Saturday, my wife and I were taking a leisurely ride on SR519 in Harrison County here in Ohio which is heavily reclaimed strip mines and overrun with Whitetail deer, when suddenly my windshield was full of brown fur! The deer had come from my left and I hit it in it's right hindquarters. There was a violent jolt to the right and "Jesus took the wheel" got my bars back to the left, stood on the brakes for all I was worth and ended upright on the left side of the road on the berm. I'm still shaking!
Couple reasons I'm posting this. Guy's, chances are you won't see the one you hit, so slow down when your in prime deer habitat. I "think" I was only doing 40 or 45 when this happened. One of the prime reasons I bought my 09 FLHTC was for the ABS and I think it saved our bacon in this instance. I got stopped quick with no wheel lock-up or sliding. I hope this is my one and only "close encounter" episode with a deer and if you get behind an old geezer in Ohio doing 30 - 40 in deer country, give me a wave when you pass...

 

Glad you're okay. We get lots of deer in west Texas during fall and winter so I know what you mean about slowing down.

 

Damn- your lucky or good- Yesterday I came within 6 feet of hitting a 4x3 elk (in my truck) and I'm still shaking!! Good job and yes I am also looking for the giant "rats" when I'm riding....

 

Glad you made it okay. I rode yesterday afternoon and into the night. I've never seen so many deer. Twice I had them run across the road right in front of me. I see them all over the sides of the road every single time I ride these days. They seem to be staying out much later than usual. I see them as late as 11 pm. My buddy riding behind me said that when I pointed one out on the right shoulder once, there was a much bigger one just on the left side of my bike within three feet of me. I just bought a new Ultra. One of my biggest reasons was I wanted ABS. Almost lost it high-side recently when a car pulled a u-turn in front of me. Locked up the rear wheel and just barely got it back under control. I think there were 4 deer strikes in this years Iron Butt rally. One was a fatality. I wish there was something that could be done about keeping the deer away from us.

 

Shoot more deer. The PETA folks won't like it, but the (remaining) deer will be healthier and we'll be safer on the bikes.

 

glad you and your wife are ok ram.it could have been alot worse but thank god you were going slower then normal.take care

 

Here's some very interesting info from the Insurance Institute for Highway Safety (http://www.iihs.org);

http://www.iihs.org/search.aspx?q=de...cycles&x=0&y=0

The peak month for collisions with deer is November by a long shot.

 

Glad to hear things ended well for you. Just wondering what time of day was it when you hit the deer?

 

Glad you are ok..and it really makes me wish I had gotten ABS.

 

Here in southern Ohio it's getting to be the time when the deer are movin' and there is a huge population of them. The wife and I rode the 40 miles after dark from a visit with my father and I said before we left that 50MPH would be the max. No deer hits but I did go right between two crossing raccoons when we were going through Wayne National Forest.

Be careful! From now on until late fall, it's dangerous early morning and right around dark.