Please don’t watch these at work (we wouldn’t want you to get in trouble on our account), but do take the time to watch a couple of interesting videos we spotted today and post below.
The first one reminds us all to never take things for granted. While a group of riders cruises along on a wide highway, a giant buck dashes across and leaps over one of the riders, who crashes. Pretty amazing video, actually.
The second video below features an event at a track owned by retired motocross great Kevin Windham, who invited some other stars from the past (including Travis Pastrana and Robbie Reynard, among others) to race and play ride (including a wide water crossing). Enjoy.
See more of MD’s great photography:
A friend of mine died from a deer jumping onto his bike a few years ago. I’ve come very close to deer in the roadways of the Texas Hill Country.
Ive learned a few things about deer over the years….they usually continue running in the same direction and will keep doing so….unless they stop….a flick of the ears and most of the time will do an about face and turn in the opposite direction…
I hit one years ago and it sent me over the bars at high speed…..split the welds on the steering stem and wrote my RC51 off The deer was walking off the road as I was exiting a corner….but he paused.. turned around and bolted right in my path I was going a buck and a half…..too fast I’m not sure loud pipes save lives I had Satos on I think it spooked him
It changed where I ride after that….we tend to be drawn to nice twisty roads…but if the treeline comes three feet to the edge of the road you have no peripheral warning…I watch for that now
WOWZA…When I saw the thumbnail I thought the deer was photoshopped. It was not.
“HOLY COW!” https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hc32IeN5wrA
the athleticism of deer never ceases to amaze me. nor does their poor judgement. it’s also good to see that windham has gotten older/fatter /grayer and that it’s not just me…
Classic issue with formation riding, no where to go when a problem happens. Fine until its not, and when the deer strikes, its not.
I always thought “I hit a deer” comments were fake, till I hit one. I surprised him, and not being able to flee the other direction because of a rock hill (which he did try to jump up, 20feet up, but immediately came back down) he effectively ran into me, almost as if I was a threat, and that was his defense. Totalled my GSF1250. It all happened in seconds,
Yep, same here. It happens almost so fast that you barely have time to register it, and minimal time to react. About all you get time to do is a reflex reaction – try to initiate an avoidance maneuver, maybe brakes – then boom. Problem is the deer isn’t stationary and is trying to avoid you itself, so the two end up crossing paths, like two airplanes at speed. Wham, bam, what just happened?
I was traveling in NW Arkansas (in my truck, thankfully) and had a deer run into me broadside. I was going around a right hand corner and he hit me on the left side just in front of the fuel filler. That silly deer just had to slow down down for a split second and it would have missed me. But, alas no. Luckily, everyone walked away including the deer.
Comments on YouTube note that it looks fake. Right off it looked like a doe to me and then its the biggest White Tail buck ever seen leaping. I can’t imagine why someone would doctor it.
No doctoring necessary. What you are witnessing is the distortion caused by the wide angle lens; closer objects appear larger than distant ones.
The buck appears larger the closer he is: at the end of the scene he is just feet away from the camera’s periphery and, therefore, seems very large.
I’ve hit 2 deer w/o stopping on my bikes. 1 in California and 1 in Washington. Like this video they came at me from my left. The 1st time I didn’t see it coming but someone told me to slow down. I had and the deer meet my front tire on it’s right rear leg/thigh. It felt like hitting water. I just kept on riding straight, stood up to look for damage, didn’t se any and kept on riding.
The 2nd hit was years later in the am. this time I saw the deer before we met. Again I hit it in it’s right leg/thigh like the 1st time. But this time I looked over and saw the deer kicking trying to get up while laying on it’s right side. Again I didn’t stop and had no damage. These are reasons why I rarely ride @ night.
I just want a “dirt bike compound.” Is that too much to ask?
Funny, I skipped the big buck video at Jalopnik because at a cursory glance, the photo looks like it was a screen shot from a video game….
Close call, A few years back had a buck jump over my VFR , cleared the bike just over the front wheel , shit on the windshield.I was doing about 70K/hr . Scared the shit out of me as well.
good grief, of all rides for the legendary “10-point buck” to terrorize, it just HAD to pick that one NSHDH (Norm shakes his damn head).
oh yeah, the camera man positioned on the opposite side of the lake may want to get a longer lens to better position himself out of harms way, just saying.
I think he’d a been alright if he’d just kept moving. It looks like the buck made it through okay.
The problem with group rides is that the ones behind focus on the ones in front and miss anything else going on, especially if they are wearing proper (?) riding gear like Ralph Lauren suits!
Bgg. Cool.
rodger on the abs, it takes training not to panic and hit the rear brake. That is what put him down..
No, he saw it and laid the bike down 😉
Something tells me that if that rear wheel had ABS, he’d have stayed upright.
Butch, that shows they’ve had formal rider training.
Suit and tie.
Must be a new line of riding gear I haven’t heard about.
Distinguished Gentlemen Ride.