| Author | Message | ||
     Natexlh1000 |
I remember reading that bikernet saga. I was following the build at the time. I got the impression that he wasn't wearing much in the way of gear. He had a pretty ugly headwound. That M2 build was the first time I had ever seen someone chop the cam cover. Yes I want a lidar array thing too! | ||
| Macbuell |
Why go high tech when you can just buy a deer whistle. They are small, mount easily and are cheap. They create a sub sonic whistle that you cannot hear but the deer can, similar to a dog whistle. Supposedly sends them running in the other direction. Critters, both big and small, are the biggest reason I am not a big fan of riding at night. | ||
| Chauly |
I could never understand the function of a deer whistle. If it startles the deer, what if they're startled into your path? What if they are attracted to it? If they collapsed into a quivering pile of bones until I passed, I could see that as being desirable... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Horses in horse trailers also apparently hear deer whistles, depending upon the operating frequency. Watch a 4 stall gooseneck with 4 panicked horses in it, pull an F550 off the road one time - you'll never want to see another deer whistle again. I also agree - a panicked deer will run...unpredictably. If it's in your path, it will still go blind from your headlight and either freeze...or run towards the only thing it can see. Your headlight. I didn't see a single deer in 16 miles last Thursday. I didn't see this one. Open field. Full-lane shoulder that dropped off to a ditch, then a slight rise to the field (field was about 4' lower than the roadway). 1 mile straightaway. Never saw movement in the field. Never saw an eyeball reflect. It must have been in the ditch, and simply bounded up the hill and across the shoulder just in time to find my headlight. Would a whistle have made it run somewhere...sooner? Maybe. But how many others were also there, that I didn't see, that would also have run at random? | ||
| Ratbuell |
From here out, I'm using a blocker. Keeping a car in front of me at night. | ||
| Court |
I get scared of deer whistles . . . I put a set on backwards once . . . .got home and turned about to see 5 deer following me . . . They work as good as salt does keeping vampires away . . . | ||
| Aesquire |
Deer whistle don't work. Studded snows do make the deer move. But it's random, could be in front of you. Here's the Jeep. About 2 minutes in. Dirt every day did a better run down on this... https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sIjKMyAgnx4 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zdTGVqdY1Y | ||
| Aesquire |
If there's a car in front of you they'll just dive behind it, right into your path. Lots of light, see them first, is the only answer. In traffic, you just can't shine enough light or you blind others. All alone? High beams, fogs aimed off the road, a battalion of 155 howitzers shooting illumination rounds in your path. That might reduce the odds, a bit. One time I ran the Taconic State Parkway at 3 am. in my van with ( then highly illegal ) Hella Quartz Halogen lights with 100 watt high beams. No traffic at all for 70 odd miles. Every field had deer, and I saw them all. Hundreds of deer. It was like moving in a ball of light, cruise control, at 55. And I still had to hit the brakes because a century of automobiles isn't enough to evolve traffic sense in the silly things. | ||
| Court |
I cheat  | ||
| 04xl1200c |
Deer whistles do not work to scare deer away from you. Can't recall the exact years a study was done on thousands of government vehicles that compared between those with, and those without whistles installed. Was almost exactly the same amount of vehicles involved in deer crashes regardless on whether they have a whistle installed or not. | ||
| Aesquire |
On a stretch of road past a local park famed for it's big deer herd, ( that my buddy lives next to ) they installed road reflectors that would flash your headlights in all directions.... right at deer eye height. The idea was that would startle the deer, but there's no evidence that worked at all. What did work, was they created the illusion a deer suddenly was looking at you at the side of the road. Lots of sudden brake lights and horns, but zero statistical effect on the deer death numbers on the road. So they took them out because of the many complaints. The pity is, it was an idea that almost worked, but backwards. It made drivers more cautious... a tiny bit. Unfortunately not enough to make a difference, and didn't change habits, including mine. ( Since I am looking for deer anyway, no change. I don't know what the other yahoos are doing. ) | ||
