@web-tech avatar
UTC

Veni, Vidi, Posti
2008 MP3 500, 2013 BV350, 2020 Vespa Sei Giorni, 2008 Vespa S150
Joined: UTC
Posts: 8951
Location: Ashburn, Va. Home to the Internet
 
Veni, Vidi, Posti
@web-tech avatar
2008 MP3 500, 2013 BV350, 2020 Vespa Sei Giorni, 2008 Vespa S150
Joined: UTC
Posts: 8951
Location: Ashburn, Va. Home to the Internet
UTC quote
Route 66 Lawdog wrote:
WEB-Tech wrote:
The trick to riding in high deer populations is to constantly hit your horn. There is one section of road between work and home I just keep tapping on the horn button the whole stretch of road. Deer come up to the edge of the road and eat the grass. Had deer about 1-2 feet from my handle bar a few times, as I go by them, they just look up and go back to eating. Hate Deer, but love to ride at night, so I risk it.
I remember several years ago, in one of several such incidents, an officer was speeding down the road, full lights and sirens, and still managed to tag a deer. The animal went right through the windshield and into the passenger seat area. It was still alive and the poor officer was just about kicked to death before he could access his firearm and dispatch the injured Bambi.

A full complement of very bright strobes firing, a siren which can be heard for a good mile, and some deer still manage to pirouette into vehicles.
Too much and too loud. An occasional toot of the horn stops a deer in its tracks in a quiet area.
@andersh avatar
UTC

Enthusiast
GT200
Joined: UTC
Posts: 84
Location: Silicon Valley
 
Enthusiast
@andersh avatar
GT200
Joined: UTC
Posts: 84
Location: Silicon Valley
UTC quote
Re: Critterphobia
fleece wrote:
I used to ride at night the same as in the day, until I hit a badger in my car, saw how much damage the critter did, and since then I've got that bloody 'what if' hanging over me on my bike
In July this year a motorcyclist died in Sweden in a collision with a badger on a freeway (http://www.svt.se/nyheter/regionalt/vast/trafikstockning-pa-e6-an). That was in the middle of the day. So yes, this is scary. Last week a saw a monster rat at dusk, must have been an opossum. Luckily it turned around and ran back into the bushes. I keep the speed down at night. And at dawn and dusk. And I try to read the terrain: flat land with trees? Grass? Can they come running here?

Once a deer came running from the left. That was at an obvious place; flat land on both sides, some trees, nice grass, no fence. If it had come from the right I would have crashed into it. Deer are scary, not only at night.
UTC

Hooked
Now own a Moto Guzzi Cali 1400. Wife has a Buddy 125
Joined: UTC
Posts: 342
Location: New Jersey USA
 
Hooked
Now own a Moto Guzzi Cali 1400. Wife has a Buddy 125
Joined: UTC
Posts: 342
Location: New Jersey USA
UTC quote
There's only so much we can do to lower the risk. Just a few weeks ago a State Trooper was killed driving a patrol car in a deer collision.

And don't forget the statistics that after 11 PM one car out of every 43 is operated by a drunk driver. That, as well as the fact that on my N.J. highways, drivers still do 80MPH at night, keeps me off them even on a larger motorcycle. If I ride at night, I stick to secondary or county roads.
UTC

Ossessionato
Piaggio BV250
Joined: UTC
Posts: 2429
Location: Historic Route 66 in Oklahoma
 
Ossessionato
Piaggio BV250
Joined: UTC
Posts: 2429
Location: Historic Route 66 in Oklahoma
UTC quote
WEB-Tech wrote:
Route 66 Lawdog wrote:
WEB-Tech wrote:
The trick to riding in high deer populations is to constantly hit your horn. There is one section of road between work and home I just keep tapping on the horn button the whole stretch of road. Deer come up to the edge of the road and eat the grass. Had deer about 1-2 feet from my handle bar a few times, as I go by them, they just look up and go back to eating. Hate Deer, but love to ride at night, so I risk it.
I remember several years ago, in one of several such incidents, an officer was speeding down the road, full lights and sirens, and still managed to tag a deer. The animal went right through the windshield and into the passenger seat area. It was still alive and the poor officer was just about kicked to death before he could access his firearm and dispatch the injured Bambi.

A full complement of very bright strobes firing, a siren which can be heard for a good mile, and some deer still manage to pirouette into vehicles.
Too much and too loud. An occasional toot of the horn stops a deer in its tracks in a quiet area.
Deer season starts tomorrow. So, I can sneak up on them by running all "lights and sirens?" Cool!!!

Seriously, I have tried the little-toot-here, little-toot-there approach and have found it to be lacking in dependability, just as is the full-on assault style of attacking every sensory-input possessed by a deer.

I have observed that deer can be momentarily, and very briefly, startled by just about anything. I believe one could have success in causing just enough, but not too much, commotion so that any given deer would be startled into brief motionlessness while the rider managed to scoot past.
Not being able to see where every deer is located prior to the encounter might somewhat complicate one's ability to know when the exact moment for a game-winning toot has arrived, though. And then, the next deer thirty yards up the road might not play along, and just decide the best course of action is to blindly bolt across the road (and becoming a newly unwanted scooter passenger), after briefly having been mildly frozen by fear during the horn-tooting which was timed to the prior deer encountered, of course.

I'm glad that you have found a method of dealing with them that works for you, it just has not been consistently effective for me

Deer. I'm tellin' ya: they are just out to get us. Or, at least in Oklahoma, anyways......
@max6200 avatar
UTC

Banned
2006 GTS 250
Joined: UTC
Posts: 10590
Location: KS USA
 
Banned
@max6200 avatar
2006 GTS 250
Joined: UTC
Posts: 10590
Location: KS USA
UTC quote
The Mocker wrote:
I love it. Most of my night time riding is on roads I know well which helps.
Same here. I love the city lights and the moon!
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