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
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* 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 

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.

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.