lostarchitect 

Uh, yeah. The deer didn't "pop out," according to OP. It was in the middle of the road. When riding a motorcycle you're taught not to override your brakes or lights. The actual number of miles per hour you're going is not relevant. If you are going fast enough to come around a corner and not be able to stop for something in the road, you were going too fast, period, end of story. Nobody's telling OP he isn't allowed to ride that fast if he wants to, but he should be aware that he's riding too fast to respond.

spivonious

Hope your recovery goes well. Maybe time to practice the quick turn? I don't know how effective it would be at 35mph, but it would have at least put you sideways to distribute the impact.

RR3

Deer collisions are not freak occurences where I live. Since they tend to move most at dusk from their bedding areas to feeding areas, I am especially watchful then. Once they are in the fields munching away, less concern unless it is during the rut and then all bets are off.

hyegeek

Good luck with that theory. While they are more active at dawn and dusk, my collision was way before dawn. Normally, they are not very active. That morning, they were everywhere. The best rule I've come up with to know when to expect them is any time you don't expect them, they will be there. That and any time you DO expect them.

Since we have had a mild winter, they are everywhere at any time. I'm seeing them dead along the highway daily and along my non highway rural route. And while it does not seem possible, they are even more unpredictable than usual.

HardyWeinberg

Also, when you see one, it is the one behind it you don't see that you need to be on the lookout for.

HardyWeinberg

There used to be a spreadsheet here somewhere rating different lights against different speeds so you could take info about your commute and see how often you would be overdriving a particular light. I think that was before magicshines took over but you can still overdrive those too.

lostarchitect 

Several years back in Southern California, I was out for a ride on a borrowed motorcycle at dusk. I didn't really know the capabilities of the bike very well. I came around a corner on the Ortega Highway--and there was an elk in the middle of the road. This is a big, big animal. I slammed the brakes and swerved. I was able to stop in time, but it reminded me of what they teach you in the basic rider class: don't override your brakes or your lights. IMO, the same rules apply to bicycles. If I had hit the thing, I would have at the very least been injured and have destroyed a $20,000 motorcycle that didn't belong to me. Good thing my friend took good care of it, the brakes were excellent.

KD5NRH

Yup; and when a cyclist can't avoid getting under the wheels of a truck, it's their own fault for riding too fast then too.

RR3

What do I know. I just know what they do on my trail cam and years of huntin em. I said, "Tend to" meaning there are patterns of behavior that certainly change based upon incoming weather, temps, moon, etc. For instance, a black bear took up residence for a while on one of my properties. The entire deer population and their patterns changed dramatically. Where they crossed and when were all changed immediately. Bedding areas that they used forever also changed. Theories can only approximate reality. Deer move most at dusk and dawn as in they tend to move most then. Take it with a grain of salt but they move from their secure bedding areas at around dusk slowly to open fields in the dark where they will graze for hours. Bed down in another area for several hours (4-5 at the most) and then, graze ago before trekking back to a more secure bedding area where they will remain the whole day with a brief feeding maybe midday.

New Research on Deer Movement | Outdoor Life

hyegeek

Sounds like you agree with me. The fact that you acknowledge that they will change their behaviour means that deer collisions might be freak occurrences. While there is a higher probability of seeing them at certain times and for them to behave in certain ways. They are fundamentally unpredictable.

ZmanKC

Oh dear.

snow_echo_NY

agree with what others said, you were definitely going too fast. especially in the dark...!
+1 to @Walter S and those who responded that way.

agree it does sound like deer caught in headlights but who's to know.

you are so lucky you weren't killed, go brain dead or get completely paralyzed... glad you will live to ride another day.

snow_echo_NY

so true!

exactly

interesting point that in the early AM, deer start moving about. seems like this could have been avoided in so many ways.

really unfortunate.

and agree with others that squirrels are probably more worrisome.

Walter S

I don't really care if you ride off a cliff. Some people are born to die young and confident. The world needs people like that to serve as an example for the rest of us to avoid.

Ride hard and fast down hills in the dark! Try turning those wimpy ass headlights off.

spare_wheel

I'll remember your kind words as I bomb down pill hill at 35-40 for the approx 4800th time this evening.

(And before that many, many thousands of 40 mph descents down capitol hill on my way to the montlake cut.)

Walter S

Riding by the numbers huh? Hope your luck holds out.

Walter S

That's just his personal statistics. If you ride down the road safely thousands of times because nothing happened to be in the road, eventually you'll pay the piper.

Bikerdave222

I don't mean to get off topic but I was wondering is your commute 18 miles one way??

hyegeek

Yep. It is 18 to 21 miles one way depending on route. Half gravel and lots of climbing.

RR3

They were out last night, saw over a hundred of them field rats on my ride. They sure are pretty but it is difficult to have any bushes or flowers unless you fence your whole property 8 foot high. It is inevitible that I will eventually get hit by one on a ride. On a club ride last year, a deer bolted across the field and JUMPED over the head of the ride leader. Scary. I backed way off and observed the whole thing....the deer were going round in a panic and that usually means they are going to bolt in some direction. They bolted right at the pack of 20 riders. Most of the deer stopped but two kept going. It really close. So, getting hit can even happen in the middle of the day. I see deer, I slow down. Just missed an Elk at 50mph out west once....I had to throw those cycling shorts away.

I take it easier descending at night nowadays especially after a rider in front of me went down fracturing his pelvis taking me with him during a 600k. At 35+ mph, little cracks and fissures in the road are hard to see. Finishing a brevet with a fractured radial head is not fun. So, I try to keep it to 25mph max at night and 20mph when the roads are terrible. I just try to make up the tiny amount of extra time riding harder on the climbs. That broken elbow still hurts decades later.

A wise man once said before a ride, "Only descend as fast as your Gardian Angels will allow" or something like that.

CliffordK

I think by this time of year, most bucks would have shed their antlers.

I'm glad to hear that you're ok.

How bright are your lights?

I have one of the too-bright Chinese lights. I use it on dim most of the time (with Fresnel lenses for broad coverage), which seems bright enough, but have bumped it up to bright for the fast descents.

snow_echo_NY

deer move so fast.

this weekend we were driving on a rural road on a mountainous slope and a deer leaped up from underneath the road, onto the road, then dashed up the other side of the road and disappeared into the brush (about 20 ft up on the slope), in about 5 seconds flat. it was about 30 ft in front of us and we were driving about 40 mph.

it's not something a city dweller sees everyday so of course my mouth was agape.

Bikerdave222

WoW! You are the man! Mine is only 11.5 to 13.5 one way.

spare_wheel

not really.
i know my routes very well, i dominate my lane, i trust my decades of experience, and i ride cautiously when conditions are poor.

when i commuted down capitol hill i often took the left lane on 24th (from turner on) because the pavement was smoother, this position provided more visibility, and most motorists would give the crazy cyclist a ton of room. even though i would exceed the speed limit all the way down some motorists would go nucking futs (honking and yelling for the most part). cycling in seattle in the 90s was fun!

ironically, my only truly dangerous incident on 24th occurred when i was riding on the right like a good VC cyclist and got clipped by a truck mirror. cycling in seattle in the early 90s caused me to realized that VC ideology is not compatible with safe urban transportation cycling -- at least for me.

hyegeek

650 lumens and at full brightness for the decent. On flats and climbs, I have it dimmed down.