iab

Strangest thing happened this morning. I was on a fairly steep descent doing 30-35 mph and from out of nowhere a deer jumped in front of me. I hit the brakes hard as the deer skated a bit on the pavement and ran diagonally in front of me. I came within 2 feet of hitting it. It got to the side of the road and was running parallel with me for a while before it ducked into the brush.

I am glad I did not hit it, I have seen the damage they can do to cars. The only "bad" thing that came out of the incident was it raised my heart rate before a climb.

55/Rad

I've told this many times so I'll keep it short - I did hit a deer once in a very similar situation. Traveling around 20 on the Sacramento River path, an antlered deer came bounding out of the brush right in front of me. He hit the pavement and skated to a leg splatter on the deck - where I t-boned him in the gut. I rolled over to the left and tumbled/skidded to a stop where I looked up to see the darn thing running back into the woods. My front wheel was bent bad and I had some rash, but otherwise ok.

Weirdest thing to ever happen to me on a bike.

nova

Lol guess kind of makes a bird through the wheel or a squirle seem like nothing dont it.

Worst thing i hit on a bike and was a couple dogs had one bird go trhough my spokes and survive soon followed by its friend who was not so lucky. Had a snake get cought up in my spokes ones left a nice red pinstripe on my down tube. But i think hittign a deer might just trump all (unless soem one has killed a deer by hittig it on a bike)

badkarma

FYI, deer like to use the same areas to cross roads - so beware next time you're going through there. On this one ride we do, I've seen deer twice cross the road at the same exact point.

allez

dude. PLEASE read your posts before clicking "submit."

Granny

There was a fatality here in VA about 10 years ago. A woman hit a deer during a high-speed decent and reportedly broke her neck.

nickmaimone

usually when Im riding through somewhere I know deer are, as I ride, I just whistle really loud constantly(kinda like calling a dog by whistling), so that they and other animals may know I am there, and not come out of the woods...dont know if it is effective, but so far so good.

ks1g

Must be the time of year. Or phase of moon (can't be sunspots - we're at a cyclical solar minimum). Or just too many deer and people in close proximity. I was out on the local W&OD bike trail in the Ashburn area (lots of subdivisions with strips of forest and open field, good deer habitat I've read and the only predators are cars). A fawn jumped out of the woods, ran parallel to me along the trail, than jumped back into the woods. By the time I could have reacted (I was on my jammer bars, so no brakes and less ability to turn quickly) it was gone. A guy behind me saw it all - when he caught up, he said he was wondering if the deer was going to nail me and how to explain the accident and location if he had to call 911.

Maybe I need to add a deer whistle on the bike or a baseball card in the spokes (for that 60's childhood retro look) to the gear kit?

VT Biker

Odd this post came up today. A fellow rider and I were riding on the Golden, CO bike path to get back to Lookout Mountain Park. 40 - 50 feet in front of us, a big mule deer buck came out and stood in the path until it finally heard us coming at it.

Luckily for us, we were freezing cold after having decended on the backside of Lookout mountain (down highway 40). Due to the biting windchill, we were traveling much slower (12-14 mph) than we would normally have been traveling (25 - 30 down the hill). Had it been warm outside, one of us would have hit the deer without a doubt.

Until that point, it never even crossed my mind that this could be a risk. And, if anyone wants more evidence for why you should wear a helmet, wildlife are completely out of your control.

Angus

Okay, there must be a conspiracy. The same thing happened to me yesterday. I was riding down an incline toward a river doing about 35 mph when a doe walked up to the road shoulder. I thought I was giong to hit her, but she disappeared back into the brush.

Here's my question: if you were sure you were about to hit a deer going that speed, would it be better to try to slide down and get your rash than flip over? (BTW, I flipped over the handlebars crossing a wooden bridge a low speed last week. I can't imagine doing that at speed.)