Deer oh deer

[BillCav]

This last weekend my wife and I put a ride on for a group here in BC. On Saturday while over near Creston BC, on a lonely country road, a deer jumped of a hill next to the road and landed on a "Wing" driven by a lady. She kept it upright, stopped to pull into a gravel driveway but couldn't turn the wheel, because of all the plastic that had been broken off (it was jamming into the spokes) , so she and the bike fell over. Bottom line... she's okay, the deer is in two parts and the bike is badly damaged. i don't know about other areas of Canada and the US but we are overrun by deer in the south of BC and they need to be culled.

Bill
50 K1200LT

[DLBass]

Is culling deer a good use of a Gold Wing? I have a friend who uses one as a door stop in his garage and that seems a lot safer than riding it around. :rotf:


Seriously though, glad the lady was OK. That is a big chunk of meat to hit, and on a lesser bike she may well have been toast.

We don't get much other than small fry like foxes and badgers running amok here in the UK. A Deer? Sheesh!

Let's be careful out there!

David

[Lonewuff]

I have 18 Horned Rats living on my property and I am starting to see lots and lots of the spotted little ones already...bumper crop this year (pun intended). ;) :D

[yechave]

Our very first test ride on the LT here in NE PA last Nov., we had a large deer jump over the front wheel, no idea how we did not collide. Never saw it coming, never touched the brakes or slowed. One jump over the brush and it was already dead center on the bike.

Two more very close calls with deer the two weeks after the purchase. Another with my van, and our car did hit one the following week..$1500 in damages. Another friend of ours hit one with his Neon shortly after all this, the impact was enough to smash 3/4 of the entire right side of the car, and took quite some doing to pull the body panels and door back out.

Still seeing way too many deer for my liking.

Definitely a concern here, more so as I mostly ride at night. With temps in the heat of day being just brutal lately, it is not an option for me.

Thought I would be the heat and left for a ride about 5:30am a few days ago. The fog was so bad (I almost left the bike and was going to walk home), could barely see 10'. I managed to make it to a main road about 4 miles from home, and followed the lights behind a car until I could make it to a section of town where the fog was starting to dissipate...and do not expect to attempt that feat any time too soon.

[pickerbiker]

Deer aren't the only problem in the Pacific Northwest...it's the ELK you have to watch for!

[kf4mat]

Yep, I'm thinking about mounting my Mossberg 500 on the bike somehow. Just wish open season was a little longer on the big rats. ;)

[gglove]

Glad to hear that she is ok.
I have seen our local deer population explode.
Due to budget short falls the clean up of the road kill has been cut back so the roadways are littered with dead deer.

[WildBil]

Same here. She should get an award for holding it together with a deer on board and we are all glad to hear she is fine.

I think deer are an almost universal problem here. I have never seen so many of them hanging around the fringe of the forest preserves around Chicago and my best guess is that food is running short in the groves.

For me, the Chicago winter was darn cold and long, with a very cool Spring, but for some reason (maybe their predators were skulking around the garbage cans of Chicago and getting shot by CPD) their numbers seem to have grown to the point that they leap the fences to graze by the highways.

Bil

[JG3GA]

Jeez!

Scary stuff. Larry Grodsky, motorcycle safety expert, had once been quoted as saying that it would be a deer that would eventually "get him." Unfortunately, he was proven right a few years ago.

Glad to hear that the riders were okay.

-------------
James

[Pegasus]

*VERY* glad to hear all were A-OK! I hit a caribou in Yukon Territory in '04. Took out to caribou but also took out the Triumph Tiger. ATGATT saved the day.

