close call!

Just got back from a bike ride tonight, and I think I came as close as I
ever have killing myself.

I started out about 6:30 pm, so the it was light out but I knew it would
be dark before I finished, so took my lights with me - red blinkie tail
light and a 10w Turbocat headlight. The tail light was on the entire
ride, I didn't turn the headlight on until it actually started getting
dark.

I think I was finishing up between 8:00 and 8:30, so the sun was down
but not completely dark yet. I was going down the last hill of the
ride, somewhere between 25 and 30 mph (too dark to see the computer, but
I usually hit 26 or 27 at that point), when I deer ran across the road
right in front of me.

One instant, the road was clear, then all of a sudden a lot of brown fur
all lit up in front of me, then it was gone. I don't think I missed it
by more than a couple feet.

Would have been really bad news if I had hit it. I feel rather
fortunate to have made it home tonight.

Mark Heiple wrote:
Just got back from a bike ride tonight, and I think I came as close
as I ever have killing myself.

I started out about 6:30 pm, so the it was light out but I knew it
would be dark before I finished, so took my lights with me - red
blinkie tail light and a 10w Turbocat headlight. The tail light was
on the entire ride, I didn't turn the headlight on until it actually
started getting dark.

I think I was finishing up between 8:00 and 8:30, so the sun was down
but not completely dark yet. I was going down the last hill of the
ride, somewhere between 25 and 30 mph (too dark to see the computer,
but I usually hit 26 or 27 at that point), when I deer ran across the
road right in front of me.

One instant, the road was clear, then all of a sudden a lot of brown
fur all lit up in front of me, then it was gone. I don't think I
missed it by more than a couple feet.

Would have been really bad news if I had hit it.

Even worse had it hit /you/!

I feel rather fortunate to have made it home tonight.

Go with the feeling

"Mark Heiple" wrote: (clip) Would have been really bad news if I had hit
it. I feel rather fortunate to have made it home tonight.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm sure that's the first time that has ever happened to you, and, chances
are, it will never happen again. But I'll bet it will be a long time before
you are able to ride down that hill without tensing up.

Glad you and the deer are OK.

Would have been really bad news if I had hit it. I feel rather
fortunate to have made it home tonight.

Not too bad. Might have been a soft-ish hit.

"Leo Lichtman" wrote in message
...

"Mark Heiple" wrote: (clip) Would have been really bad news if I had hit
it. I feel rather fortunate to have made it home tonight.
^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^
I'm sure that's the first time that has ever happened to you, and, chances
are, it will never happen again. But I'll bet it will be a long time
before you are able to ride down that hill without tensing up.

Glad you and the deer are OK.

Deer? I thought it was a bear!

--
Warm Regards,

Claire Petersky
Personal page: http://www.geocities.com/cpetersky/
See the books I've set free at:
http://bookcrossing.com/referral/Cpetersky

bryanska wrote:
Would have been really bad news if I had hit it. I feel rather
fortunate to have made it home tonight.

Not too bad. Might have been a soft-ish hit.

Um... Have you ever seen an adult deer in full flight? It's big, strong,
fast, and really really firm. Nothing "soft-ish" about it. Could easily
kill a cyclist speeding down a hill.

bryanska wrote:
Would have been really bad news if I had hit it. I feel rather
fortunate to have made it home tonight.


Not too bad. Might have been a soft-ish hit.


Your typical white-tail can weigh up to 115kg (250 lbs -- other species
can be considerably heavier), and being roughly 1m (3') at the shoulder,
your bike is likely to come to a very abrupt stop, you do an endo, and
while the deer may be soft, the ground isn't.

W

Bill Sornson wrote:

Um... Have you ever seen an adult deer in full flight? It's big, strong,
fast, and really really firm. Nothing "soft-ish" about it. Could easily
kill a cyclist speeding down a hill.

Which reminds me a lot of this thread from a couple years ago:

One day we were having exactly this discussion on a bike ride. One of
the guys told us about a descent he'd made in the mountains somewhere up
in New England. He'd gotten on his aero bar, started descending, and
before he knew it, he was up around 65 mph and he couldn't get back from
the aero bars to use his brakes.

We asked him, "So what would you have done if you'd had a deer come out of
the trees and start across the road in front of you?"

"Go to Plan B," he said.

"So what was Plan B?"

He said, "Scream 'OH ****!' and die."

From: http://tinyurl.com/a9fz2

--
Dane Buson - z u v e m b i @ u n i x b i g o t s . o r g
Against stupidity the very gods Themselves contend in vain.
-- Friedrich von Schiller, "The Maid of Orleans", III, 6

Dane Buson wrote:
Bill Sornson wrote:

Um... Have you ever seen an adult deer in full flight? It's big,
strong, fast, and really really firm. Nothing "soft-ish" about it.
Could easily kill a cyclist speeding down a hill.

Which reminds me a lot of this thread from a couple years ago:My closest
call was

One day we were having exactly this discussion on a bike ride. One
of the guys told us about a descent he'd made in the mountains
somewhere up in New England. He'd gotten on his aero bar, started
descending, and before he knew it, he was up around 65 mph and he
couldn't get back from the aero bars to use his brakes.

We asked him, "So what would you have done if you'd had a deer come
out of the trees and start across the road in front of you?"

"Go to Plan B," he said.

"So what was Plan B?"

He said, "Scream 'OH ****!' and die."

Good plan!

My closest call was mountain biking in Cuyamaca State Park. Near the end of
the long loop we do there's a really fast downhill section, but with enough
technical bits to keep...well, ME at least on my toes. THEN there's a more
wide-open fireroad-type run to the bottom, and that's where I nearly got
steamrolled by a huge buck. Never saw or heard a hint of movement or any
other clue that danger was imminent; just a fast-moving flash right in front
of me!

I remember thinking that it's a REALLY GOOD THING that I took that previous
section just a little cautiously, as a difference of even one second might
have meant major carnage.

Haven't had the pleasure (yet?) of an animal encounter on my road bike
(other than squirrels and such), but I imagine that would be even
scarier/deadlier.

Bill "tuck...roll...die" S.

On Mon, 19 Sep 2005 15:06:23 GMT, "Bill Sornson"
wrote:

bryanska wrote:
Would have been really bad news if I had hit it. I feel rather
fortunate to have made it home tonight.

Not too bad. Might have been a soft-ish hit.

Um... Have you ever seen an adult deer in full flight? It's big, strong,
fast, and really really firm. Nothing "soft-ish" about it. Could easily
kill a cyclist speeding down a hill.

An expert veteran motorcyclist near me was coming home for lunch. Hit
a deer at about 30 mph, according to cops. Both were found dead a few
minutes later.

And he wasn't the first around here.

In my motorcycling days, deer were always considered a hazard in my
rural area. The concensus in the motorcycling magazines was that you
had about a 50-50 chance of walking away without horrible injury. In
the other 50%, parapeglic or death accounted for a large proportion of
the encounter-results.

Autos and trucks here hit deer all the time, and seldom result in more
than injury to the deer and vehicle. Body shops love it. The people
are fine most of the time. The number of "deer hits" in NY state and
PA are in the tens of thousands. About 50K per state in some years as
I recall; I don't have the figures in front of me but they are online.

G.B.