I love to ride in the cooler weather but this time of year in the midwest we have extra dangers to avoid. Only rode about 80 miles yesterday and was confronted with 3 of these hazards. 2 of the 3 caused me to leave a fair amount of Pirelli product behind on the asphalt. You can't go more than a mile or so without seeing carcasses along side any road in my area. These are big deer. Since hunting season started we're seeing a lot of deer over 200# after being field dressed. Most of the bikes we ride have some fair size and weight to them but even so, hitting a large critter at road speed ain't pretty. Have an acquaintance who was recently hospitalized with severe injuries upon being t-boned by a deer while riding his Fatboy slowly through the country. Keep your eyes extra wide around here this time of year.
I love to ride in the cooler weather but this time of year in the midwest we have extra dangers to avoid. Only rode about 80 miles yesterday and was confronted with 3 of these hazards. 2 of the 3 caused me to leave a fair amount of Pirelli product behind on the asphalt. You can't go more than a mile or so without seeing carcasses along side any road in my area. These are big deer. Since hunting season started we're seeing a lot of deer over 200# after being field dressed. Most of the bikes we ride have some fair size and weight to them but even so, hitting a large critter at road speed ain't pretty. Have an acquaintance who was recently hospitalized with severe injuries upon being t-boned by a deer while riding his Fatboy slowly through the country. Keep your eyes extra wide around here this time of year.
+1. I was not even 2 miles from my house when one darted out of the woods and almost caught me in the side. I actually got on the throttle hard and I was still in 3rd gear on the V2K so I had plenty of torque readily available, and got by it. I honestly think this was one of those rare occurrences that it was better to gas it than brake it. My wife was following me in her car and she said the dear tried to jump over me. She said that she could see the back of my head under its belly when it jumped. Deer is not something you want to mess with on a bike.
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2008 V2K Classic
Who would have thought I would grow up to become "Spatially Educated" and play Connect-the-Dots for a living.
Same here in Texas. Had a small buck running alongside the road last weekend, in the grassy area along the "bar ditch" between the road and a fence line, IN BROAD DAYLIGHT!. I slowed it way down, trying to figure out what he was going to do. Finally got past him.
A couple weeks ago I had one dart out in front of me 20 feet ahead only to be hit by a pickup truck coming the opposite way. Scared the you-know-what out of me. I parked the bike for a couple days afterward.
I also remember when I was a kid I was riding down the road with my mom in her van and watched one jump out of the woods and get hit by a truck and then my mom hit it in her van before it had time to hit the ground. 2 for deal on that one.
I live in the middle of national forest area. I have hit one in my truck last year and I have hit 2 this year. None of them cause any damage and all 3 deer walked off. What scares me the most is we get the occasional black bear that decides to play in the road. I know that dose not compare to some of your wild life but that is what we have here. We do have the VERY RARE occurrence with elk.
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2008 V2K Classic
Who would have thought I would grow up to become "Spatially Educated" and play Connect-the-Dots for a living.
Have hit two.....I swear it seems they aim for you sometimes!!
Hit one in my '01 F-250 and she drove her head between the rear of the rear tire and the inner fender.....tore the Hell out of the fender and she looked like a helicopter in my rear view....dead on landing for that one.
Hit one in my Rubicon haulin' butt (oh, about 75) to the hunting camp in Alabama last Fall...was dusk and I knew better. Out comes a doe and flies across the road and here comes the Buck....BAMMM....sounded like an explosion and it hit so hard everything in the Jeep went flying! He got caught under the heavy duty Warn Industries front Bumper and under the front tire so it was sliding on him as I decellerated then he came loose and the tire screeched to speed again...Killed the front fog light, dented the fender but the bumper had zero damage and the deer looked like he swallowed a stick of dynamite right before it went off! Good thing we have great water pressure at the camp. That one was messy.
Close call on the bike about a month ago too.....again she was running and darted as if to hit me. She didn't.
A couple weeks ago I had one dart out in front of me 20 feet ahead only to be hit by a pickup truck coming the opposite way. Scared the you-know-what out of me. I parked the bike for a couple days afterward.
That happened a couple of weeks ago in a residential area. I was in my F-250 going 25 MPH- a car coming toward me hit a deer and knocked it into my lane, where it hit the side of my trailer and nearly tore the fender off. It wasn't that big but man those things are solid. It killed the deer, which I saw in my mirror was laying on it's side spinning in a circle with it's legs straight out. I couldn't stop because it was on a tiny two-lane arterial with no shoulder. There was a shoulder on the other side so people going the other way stopped.
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04 1500 Classic
Mustang Seat
Sissy bar, luggage rack,
light bar, 2" risers,
Isogrips, Fatbar crashbars,
offset hiway pegs, tank bib,
passenger floorboards,
new brake pedal, throttle lock,
Cobra Lowboy Shotgun pipes,
Baron's Big Air relocated right side,
tombstone tail light,forkbag,
detachable hard leather bags,
alarm, power port, clock,
and a cool cupholder
Deer Season WARNING!
Vulcan 500
Linear Mode
