Russ J
Member
Hey all,
Here's one for ya, blazing hot the other day/eve, so wife and I decided to get out and go for a cool ride. It was just about 1900, or 7pm, for you civilians, and we were merrily poking along through the Tilden Park area near us. Now, being dusk, and being in a state park, knowing there is lots of movement in the woods about this time, we were not going very fast, MAYBE 30mph, we were on a short straightaway that dumped into a 180 turn, so I was being extra careful and alert, I spot a deer about 2-3yrs old making his way onto the right lane(our lane) of the road. It pauses for a sec, so I'm thinkin, ok, I'll go around it, he's gonna turn around, NOPE!!! He starts trying to run across as I've already committed to accelerating, he's slippin n sliding on the blacktop, I KNOW this is not gonna go well, I'm playing it out in my head, trying to guess where the impact is going to be. I am now completely in the left lane, the deer running at an angle to me, hits me at an angle, head about where right turnsignal is, front legs where my frameslider is, and body about where my leg is. My natural reaction was to kick it away as hard as I could as it slammed into my leg. My wife on seat behind me doing the same thing.
The encounter ended with me looking in my mirror and seeing the deer flailing on it's back in the middle of the road, then jump up and take off running.
No damage done to FJR (aside from a minor scuff), No physical damage done to the Wife or I. The deer was probably traumatized. I don't know.
We stopped a short way up the road to assess damages. The first thing my wife says to me is: "Did you see the look in it's eyes?? I was CRAZY!!"...LOL... "No honey, I was pre-occupied with maintaining control of our vehicle so we didn't die." LOL....
Few points/lessons taken from this:
1. Be EXTRA VIGILANT while riding around sunset time...This is obvious if you've ever lived near woods.
2. Frame sliders can be useful for more than just keeping between concrete and your plastic.
3. It IS possible to hit a deer on a motorcycle and come away unscaythed...although rare, it does happen.
4. If the deer were a mature large buck, I wouldn't be typing this to you...thankfully it was a youngin.
5. Had I been solo, I could have stopped short in the road and let the deer do it's thing....(I have yet to see a Prancing Deer, like the ones shown on those Yellow Signs by the roadside).
6. I still wouldn't give up riding 2up with the wife for anything.
7. I have nightmares from the mental image I have of seeing how the whole thing went down, too surreal.
To add to the whole event, not 3 miles up the road, a sportbike was down on a 180degree turn, ambulance, police, paramedics all on scene. In the Bay Area, bike crashes are daily events.
Just thought I'd share my harrowing experience with you all. My wife and I are VERY lucky to be alive and to have come out of the experienced unharmed. It easily could have been disasterous.
Russ
Here's one for ya, blazing hot the other day/eve, so wife and I decided to get out and go for a cool ride. It was just about 1900, or 7pm, for you civilians, and we were merrily poking along through the Tilden Park area near us. Now, being dusk, and being in a state park, knowing there is lots of movement in the woods about this time, we were not going very fast, MAYBE 30mph, we were on a short straightaway that dumped into a 180 turn, so I was being extra careful and alert, I spot a deer about 2-3yrs old making his way onto the right lane(our lane) of the road. It pauses for a sec, so I'm thinkin, ok, I'll go around it, he's gonna turn around, NOPE!!! He starts trying to run across as I've already committed to accelerating, he's slippin n sliding on the blacktop, I KNOW this is not gonna go well, I'm playing it out in my head, trying to guess where the impact is going to be. I am now completely in the left lane, the deer running at an angle to me, hits me at an angle, head about where right turnsignal is, front legs where my frameslider is, and body about where my leg is. My natural reaction was to kick it away as hard as I could as it slammed into my leg. My wife on seat behind me doing the same thing.
The encounter ended with me looking in my mirror and seeing the deer flailing on it's back in the middle of the road, then jump up and take off running.
No damage done to FJR (aside from a minor scuff), No physical damage done to the Wife or I. The deer was probably traumatized. I don't know.
We stopped a short way up the road to assess damages. The first thing my wife says to me is: "Did you see the look in it's eyes?? I was CRAZY!!"...LOL... "No honey, I was pre-occupied with maintaining control of our vehicle so we didn't die." LOL....
Few points/lessons taken from this:
1. Be EXTRA VIGILANT while riding around sunset time...This is obvious if you've ever lived near woods.
2. Frame sliders can be useful for more than just keeping between concrete and your plastic.
3. It IS possible to hit a deer on a motorcycle and come away unscaythed...although rare, it does happen.
4. If the deer were a mature large buck, I wouldn't be typing this to you...thankfully it was a youngin.
5. Had I been solo, I could have stopped short in the road and let the deer do it's thing....(I have yet to see a Prancing Deer, like the ones shown on those Yellow Signs by the roadside).
6. I still wouldn't give up riding 2up with the wife for anything.
7. I have nightmares from the mental image I have of seeing how the whole thing went down, too surreal.
To add to the whole event, not 3 miles up the road, a sportbike was down on a 180degree turn, ambulance, police, paramedics all on scene. In the Bay Area, bike crashes are daily events.
Just thought I'd share my harrowing experience with you all. My wife and I are VERY lucky to be alive and to have come out of the experienced unharmed. It easily could have been disasterous.
Russ
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