This past Sunday I was on a break in run on my C50, traveling on a nifty 2 lane semi rural highway. I was really getting into a groove when I came to a reduce speed zone ahead sign. I eased up on the throttle a bit and slowed down, Up ahead of me about 25 yards the biggest deer that I have ever seen in my 10 years in Florida bounded across the road to the other side and stopped to look back from were it came from. While all this was ocurring needless to say I was on the binders rather hard and downshiffting. I glanced in my mirror and saw a vehicle coming up fast behind me, I flipped on my emergency flashers and as I approched the spot were the deer was at about 5 MPH in first gear, sure enough a smaller one "Walked" across the road about 10 feet ahead of me. I cleared him and then gave the C50 a work out up thru the gears. This is something I didn't learn today thankfully the hard way. Remmeber when a deer stops and looks back to were it came from, odds are there are others waiting for a all clear signal from the lead deer.

I to have seen this sort of behavior. Where there is one there is bound to be more. Why take the chance..... just slow down for a bit and be safe is what I do.

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Many say live to ride, I say ride is to live.

I'm so thankful that deer walking across the road is a rarity across here!

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"I am so smart, I am so smart, S M R T, I am so smart"

Homer J Simpson - comedic genius....

Here are some stories that didn't turn out so well:

Motorcycle vs. Sheep

BMW K75 vs. Deer

In Missouri you can almost bet where there is 1 deer there will be more. Deer, along with other critters, are always on the road. You can bet that every time you ride you will see a deer here. I had a deer run into the side of my car once as I was trying to avoid the one running in front of me. The deer population here is unreal. In fact, the Department of Conservation has increased the number of deer you can kill during season. They have also allowed hunters to just call on the phone or check their deer in over the internet. They are not to overly concerned if too many are not reported or reported at all with the new check in procedure. They have had so many car/deer accidents they that they are trying to reduce the number of deer by relaxing the check in laws and check in procedures.

it will be pretty much the same for any pack or herd animal, if you see one there are more. glad you didn't find out the hard way though.

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A coworker's friend is a hunter. Concerning deer, she said that they usually don't make a move (run) until they can put two of their three main senses (sight, smell, hearing) together. I never thought about and being from the city, rarely have I encountered deer, unless I ride upstate NY or in PA. I just haven't come across enough deer to test the theory of how they behave and why. Might explain why they wait until the last nanosecond to try and cross the road.

Make any sense to you guys that come across them often? I think they're cute, but dumb as a box of rocks.

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"Not just your 'ordinary' Rookie..."

Deer are extremely common here, and it really just becomes a reflex to constantly scan and assume that a deer could pop out at any minute.

Like Retread said, the scary thing is the car coming up from behind. If they don't see you slow down, it could get a lot worse than hitting a deer.

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2004 BMW K1200RS

Where I am at we have plenty of Deer. If you hit them just right you will knock 'em down and your bike will land on them and come out unscathed ...okay well this is obviously just silly, however a good friend of mine had that happen just a few months back...pretty odd...the deer literaly saved his bike...

Other than that we have a larger issue...Cows...thats right I said cows..free range cattle is always fun.

With deer I typically go hi/low/hi/low beams and this gets them out of the "I am paralyzed with fear thing" and they move on...with cows just stop and wait for 'em to move or motor by slowly....

norcal

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Lets get out and ride.

two weeks ago my buddy and i were snowmobiling, I am a pretty cautious rider where he is more aggressive so i usually lead, two saturday's ago we were riding on a trail in the woods. We were going a decent speed of 30ish when all of the sudden i did not see my buddy's head lights behind me anymore. It was a very narrow trail to the point where i could not turn around so I waited a minute shut my sled down to see if i could hear anything, i heard nothing which made me nervous, so i raced to the end of the trail and turned around when i came to an opening i drove for about 5 minutes and found him just turning over his sled next to a tree.. We are both very experienced riders. I asked him are you ok? what happened. Turned out a deer jumped out behind me (i did not see the deer due to tree's only being 3' to the side) and tried to jump over him. Luckly (i use this term loosely due to what could have happened) it hit him in the air only breaking the windshield but the deer also hit him which cause him to turn into the tree. No seriuos injuries only a bruised shoulder. We were only about 15 minutes away from our cabin when this happened. The deer was no where to be found. I live in an area where deer is a common thing to see, I am always on the defensive side when it comes to riding but they are what they are... accidents.