Deer me that was close

[Graydog]

Today I was returning from a long ride into the country to look at a house I'm considering for purchase. The road was very narrow with many hard curves up and down hills. I was moving pretty slow since some of the turns were so hair pin and blind I almost had to put one foot down to make the turn and stay out of the blind on-coming lane. (Music Man you can relate...I was on one of those little single lane pot holed paved trails outside of Hot Springs on the side of a mountain).

Ahead of me on the side of the road I saw a doe grazing. She was standing right in the center of a horseshoe bend in the road. I gassed the bike a couple of times trying to scare her before I got to her. But even when you gas the GZ it isn't much to be afraid of. (Harley would have come in handy!) Horn didn't bother her. She seemed pretty amused and just continued to graze. I decided to pass her slowly and cautiously. Good thing I did. Just as I reached her she decided to leap across the road in front of me. I was moving 5-10mph at the most and still caught her left hoof with my front wheel. No damage to her or the bike but it happened so fast I hate to think what the result would have been had I been going 10-20mph. I don't think that doe will be with us much longer since deer season is here.

Lesson learned. Animal on side of road = slow down, watch, prepare. (Well that might not be the best thing to do if it is a bear!)

[Dupo]

Yes big lesson learned. I never take for granted what a deer is going to do after i spot them. Always slow down, watch and prepare. Good words to live by.

In a group i usually lead ... i always tell the guys if you see me do this :rawk: (not headbang, just the horn symbol lol ) ... theres a deer spotted and prepare for my ass to slow down.

[IRingTwyce]

Stupid deer. Nature sucks sometime. I have hit one deer in my car. Killed her, and the car got off with much less damage than could have happened at highway speeds. Luckily I saw her and had already slammed on the brakes before she leapt. I can't imagine hitting one on a bike. Glad you made it through safely!

[alanmcorcoran]

We don't have many deer out here in Southern California, but they were a common menace in upstate New York. My personal theory is they are depressed and suicidal. Whether it's a death wish or sheer stupidity, when you encounter one, give it a wide berth. They are as likely to run into your path as away.

Also, where there is one, there are often two or three more. Even if you are confident you will miss Bambi, his sister or Mom could be preparing to leap towards your fascinating headlamp.

[IRingTwyce]

My personal theory is they are depressed and suicidal.
:haha2: Funny you should say that. Whenever I recount the story I always say the deer committed suicide on my driver's mirror.

**EDIT** Woo hoo! I'm bona-fide now! Post 25 baby. :cool:

[Water Warrior 2]

Deer/A.K.A. forest rats are Mother Natures way of feeding scavengers. The odds of predicting where /when one will go is like getting a winning lotto ticket. Most of their brain cells operate in suicide mode. Be careful out there.

[deputydogg2763]

Glad you made it through unharmed. The way I take home from work is like the deer playground. I always see at least two or three. One thing that I have done, Other than slowing down and amusing it with the sound of the GZ, is to switch from high beam to low beam and turn the handlebars back and forth like I am swerving. Usually when I do that, they decide it is time to move on. I have noticed that sometimes it will flush out more that don't want to be left behind. I did that one time and got another 3 deer to move across the road and I was safely out of their way. Stay safe, Deer meat is good to eat, but not at the cost of your life or your motorcycle.

[IRingTwyce]

Deer meat is good to eat, but not at the cost of your life or your motorcycle.
Mmmm.....deer jerky! http://www.contour.org/ceg-vb/images/smilies/ubb/drool.gif

[grimjaw]

I wasn't so lucky with my 'deerly' departed. Happened 1/19/2010, just this past Tuesday.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/anothersunday/sets/72157623138526213/

I'm really to blame for this one. I should have laid on the brakes as soon as I saw the first deer.

It was very late at night on a county highway, after I came around a short bend. Heavy tree cover on both sides of the road, but if I'd applied brake as to stop as soon as I saw the first one (without locking it up) I would have only been doing about 5mph by the time I got to where they were crossing. Since I saw the first one already halfway across and still moving, I only slightly slowed initially and kept my eye on the first deer. Headlight on my GZ just isn't that great, so I didn't see the second deer trotting across behind the first until too late to stop gracefully. The second one slowed down in the middle of the road (stupid forest rats!), WHAM, into its rear half.

The bike went down on its left side with my left leg pinned underneath. It's hard to say since it happened so fast, but I'd guess I was going 25-35mph. My left arm took the brunt of the impact, I think. I had leather covering upper body and and was wearing a helmet, so other than a bad sprain to my left wrist and a bruised right torso, that's OK. The inside of my left foot was driven into the asphalt while the top/front of my knee was also digging into the ground (you can imagine the contortion necessary for that), all weighed down by the bike. Skidded with the bike 10-15 feet. Luckily no one was behind me or coming from the opposite direction, nor did they for almost 25 minutes. After gasping in pain for a minute, I managed to wiggle out from under the bike and stand up. After getting my helmet off and testing my leg a couple of times, I managed to lift the bike and roll it off the highway. I knew at least the big bones in my leg weren't broken. Turns out I only had a small chip off a bone in my left foot and another bad sprain, plus road rash on both knees. Weird thing was the only scuffs on my leather jacket were on the *right* side.

I had my phone with me and a flashlight, and I managed to get hold of a friend who came to pick me up. Bike was chained to a utility pole until the next day when I could come back with my truck and pick it up. Engine starts and it still rolls! Has lots of cosmetic damage, have to fix the headlight, left front blinker, speedometer/odometer, gearshift lever, and handlebars before it's roadworthy again. Forks look good, maybe some minor adjustment. Windshield is broken and will have to be replaced, but I figure that will wait for next fall. I'll be able to handle the warmer weather by the time I get everything else fixed.

