 10pm..jeep wrangler , 40 mph coming into town just in front of the 50's hamburger diner, car passes me WHAMO ! deer ran from behind that car after it passed
and directly in front of me...jeep came to a stand still from the impact, deer went flying across road and slid up to the door of diner, i just left it there, new grille, hood, left fender, AND A NEW BIG FRIGGEN STEEL ARMORED FRONT ROCK CLIMBING DEER SMASHING BUMPER...... NOW THEY ARE ALL CHICKEN AND WONT SHOW UP....

 

Perhaps a silly comment/question but.... I've seen "deer whistles" for sale at small grocery/bait shops in the country. Supposedly you mount them to your front bumper or just the hood of your beat-up pickup truck and the "pitch" of the wind running through the whistle scares deer away from you. I know you can mount one to your front fender. Might be a little silly looking though. Comments, wise-cracks, scientific research?

I love this place!

 

I'm thinking of putting one or two of those deer whistle thingies on my bike. Actually, I will do it since hunting season's coming up. Might as well do it tonight, off to Wally World I go. See what happens when I visit this site? Always end up spending money

 

It doesn't need to be a deer.
In my case it was a squirrel!

The squirrel darted-out in front of me while I was pretty hard-over in a right-hand sweeper. The critter took-out my front wheel traction and the next few seconds seemed like an eternity.

I was off the bike and tumbling on the blacktop; listening to the bike sliding along the road just ahead of me. Fortunately, I had on some good gear.
The Shoei Helmet I had on saved my life. I "rolled with it" hearing and feeling the helmet make hard contact with the pavement three or four times.

When I finally came to a stop I was grateful to still be conscious, breathing and nothing broken. When came-out of the daze I did a mental inventory and struggled to stand-up. A cager stopped to come to my aid and told me he thought I had bought it. I had that feeling tumbling down the road hearing the helmet whack the blacktop several times real hard.

A couple more people stopped and helped me get the bike up. Wind screen shattered. Right hand handlebar end road rashed off a few millimeters, right hand case guard bent-back and road rashed with some of the inside of the tubing showing. Right rear silencer rashed and de-chromed.

More angry than anything else, I got the bike going and headed straight home.
I was talking to myself all the way home. Glad to be not seriously hurt. Glad that the bike wasn't totaled. Glad to be alive. Pissed at a squirrel and myself for not being ready.

There are bolts of lightning out there that can strike you without warning.
Your odds of getting struck by lightning are very, very small.

My attitude used to be: "That will never happen to ME!"
Then, when I least expected it ... it did!

 

When I got my new cage I put deer whistles on it (nice unobtrusive ones from Bell the former helmet people) and they seem to work. On more than one occasion deer standing next to the road "thinking" have turned and bolted THE OTHER WAY when I got within a couple hundred yards. One deer that had started to run across the road, far enough in front of me for me to avoid him, turned around and went BACK the way he came when I got within the "magic distance." I have been trying to decide if they would be effective on the bike, or if the engine/bike is already louder, or if the TYPE of sound is what does it, being different than what they are used to hearing coming from a moving vehicle.

 

4 years ago on my yzf600r i hit a deer running 55mph he just came out of no where, i didn't even see him come out, the cager behind me is the one who seen it,stopped and call for help...all i remember was riding felt fine...black pause.... open eyes laying on the ground with a broken collar bone

 

So, is your attitude now, "That DID happen to me, so it COULDN'T POSSIBLY happen again," or more of a "Ok, so that CAN happen to me (again)," feeling? I'm sure I know the answer, but I think it's worth pointing out.

I wish I had a quarter for every thread about forest rats, or 'ditch donkeys' as I recently heard, in all of the motorcycling forums.

Luckily only near-incidents for me thus far *touches wood*.

 

OK, that does it. I posted up about deer whistles before I left for work, at dawn. Fifteen minutes later I'm riding down a stretch of road we call "deer alley" which also happens to have a KOA about halfway along, and there is a deer STANDING in the road about 1/8 mile away. I start slowing down, gearing down, and he is looking at me, but not moving. I start blowing the horn, first repeatedly then one long blast, and he FINALLY strolls off when I'm maybe 10 yards away. On the way home, I'm gonna stop at AutoZone and pick up another set of Bell deer whistles, http://www.bellautomotive.com/asp/produ ... p?id=25454 they're going on the underside of the turn signals unless I can think of somewhere better. (They come in black too.)

 

Just saw this on aol.Deer jumps over biker. http://video.aol.com/video/deer-jumps-m ... 1200599840

 

That's amazing.

 

Moose are solid animals.... but considering their young are the size of horses.... After seeing what they've done to trains and 18 wheelers I wouldn't want to take one on with a subcompact or a motorcycle...

 

I've only seen two moose in the wild in my life, and both times I was on my bike. In both cases, I stopped and waited, at a distance, until the moose went on its way. Neither moose seemed the least bit threatened or unnerved at my presence. I think they know...