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I was talking to the service writer at our local dealer and he said a guy brought in a bike that was damaged when hitting a buck. The antler speared the dude leg right into the center off it.
When I see a deer coming out of the woods I alway looking for a few more to following it. Everytime I've had to avoid one there usaually is one or more chargeing behind it a few seconds later.
A friend of mine turned off a main road on to a side street, he was maybe going 30 mph this huge german shepard came out on the road to chase him. The chain the dog broke got tangled up in his rear wheel flipped the bike and it landed on him. Broke all his ribs on the one side, puncured his lung had two vessels in his head leaking, multiple contusions and road rash...almost killed him.
There was a deer hit on I-480 in North Olmsted (a large suburb of Cleveland) this past weekend. From what I saw onnews it wasn't pretty. Don't believe there's much you can do to avoid one when you're travelling athighway speeds.
I actually hit a large doe just last friday night with my 03 RK riding 2 up. I came around a long sweeping curve into some woods and the dang thing just darted out in front of me. I had no time to react whatsoever. I clipped it's hind quarter with the front fender and the right side engine guard. I think the bumper on the RK saved the fender from total destruction. As it is, the bike is still very rideable. Just broke the front fender light and tweaked the fender a little bit. We were very forturnate that it wasn't a direct hit to the mid section of the deer. I'd have to agree with everyone that if you just hold your course and don't try to swerve to avoid it you'll probably be better off.
Saw a video on the internet once of a guy on a crotch rocket going pretty fast around a long sweeping curve and a deer ran out in front of him. I don't think he saw it till he was on it. He kept going and the bike wavered a bit, quite a bit when he hit the deer, and the deer split in two and the rider kept going. He didn't go down, but the deer was cut in half
I figure if I have to hit one, I want to be going straight forward, no turning that would cause me to slide or flip sideways, and I would agree that if you aim where he was, then you should only catch the back end that would flip around easily, if you hit it at all.
Now if were an elk...
I hit a deer going 80mph at around 2am one morningin a 67 chrysler new yorker once. Didn't do much at all to the front end of that heavy duty tuna boat car, but that deer was about 100yards down the road in a gut pile, what guts that weren't left on the road where he slid. Looked like a loose bag of deer hide with a head and legs that were all crossed up. I haddriven back to see what happened to him. I just followed the gut and blood trail. I think a good forward motion without falling down would keep you out of trouble best, but who knows.
Been a rough year on deer around here in Kansas. A guy I work with hit one a while back on his Honda, and it was fine. Not much damage to the bike and he did fine. On the other hand, we have had two guys die in the past month do to hitting deers. I think it's a crap shoot on how bad it will be when you hit one.
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