close call!

Mark Heiple said:

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/!

Quoted message said:

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.

Quoted message said:

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" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"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 said:

Quoted message said:

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 said:

Quoted message said:

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 said:

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:

Quoted message said:

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 [censored]!' 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 said:

Bill Sornson said:

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

Quoted message said:

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 [censored]!' 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.

Bill Sornson said:

bryanska said:

Quoted message said:

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.

Claire Petersky said:

"Leo Lichtman" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

"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!

You're both wrong. It was clearly a Bigfoot!

-Bill H.

bryanska said:

Quoted message said:

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.

I can show you a few cars that have met deer on the road. Not as soft
as you think. Plus, he almost certainly would have been thrown from
the bike to land on some surface which might or might not be soft.
Best that he did not hit it.

- rick

In article <[email hidden]>,

Bill Sornson said:

Dane Buson said:

Bill Sornson said:

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

Quoted message said:

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 [censored]!' 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.

I've had deer run across the bike trail I sometimes ride, but the
closest they ever came was probably 50 yards, so I never really
considered them a danger.

Now I question if it is a very good idea to ride at night. Supposedly
the deer are just as willing to jump in front of cars in the daylight as
they are at night.

In article
<[email hidden]>,

Leo Lichtman said:

"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.

I need to go ride the hill again sometime soon, get back on the horse....

The condition of the deer isn't really high on my list of concerns right
now though.

Mark Heiple said:

The condition of the deer isn't really high on my list of concerns right
now though.

Although the condition of the dear and the condition of you is most
likely highly and positivly correlated.

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

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

Quoted message said:

I can show you a few cars that have met deer on the road. Not as soft

as you think.

http://www.bumpernuts.com/truck%20accessory%2020.htm

"Mark Heiple" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

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.

=========================================

Coming down from Crater Lake, in the dark. Missed a BEAR by a couple of
feet.

Now, that is as close as I want to get.

Probably a buck. They move faster and are alone. Last fall had a doe
flash out 50 yds ahead. It was across the road quick but I stopped
anyway. Sure enough, another doe or fawn crossed. My wife was amazed on
how I saw the other deer. I told her I didn't, but does usually don't
travel alone.

On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:51:22 -0400 in rec.bicycles.misc, Mark

Heiple said:

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.

time for more powerful lights?

"Dennis P. Harris" <[email hidden]> wrote in message
news:[email hidden]...

Quoted message said:

On Sun, 18 Sep 2005 21:51:22 -0400 in rec.bicycles.misc, Mark

Heiple said:

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.

time for more powerful lights?

Maybe some of the more scientifically inclined on here can come up with the
constraints on a light required to see something like an animal in the road
in time to stop or evade at downhill bike speeds. Intuitively, I think
you'll be "overdriving your headlights" at any combination of a reasonable
weight for a lighting system and a reasonable downhill speed. In the dark,
my speed is moderated so I can miss something that suddenly appears in front
of me, and that means no un-braked, "screaming" descents.

Quoted message said: