i'm a newbie and had a question that I couldn't figure out after the searches gave me zip.
Are there any tips/wise words or some kinda "What-To-Do-When a wild animal, say a raccoon*, suddenly crosses your path and collision is imminent?" handbook?
My particular concern is animal crossings at speeds where you can't get out of the way.
Setting for example: heavily travelled roadway with little room on the shoulders
Should tell the boss you won't be coming in for a while? Thanks
.
* and skunks, squirrels and rabbits for that matter
when ur front tire hits it accelerate a little bit to help get over ... as you go over it ... stand up on the bike a little bit and use ur knees as a shock absorber. your back end should be heavy enough to just crush the animal.
Just hold your line and hit the gas, here a video were a guy hits a deer and just keeps going. http://www.filecabi.net/video/435deer.html
Treat it like a bump. Get the bike as verticle as possible and stand up on the pegs a little.
FULL SPEED AHEAD! Unless it is as big as you, then... WOAH NELLY!
-Anti 8)
There are some simple options:
If you are a newb, the bike CAN do more than you know. I came at an unlabeled hairpin at 60 ish and it should be labled 20. Cars on the outside, road raging cager behind. (Why was he pissed? I dunno, for once I didn't do anything!)
I had scraped the pegs before, but this time I was sure it was just too tight, I leaned in, counter steered and ended up making it folding a peg and touching my knee.
Moral of my OMFG I almost died moment? Even if you think you can't, you just might be able to.
As for hitting anything smaller and softer than your bike, You can probably stop in time, but if you can't reduce speed before hitting, straighten up and then gas the fucker as you go over.
Oh BTW pray a little before you hit. LOL
Try to burn off as much speed as possible first. IF you're going 40 instead of 80, you'll only hit with 1/4 of the force.
Yeah, brakes are your friend.
holy sh17z....i just watched that deer video !!! wow, can't believe nothing happened to that guy
Avoid "Object Fixation". Look where there is clear road and not at what you want to avoid. You want to "hit" the clear road.
I consider this an almost must read site for questions such as this.
http://www.msgroup.org/DISCUSS.asp
From experience you do not want to hit anything while braking!!! Don't take a chance that you may be on the brakes when you hit something. Your suspension is at maximum compression and can not do its job. You want your suspension on the front at maximum extension and light as possible. if you can scrub speed before impact and then resume acceleration great but chances are you won't have that much warning. Accelerate, get your butt off the seat and absorb the impact on flexed knees. There is nothing like coming across a railroad tie across the highway at night to drive this lesson home. Practice this manuever anytime it is safe such as at RR crossings and speed bumps in parking lots. BTW I hit that tie at 65mph on a 500cc honda shadow and did'nt tweak anything.
Hey mods any chance we can make that link a sticky for safe riding tips?
Thanks for all your help!
gonna go practice on a moose. :icon_lol:
I hit a 90lb Labrador on a country road in England when I was a new rider. I was doing about 65 on an RD350, saw the dog dart, pulled on major brakes, compressed the suspension, hit the dog dead center (target fixation) flipped endo, Bike hit me once, kicked it away, rolled/slid down the ROUGH pavement till i stopped. The dog was dead, I was a bloody mess. I could see both of my knee caps. Jeans and thermals don't get it. You are a damn fool if you ride in shorts and flipflops! I spent a month and a half in RAF Lakenheath military hospital.
Pay attention to the seasoned rider's advice. Pre-think riding senarios. practice braking, bumps, whatever. and wear good gear from head to toe. None of you are very pretty without a helmet and the wind dragging your facial skin back.
Be safe. you can be hurt so badly from a small carelessness.
The only advice I can give is look a long way down the road. Most people don't do this and this is why you get multiple pile ups on motorways/freeways.
i was unfortunate enough to hit a full grown skunk, was on a straight sitting in the decline of a hilly and windy back road. I slowed as much as i could, then crunch, and drove away. Pretty much cut the little guy in half, felt bad too because i don't like to hit little woddland animals. He got a last word in though and it was shiny GS that smells like skunk for a bit for me.
David Hough's noteworthy book "Proficient Motorcycling" has a chapter at the end devoted to animals. Buy it or borrow it from your library.
The best idea, he says, is to know an animal is there before getting close to it. There are various clues you can look for that will let you know you're coming up on an animal (at night, reflectors that suddenly wink, for example). For any animal other than a dog, David advises you to do a quick stop, since you just can't ever predict what a wild animal will do...