| Etennuly |
Court, I tried that very thing, but for mine was a new F150 4x4 in 82. When the deer went under the center of the truck on an icy crowned secondary road, it wedged Itself momentarily in the tie rod to frame gap. Was enough to set the truck sideways and into a deep ditch on its side. They don't play fair. Being in the body shop business I've seen all manor of how they tear up cars and trucks. I've seen them win against tractor trailers. To hit one on a bike and survive is amazing. Including Joe, four of my friends have done just that. I have collided with four deer in cages. Countless near misses. I've had customers who have hit really big dogs, a wild boar, bear, people, and a cow. | ||
| K12pilot |
HOLY CRAP JOE!!! Glad you got away from that!! Dad was watching you  | ||
| Court |
Vern: I was referring to the 2,000,000 CP light on the roof . . . . I spend a lot of time on rural roads, late at night . . . to and from Woodstock. I shine the light about 1/2 mile down the road. :-) (Message edited by court on May 09, 2018) | ||
| Zac4mac |
Everybody I've talked to that has hit a deer on a bike says faster is better. A couple of outliers said they were doing 120+ and suffered only shit all over the bike. Mostly highway speed hits are a tossup. Stay straight up and hang on. <edit>Court - more info on the light? So glad you're good Joe. Z (Message edited by zac4mac on May 09, 2018) | ||
| Court |
http://golight.com/applications/ If you really want maximum deer avoidance . . . I suggest the Helios Thermal Imaging system. http://golight.com/products/ | ||
| Court |
P.S. - When I had the truck built I had most the systems concealed. It went to Motorola for a week and they tore out the front seats to install the comm gear, red aviation lighting system, aviation and weather radar, GLONASS with every electric transmission tower in the state of NYC and all my helicopter weather and comm gear.in the console. I get anal about communications also so they installed a pretty cool radio system. Funny story . . a couple weeks ago . . . I hear the better half calling me on the outside speaker . . .she was in Norway. I use the system for construction and can pretty much talk from Albany to Philly . . but I had an option put on her phone that, as long as she can get any sort of internet connection anywhere in the world . . . it links onto my repeater system. Boys and their toys ! | ||
| Aesquire |
My recently retired physicist buddy has returned to his old Ham hobby. He does Civil Air Patrol communications and his Subaru has a roof rack that has multiple antenna. Every time he goes anywhere he boots up full sat com & repeater gear. Pretty basic aviation gear compared to your truck, though. I'm helping him a little with his new satellite tracking rig, he's using telescope mount drives and I've been carving mounting brackets. He wants me to build myself a meteor trail zip reflection setup so we can text via asteroid strike misses.  | ||
| Court |
Way beyond my pay grade . . . . but Motorola offers some really awesome systems. The farm and the undisclosed location are about 2.5 hours apart and I hate to rely on cellphones or the internet being up for comm. Twice, since I moved to NYC . . . we've been without cellphone service for the better part of a day. I'm not a prepper . . . .but I was a Boy Scout. :-) | ||
| Zacks |
Everybody I've talked to that has hit a deer on a bike says faster is better. I remember an article back in the 80's where a tire company (Dunlop. Metzler??) were introducing a new product. Had arranged for part of the Blue Ridge Parkway to be shut down, LEOs, some GSXR's and Kevin Schwantz to be on hand. One of the assembled journalists expressed some concern about the wildlife. Kevin told them a friend had hit a deer. His advice was to tuck in tight, pin the throttle and aim for the center of the deer. 'you'll cut it clean in half - break both your collarbones - but clean in half'. Last sentence of the article: ...and that's why racers are different than you and me... | ||
| Ratbuell |
