Why I take it a bit easier these days...

[GrahamD]

Just like everyone everywhere, we in Oz have our fair share of dumb OR dare devil animals.

In the past month I have been hit by a Kangaroo and a Cockatoo, both leaving scars and/OR dings on the car.

Last year I had to dodge a Kangaroo, Crow and a Goanna within 200 metres of each other on the bike.

I was feeling like they were out to get me after that.

For those that don't know, Kangaroo's are stupid, and wallabies are just as bad. They both taste good though, so if you survive and they don't then at least you have a great meal for the campfire that night.

This is not a rare occurrence, it would almost happen on 10% of my rides and the bloody things are guaranteed to go in the Opposite direction that you expect, good or bad.

Yamaha Super Tenere v's Wallaby

Sometimes a heavy stable bike comes in handy.

[edit] It's not me. It happens to everyone.

Cheers
Graham

 

[limey]

That is some scary shit. Any way what the hell you doing on the wrong side of the road.

 

[troll]

so.... did that little guy become dinner?

 

[AL-58]

Had one hop out in front of me coming home through the Brindabellas last weekend, no probs though was going fairly slow due to fog and not wanting to get too far in front of the wife on her bike.

Every time I visit the in laws (on a property in the Pilliga) I can just about guarantee 4-6 "encounters" when leaving the property in the morning to come home. I havent had the bike up there for a while now.
Al

 

[~TABASCO~]

Holy cow... Glad your OK in this case and stay as safe as possible in the future.. Here in Texas we have a ridiculous amount of deer.. Its very dangerous on "country" roads at dusk and at night. If you have driving lights you can see there eyes at night. Many times there are a ton of them just off the side of the road. Many cars and bikes hit deer around here all the time. There have been a few times the speed limit on several of these country roads might be 60-70 Mph, I would go down them at 30-40... You never know when one might pop out and hit you just like the VID with a kangaroo..... Be safe out there....

 

[spasm]

Bloody animals lol, i hit a pheasant here in the uk doing 110mph, it hit me in the chest and took the wind out of me, nearly got into a tank slapper, one if my nine lives 8)

 

[elizilla]

Wow, if it hit where that sticker is, your leg must have also got it! I had a similar incident with a small deer once. My leg got hit so hard I thought it was broken - it felt all shocky. It wasn't broken, but I had some lovely purple marks later.

 

[hANNAbONE]

dayumm, Graham - glad you were at 10-10ths...or even 8-10ths.

Get the bike scoot laid over in a corner and hit a critter like that.

Glad you are okay - and thanks for posting the vid, brutha.

 

[Gat]

Man, that's just not fun!

I had a deer hit my left pannier on the Tenere this fall (riding H58 in the Upper Peninsula of Michigan). I think the deer are about as smart as the roo's!

 

[dcstrom]

A mate and I were having a bit of fun on a road through forest in South-west Australia. We were doing something over 100mph, he with his girlfriend on the back. I was maybe 100 yards behind when I saw a roo pop out from the vegetation on the side of the road, right in front of my mate. I had just enough time to think "fucking hell Geoff!" before he hit it dead center. The roo spun in slow motion down the road toward me, so then I had to focus on avoiding the carcass. Geoff however sailed merrily on... we pulled over down the road to assess things. His R90/s had no damage at all, and his girlfriend had a sore leg from the roo hitting it. That was it. The roo was completed gutted, we guessed from hitting the rocker cover. Not a bad result all things considerd, and proves the benefits of inertia in situations like these.

Ever since then, whenever I'm riding in an area where animals on the road present a hazard, I turn up the wick and run the gauntlet! ;D

Not really, but I'm convinced that speed doesn't have much to do with the result when you hit an animal. You would think faster would be worse, but I'm pretty sure if Geoff had been doing 60mph in this case, he would have gone down. On the other hand if he'd being doing 60 then his path wouldn't have intersected with that roo, at that moment. I'm convinced it's down to good or bad luck, so I don't really change my behaviour EXCEPT in places where the animals are thick and you know they are going to be on the road.

 

[Venture]

A mate and I were having a bit of fun on a road through forest in South-west Australia. We were doing something over 100mph, he with his girlfriend on the back. I was maybe 100 yards behind when I saw a roo pop out from the vegetation on the side of the road, right in front of my mate. I had just enough time to think "fucking hell Geoff!" before he hit it dead center. The roo spun in slow motion down the road toward me, so then I had to focus on avoiding the carcass. Geoff however sailed merrily on... we pulled over down the road to assess things. His R90/s had no damage at all, and his girlfriend had a sore leg from the roo hitting it. That was it. The roo was completed gutted, we guessed from hitting the rocker cover. Not a bad result all things considerd, and proves the benefits of inertia in situations like these.

