White tail deer avoidance strategies

[izzug otom]

I'm in the UK and I'd just picked up an '02 Nevada 750 and ridden about 5 or 6 miles from the seller's house of the 160miles home, when I thought I was having a halucination. I didn't get chance to be panicked or startled by it, but realised what I'd seen was a red deer skidding cartoon style on the tarmac, sideways on, in an attempt to avoid a collision with me, which thankfully it did, by a matter of a foot or two.

I realised how lucky I'd been, and but for the ability of the deer in it's skilled broadside skidding action, it would have been a nasty bang smack in the side of the bike, more or less straight at me. We saw eye to eye for the splittiest of seconds. I took that as an omen for good riding, like some guardian angel was there steering things, as I certainly wasn't. I was just enjoying the feel of the new, to me, bike.

When I'm riding I'm used to considering all humans as dangerous and likely to cause me harm if I allow them, but now it's certainly animals as well.

It's strange but it gave me a sense of calm and safety, but it also gave me another sense of respect for the road.

Cheers, Martin

[Guzzistajohn]

Drove right up to this little guy today, Back to I phone again from that POS Samsung......quicke r on the draw

[JeffOlson]

I hit a deer the other evening. Fortunately, I was driving a large German car and not riding my Norge... Very little damage to the car (just a broken plastic kidney grill), but the responding sheriff's deputy had to put the deer down.

They are everywhere! I love deer, but they are in our garden, in our driveway, on our beach, on the the roads and in the woods and fields outside our property. Driving carefully does little good. This particular deer leaped in front of my car from the bushes on the side of the road. I was just inches away from him. There was nothing I could do but mash the brake pedal.

My wife and I were very upset, especially because it was a young deer, and it did not die on impact.

We waited for the sheriff's deputy some 40 minutes. When he arrived, he apologized for the delay, but he had been putting down another deer, and was off to put down another one after ours.

He said the county road crew would pick up the carcass the next day and take it to "Wolf Haven," some sort of refuge for wolves...

For me, no more riding like a mad man on the Olympic Peninsula! It is too risky.

[Moto]

One bounded across my path today at about 5:30 pm as I was breaking in my new bike. Pretty darn close. I was going 60 mph, and braked more or less instantly, in a straight line. Go slow and brake hard is my mantra.

[bratman2]

Seen a lot of you tube videos on deer collisions. Seems every video I have seen were brake lights come on and contact is made they went down. No brake lights they stayed up. My theory on this is that with front brakes applied hard the contact with the deer ends up locking the front tire just long enough to lose control. My hope is if deer contact is inevitable that I don't touch the front brake.

[yogidozer]

But they are good eatin" 

[Guzzistajohn]

Last fall I had someone hit a deer in front of my house



here's where it dropped dead

[Darren Williams]

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Make sure that ya got enough bungee cords
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Truly dual purpose bikes! Not just for polar bear smuggling anymore.   

[Moto]

Seen a lot of you tube videos on deer collisions. Seems every video I have seen were brake lights come on and contact is made they went down. No brake lights they stayed up. My theory on this is that with front brakes applied hard the contact with the deer ends up locking the front tire just long enough to lose control. My hope is if deer contact is inevitable that I don't touch the front brake.

Interesting observation. I don't think it could be contact of the deer with the wheel, since the mass of the deer is above the wheel. It could be last-moment panic braking by the rider, or physical impact of the deer on the rider's braking hand. I'd bet it's the former. I don't see any other possibilities.

If the deer only collided with the bike around the steering head, that would momentarily lessen, not increase, the braking load on the front tire.

[Socalrob]

Top 5 deer crash states:  https://newsroom.statefarm.com/state-farm-releases-2016-deer-collision-data/

Great post.  CA obviously has the smartest deer in the country.