[rattler50]

Deer have become like field mice here in North Texas. You seldom saw them years back but now they are everywhere and getting thicker. Wild hogs are the same way. You really have to be careful at night. I added lights to all my bikes just for that reason. I have had plenty of scares............ :eek:

[pozo_izquierdo]

Yes indeed, deer and especially moose are the ones we have to watch out in this part of the world. Moose is the kind and size of an animal that a biker usually has no chance to survive...:(

And in the North we have the reindeer (you know the Santa Claus Rudolf...)which are even farmed by the locals and they live free in the nature!
A friend of mine hit a reindeer two years ago on LT and the poor animal died instantly and his wife sitting in the back did not even notice anything strange until he pulled over and told her that what had happened.
The damage to the bike was minimal, the high beam bracket broke and reindeer hair and blood was in every possible cavity but he was able to ride his bike to the end of the season and only got it repaired the next winter.

Regards

[c00k1e]

Too close!
We had a massive owl clip us in the black forest while doing 80 we all survived, but that was down to the owl, not down to my quick reactions

[LAF]

Yep we have a housing development that they just hired sharp shooters to cull 75 deer that are running through it, and living in it. Years ago they had to open Gettysburg National Park up to hunters to cull them as the herd was so large it was destroying the park.

They are just really out of control here in PA.

Happy the rider was not hurt and think she did a great job of staying up.

[rkimmel2]

No question, deer are a problem. During rutting season you pretty much ride white knuckle here on the Eastern Shore. But it is a problem that needs to be addressed through more than just culling the herds. Lots of deer are feral to areas because of poor planning, rampant over destruction of forests and damage we have done to the food chain.

For sports people, including bikers, environmental issues are becoming more important. I have fox crossing a bridge over a bay in search of food in our beach community because the other side of the bridge no longer has habitat.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with shooting big bambi but there are hundreds of them where there should be dozens. The solution needs to be more comprehensive and based in science because culling in itself could hardly make a dent or address the problem other then temporarily.

[Tat_n_Telle]

No question, deer are a problem. During rutting season you pretty much ride white knuckle here on the Eastern Shore. But it is a problem that needs to be addressed through more than just culling the herds. Lots of deer are feral to areas because of poor planning, rampant over destruction of forests and damage we have done to the food chain.

For sports people, including bikers, environmental issues are becoming more important. I have fox crossing a bridge over a bay in search of food in our beach community because the other side of the bridge no longer has habitat.

Don't get me wrong, I have no problem with shooting big bambi but there are hundreds of them where there should be dozens. The solution needs to be more comprehensive and based in science because culling in itself could hardly make a dent or address the problem other then temporarily.

I think we should start a program to introduce Grizzly bears to the deer areas.

It may not cull enough deer, but you can sure bet I won't be riding around in an area full of GRIZZLIES! Therefore, I'll be less likely to collide with a deer.

Obviously, just kidding. I just wish they would make it legal here in Mass to shoot coyotes. I'm seeing more and more of them in the area, too.

[avonfloater]

Not certain it makes sense to have too many deer AND kill the predators.

Denny

I think we should start a program to introduce Grizzly bears to the deer areas.

It may not cull enough deer, but you can sure bet I won't be riding around in an area full of GRIZZLIES! Therefore, I'll be less likely to collide with a deer.

Obviously, just kidding. I just wish they would make it legal here in Mass to shoot coyotes. I'm seeing more and more of them in the area, too.

[rkimmel2]

Not certain it makes sense to have too many deer AND kill the predators.

Denny


I agree. I see and hear coyote more and more these days and doubt that they have the potential to be a real traffic problem. They do love their deerburgers though.

[Lzyellodog]

Glad to hear she came out ok. Last night on my way home from my softball game, i rounded the last corner before I get to my house there is a deer on the right side of the road, I slow letting the animal figure out what it is going to do and instead of it heading off the right it turns around right across the street in front of me. I was not going more than 20 because I saw it and slowed way down. I usually take the corner at 40. Just can not predict what these animals will do. Just have to be alert and hope for the best.

[Octus]

Middle Tennessee has more than its share of the critters. I was on the way home about twilight last fall and had the thought that deer were moving. I dropped my speed from 65 to about 45 mph. It wasn't 10 minutes later my headlamps picked up a doe directly in front of me. It was like she was waiting for the oncoming car so she could cross the road. Nowhere to swerve so I hit the brakes. She didn't move and I kicked her in the butt at about 10 miles an hour as she split the lane between me and the oncoming car. If I don't do that again it will be ok with me!

