I just posted this in response to another thread on deer but figured I would post it as a separate thread of its own.

I hit a deer back in July on the bike. $6200 damage.

Was riding home around 10:30pm when he popped out from the right shoulder.

It's amazing what goes through ones mind in a matter of seconds.

I was rolling around 50mph. Soon as I seen him I hit both brakes hard and I eyeballed and tried to head to the white painted line on the right shoulder of the road. The rear locked up and started to go out from under me because I was pressing to go right, so I had to let it go.

Then in my mind, I thought I was going to just miss him but in a split second, the fugger jumped back towards me!!

Now I'm bracing for impact. It's inevitable. I told myself I aint gonna go down. I held on hard to the bars and tucked my left knee and leg as far into the bike as I could.

Bam! I can still see his right-side eyeball and head hitting my fairing! Then his whole body rolled down the left side of the bike fuggin up my cruise arms, boards and brackets, and my saddlebag and rear fender.

Came to a stop at the very edge of the roadway. I was lucky and I knew it! But then I looked back in the road and saw him lift his head up and my gratitude shortly turned into anger! I **** you not if my left-side board were not so bent up and I could have got the bike out of 5th gear, I would have spun my bike around to finish him off!

The story gets better. Soon after it happened, this woman pulls and gets out of her car over screaming "Oh my God the poor thing! It's still alive!" and I'm looking like 'Hey lady what about me! I'm still alive too'. She couldnt care less about my condition or the condition of my bike.

Then this young couple pulls up with their priorities in order and asks me if I'm okay and then about the bike. The headlight was out and trim popped with housing bent along with the mountin bracket. Front forks were a little ****-eyed, left cowbell was bent in with a gouge in the upper part of the slider. Fairing was smasked on the left side, Controls, boards and brackets were bent, and my hard bag was back on the right side of the road. The bike was still running.

They told me they lived a 1/4 mile down the road around the corner and if I could get the bike rolling, he had tools to try to try to make it rideable or leave there till I could get it. So at that point I pressed down as hard as I could on the floorboard and managed to get it down to a point where I could get it into 1st gear and then followed them back to the house.

The guy had an FLH apart in his basement and brought out the headlight assembly and between duct tape and wire-ties, i then had light. We removed stuff, bent stuff, straightened stuff the best we could, and I deemed the bike rideable at a slow speed the 20 miles back to my house. I thanked them and left.

Oh, the story gets even better. As I came around the corner to where I had struck the deer, the cops were there, so I pulls in behind the cruiser. A younger cop was directing traffic around them with his orange wand. Why? I dont know. It was a rural road 10:30pm with virtually no traffic. He comes at me screaming "I told you to go around!" I says "Easy man, I'm the one who hit the deer." He says "Oh really?" to which I replied yes. Now he's in my face with the flashlight looking for evidence of drinking in my eyes and breath. Next thing he asks me is for my license and registration. Then as I'm getting off the bike reaching for my wallet... he then asks me the next question... "Where were you coming from?" WTF!! I had all I could do to contain myself at this point. I stopped reaching for my wallet, turned to face him and said "You know officer, I'm trying to be respectful here but quite frankly you're making it hard for me. What the fugg difference does it make where I was coming from?? Why dont you ask the deer where IT was coming from??"

I know at that point it could have gone either way. The other cop comes over now and asks what the problem is. "There shouldnt be a problem. I just had a near death experience and this guy is giving me the fifth degree like I'm a dopey criminal coming back to the scene of the crime!" The guy then apologized saying they are just standard questions. I think yeah right. I hand them my license and registration at that point.

Oh. And then it gets a little better. The guy who had just stuffed the deer into the back of his SUV pulls up to us and asks me with a goofy smile minus one tooth "Hey want some venison?" Now I'm really thinking WTF is wrong with these hicks! lol

Anyways I got the bike home. $6200 damage. Ended up with a better bike in the long run though.

I do attribute my ability to get through this deer collision unharmed to a few things. Most surely the grace of a guardian angel, but also my experience on bikes had a lot to do with it. I didnt panic was the number one thing and my ability to automatically perform a few tasks within a few seconds like knowing to eyeball where I wanted to go to the side of the road instead of fixating my vision on the deer. And then knowing I had to let go of the rear brake instead of losing the bike. I know I would have missed him had he not jumped back but it is what it is. I know also that if I had had a passenger it probably would not have been good for them or even me for that matter with the changed handling dynamics. A passenger surely would have been knocked off the bike by the deers body.

Anyways, hope youre all careful out there with this stuff. I've been on bikes on roads for about 38 years now. I've hit objects, squirells, even birds, and have had near misses with turkeys, dogs, etc. This wasnt the first time I've had deer come out in front of me, but the other times were not even close. This was the first time I hit a deer. I believe I recieved my "Get Out Of Jail Free" card with this incident, so I dont want another incident!

Be careful out there. Constant vigilance.

