Whew - I Had a deer "near miss" Saturday night/Sunday morning. I rode my BMW up to Morgantown WV for the Oklahoma football game. Game time was 7:30, so game ended about 11:30. By the time I get to my bike, it's midnight.
My motel was in the sticks about 20 miles outside Morgantown. Actually, using "sticks" to describe part of WV is simply redundant. No offense to any mountaineers out there, just facts! I made my way out of Morgantown surprisingly quick - I needed to go South on state highway and most folks wanted to go N/S on the interstate.
Anyhow, I knew I was in a high risk deer area and was on high alert for the critters. A dark night, no moon to speak of and night just seems darker in this part of the world, especially in the hollows.
About 4 miles to hotel (now nearly 1 am), I round a corner about 35 and I'm looking at his ass - he's in the other lane, just across the center line, maybe 100 Yds away. I grab brake and slow quickly. Of course, the deer wants to make this event as meaningful as he can, so he turns into my lane and STOPS, perpendicular to my line. Now I'm testing the BMW antilocks, squeezing brakes hard - they work great! I'm heading right at him and damn deer doesn't move. I'm going to stop about 12 inches from the deer. Just as I go to put my feet down, he bolts off the road, I roll throttle and never stopped. Heart pounding, sweating in the cool night air. Entire event was probably 2 seconds long. Seemed like forever.
I get to motel about 10 minutes later, change shorts and go to bed!
The lesson - don't overdrive your headlights. I would have stopped, safely, in time. But only just barely. If the deer had been moving towards me, I would not have been able to avoid. So, I conclude I was riding a bit too fast.
My motel was in the sticks about 20 miles outside Morgantown. Actually, using "sticks" to describe part of WV is simply redundant. No offense to any mountaineers out there, just facts! I made my way out of Morgantown surprisingly quick - I needed to go South on state highway and most folks wanted to go N/S on the interstate.
Anyhow, I knew I was in a high risk deer area and was on high alert for the critters. A dark night, no moon to speak of and night just seems darker in this part of the world, especially in the hollows.
About 4 miles to hotel (now nearly 1 am), I round a corner about 35 and I'm looking at his ass - he's in the other lane, just across the center line, maybe 100 Yds away. I grab brake and slow quickly. Of course, the deer wants to make this event as meaningful as he can, so he turns into my lane and STOPS, perpendicular to my line. Now I'm testing the BMW antilocks, squeezing brakes hard - they work great! I'm heading right at him and damn deer doesn't move. I'm going to stop about 12 inches from the deer. Just as I go to put my feet down, he bolts off the road, I roll throttle and never stopped. Heart pounding, sweating in the cool night air. Entire event was probably 2 seconds long. Seemed like forever.
I get to motel about 10 minutes later, change shorts and go to bed!
The lesson - don't overdrive your headlights. I would have stopped, safely, in time. But only just barely. If the deer had been moving towards me, I would not have been able to avoid. So, I conclude I was riding a bit too fast.
