The wife and I went riding today, and took a 75 mile ride or so. She is on her Heritage in the lead, and I am following right off her flank. I see a deer (not too uncommon here in WA) in the gulley by the road coming down the hill. It pauses, and then as you can imagine, decides it can make the crossing. It jumps out right in front of her and she dumps the shifter and applies the brakes (keeping the bike straight) and JUST misses this deer by a foot.

It was one of those things that happens in slow motion, and goes from UH OH, to OHHH MY GOD!!! I could not ave been more pleased with the way she handled the whole situation.

Now for the kicker. In the last few weeks someone posted a video on this sight, of a guy riding with a helmet cam, that hit a deer square on. I told here "take a look at this!!"! She told me when we stopped, that she instantly thought of that video and the guy hitting the deer square on, and making it through the crash.

Moral of the story here might be that that video helped save my old lady and her bike from a completely different outcome.

 

Glad you guys made it through that one OK.

 

It sure sounds close. Glad your wife made it OK.

 

I'm glad she handled it well. It's no fun hitting anything especially a deer and I know, I hit one in 1992 that killed the deer and my bike and left me with a broken collar bone and some nasty road rash. Most of the time, if you're looking for them, you can spot them before they cut you off. Just like you did, you and your wife saw it early enough and reacted early and were lucky. Sometimes, like in my case, they are running flat out of the woods and across the road. By the time I saw it, it was being wrapped around the front of my bike. Still gives me the ******* thinking about it.

 

It's good that her reflects we're quick and made it okay! But I imagine seeing it happen right in front of you and you were helpless to do anything, really had to suck!

 

Glad you both can tell the tale!

 

I've taken a dog and an armadillo straight on with no ill effects (both animals continued on, too, knocked the dog away, bounced right over the 'dillo), but had I swerved, who knows. The big ones, cows, moose, bears... that's a no win if you hit them, but fortunately they usually aren't so quick. If you think about it, a deer that's probably under 150 lbs isn't going to stop a loaded Harley upwards of or topping 1000 lbs; if that front wheel doesn't get knocked sideways, you have a chance of getting through it. Knew a guy that T-boned a cow with a Norton once, even though it killed the cow, it didn't move. He was lucky in a way, woke up in the hospital. Always glad to hear someone didn't get injured, neither guys or gals don't want to get messed up, but the ladies get more upset about scars than us guys usually do; mine don't bother me anyway.

 

Some of what is posted on utube and in this forum is knowledge without getting the personal scar tissue to pay for it. I think the forum serves this purpose well. Anything that keeps us thinking about what if and safety isn't bad.

 

Glad your wife was on the ball!

 

Glad to hear she ok and no harm make to her.