 

WOW....thank-you Sir for sharing your story......amazing that you were not hurt.......those deer have killed many experienced bikers over the years......again, glad you are here to tell this story......

 

Man what a story. Glad your ok and all ended up ok. Can't believe the way the cops handled you. Hell, they weren't even worried about your health either. Had it been a criminal/drunk/druggy, they probably wouldn't have even bothered to look into anything.
I know a person that has been nothing but problems here where i live. they pulled out in front of a small truck one day. police never suspected or looked into anything except cleaning up the wreck. when i looked into the car a few days later, there was marijuana and alcohol all in the car. she is still causing havic today.

 

Glad you made it through unhurt

 

Dude, I would say you are lucky, but luck had little to do with it. Good job of saving yourself!

Deer are funny creatures...and the reaction that some people have to them is even funnier! My parents live on the golf course in a country club community about 3 miles from me. Between us is unimproved ranch land, one more street in our area and you are in DEEP deer country, to the point that they feed on our shrubs. And a week doesn't go by that someone doesn't hit at least one or two with a cage of some sorts.

Anyway, some nice yankee folks who lived across the golf course from my folks put up a feeder! They were trying to make sure the deer had enough to eat (...they also voted for Obama, but that's another story...) so the home owners association sends them a nice letter telling the to take it down. They refuse. Now those of us who live here and ranch here know that all you are doing is killing the deer off slowly, and deer ticks carry lime disease which is bad crap, and kids play on the stinking course...and the BIG problem...MOUNTAIN LIONS. They will range over 150 mile area, and are making a come back in this area...

SOOOO....now we have deer that are afraid of NOTHING and mountain lions in the area...and, you guessed it, one shows up one morning to get herself a nice, fat, cornfed deer to feed her and her two cute little cubs.

I happened to be out at the folks that morning early (like 4:45 early), and had a Mini-14 in the truck, so when I saw this momma mountain lion and her kids stalking a deer, I did what I woulda done if I had seen it out at the ranch or the lease. I took out the Mini-14, chambered a 5.56 round, and 5 shots later had one dead, mauled deer and three dead mountain lions...and then called the cops and game warden to tell them why there was semi-automatic gun fire happening at the country club.

But before they got there, the nice yankee lady who had been FEEDING these "poor little creatures" came running out and started yelling at me as I'm walking acorss the golf course still holding the mini-14 asking me why I'm shooting the deer and how it's illegal to shoot them and I just killed Gods creatures and I should roast in hell and she's calling the cops. I tell her don't bother, they are in route, and that I wasn't shooting the deer, I was shooting the mountain lion.

She then looked over to where I and two others by that point (both of them armed, too) were walking and started screaming.

They moved the next week. And we now have an agreement with Texas Parks and Wildlife about keeping the population in check using special tags, so we are feeding a few less fourtunate families in the area with the meat.

Deer make people do funny things. Stupidity makes people do funnier things. Deer and stupid people together can't be described without using the word "cluster" somewhere in the sentence...

I wish we could teach folks like THIS to run out in front of cars and bikes...would be worth the damage, and I wouldn't even bother to try to miss them.

 

Good to hear you are OK. I had a deer run out in front of me going through Ashdown Forest in Sussex England, in the summer one Sunday morning on the way to a rideout meet. I managed to break in a straight line and just miss it as it ran across the road, must have been doing about 60 mph before I broke hard. More luck than judgement for me, a matter of a split second and I was toast! Frightened the **** out of me, and my wife who was on the back and never even saw the deer. Asked me what the *uck I thought I was doing making her smash her helmet into the back of mine!

 

You are a lucky man.
Congrats on surviving your accident.

I've been riding since 1969 and I've encountered just about every species that we have on this continent and whitetails are the ones that scare me the most, because of their unpredictability.

I've had many encounters with deer while riding a bike, two of which were very close and those two encounters really changed my mind in regards to night riding.

We ride frequently with a couple who had a near fatal accident back about twenty years ago and after talking with them, and from my own experiences, I'm convinced that the best reaction is to break hard (to get your speed down) and AIM FOR THE DEER, if it's in front of you!

I've had a few locals tell me that they've been "blindsided" by deer who dart from the brush and hit them broadside.
In these cases there's little anyone can do except wearing a helmet and other protective gear.

 

Seems that deer were put on earth to entertain hunters and kill motorcyclists. You are a great example of why experience and keeping calm are so important when riding. Glad to here it was only the bike, and not you, that sustained damage.

 

Glad you came out of it with no major injuries.
I don't understand why so many people think you should not back off the rear breaks if they begin to lock up. (I had to once on my old Heritage and it saved my ***.)

 

Thanks for taking the time to post that. Really great reminder of how to handle that situation. If there is any justice, your insurance will cover it all and maybe even a little extra. Ride on, Man. Great riding job against that moving, unpredictable obstacle, if you ask me.