[SafetyFirst]

Went for a ride the other night… the wildlife list includes:

1) Groundhog in the middle of the highway (which gave me an excuse to practice a 55 MPH swerve)
2) A fox? Some dog-like carnivore which luckily didn’t chase me, crossing the road.
3) A run-of-the-mill dog, taking himself for a walk on the side of the road.

Night riding is fun, but twisties are annoying. Hard to look where you’re going when the exit is pitch black.

[zeppelinfromled]

By far the animal that I see (or notice one way or another) around here are skunks. I can smell them much more readily on my bike. I saw one walking down the sidewalk one night while I was riding past, and I booked it out of there.

I guess we also have a lot of house cats that go outside, but I’ve only once seen them while I was on the road, and I was in my car.

[eternal05]

As you’re saying, it’s very hard to see with your crappy headlights facing forward in turns. I completely lose confidence when I can’t see where I’m going, and thus usually try to avoid riding in those conditions.

But man, I know what you mean about random animal encounters. Things like that are suddenly much more of an issue when you’re on two wheels. If you run over somebody’s crazy cat in a car, you have to live with the guilt, but on a motorcycle that could spell baaadd news. Around here there are lots of possums, squirrels, and neighborhood cats to get in your way.

[Spool]

Skunks have been really bad around here this year. Other than that it’s mostly deer. I’ve had a few close calls with deer, and it’s really scary. A friend of a friend hit a deer on his bike about 6 weeks ago going about 65. He didn’t even know what happened until someone who witnessed the accident told him. The deer came up a bank and jumped the guard rail directly in front of him. Totaled his bike, a V-Star 1100. He got banged up pretty bad and got a ton of road rash but was not seriously injured. The only gear he was wearing was a half helmet. He had on work boots and jeans and long sleaves, but no proper MC gear. If he had been wearing gear he would have faired a lot better. This was his first accident in over 30 years of riding.

[SafetyFirst]

Add another to the list… a deer.

Tonight I was headed home after some fun in the twisties, in a 35 MPH residental area, when I saw something with two beady eyes glowing back at me on the shoulder of my side of the road. I slowed the hell down, and passed by in the friction zone of first gear.

[owlie]

Up here it is moose, not deer. I’m not sure which is worse. At least with moose, when they start going in one direction, they tend to keep going that way. I see them frequently, but I haven’t heard of a bike hitting one (yet).

[SafetyFirst]

One stray cat.

And one big scare. I’m going down a twisty country road, passing a farmer’s field about an hour ago. See a deer on the other side of the wooden fence. Deer jumps over fence, across the road in front of me, to the other side of the road, then back into the road for a while, before going off it. I was braking from the moment I first saw it, not close at all, but too close for comfort. This is where that SEEing stuff they rambled on about in BRC class comes in handy.

[WeaponZero]

Sorry but when I saw the thread title the first thing I thought was the Kiss song, which is an awesome song lol.

[JackTrade]

I was rounding a uphill sweeper turn in a neighborhood near the woods.

As I began to go through the turn, I got that glint of reflection. Sure enough, a deer on the inside of the turn ahead. Since it’s a pretty mild turn, I straightened up and braked to slow way down. I also remembered what they told us in the BRC, and sure enough, there was another one on the other side of the road, partially hidden by trees. Once again I was amazed (and glad) at the stuff I remembered from that class!

[Author]

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