Ever since then, whenever I'm riding in an area where animals on the road present a hazard, I turn up the wick and run the gauntlet! ;D

Not really, but I'm convinced that speed doesn't have much to do with the result when you hit an animal. You would think faster would be worse, but I'm pretty sure if Geoff had been doing 60mph in this case, he would have gone down. On the other hand if he'd being doing 60 then his path wouldn't have intersected with that roo, at that moment. I'm convinced it's down to good or bad luck, so I don't really change my behaviour EXCEPT in places where the animals are thick and you know they are going to be on the road.

P (momentum) = M (mass) * V (velocity)

The more momentum the tougher it is to move you from your chosen trajectory. He should ride at 150 MPH from now on just to be on the safe side.

 

[bvail]

A classic deer hit story by Warchild: http://www.advrider.com/Fame/Deer.html Love this story ::017::

p.s. Do they sell 'roo whistles down there? We got forest rat whistles, but don't think they work. If they did our NTSB would mandate them on all vehicles... ol

 

[slipangle]

Holy cow... Glad your OK in this case and stay as safe as possible in the future.. Here in Texas we have a ridiculous amount of deer.. Its very dangerous on "country" roads at dusk and at night. If you have driving lights you can see there eyes at night. Many times there are a ton of them just off the side of the road. Many cars and bikes hit deer around here all the time. There have been a few times the speed limit on several of these country roads might be 60-70 Mph, I would go down them at 30-40... You never know when one might pop out and hit you just like the VID with a kangaroo..... Be safe out there....

Man, you aren't kidding about a ridiculous amount of deer. They unfortunately aren't all out on the back roads, either. Driving I-10 overnight through the Hill Country during winter was an exercise in terror.

I saw thousands of those things off the shoulders and in the median, munching away at what little green grass was available post drought. Every mile or so, there would be a gory smear and eviscerated remnants. I was fortunate to have made it through without incident.

 

[Dirt_Dad]

For those that don't know, Kangaroo's are stupid, and wallabies are just as bad.

Same with deer around here. Glad you didn't have a serious problem from that little bastard. I do my best to avoid riding from dusk to dawn due to deer. I hit one on my KLR with my daughter on back. We were lucky that he mostly cleared the bike and I only hit his back leg with the front tire. Had another one come out of nowhere and inspect the bottom of my S10 skid plate a few weeks ago. Have no idea how I didn't impact that one. Animals suck!!!

 

[GrahamD]

Thanks everyone for all your concern.

I'll pass it on to the owner of the bike ::025::

Read the last line in my post.

Anyway, it's just something that is starting to sink in with these me these days, I think they have started an "occupy the roads" movement.

I used to think that once the drought was over they would move back into the bush (forest, scrub) but it looks like they have just made babies and are all over the joint now. Australia has just had the most rain I think it has had for ever. So there goes the original theory.

I have seem a few videos of people going really fast, and slicing (little) deer in half without coming off, but just when you think you have a good tactic along comes a wambat.

These things don't slice in half...

but at least they are slow and predictable 8)

 

[HoebSTer]

By the looks of that picture of the Wombat, if those nails would land on a riders leg, it would be slieced in two!!!

 

[GrahamD]

Lucky they are typically placid creatures, but yeah those nails are not to be messed with.

The only time wombats get nasty is when they have a skin condition, they get very irritable and tend to charge people. (probably just because they are cranky and want a scratch) but then people kill them thinking they are in attack mode. But it is so rare it makes the news if it ever happens.

But when a Wombat is spinning around in mid air and the nails happen to scrape across your leg, you want to be wearing leather.

 

[YamaPA]

Glad the incident turned out to be minor. Wildlife on the roads is getting worse in many locations simply because we keep building/developing their natural habitats and they run to someplace else. Glad you are ok.

Holy cow... Glad your OK in this case and stay as safe as possible in the future.. Here in Texas we have a ridiculous amount of deer.. Its very dangerous on "country" roads at dusk and at night. If you have driving lights you can see there eyes at night. Many times there are a ton of them just off the side of the road. Many cars and bikes hit deer around here all the time. There have been a few times the speed limit on several of these country roads might be 60-70 Mph, I would go down them at 30-40... You never know when one might pop out and hit you just like the VID with a kangaroo..... Be safe out there....