[airborne]

September 2005, first cold snap of the year here in Missouri. Totaled a 2005 LT on a deer. ATGATT. Walked away from it after hitting it at 55mph. Was wearing a full Kilamanjaro jacket and pants. Progressive replaced the bike and 3 weeks later...at it again with a twin of the totaled 2005.

Deer are a major problem here....however the DOT is more of a problem with their method of repairing the roads..........gravel and tar.

[Lonewuff]

I wasn't going to tell this story, because it is still pretty raw for me, even after years of doing some really bad things to some really bad people, but maybe it can be my own therapy.

I had been at my college Home Coming and was on my way back home. The deer are real bad that time of year (fall rut) and I didn't want to drive at night, but I got a real early start that morning hoping to make it an Iron Butt back home. I hit the Missouri-Iowa border just as it started to get light. I had the cruise set and was just coasting along about nine over and had just passed a semi when I started to over take this older Dodge Diplomat and I noticed the Semi pulled into the left lane to pass her behind me. As I got along side the car I could see a baby's car seat in the back, but there was a boy, about 3 years old standing up in the front seat (I remember asking myself why he wasn't in the child seat or at least seat belted in and remembering times as a kid doing the same thing in my parents car) and I could see him pointing at me very animated and then noticed his mother look over, wave and smile. Cute gal in her late twenties I guessed as I waved back. Just as I got in front of her car (back tire was about even with her bumper) I saw a huge doe (at the time I actually thought it was a horse) coming up out of the ditch to our right. I locked it down as hard as I could.

The car continued past me and I could see the driver looking at me in the side mirror with a questioned look on her face, so she never saw it coming. The next thing I know I am dodging the top of the car, glass, body parts of all kinds, including two halves of the deer, knowing the entire time I have an 18 wheeler on my butt and I can hear screeching tires.

As I got past the debris field the car continued down the road, so I followed it. I could not see anyone in the seats, of what was now essentially a convertible minus a windshield, as I remained a safe distance to the rear of the car. After a quarter mile it eventually coasted into the median and rolled to a stop. I jumped off the bike and ran to the car. As I got close I could hear a baby crying. The baby car seat was covered in blood, fur, skin, and lots of glass, but underneath it all was about a 4 month old baby. As luck would have it the semi driver followed me and was a woman who immediately took the baby and comforted it. I learned later the baby didn't have anything but some cuts from glass. There was nothing to be done for the mother and her son. In fact large parts of both of them were not even in the car, but were back on the road in the debris field.

Other 18 wheelers blocked the roadway until the State Police arrived. An officer took my statement and the semi driver's, then told us we could leave, after a couple of hours.

This happened in 03 and I can still see that gals questioned look in her mirror as if it just happened. Yeah...I hate horned rats.

[Jburwell]

yea, we have deers in Minnesota, hit one 5 years ago, why a switch to BMW, big bike and ABS. Up at the cabin, cental MN, we see 4 to 5 deer going about 10 miles, I don't ride at dusk.

Yesterday, found a new threat, Timberwolf. I was ride a 2:00 PM and a well travel road and about 10 bike were stop - with the police there. I was told by one of the group, that a 2-up got hit by a Timberwolf, bike behind also dropped. The first two were not good, the second driver was walking a round. There was a lot of "official' help, after asking if they need help, I left.

On the ride by to the cabin about a 1/2 hour later, I did stop for a doe and fawn. "I brake for deers" (stop).

[Sofitel505]

Deer aren't the only problem in the Pacific Northwest...it's the ELK you have to watch for!

That's no joke. Was riding along the Skagit river last month with a buddy and came around a corner face to face with a bull elk in the road. Full stop and stare down not sure if he had a mind to charge me.

I saw two females in the meadow to the right and he started to walk that way. Needless to say we hauled ass as soon as he was off the road. You dont have to hit those things to get in trouble.