garage therapy

Beckyboo, I would/could but they hate me over there 'cause I bash
Harleys, and most cruisers.


Bob Nixon, Chandler AZ
01 Sprint ST "RED" 54K miles
http://bigrex.net/pictures

 

Well, Bob, in that case, maybe you want to check and see how I (we) are
doing in the Harley group. ;-) They even have threads going about
Beckyboo. Brought the old boys to their knees, did we? <snerk> Longest
thread in history, we think....

But, does that stop me (us)....noooooo.... And, you know I own a mixed
bag of bikes. But everytime we stop posting over there, they post about
us. And....they even take our posts out of here and post them over
there. Virtual secretaries they are.

LOL

That's me and my Mom btw...just so you know.

 

Bob, well, in the absence of you going over there and checking out what
they are saying and posting, perhaps you'd check this device and see
what you think. Of course I know it wouldn't have done much in your
situation, and I also don't think deer whistles help much at all
either. I've hit deer in my car with deer whistles attached but this is
a new item and I'm curious if it may help somewhat.... the deer problem
in my area is out of control right now and just getting worse and worse
each year, if not each week.

Take a look and tell me what you think....

Thanks.

http://tinyurl.com/qcrl7

 

I know you didn't ask me, but I think it's probably a waste of money and
gives you a false sense of security.

From what I can see, deer become habituated to surroundings like many
other animals. Once they become accustomed to being next to a roadway,
they get progressively less afraid until they'll just stand there when
they hear a vehicle coming. Once in a while, there's something a little
different about a particular vehicle or situation and the deer will
bolt.

It's anyone's guess how a deer decides which direction to run. Some
people say they run to the last place they were safe. Could be, but
unless you happen to know where that was, it doesn't leave you any
better prepared to predict where the deer will go. And it might not
even be true.

On one stretch of mountain road I ride or drive fairly often, there is
good grazing on one side of the highway and a river on the other side.
The deer constantly cross back and forth for either water or food. I
had a seriously close call while driving my truck early in the summer
with three of them that were standing on the road in a spot where they
were backdropped by cliffs made of dark brown rock. It was dusk and
they blended right in. My high beams didn't illuminate them until I was
way too close to stop. Two were standing just to the right of the
center line and the third was a couple of feet to the left of the fog
line. It looked like there was barely enough room to shoot between
them, so I pointed the truck there. Fortunately, none of the deer moved
until I was past and I made it with no more than a foot to either side.
But as Bob can tell you, the dumb things don't always stand still.

I've made the same trip by motorcycle several times this summer and have
kept that in mind. Wherever the backgroud provides poor contrast to
deerhide, I slow down.

ab

 

Thanks Andy, I'd really like to hear from anyone on this group too,
and glad you responded as well. Any information from this group is very
valuable. Lots of bickering goes on in other groups and you have to
weed it out to gain anything useful.

But this is a serious problem and needs to be addressed. I don't have
the solution but I do know it's becoming more and more of a problem
especially in recently years. Scares me while driving a car, scares me
more while riding a bike lately. I used to be able to tell the time of
day and time of year to expect deer to be around and to be more
cautious but that has changed and they are more unpredicable, coming
out in broad daylight and much more bold than before.....I wish cities,
counties or game wardens, or someone or other would address it more
vigorously before too many more people are injured seriously, or die
from hitting deer.

 

Beckyboo wrote about deer:

The best way I know to address it is through riding/driving habits. I
don't know of a product that will solve the problem, other than perhaps
an F-150 with a snowplow.

Recognizing when you're in deer habitat certainly helps. I don't think
you can sustain being on red alert all the time, so you have to
prioritize. There are places to relax and places to worry. You seldom
find deer out in the open. Deer exist in places with cover, whether
it's trees, tall grass or brush. They tend to look like the plants in
their environment, or at least they blend in, so they'll effectively be
invisible until you're quite close or they move.

When I'm riding in places where the available cover is close to the
road, I slow down to increase my margin. Anywhere there's cover, I try
to keep my vision wide and scan with my eyes. I don't use sunglasses or
tinted visors because they really limit what you can see in dappled
light, as in when riding through patches of trees. Keep your visor
clean.

Cover the front brakes as you ride. When you see deer, first slow way
down, then be ready to turn hard, if necessary. If a collision is
unavoidable, you may be better off tucking behind the bars and gassing
it right before impact. This will stabilize the bike and tend to drive
it through the deer, rather than flipping you over the bars as would
likely happen if you hit while on the brakes. You may crash anyway, but
it might be an easier crash.

I've observed deer in the mountains through several seasons over many
years. Based on close calls and the amount of roadkill I've seen, it
seems the worst times of year are late spring through mid-summer, at
least in places with four distinct seasons.

All that said, there are no guarantees. Taking the above into account,
I've managed to avoid hitting a deer despite travelling quite a bit in
deer country. I've had close calls though and have been plain lucky
more than once.

ab

 

[snipped a bunch of good advice]

One thing I consciously did on a recent night-time trip across the mountains
was to not ride faster than I could see and stop, given the layout of the
road and the coverage of my headlights. It was dark, I mean middle of the
wilderness dark. No lights on the road, almost no other vehicles. Why I was
there, crossing mountain passes, in prime deer country, on my motorcycle at
that time of day is another story.

I did see deer near the road several times on this ride. Twice long after
the sun had set. But by managing my road speed according to what I could
see, I was able to stop before getting too close to the deer.

Each time, the deer froze in place, picked up its head to look and listen,
then retreated away from me and the sound of my revving exhaust pipe. Deer
whistles may not work, but revving a Two Bros pipe to redline a few times
sure does.

If there were ones I didn't see, thankfully none of them decided to jump
into my lap.

As to a overall solution to the "deer problem", my two favorite ideas are
expand deer hunting seasons and bring back wolf populations. I'm also in
favor of cutting trees and brush WAY back from the roadway where possible,
like 30 feet back. At least then you'd have a little more warning when Bambi
jumps out of the bushes.