I thought some more about this and perhaps painting the bike that bright orange camoflauge would intimidate them and make them run the other way.

 

Any of the deer avoidance systems on the market work awesome as long as you see the deer in time to maneuver or brake to avoid hitting it.

 

I've never stayed at a Holiday Inn before, but I am a wildlife professional (31 years)...IMO - there are few, if any thing besides a keen awareness and presence of mind that will prevent a deer from taking you out. Its not the ones you see that'll get you, but those running onto the road that you should worry about.

All I can suggest is that you pay attention to the road, say your prayers and keep your speed down in areas you know where they'll be.

 

An average road lane is 12 feet, the shoulder is 6 feet. So the deer only has to travel 18 feet to hit you.

They run, or bound at 40 MPH.
40MPH * 5280 feet/mile / 3600 seconds/hr = 58.6 feet/second

Therefore it takes them 1/3 of a second to cross halfway over a single lane road. Basically you haven't got a snowballs chance in hell.

 

If they didn't work the guvment wouldn't let them sell them to us...............right?

My deer avoidance system is to avoid riding at night through the NJ Pinelands. They'll get you sooner or later.

 

This thread brought back a fond memory for me and you have to remember that you never know what a senior citizen is going to say next.

Several years back, before my dad passed away and he was in his 80's, he had mounted those funny looking little horn things on his front bumper of his truck. They look like miniature little air horns. I asked him what they were and he told me were some sort of silent whistles that would scare the deer away so that they would not jump out in the road and get hit.

Well, I got laughing and this did not set well with him. He gave me one of those "son, what the hell is wrong with you" kind of looks. I asked how do you know they work. Now he was really getting mad and said, "Well I have never hit a f**king deer yet".

Now how do you argue with that kind of logic. Simple and true. That's why he was my dad and I miss him. The funny thing is he sent me a pair of these damn whistles in the mail. Now I was obligated to put the stupid and ugly things on my truck. Sometimes those senior citizens are smarter than you think. I'm sure he got the last laugh out of that.

 

You have to watch them even if they are standing roadside and not charging. I saw two grazing along the right hand shoulder one time. My bike is loud. As I approached, I slowed down and downshifed hard, sending the RPM's (and noise) up and they both raised their heads and looked at me. We made eye to eye contact. Just when I got to where they were standing, one bolted to his right into the trees, the other bolted right out into the road in front of me. Locked the back tire while grabbing the front brake and no exaggeration, I missed him by inches. Worlds dumbest animals. I swear he had a death wish: he saw me, he heard me and still ran right out in front of me. Don't trust any of them.

 

A wildlife biologist once told me that prey animals like deer evolved hardwired defense strategies of erratic movement. Their best chance to avoid coyotes, wolves, or cougars is their completely unpredictable movements. You never know what the damn things are likely to do, and they do it incredibly fast. I guess they're kinda like women.

 

I have seen the loud exhaust noise seems to help with my air horns we have turn running deer away from the street. Or we have just been lucky over the years of riding. They have run up to the road and turn away hearing the bike coming by. It also could maybe those bright lights on the front of my bike. but everybody has lights.

 

Agree with everyones comments. Deer are unpredictable in their response and noise doesn't really discourage them from running onto the road.

Ride close to the center especially during the seasons they are most active. I also always ride with a couple of fingers on my front brake. The decisions are split second, so you need any little advantage you can get. A couple of examples:

1. Noon, July, just before leaving town. Going up a hill with woods on either side. Fortunagtely only doing about 35 mph. A deer crosses rignt in front of me - no warning, just saw him as he hit the shoulder area. I grabbed the brakes, stopped maybe 2 inches to spare. I could literally smell him and count the number of hairs on his back. Didn't go down, didn't hit him, but will never ride with just one finger on the brake again - finger was sore as hell for days!

2. Early afternoon, Sunday, February. Snow on the ground but road clear. Doing about 55 on a back road. See the deer just ahead on the side of the road. Deer decides to go to the other side. Split second - hit the throttle and cleared him by inches as he went behind me.

3. Midday, riding thru Custer in the Blackhills. Riding by a small hill on my right when I see a blurr going across my windshield. Deer came down the hill and leapt right across the road. Again, I counted every damm hair on it and we missed each other by inches. Thought I was going to have to change underwear.


In all cases, I was just damm lucky. All you can do is try to be attentive, ride in the center if you can, be ready to brake or throttle, slow down in some areas (I had tall corn fields) and be darn lucky.

Oh, and it's not just deer - cows, pigs, dogs, coons, and tractors all do eratic things that can put the big hurt on ya!