Hit a deer

Hello Everyone,

You probably don't really know me since I rarely post, but I figured this was worth posting. I hope that it brings some extra vigilance for furry things. I've been riding since 2003, but I took a break. All in all I have about 10k miles of experience and I took the MSF class; so I'm not a newbie, but I'm not a seasoned vet like some of you guys My first bike was a 2002 VFR. I loved it so much, I got a 2007 VFR when I returned. I bought it in Nov with just over 200 miles on it. Yesterday it had just 2200 miles on it which isn't too bad considering the weather. Anyway, I always practice good riding habits and hedge my bets. I try to avoid night riding and I especially try to avoid riding a couple hours before and after dusk. There are 4 things that worry me when riding and here they are in order: Deer (or other animal), debris (esp gravel in my area), other drivers, and finally....my own riding ability. Well yesterday around 9:30am, my #1 fear came true. A deer (between baby & adult) jumped out in the middle of the road in front of me when I was going around 45mph. There was virtually no time to react. I had somewhere between 5 and 10 feet to react and according to my skid marks, it looks like it was about 5 feet. There was no possible way of avoiding it and if I did manage to swerve there was no guarantee that I would have missed it, but there was a higher chance of me going off in to the woods, fence or creek. The part from me being on the bike and then on the ground isn't entirely clear to me. I nicked the rear end of the dear and I saw it doing some flip/twist in the air...like a 180 or 360. I think I low-sided, but I'm not sure. The bike and I separated. It ended up being on the side of the road in the grassy shoulder and I managed to stay on the road. I tried my best to stay on the road. I landed on my shoulder and then my head hit the ground. I believe that I was sliding forward. Then somehow I got horizontal/parallel with the road and went in to a roll. I tried keeping my arms and legs tucked in. I got up and people stopped and didn't believe me that I was OK. I practice what I preach....All Gear All Of The Time. I have awesome gear and I was surprised, but I'll get in to that a little later. So I go over to the bike to try and pick it up and see if I can get back home as I'm only 2 or 3 miles from home. That's when I realized my arm was weak and I couldn't pick it up...in fact it hurt when I tried. The police came by to make sure I was OK and wrote up a report for me to give to my insurance. The officer was really nice & helpful. I found out he rode dirt bikes and said I was very lucky and observed the trail my bike made on the side of the road. He mentioned that I should go play the lottery and said I was very lucky. Apparently something like this also happened to his brother or brother-in-law in upstate NY. Anyway, after the tow truck came my wife took me to the hospital. The good news is that I don't have any broken bones. However, my shoulder is in a LOT of pain. They think I tore my rotator cuff, but hey don't know how bad yet. I'll be seeing an orthopedist on Monday to determine the damage. That is my biggest injury. I have some soreness on my outside upper thigh and oddly enough, I have a small raspberry on top of my forearm.

My jacket was a little big and I also lost weight. So I think the raspberry was due to the jacket being too big. My gear was awesome. I was debating on whether or not to get a new helmet because mine was reaching the end of its life. I decided to finish the season with it and get one over the winter. I'm so glad that I got the good stuff. I have an Arai helmet and when I hit the ground with it, I was like this doesn't hurt! And then I got to listen to the sliding noise of the helmet. So chalk another one up to Arai...no concussion...awesome! I have a First Gear Scout leather jacket and it did very well. You can barely tell that I went down in it. My Held gloves were awesome and they did their job. There was one small failure and I'm going to let them know to help them out. One of the small palm cushions started to peal back, but my hands were injury free. Chalk another one up to Held. Now to my most questionable piece of gear....my First Gear HyperText Air Overpants. I always heard that they were good for one fall and that was about it.....that was true in my experience. They did their job and they are ripped/melted with holes....but nothing made it past the inside liner. So it did it's job and i was glad that I was wearing them. My Gaerne boots did well. They have some scuff marks on them, but they did their job. All in all I'm very happy with my gear. I've always said that there is no shame having your gear worth more than your bike I have to imagine that the helmet saved my life. I did have couple weird things happen to me though. I'm not sure if it's because the jacket was too big or if it was something else, but about 2/3 of the way down there is a 6 to 7 inch hole in the back of my shirt. There are also grass stains above it. I also found 1-2 inch hole on the front side where my belly is. I also found grass in my toe slider. Maybe my feet went off the side of the road when I got horizontal....I'm not sure. So 2 holes and a grass stain on my shirt while I was wearing my jacket and I don't have any marks on me....I don't know how that's possible....very weird.

