Thank you for all your comments. I'm a new rider. I know what to do in a cage.
I want to have fun on my ride and still want as much information from other riders as I can get. The forums here are well read by me. Safety is very important to me. I keep thinking about the number of people here actively helping others and what their combined years of riding experience would be!

 

I'd pull off and call my buddy Larry. He's into all that space exploration junk and I'd hate for him to miss out on seeing a meteor like that.

 

1. Aim high in steering
2. Get the big picture
3. Keep your eyes moving
4. Leave yourself an out
5. Make sure they see you

 

My tactic for #1

Head straight for where the deer is when you see him

He will not be there when you get to him

 

That didn't work for me last night when I came upon three fawns standing in the road. The dumb deer just stood there staring at me. I finally stopped and blew the horn. After a minute or so, they wandered off.

 

That's because they knew you were slowing down and they thought you had something to feed them.

 

Deer are a crap shoot slow if you can get all over the horn and light flashing , I've had them freeze and gone around , jump to the shoulder look and at you and a few jump one way then 180 and leap back across the rode .

#2 brake and to the rear , I've had the ******* see me brake saw the front of the car dip down I managed to come out of the slide and just slip by the front of the car when he let off the brake and clipped me in the passenger peg the rest hurt , a lot .

#3 , had a old beater dump truck almost rear end me at light while behind a car , I ride the right side of the street for a number of reasons the big one being options to move if needed . I heard air brakes and slamming metal saw grill in my mirror and threw myself and the bike hard to right jumping off , truck clipped the rear tire just enough to bounce the bike a bit and hit the car I was behind hard enough to knock it most of the way through the intersection . 3 illegals jump out I tackled one the others did a rabbit no license or insurance of course , gal in the car got banged up bad .

#4 been down this road a few times I go right onto the shoulder , shortest distance and reaction time and your best shot at maintaining control of the bike , go left your odds of getting tagged just went several orders of magnitude and unless you've had advance rider training you going to lose it if you get the other shoulder .

A close 2 lane mountain road with a no shoulder a guardrail and steep drop on the oncoming side me inside lane up against the mountain with a shoulder about a 2 foot wide shoulder that dip off hard made from fist size and bigger rock and this is a sweeping curve . There's a line of cars 6 or 7 long behind a camper coming on and when we approached almost head on there's a small pickup towing a U haul trailer in my lane I'm doing 60 and we're less than 50 yards apart . The trailer starts whipping from side to side as the guy brakes he can't merge I dropped on the shoulder took out 3 poles with the reflectors on them and felt that trailer brush by , this wasn't a 3 foot hole at speed on big rocks lord knows how I cleared it and bounced back onto the road . Lost a girlfriend over that one got home went to her mother and never heard from her again . Look on the womans face in the truck said hubby was in for a long drive too .

Let me toss a few real world has happened scenarios at you .

#1 your in rush hour traffic got maybe a car length of space on a curve 50+mph you see a one car hole open to the left to get around the brake dragger in front of you and as you make the move there's a dead German Shepard on the dotted line you hit it and it hangs under the bike bringing you rear wheel off the ground what do you do ?

#2 you and a buddy had a good day on the road you riding side by side nice straight freeway about 70 mph , There's a big flatbed truck 6 or 7 car lengths ahead of you and all of a sudden this BIG wooden crate about 8' x 5' x 4' comes off the back and explodes with the full sides intact flying at you ?

#3 doing a little twisty riding and there's a half dozen concrete blocks and broken bags of cement in the road as you come around the curve and your in the lean ?

All of these have happen and a few more mufflers flying out from under the car in front . Watching the dual wheel and axle come loose and completely out of the truck next to you at 60mph bouncing down the road and it's rush hour ect.

What would you do ?

 

I was always trained to look for all the possible escapes from hazards. I also find that the bike can do amazing things as long as you stay in control. I was going around a big sweeping turn and in the middle of it laid a dead 'something'. A quick weight adjustment and push on the bars took me around it and back on track. My heartbeat felt like it was through the roof but after the rush wore off I smiled and felt a little more confident in my reflex and reaction.

 

1. slow down, keep straight

2. round back, cagers are idiots

3. swerve, there is usually just enough room.

4. kiss ur butt bye-bye

But, it all can be influenced by the conditions atm.

But I like this answer from Old96..

 

1) In daylight - Slow down and aim for the deer. The deer will most likely move and it doesn't matter which way if you are aiming where it is at. In the dark - Slow down, kill brights and choose the left side (the deer may be blinded by the light and not move). Why the left side? I don't know, just seems that still leaves more room to manuever than the right side (there be cliffs/rock retaining walls on the right side on most the roads I ride).

The rest are highly variable depending on what I see. I've been in situations 2 & 3, and done different things.

Saturday I thought I was going to get squished between the truck in front and the truck behind me. 2-lane road, no shoulder and rock retaining walls on either side going speed limit of 30 MPH. Truck in front slowed to turn into a driveway, I slowed (with brakes - so my lights were glowing) and the truck behind wasn't paying attention. At 20 MPH, I thought I was going to be rear-ended. I dove to the left, as far as I could onto the line, but there was oncoming traffic so I couldn't go over. The truck driver behind me woke up and dove to the right, so missed me.