Racers also have impact zones - hundreds of feet of open space on either side of the track, with no guard rails, no mailboxes, no oncoming cars, no trees, no culvert pipes under driveways. Slide, stand up, move on. THAT was the true luck of my accident a week ago. I came to a full stop...on the center yellow line of four lanes of pavement (two travel lanes, two full shoulder lanes). Guardrails on either side because of the drops to the ditches/fields. If I'd veered off-center and caught one of those guardrail posts...it'd have been 2008 all over again for me. Or worse. Remember - my bare body (no motorcycle attached) had enough momentum to slide for a football field. If I'd hit another object during that slide... | ||
| Ratbuell |
For the forward lighting...I upgrade EVERYTHING. Even my '90 Voyager minivan has 35w HIDs in the NOS (clear, not cloudy) factory housings. My 01 Ram work truck, I upgraded from stock 2 bulbs to Sport-package, clear-lens, 4-bulb setup with 35w HID lows and 10,000 lumen LED highs. My XJ Cherokee and my 91 Daytona both have Hella E-code H4 sealed beam replacement units with 55w HIDs. The S2 also had a Hella E code with 55w HID, and high-beam-toggled PIAA driving lights. Still didn't see the bastard. My Grand Cherokee was the worst. Newest car in the garage, WORST forward lighting of the bunch. Sure, HID projectors look sexy but for putting light downrange? HORRIBLE. Hard cutoff at the top of the light field on low beam, so if there's other cars around there's total blackness from eye level up. High beams don't get brighter, they just get taller because a shutter opens. No increase in lumens. I added a $60 ebay 11" LED light bar to the bottom of the license plate:  It's a nice car, not a butch "offroad Jeep", so I wanted discreet and I couldn't block any of the forward sensors for parking or adaptive cruise, so I couldn't go "big". It's a 30w total LED setup, wired to come on with my high beams. 10 degree pencil beam (I tried a combo beam and it sucked; that one's on my zero-turn now for those days when I get home late but still have to mow), throws light a good mile downrange.  I have upgrades on all the bikes (Uly and CR have 35w HID lows and LED highs; S1 will be getting the S2's HID bulb since it apparently survived (somehow!). My head's on a swivel all the time. But I still tagged the bastard. I won't quit riding. But, I'm going to think hard about going out if I won't get home before dusk. I get to feel it all over again, every day, when we peel these bandages (which always stick, don't believe the labels) and I shower and we re-dress the wounds. Decidedly un-fun. Again, I know I'm lucky...but this still sucks. A lot. | ||
| Aesquire |
55/100 watt Luminetics yellow h4 in my Cyclone. With S3 fairing & rectangular headlight. Considering options for the '13 Caravan. No fancy sensors to block. Extra led light bar? | ||
| Ratbuell |
This is what I put on my Jeep: https://www.ebay.com/itm/Cree-11inch-50W-LED-Bar-L ight-Spot-Slim-Work-Offroad-Lamp-Boat-12V24V-4WD-W IRING/172603404666?hash=item282ff6f17a:g:u3IAAOSwu xFY3jYX Wired the relay to battery, ground, and the trigger went to the high beam wire at the factory headlight. I kept the on/off switch as an override if I need it, mounted it on my dash at my left knee. Price has come down; watts and lumens have come up. Trying to remember the face of a '13 Caravan - if you have a pair of openings that look like they could take fog lights, you can get some nice LED cubes or single-row 4" sticks, or they also do longer, curved sticks that would spread long an airdam/chin spoiler fairly well. Mine's been on for a couple years now, good glass, no chips, and a true cast aluminum heat-sink housing. Been a nice, solid unit. I think about adding them to my truck, but the truck throws so much light as it is...I just can't see cluttering up its face for no reason. My Voyager and Daytona are rarely out after dark anyway, so I'm not going any further than the upgrade lamps in the factory lights. Look at ddmtuning.com for replacement HID bulbs for the Caravan, too. If they're plastic light housings, go with 35w. I run 4300k color temp, bright white, not blue, not yellow, good visibility. I don't quite trust LEDs for standalone bulb replacement yet - I haven't found a set yet that puts the light source in the correct location relative to the reflector, and the beam spread sucks. Having them in the highs on my Ram is OK because...they're highs. "Put max lumens, out that way" is as specific as they need to get; the HID lows are correctly focused for when that matters. (Message edited by ratbuell on May 10, 2018) | ||
| Crusty |
I put one of these on the Roadster and the improvement is at least an order of magnitude. https://www.amazon.com/dp/B019ETNZD6/ref=sspa_dk_d etail_4?psc=1&pd_rd_i=B019ETNZD6&pd_rd_wg=9zuLj&pd _rd_r=V511MQE6AZAEQYFPKAK3&pd_rd_w=cytYk | ||