I heard from the adjuster yesterday and he suspects that the bike is totaled. He said when they pick it up, they'll do an estimate, but he said that their calculator is usually pretty accurate. It guesses the dollar amount in damage based on speed and type of accident. He said that the bike is valued at $7500. I find it hard to believe that it will be totaled as it doesn't look like that the damage is that bad. I'll find out for sure by the end of the week. He said my rates won't go up because it was a deer and I didn't receive any moving violations and it will go under comprehensive insurance. So I hope that goes through as he stated. I'm glad I have a police report because I didn't see any deer damage...which is going to be hard to see anyway when you nick one.

So I hope you gathered the following information. It's really hard to do anything when a deer jumps out in front of you; just try to do your best and fall back on your training. Wear all gear all of the time. Get a police report indicating you hit a deer for insurance purposes.

Anyway, my riding season is done and in fact this might be it for me. We'll see how things go....

Ride & stay safe.

 

get well soon.

 

what state u live in? I used to live in the rotten old Garden State aka NJ and when I would ride at night in cetain parts you were almost guaranteed of seeing deer on the side of the road, crossing the road, taking a shit, fornicating, you get the idea.

I was out one night on my 93 Nighthawk (RIP died but not from a deer hit) one night and had the misfortune of tagging bambi on hits hind quarters. I saw it the last minute and left a straight line of rubber on the road (no soiled underware) and made impact with that menace! I hit the muther with my left knee and managed to stay up and did a U-turn in amazement to assess the carnage. Bambi had a broken hip with internal injuries as it had blood coming out of its ass-hole. If I wouldnt have been arrested I woulda "Glocked" it.

I rode home shaken and did and inventory when i got home. I had a broken fairing stay and some course hair in my Chase Harper throw over paniers. My Aerostich suit wasnt damaged and neither was my knee.

This did not stop me from riding at night, its just part of the deal. You gota be aware of your enviornment. Mend fast and watch the bike races. You will be back on two wheels again, Cheers.

 

Glad you are OK and give it time. Sit on the insurance money becasue the bug will probably come back.

BZ

 

I was in northern VA heading towards MD. Oddly enough my wife hit one in her car about a month ago about 10 miles away from this one. I always do my best to be cautious of deer...hence why I was doing the speed limit Little bugger jumped right out of the woods. Why is it when you go hunting for deer you have a hard time getting close to them, but when you don't want to be near them they are all over you?

 

Black mammoth
I tore a rotator cuff, took about a year to heal. I don't have any medical insurance so I just suffered till it got better.

If you like your bike see if you can buy your bike back from the insurance company the damage might just be cosmetic.

My big question is, who got the deer meat?

In this county we get one or two motorcycle deaths from deer strikes a year. Too many road hazards to find the riding enjoyable after dark.

 

Carry your rifle on the bike. Problem solved!

 

I'm considering the buy back, but I'll probably pass. I suspect that damage is mostly cosmetic. I'm guessing about $1000 in parts. The deer was fine...I went looking for it, but I couldn't find it. I surmised that it was fine and hopped back in to the woods.

 

Glad you made it out with major injuries, although shoulder injuries suck. Looks like your gear took good care of you.

From what you said about the grass stains you might have bounced off a ditch or something. <shrug>

 

Sorry to hear that you might discontinue your riding due to this. You were properly prepared, and the incident wasn't your fault. I guess that is better than doing something stupid and not being prepared.

You should be able to look the bike over and determine your feel for the buy-back, knowing how hard you hit and went down. It could be therapeutic rebuilding it, even if you decide to sell it off afterward.

Last year I watched my buddy tag a good sized deer in the hip, while riding behind him. he went down pretty hard immediately, and just slid down the road. He jumped up and yelled "WTF was that!? Was it a dog?!"
Funny feeling watching it unfold from behind, knowing he did not see it coming, but not being able to do anything to warn him except yell in my own helmet...
His Ducati 999 suffered minor damage, deer fur in the cracked up fairing, and it tore up a couple of his exposed dry clutch bolts. We rigged it so he could ride it home.