As well a making sure your front forks aren't compressed when you hit ANYTHING in th roadway make sure when you put your bodywieght on the pegs you shift as much of your weight to the rear of the bike as possible. Weight on the handlebars could be a bad thing depending how harsh the rebound is
Why not just slow down to a speed that will allow you to stop if something darts out in front of you?
Quote from: sledge on August 09, 2006, 06:14:21 AM
Why not just slow down to a speed that will allow you to stop if something darts out in front of you?
Not always possible, especially if you live in bumble f&$k where all sorts of little (and big) critters scurry across the street late at night
I'll almost always see deer plenty in advance so I can slow down/stop, but it's near impossible to see something like a possum or ground hog or fox until your feet from hitting it, even if I'm riding around like a grandma.
Fair comment, not much wildlife around here, too damn cold.
Quote from: Nosferatoo on August 05, 2006, 10:27:47 AM
Are there any tips/wise words or some kinda "What-To-Do-When a wild animal, say a raccoon*, suddenly crosses your path and collision is imminent?" handbook?
I was told that you can safely run over anything shorter than the height of your axle, as long as you dont hit the brake. Depends on your skill and luck, you can run over much larger animals as well.
Quote from: bbq on August 09, 2006, 07:29:43 AM
Quote from: Nosferatoo on August 05, 2006, 10:27:47 AM
Are there any tips/wise words or some kinda "What-To-Do-When a wild animal, say a raccoon*, suddenly crosses your path and collision is imminent?" handbook?
I was told that you can safely run over anything shorter than the height of your axle, as long as you dont hit the brake. Depends on your skill and luck, you can run over much larger animals as well.
look at this http://www.gary310.com/temp/StewMeat1.wmv
For those of you that think you can react to something not seen, watch this....
http://www.funny-spot.com/html/Motorcycle-hits-Deer.html
Have you taken the MSF? They cover this stuff...
Summary:
1) If it's smaller than two meals, run over it.
2) If you can swerve, swerve... Then brake.
3) If you can't swerve, brake and hope.
Also note: Deer don't like loud noises, so your horn might scare it off. I've seen it work.
Quote from: RVertigo on August 09, 2006, 12:44:39 PM
Also note: Deer don't like loud noises, so your horn might scare it off. I've seen it work.
+1 I use this tatic regularly and it works 80% of the time, as long as you are not to far away as to give them a chance to thing then react - the stare.
When hitting a deer, dgyver's link happens more often than bettingpython's. That dude got lucky and hit the deer in the nick, swinging it around.
Quote from: Egaeus on August 09, 2006, 02:47:11 PMWhen hitting a deer, dgyver's link happens more often than bettingpython's. That dude got lucky and hit the deer in the nick, swinging it around.
No kidding... I couldn't believe that guy escaped with such little damage.
Quote from: RVertigo on August 09, 2006, 02:55:30 PM
I couldn't believe that guy escaped with such little damage.
And dinner to boot!
Quote from: Egaeus on August 09, 2006, 03:08:08 PM
Quote from: RVertigo on August 09, 2006, 02:55:30 PM
I couldn't believe that guy escaped with such little damage.
And dinner to boot!
Back in 88 a friend of mine hit a deer in Arkansas about 300 miles from home. The left handelbar was bent down and one engine guard was bent. A hoof came round and cut through his wifes boot and injured her but they were able to ride the wing home. When he was cleaning everything up to trade the bike in for a new 1500 he found deer pellets under his seat. He says the deer was in mid leap when he center punched it. It apparantely wrapped around both sides of the bike as it was thrown up and over. Now that would have been some video to see.
Quote from: Egaeus on August 09, 2006, 02:47:11 PM
When hitting a deer, dgyver's link happens more often than bettingpython's. That dude got lucky and hit the deer in the nick, swinging it around.
If you watch dgyver's video in slow it looked like that guy stayed on the front brake way too hard, there was a glare off the windshield right before impact, but it looked like his rear wheel was already coming off the ground before he hit the deer. I know it happens so fast, and in situations like that you don't even have time to pray, your brain only has enough time to say" Oh crap this is going to hurt ", but my vote is still for trying to hold your line and not nose diving the front end, if you could actually see the deer or critter sooner then try to brake as much as you can and then gas just before impact, or if you can go around.