Saturday is deer attack day ( but not for me)

So I am on the way home from Marin, and as I headed down in to Mill Valley I
was following a young couple on a smallish yellow scooter. They were around
100 feet or so ahead traveling at about 30-35 mph, when ....
you guessed it, a medium size black tail deer ran right into them. Whack.
The deer spun around a couple of turns, then lay splat out in a driveway,
the scooter people stayed upright , but suffered sever plastic degradation
as well as a badly bent up front axle (or whatever that is).
I pulled over in back of them a ways down the road, and they said they were
OK.
I parked and went back to check on the spun out deer.
Just as I got to it, it took off sporting a rather bloody nose, but still
able to leap tall fences and imperil small motor vehicles.
All I could think of was....
that easily could have been me....again.
No thanks. Never again. No way.
Jim S
R1100RS
YZF R1
NX250

 

...> that easily could have been me....again.

So what are you going to do?

I have been a tad motorcycle shy after shattering my hand. It's now up to
80% operational (7 months after the fact), but I find myself driving my car
when I'd ridden my bike before, always with a credible excuse. But the
simple fact is the miles on the bike are not building up like they used to.
I have been thinking about buying a new bike to re-ignite the passion
(sometimes we can be shallow like that).

Maybe it'll take a bit longer. There's no doubt I love motrocycles. But I am
not afraid to admit that, at 43, I am a tad gunshy about another bad injury.
And the roads are getting worse and the divers are getting more distracted
in California, dammit.

I guess I am still battling the mental scar more than anything else. The
thought that next time it could be worse, and how lucky I have been all
these years... and my right hand still throbs with pain with some
regularity, which doesn't help...

But I love 2 wheels.

 

I wondered that too.

My solution was to ride off-road only. Sold my last street bike 2 or 3
years ago, but still ride pretty regularly off-road. I have a lot more
control over the hazards I must deal with that way.

Still miss my trips over the Sierra passes though...

 

I had a bad accident decades ago, when I was 21. I had to drop out of
college for the semester. My parents sort of decided for me that I
wouldn't ride bikes again.

Well let's see, it was about 6 years later that I decided I just -had-
to have a scooter or moped or something to get around the neighorhood.
I got a 50cc bike. Loved it so much I upgraded to a 175 and then a
350. Then I got a new job for a lot more money and decided it was
time to get one of those BMW airheads I'd always admired. I've been
riding ever since, more than 20 years. Haven't had a serious accident
since that one when I was 21.

If you really love riding, you'll come back to it. You might be more
careful, not take so many chances, and hopefully you'll be luckier.

 

I am certainly NOT going to give up riding
.....
But I am not going to get flattened out by any deer, ever , again.

So there.
Now, Pablo, I expect you to get over your heebiesjeebies, too.
It may take a while but it gets better with miles.
Jim

 

OK. You are right. I am ready for a ride. Any group rides coming up?

 

Going to gang up on the deer, eh?

 

You gotta get back on the horse that threw you. The longer you sit with
your fears, the more you perceive yourself as someone who "used to" ride.

If I were up there, I'd offer to ride with you, but look for someone
willing to escort you on a super-gentle ride at a slow pace until you
rebuild your courage.

Rich, Urban Biker

 

On Mon, 14 May 2007 23:13:30 -0700, "pablo"

Sometimes it's like that. The last time I came off (at least, I hope
i's the last time!) I hurt plenty, having landed firmly on my right
shoulder -- I lost the use of that arm for several days. For six
months afterwards, every time I headed into a right turn, I felt a
little twinge there to remind me.

Still, I followed the folk wisdom of the West: "When you get bucked
off, get back on."

Al Moore
DoD 734

 

Maybe a Sunday AM blast to the aforementioned Bovine Bakery in Point
Reyes. I volunteer to sweep the road for antlered menaces.
Jim

 

Given your previous posts on that subject, I'd say this is a major act
of altruism on your part, though pastry promises to be a better reward
than virtue ;-}

Rich, Urban Biker

 

A week later would work better for me - have a major deadline at work coming
up next week.

PS: I rode the R1100S to work today.

 

Way to go, Pablo!!!!

 

I had a friend, riding his new Harley on a fine Spring day in blooming
PA backroads, when I deer jumped outa' the thicket on the hill
roadside, landing on him and killing them both.

 

I had a major dump in the early 80's, in my early 30's. Lucky to have
survived it at all, and took a couple of years to get mostly over the
injuries, including wearing a brack and using a cane.

I swore off owning/riding motos then, figuring that all the rest of
this life was a bonus, anyway. Some years later, I just went for a
brief ride on a friend's. Again, once or twice over the next years.

A few years back, I bought a KZ1000. Last year, I also got an airhead.
And have to watch myself, to keep from riding as ... spiritedly... as I
did as a young man.

I had some minor dumps on the KZ. But also rode traffic escort and
those decommissioned hiway patrol Beemers.

 

There are two schools of thought here. I had deer whistles on my front
fender, and have actually seen animals (dogs) start to cross in front of
me pause, ears cocked, trying to figure out where that noise is coming
from and saving them from becoming dogburger. I imagine they work the
same way with deer. Except the hearing impaired ones, of course.

Other people say they don't work. I guess results may vary.


--
Barb
Chaplain, ARSCC (wdne)

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to
have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous,
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can
produce."

--Molly Ivins

 

There's another school of thought: no one has ever demonstrated that
deer can hear them or that they have any effect on them.

 

You had them mounted backwards.

 

Do they attract deer that way?

 

I thought that attracted them?

--
Barb
Chaplain, ARSCC (wdne)

"Keep fighting for freedom and justice, beloveds, but don't forget to
have fun doin' it. Lord, let your laughter ring forth. Be outrageous,
ridicule the fraidy-cats, rejoice in all the oddities that freedom can
produce."

--Molly Ivins