 

One of the great things about living in Southern California, theres no deer in the urban areas. In the Canyons? Maybe. My friend hit a baby cub while on Angeles Crest Highway while in his car. I can only imagine the horror of crashing and then the fear of mama bear coming after you lol BTW, great thing that you wore all your gear. I'm ATGATT too but I have kevlar jeans with knee pads, but I'm thinking of going full textile pants. Anyways, glad you are okay and I hope your wife will still let you ride.

 

It's good to hear that you're OK, Mammoth.

It's true what they say about riders that have been down and riders that are going down. Sooner or later it happens to all of us. I dumped one pretty badly about 10 years ago (no deer involved), I simply ran out of talent in a tight right hander and low sided and have the scars to show for it. I stopped riding for about two years after it happened and thought at the time that my riding days were over. Fortunately for me, riding is in my blood and obviously I'm back riding every chance I get. You'll probably get past the incident in time and be a better rider because of it. Glad you were geared up.

 

The wife is cool. My parents on the other hand....they are already asking if that's the end of the motorcycling Honestly, I don't know. Yeah, I would find something other than the kevlar jeans. They didn't fair so well in my research when buying gear. After seeing the damage to my HT pants, I wouldn't feel comfortable wearing kevlar jeans. In some ways I'm not sure about HT pants. I wonder how they would have done at higher speeds. Then again I haven't had kevlar jeans so I can't say for sure...but research and friends made me go with the HT

 

Glad to hear you are relatively OK. That's the important thing.

Thanks for sharing the story with us. I'm ATGATT as well, and its stories like this that remind me I'm doing the right thing as I sit there sweating my ass off in traffic and 95 degree temps.

My only get off was about 15 years ago in a very slow low side at about 15mph, so big difference than 45mph. Give it time and see what happens. You may want to come back to it, or maybe not. You're story is definitely a case of the wrong place at the wrong time. Hell, had you left your house 10 seconds later, we may not even be having this conversation.

Get well soon.

 

Please replace all your gear before riding again. It did its job, don't risk your health keep your gear fresh.

 

Definitely....insurance is also covering gear.

 

Glad to hear your pretty much OK. Deer are my Biggest fear up here in the evenings, there's tons of the little buggers.

Talk to your insurance company before you decide, my buy back was 30% when I crashed but it varies from company to company. I bought the bike back for $1300 put a $110 engine cover on it and road it for another year and 30,000kms, then sold it for $1100 , and even sold some add ons on top of that.

 

I took some pics. I apologize for the bad and blurry pics. I was taking them in lower light and I was only using one arm issed:

This was the first time I really looked at the gear in detail. I now know how I got the hole in my shirt. The back of my pants got a hole and the shirt must have been there. The gloves did well, but had a couple other failure spots. All in all they did well. There was only one area where the leather tore and had potential for exposed skin. The pants did their job, but I don't think I'll get them again. I'll get the leather version next time. I got the HyperText because I wanted the air version. It just solidifies my thought on non-leathers...not to buy them. If I was going faster I might have some nasty marks on my legs. The jacket did well, but it has more mark on it than I initially thought. It looks like it started to develop a hole in the seem, but not bad considering it took most of the skid and my shoulder can prove it. The boots have marks, but are in good shape.

Here is the link to the album and some highlights below:
Gear after crash

 

Dont throw away that Arai lid, you can get another shield for it with the pod and use it as a NYC lid or a pillion lid. Even it is for your significant other :smile:

As for the fit of your leathers, I fell years ago wearing some ill fitting leathers and ended up having a rasberry the size of a grapefruit on my arse. When I slid the leather bunched up and grabbed some of my arse skin and kinda rolled it like a fag, <cigarette> anyway get stuff that fits you. I just wore a pair of old Held gloves today cause it was rainy and they musta had over a dozen race track incidents on them. They still serve a purpose, even crashed up gear will save your bacon/ Cheers

 

I will take your boots and jacket if you think they aren't usable anymore