| Mnscrounger |
January 2017 I was driving home from the cabin in a snowstorm one night. Doing under 45 in a 4x4 suburban, I had about 175 ft of visibility. I could see headlights far behind me, and the headlights of the oncoming cars across the highway median gave a kind of glow to the snow coming down. As I topped a hill, I saw a shadow through the glow. I lifted off the gas and was on the brake just as the shadow came into the headlights. It was two deer crossing in front of me. I mashed the brakes, heard the ABS motor kick on, and not much else happened. There was just not enough traction on that road to stop, and the ABS wasn't going to slow me down much either.Once in my lights, both deer stopped and turned their heads to look at me. The one in front must have thought if it ducked down, my lights would pass right over, so it practically dropped on its belly to the road. The one behind followed her pals lead and did the same. With the ABS motor still humming, I split the gap between them at about 35-40. I had hit a deer 14 months earlier, after only owning the truck for about ten days. It took a couple months for that insurance claim to get processed, because the adjuster wanted to make sure I didn't buy it with a "deer dent". I heard the distinctive clunk on both sides of the truck as I went through the cervidae roadblock, and both deer pinwheeled around and around off the road as I passed. I pictured a few more months of investigation to make sure I actually had it fixed last time, and was not just trying to get more money from the same dent. I pulled over on the shoulder and got out to survey the damage. To my surprise I didn't see a mark on the truck. no dents, no broken plastic, nothing, not even a scuff on the bumper. I then questioned whether I even needed to report it to the Highway Patrol, on a night like that I was sure they had better things to do. I would have filed a report only to get a possession tag for the venison, but I was too tired from plowing and digging the tractor out all day to want to go through the work of dressing them out. About that time a truck with a couple of guys in it pulled up and asked if I had just hit a deer. I said, "Two,there'll be one on either side of the highway." They asked if I was going to collect the deer, and I said I was just too tired to bother. They drove on, but stopped up the road. As I got into my truck to head home, I saw them turning around. Possession tags would be their problem now. | ||
| Aesquire |
2 for 1! My Caravan is the current gen. I've owned all but the generation before this one. The rear seats are flat & lack comfort. Don't care, they fold into floor, the spare tire is under the front seats. Hope I don't get a flat. The transmission shifts weirdly and often, wish it was a dual clutch, but I leave it in eco mode, and get 22mpg.... Better than sticker. Compromise all around. I would prefer a full size van & an eco box/ hot hatch combo, but the Caravan did it's primary mission, which was a vehicle I could get freshly replaced knees into, that will haul 90+% of my cargo needs. A touch too small for camping with a full size mattress in back, but shopping for a full size van is in progress, and unhurried. I've got the blank plates instead of fog lights, so that's where the side beam, flood, led lights will go, good suggestion. Separate high & low beam so will soon change to off road QH high bulbs. | ||
| Natexlh1000 |
How does that possession tag thing work? Just ass-coverage against poaching charges? | ||
| Aesquire |
Partly, it also lets them keep track of the deer population. So many hunter tags filled, so many traffic kills, etc. Ideally you balance the population to fit the environment. We are the predators in most of the country. No more lions, around here, anyway, so it's up to us. Unfortunately fewer hunters mean more traffic deaths. Someone gets kicked to death every year around here when they pick up a deer through the windshield. You are very lucky to hit one on a motorcycle without serious injury. | ||
| Mnscrounger |
Whitetail deer are the most dangerous animal in North America. They kill more people annually than any other. I ran across a stat a few years ago claiming there are more of them today than when the pilgrims landed. I kinda believe that as they don't seem to be bothered in a suburban neighborhood, and there are a lot fewer things in the wild eating them now. (Message edited by mnscrounger on May 10, 2018) |
