Deer slammed into me yesterday

[LoneRanger]

Four legged vermin, deer are. Didn't go down, able to pull over and park and dismount the bike okay but shattered some fairings, sheered off front fender, borked the intake beak, and somehow she (small doe) managed to sheer off the tail tidy that the license plate and turn signals are mounted to. Herd of about 5 or 6 appeared quickly from a yard that sits below road level (they had to climb or bound up onto the roadway) and I was in their midst before I could avoid them. The shiat of it is that I actually was in deer vigilance mode because this road they cross a lot usually darting out of the wooded areas along side as well as yards of the upscale homes that intersperse the wooded landscape. So, I was already going fairly slow and scanning, had just come through a mild curve running through a wooded area along the route and just didn't notice them quickly enough due to the way the yard they hopped up out of kind of bowl shapes down below the level of the road. I did get it down to maybe 20mph and tried to veer right without going off into the soggy sod at roadside. Thought I was going to clear them but she darted and slammed right into the front of the bike from the left (they had come up onto the road in the oncoming lane). Her head and shoulders took the impact, she wasn't very big, then her right flanks went down the left side of the bike catching my left leg between ankle and knee but only a bruise since due to the upright riding posit of the Multistrada it just knocked my leg back instead of pinning it or anything. She lay there stunned and bleeding from the head for maybe 5 minutes then got up and hobbled off in a maimed panic before the law arrived.

My riding's done until next season (I usually ride through winter if clear dry and above 40ish degrees F). Need to strip it down and start ordering plastic....

Yes I know they're in rut and all the precautions that apply, just happened how it happened.

Considering myself lucky to have emerged unscathed.

 

[eljefino]

Glad you're okay. My wife stopped for deer #1 and deer #2 came from about the 8 o'clock position and rammed her fuel filler door. It was a saturn so the car bounced back but we found fur stuck in a crack.

Deer are dumb. There's a reason they're prey. Walking venison chops.

 

[Robenstein]

Glad you are okay. I have not hit a deer but had a close call here in Iowa where we have about 200k deer...after hunting season.

But I have made a speed bump out of a raccoon at night and had a female ringneck pheasant hit me while flying out of a field. Gave me a bit of whiplash when she hit my helmet.

Darned suicidal animals. lol

 

[LoneRanger]

A guy from a neighboring house came up onto the road to check out what happened. Had my full face helmet on or else I bet he would have heard when I shouted "GD-it!!" upon impact, which I did. Need to work on my word choices. GD-it is way too much my go to phrase when something bad happens, but it's Christmas season and I need to substitute some different profanity this time of year

 

[Vern_in_IL]

It's shotgun weekend so they getting spooked like crazy.

 

[Doc8404]

No pics?

 

[sciphi]

Blasted wood cows. The hunters better get close to the maximum this year, since they're everywhere. Lots of does, and not too many bucks.

 

[DuckRyder]

Wow, glad you are OK...

 

[02SE]

Sorry to hear it. Ride a bike long enough, and you will have 'incidents'.

I've been riding most of my life. I've Roadraced, been asked to be a riding instructor. etc. I still had a low-side crash back in October. A very fine layer of sand that was invisible until laying on the ground, and probably cool tires and pavement were contributing factors.

Despite the full gear, I still managed to tear off the top layer of skin on my knee, through my leathers. A month and a half later, and the scabs have finally completely healed.

The worst part is seeing the old girl all rashed up. But, some new pieces of bodywork, and she's as good as new.

I'm no fan of the giant forest rats either.

 

[JetStar]

Glad you're OK. It could have been much worse. The deer are lousy around here. I regularly encounter them mid-day in the summer, so you can imagine what they are like now.

 

[Silverado12]

Glad you're ok. Around here, deer are in the rut for quite a long time. Dang things do seem suicidal.

 

[Cujet]

Oh, that's too bad. Suicidal deer are no fun. Don't have that problem around here in South Florida. Instead, the turkey buzzards fly into us.

 

[Shannow]

that's bad news...good that you are OK.

I'll have to take some pics of all of the roos that I have to drive past daily to get to work...those things purposely run into your headlight path.

 

[sunruh]

LR
sorry to hear about your woodlands adventure
glad you could park it instead of being "parked"
get revenge with a deer tag or 3

steve

 

[BusyLittleShop]

I'm glad you're still with us... I've got 49 years on the perverted highway with 0.0 Deer
strikes... so far so good but Northern California is deer country and I think I'm
way over due for my first deer strike...

We might be asking ourselves what is the problem with deer??? A study
of Prey and Predators tell us that to avoid danger an animal must
employ the sense of sight... sound and smell... in order for a
Mountain Lion to eat they the must beat a Deer's defenses... and they
know that Deer are not easy prey... in fact they are down right hard
to catch... what is working against the Mountain Lion and in the
Deer's favor is a keen sense of smell... unfortunately that's the one
danger a rider on a bike doesn't pose... we don't smell dangerous
enough for deer to steer clear and they end up doing the wrong thing
right in our path... is it related to the size of a deer's brain???
well Humans do have the biggest brain but how many times have we
witnessed a big brain racer fall on the inside of a track and then run
clear across to the other side of the track right in the path of on
coming motorcycles for safety??? we clearly observe that this action
is the wrong thing to do... but to the racer it's the right thing to
do... well deer also make the wrong decision and may cross our
paths... I think if we could scent our path with the smell of a
Mountain Lion I doubt we'd ever see a deer cross our path again...

Not much comfort but according to this survey it could be worst...

 

[CT8]

Dear are the most dangerous game in the U.S. Tons of deer jumping in front of cars around here. I pretty much see the dead deer on the side of the road daily.

 

[Mr_Joe]

Earlier this Fall I made sure three of them wouldn't be able to terrorize us bikers anymore. Those that live in central IL can thank me later.

One had a good size 9 point rack, surely enough to do some damage.

 

[Kira]

I disagree with the assertion that deer are stupid animals.

They take to "freezer training" very well. Kira

 

[Whitewolf]

You might like this article.
http://www.motorsport.com/f1/news/remembering-stefan-johansson-s-deer-death-experience-664937/
Scary.

 

[SatinSilver]

My parents were on the highway in Ohio when a deer jumped over the divider from the other side of traffic. The head of the deer smashed the driver's side headlight and the body caved in the fender while going 70 mph in the 07 Camry. They were passing a semi and were in the middle lane. Luckily they were ok and the shop did a great job fixing the car.

This is in a suburb of Cleveland that has a no kill deer ordinance with a turnpike that runs right through the city. Kind of a nicer area with people that don't want to harm poor bambi.