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Hitting a Deer Top Speed

5044 Views 48 Replies 11 Participants Last post by  CANTSiR
Had pretty much just bought my CBR500R and went a tooth up in the front. Was doing 120ish on the highway in the dark when a doe came from behind trees in the median and ran across front of me. Caught the tail end of the deer midair making full impact on the front tire. I had a little time to react but chose not to. I was in a full tuck position and the bike sit quite low to begin with. Just hit it square and straight line. I felt a big jolt into my front shock, but not even bottom out. I just kept going on my way to work. I got their and checked for damage and literally had no signs that I had even hit a deer. No fur, no blood, no damage. Very few people believe me, but that's one of my many stories. I have a CBR1000RR also. The bike has such a high center of gravity I know 100% that if I hit the deer same speed same manner I would have flipped on that. Like 5 months later I was pushing my CBR500R into my dads garage and accidentally hit a small plastic bin with my front fender and it cracked the fender lol...There is a video of a guy hitting a deer at like 70 mph and chopping the deers leg off. I imagine that is what must have happened in my instance.
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Dude you ride too fast! Scaring me!

Or are you in KPH? That's different.
na mph on my commuter. i go top speed on my 1000 as well. got to pay to play and i am content with the price. ive had many severe offroad accidents. i have yet to have a street bike accident, except a few dumb low traction 1 mph spills.
Let me ask this then in regards to your speeding, are you trying to promote speeding as being fun and everyone should do it? It seems like you are bordering on that and there are many here that watch but don't post. I personally wouldn't want to suggest anything that might get someone hurt. On the track it's a whole different thing than on public streets. So what is the intent with all these speeding post if you don't mind? Just curious.
hard to argue promoting hitting a deer. I just share my personal experience and I speed. I know I am not the only one and I definitely do not suggest anyone else ride above their ability, speed, or break laws. Already stated in a different post that one day it'll catch up to me and to not follow my example. I used to do an hour and a half commute everyday to work which I much preferred to do in 45 mins.

This morning while doing 50 mph following a car he slowed down to about 40. Me being experienced enough to know that when a car shows unusual behavior it is smarter to stay behind them than pass I spotted a fawn which had just grown out of it's spots. It confusedly walked inbetween us as I pretty much slowed to a stop beeping my horn at it a few times. It just kept it's head low and didn't even care as it wandered to the other side of the road.
i didnt mention this yesterdays deer was a fawn that just came out of its spots. it was licking the salty road the entire time. on my way home from work it was dead on the side
Speeding at night is especially dangerous. A whole herd of deer could be standing in the road and by the time your headlights hit them, the time it takes for you to realize the danger, the time it takes to react, suddenly there's no time left. Skill and ability wouldn't make any difference.
You can't see as well at night as during the day, ride accordingly. You wouldn't speed on a snow packed highway due to lack of traction. You have to adjust to current conditions.
With all due respect. I don't believe your story.
Unless Honda motorcycles, or maybe you superior intellect and riding skills can bend the laws of physics anyway:grin:
With all due respect. I don't believe your story.
Unless Honda motorcycles, or maybe you superior intellect and riding skills can bend the laws of physics anyway:grin:
It is also a hit and run.
The condition of the baby deer was not assessed until much later.
An interesting topic is if you hit an animal, and it is going to die painfully, what do you do? Townies will have no idea.

UK
Initially I agreed with Jo6pak. After watching this video of a motorcycle hitting a deer and not crashing, a rethink may be in order. . At the 0:33 second mark in the upper right corner you can see the deer getting ready to leap. It is the only glimpse I am able to actually see of the deer. And that is by clicking stop and start as fast as I can. I don't have slow-motion capability. Not sure of the guys speed but it was definitely a deer.

At least this guy sustained a good bit of damage to his bike, something you said was not visible to your bike. And you were going 35 mph faster, so therein lies my problem. You may have hit the deer, but to sustain no visible damage is not believable.

UK makes a good point. No care what-so-ever was given the deer and its possible very painful death. Obviously the animal was left where ever it dropped. And you, confident in your arrogance, just continued to work. I hope you made it safely.

11
Here are 11 still shots of this, because even slow it's hard to see. I couldn't get anything between 2 and 3, that's how fast it was. For your viewing pleasure...

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At the end of the video they run it in slow motion, you can see the impact.
The guy did a good job of not crashing. :thumbsup:
Thanks for posting TR.

> As for the 120 MPH impact story above...
You didn't feel the need to stop and check on the animal or even check the bike for damage?
> I go brown bear hunting every year with my trusty 22LR revolver..... Got a room full of bear rugs. :plain:
Just Sayin
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Yeah semiFast, I'm too impatient, couldn't wait for the end of the video. I'd like to join you on that bear hunt. I bet you're a good story teller too... :grin:
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Apparently Australians hit kangaroos all the time and keep the bike up, sometimes without damage. I didn't know this until a week or two after my post. It made my incident seem more tame.
TR, I'm not doubting a rider can keep the bike up after a collision with an large animal.
It's the part where he purports that there was no damage to the bike that went a bridge too far.


Semifast= I'll join you on those hunts too. I often take moose with my trusty Red Rider:wink2:
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TR, I'm not doubting a rider can keep the bike up after a collision with an large animal.
It's the part where he purports that there was no damage to the bike that went a bridge too far.


Semifast= I'll join you on those hunts too. I often take moose with my trusty Red Rider:wink2:
I totally agree joe. No damage is just not believable. Hell, I mash a butterfly doing 60 and it at least leaves a mark. That would be an interesting hunt, semi with his 22LR, you with your Red Rider and I'll bring my paint gun pistol. With that artillery we could go for Kodiak....Maybe Sam could bring his rubber band gun and join us...:smile:
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Another hard to believe part is doing 120 mph on a cbr500r. They are good for about 105 max.
i was pretty disappointed with the 105 stock. front speocket + one tooth gets the extra jibbly but bike doesn't have a whole lot of power near the end. gotta be a light rider.
Specs say 47 horsepower and 180 kph or 112 mph. That much horsepower usually gets 100 to 105. But the OP was doing 120 ish, which implies a bit more. My 48 hp 750 Norton did 108. I have said many times, I find the reported top speeds to be quite suspect. From whoever posts the specs, or the riders, which includes the owners.
I might add, Shirley has gone faster than 180kph. No BS. I check each bike against the GPS. For most of them I have to take off about 5 kph. 3 times the horsepower of the CBR500 makes 180kph fairly easy.

I used to find issues with bikes that the owners told me were in perfect shape. But then, I may have looked at things they did not think off.

It is still a hit and run, however you slice it.

UK
bike topped out at rpm 105 also which was why i went a tooth higher. like i said it's not rly advisable cus power is barely enough for 250-300lb ride weight once u go up a tooth. i will say first gear is terrible with stock gearing. get to about 3 mph til ur max rpm lol.
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