When I was a kid I fell off a 3.5' high chain link fence and broke upper bones in my right arm in half. Looked like I had two elbows on that arm. Considering how little it takes to break a bone, I consider myself *EXTREMELY* lucky that I was not injured more severely, and I will absolutely not be riding without some kind of minimal protection in the future. I don't know if my helmet impacted the ground. Head and neck feel fine still today. I had a set of x-rays and some range of motion tests done, everything is OK.

Deer are not so endearing anymore.

[Moedad]

Wow, grim, sounds like it could've been worse. Hope you heal up quick and get back on the road in time for the spring riding season.

[alanmcorcoran]

Glad there's no permanent damage. They do seem to travel in pairs/groups. I think I posted on here about my encounter with three corssing Highway 1 in Big Sur in front of me. Fortunately, it was daytime, I had plenty of time to slow down and could see all three (and the roadside) pretty clearly.

Take care of your foot. Riding is optional but walking is somewhat more mandatory.

[Water Warrior 2]

Glad to hear you came out relatively undamaged. Forest Rats should only come in day-glo colors so predators, riders and hunters can see them better. Just a thought, do we see armored riding pants in your future ?

[BusyWeb]

Good to hear that you O.K.
I had a Deer incident last year, that's really scary moment for me.
Fortunately, my speed was very slow at the corner of mountain road; otherwise I would had serious damage.
Dear, deers, they even didn't move out when I was passing through them (a couple I guess); they are either don't think or challenge the vehicles...
Anyway, I hope you get well soon.

[alantf]

The bike went down on its left side with my left leg pinned underneath.

Like I've said before, I won't EVER ride without an engine guard (what we call "crash bars" in England) A while back, someone (can't remember who) tried to say that the guards might cause more damage to a body than if you didn't use them. Well ......... The guard certainly saved my leg when the bike went down (when the 4x4 I was overtaking turned left into me) & I suspect that a guard would have saved your leg too. PLEASE, get one fitted before you ride the bike again. :tup:

[dhgeyer]

I don't ride at night anymore if I can possibly avoid it, for exactly this reason. The risk goes way up at night, actually for a lot of reasons. You can't monitor the road surface as far in advance, people can't see you as well from the sides and rear, and, of course, deer. And it doesn't really matter how skilled a rider you are. It's just the luck of the draw. I had one jump out from behind some trees in 2004, and it landed in the road right in front of me. Luckily I was going very slowly, looking for a house number. But, 10 mph faster and there would have been nothing I could have done. My daughter hit one with her car this past Summer. She never saw it till after the collision, as it ran out of the brush into the right front corner of her car.

The frequency of this is increasing all the time. As we encroach more and more on the wild habitat, and don't hunt the deer in populated areas, they are adapting. In the village of Williamsville, NY, where my in-laws live, there were 14,000 deer strikes in one year, and there is very little open, undeveloped land there. They are living among the houses in any patch of green they can find, and eating people's shrubs and gardens at night. My father in law has had to give up gardening after doing it for over 60 years! I have so many photos and one video of deer grazing on our lawn. They have virtually no fear of me. I've stood on the back deck 25 feet from them clicking away. They look at me, and go back to eating grass. They didn't bother Sue's garden much until last Summer. Now we're going to have to put up an electric fence. A neighbor down the road did that years ago, and it has worked for him so far.

I, like Alan, used to love to ride at night. I'd still love to do it, but I can't justify that level of risk.

[mrlmd1]

I see small deer very frequently on the road leading down to the area where I live on the gulf coast of Florida. There are usually one or two of them, standing on the grass between the road and the trees, or they just run out from the trees across the road to disappear in the brush on the other side. They scare me more than any other road hazard down here, because when they jump out in front of you at the last minute, there's almost nothing you can do to avoid them. They are pretty animals, but also pretty stupid.

[Easy Rider]

PLEASE, get one fitted before you ride the bike again. :tup:

I agree with that 100%.
In addition to possibly minimizing rider injury, it can also minimize the damage on a 0 speed drop......depending on the design of the guard.

I have "rediscovered" something I had forgotten with my "other" bike though. That is, watch out for curbs when rounding corners. I don't think it would be a problem with the GZ due to the shape of the guard but on the Shadow it would be very easy to catch the crash guard on a curb if you cut a corner too close. That could result in a NASTY crash.

[grimjaw]

Thanks for the well wishes, and to the OP for bringing the subject up. Never hurts to have it revisited.

I'd say that among the lessons learned for me are:

1. Get some freaking knee/shin guards. I had another wreck doing only 5mph on my scooter when the back tire slipped on a train track, and ended up with road rash on one knee. It happens to easily, that leg protection is worth it.
2. For that matter, wear more armor all the time.
3. My night riding days on roads like that one are probably going to be few and far between. I will have to admit that the ride up to that point was exhilarating, but I knew that deer were going to be a possibility on that road. If nothing else, I'll have to limit speed to something where a sudden stop can be accomplished very quickly, and be extra-observant.
4. I already knew this one and I paid heed to it on this ride. Carry a phone! A first aid kit isn't a bad idea, either, as well as something like a flashlight or other signaling device. If I hadn't had the phone that night, it was a ~10 mile hobble into town, through unfamiliar terrain, with a thunderstorm coming on. By the time my friend showed up, lightning was flashing regularly in the sky and rain was coming down heavily.

I'd be considering the engine guards already. I'm on a limited budget, though, and lots of things end up waiting.