Making Road Kill

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BBIII

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I'm new to this full time riding stuff in NorCal so I have a question. If you have a choice, what is the preferred method of running over small beasts, or do you swerve violently to avoid them because a skunk kill is hard to clean off the FJR?

BTW, my first ride home on the '05 FJR ended with the death of a forest rat...New FJR +1, Forest Rat = dead :D

I'm sure that this has been discussed before, but my topic searches went nowhere.

 
Stand on the footpegs and ride over the poor critter, unless he is any easy target to get around. Not worth crashing to avoid him.

 
I chase them *******s down, and then record my kills by painting critter heads on my fairing. :assasin:

 
I don't even flinch anymore if it's smaller than a coyote. THUMP.

BTW, when impacted by a Yamaha traveling at 85mph, a desert bunny rabbit will empty its bowels...and that sh*t is tough to get off of hot parts.

 
sometimes it's just unavoidable to miss them. do whatever it takes to keep on 2 wheels.

after i have been through some carcass on the fjr i have to keep my dog away from the bike. i've caught him trying to mark my wheels/tires. :bigeyes:

 
There are a lot more riders killed trying to swerve and brake at the same time, rather than by center-punching a small animal. The advice we used to give riders in novice training was that if an impact is unavoidable, try to hit it as squarely as possible, with no braking (especially front brakes) or steering inputs at the same time.

I have heard others here say that they "lead" forest rats by aiming at their tails, but I have not personally observed any predicatable behaviour by these vermin. As WC says, slow down in deer country or make sure your living will is up to date! :D

 
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Feejer 1

Raccoon 0

I've tried to swerve in the past, but for me it's better to just get up on the pegs & keep moving...

Royal Star 3

Small Ceritters 0

 
Your motorcycle is licensed to be on the street, animals are not -- so it is your civic duty to RUN THEM DOWN. Just make sure you motorcycle is straight up and down when you are doing it. About 99 percent of the time you will fail in your attempt since they will get out of the way. Don't get upset when that happens, just be patient because your next opportunity for a road kill might be just around the next corner.

 
I'm new to this full time riding stuff in NorCal so I have a question.  If you have a choice, what is the preferred method of running over small beasts, or do you swerve violently to avoid them because a skunk kill is hard to clean off the FJR?
BTW, my first ride home on the '05 FJR ended with the death of a forest rat...New FJR +1, Forest Rat = dead :D  

I'm sure that this has been discussed before, but my topic searches went nowhere.
Likely you won't have much if any time. I was on a farm road in Texas this morning at about nine o'clock. Was behind a Yamaha, Road Star. I thought about catching up to him for a moment, but decided to stay in my current position. All of a sudden I saw a deer at full stride come from between buildings and shoot across the road right in front of the cruiser. I immediately pulled off the road and came to a stop because I was pretty sure the outcome wasn't going to be pretty. As I rolled to a stop the cruiser broadsided the deer at about 55 mph. Cruiser immediately went down and the rider slid and rolled down the road ahead of his bike. He was in tennis shoes, jeans and a T-shirt. Plenty of road rash, and what were sure to be bruises, and a couple minor cuts. His only safety item was a full face helmet. When he got a look at the helmet and saw that a good portion of his sliding was on his face, he said "at least I had a helmet on". I'd say he was darn lucky. His comment to me when I asked if he wanted to call for assitance was "I should of had leather's". His second comment was "I was taking the bike in for its 600 mile check up. His third comment was " I am done riding, my wife won't let me ride after this".

The rider said he didn't see the deer until it was squarely in front of him and he had no time to do anything. He just hit him straight away.

With the picture of what happened fresh in my mind, for the next few hours I have to say I stayed below the century mark on my morning ride picturing deer comming from both sides of the road.

Why is it that we have the ability to read and learn from the mistakes of other's, but so often we have to learn the hard way!

I am guilty of shedding the jacket when the temp's are in the mid 90's or above. Not anymore!

Side note: Texas and Pennsylvania have the most deer/vehicle encounters. I expect there are other states with plenty of deer too, just not many vehicles.

 
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Seen the aftermath of a guy that hit a moose coming out of the ditch up by Ely, Mn. caught it right behind the ear killed it dead, weight was about 700 lbs. It just smash the lights on a Handa CB750.

 
The standard advice for years has been that if the critter is small enough to be eaten in one meal, run over it.

If it's too big for dinner, swerve to avoid it.

I swerved to avoid a big buck (knowing my appetite at the time, having just finished breakfast), and managed to whack his girlfriend a tenth of a second later...

My injuries were way less than hers, but I was covered with partially-digested vegetation from the waist down...fairly gross.

 
I've blasted a Shepherd at 60. Didn't try to avoid him, felt like a cannon ball hitting a wall. I'd swear the bike stayed straight and true-the rider behind me said my bike was thrown several feet in the air and several feet to the right. If I had tried to avoid him, I would have been down. There are plenty of forrest rats around here-if one shows up quick, I'll center punch it rather than swerve!

 
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Many years ago I nearly hit a bear while riding through a thunderstorm. I thought afterwards how it would have sucked to crash the bike then have "Ole Ugly" kick my ass for running into him. :lol:

 
...the cruiser broadsided the deer at about 55 mph. ...he didn't see the deer until it was squarely in front of him and he had no time to do anything. He just hit him straight away.
You didn't say what happened to poor little Bambi/Vermin :lol:

 
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