I've hit 3 of Pennsylvanis finest hooved rats (deer) via strikes by motorcycle. No shit. Havent crashed YET. Damage has been minimal at about $500 total for 3 hits. Killed 2 "smaller" females, and 1 got away. Hit one on a Goldwing (the highway peg/front tip over bar sliced her wide open, spun the animal around and dropped it. Hit one on an ST1300 when it slid into the front fairing right next to the tip over brace under the fairing and cracked the fairing. Hit one on a ZX12R which centerpunched me in my lap and took off. Havent hit one in a car to date though. Go figure. 2 of the strikes were at dusk, one was in broad daylight. What I simply cannot comprehend is how can deer be so freaking stupid and run into the path of vehicles? I mean, they are able to run through the woods without hitting trees, run through or over fences without issue, etc. The slice through the woods so effortlessly, but then say "hey, there's a car, I'm going to run into it".

Want to know how you state ranks for deer strikes.....here's a list from State Farm Insurance, from the highest risk to the least (I didnt do the whole list). Your odds of hitting a deer in you state:

West Virginia: 1 in 41.91

Iowa: 1 in 67.09

Michigan: 1 in 70.36

South Dakota: 1 in 75.81

Montana: 1 in 82.45

Pennsylvania: 1 in 84.63

North Dakota: 1 in 91.11

Wisconsin: 1 in 95.68

Arkansas: 1 in 99.24

Minnesota: 1 in 99.51

Virginia:1 in 101.97

Nebraska: 1 in 110.60

Wyoming: 1 in 114.49

Maryland: 1 in 118.75

Ohio: 1 in 121.09

Mississippi: 1 in 131.35

Missouri: 1 in 133.88

South Carolina: 1 in 137.21

New York: 1 in 145.45

North Carolina: 1 in 147.27

Delaware: 1 in 149.86

Georgia: 1 in 149.88

Alabama: 1 in 150.32

Indiana: 1 in 159.61

Kentucky: 1 in 161.12

Vermont: 1 in 170.28

 

[dcstrom]

You left out District of Columbia! I ride home from work via Rock Creek Park every day (nice little ride in the middle of the big city) and I see probably 3 or 4 deer every night. I've seen groups of 6 or 8. Fortunately they are fairly acclimated to traffic so rarely see them on the road - but I did come face to face with a stag one evening on a short stretch where I tend to go a bit faster - he was running toward me under a bridge and had nowhere to go - I got on the anchors pretty hard and avoided him. Actully it was this bridge here... you can see it would be a bit of a shock heading under there at a good clip and meeting a big stag...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_detailpage&v=cPi6zmtUhys#t=21s

Your odds of hitting a deer in you state:

West Virginia: 1 in 41.91

Iowa: 1 in 67.09

Michigan: 1 in 70.36

South Dakota: 1 in 75.81

Montana: 1 in 82.45

Pennsylvania: 1 in 84.63

North Dakota: 1 in 91.11

Wisconsin: 1 in 95.68

Arkansas: 1 in 99.24

Minnesota: 1 in 99.51

Virginia:1 in 101.97

Nebraska: 1 in 110.60

Wyoming: 1 in 114.49

Maryland: 1 in 118.75

Ohio: 1 in 121.09

Mississippi: 1 in 131.35

Missouri: 1 in 133.88

South Carolina: 1 in 137.21

New York: 1 in 145.45

North Carolina: 1 in 147.27

Delaware: 1 in 149.86

Georgia: 1 in 149.88

Alabama: 1 in 150.32

Indiana: 1 in 159.61

Kentucky: 1 in 161.12

Vermont: 1 in 170.28

 

[Dirt_Dad]

Figures the three states I ride the most are in the top 11. I spend the most time in state #1 for deer. No wonder I'm paranoid.

Although I have hit deer and had near misses with ones running out at me, those are usually just momentary oh shit moments that pass quickly. The worse episode was on The Skyline Drive, which is at the top of the Blue Ridge Parkway. During the day there are countless deer right up to the road along Skyline. They are so accustom to cars and bikes they don't bother to move when you're near them. They couldn't care less. One evening my wife and left our lodge and had dinner at the lodge 8 miles away. It was dark when we started back for our lodge. The deer were still all around, but when it's dark the deer get super spooked when you approach. As you get close they take off running...in every direction imaginable. Including directly at you, along side you, jumping, running it's pandemonium. We had to ride so slowly you could hear them snort and not know exactly where they were next to you. Took us about an hour to go the 8 miles back. It was eerie as hell and I never want to do that one again. God I hate them things.