Deer near dusk... be careful!

[Guest]

Amarillo huh? What brings you there? That was my home town as a kid.

[tkent02]

I just drove from DFW to Amarillo and back today. I saw at least 8 dead deer on the side of the road.

Around here you would see 800 in that distance.

[1_v8_merc]

I T-boned one on May 24 and went down at about 55 mph. Killed it and totalled my Bandit. I was lucky, a bunch of road rash and a concussion. The wife swears the concussion has not resolved. I also hate them and find myself daydreaming of ways to trap them and eat them. i guess that's the concussion talking.

I nearly brushed a deer last night...on my Bandit as well,. I was doing approx 60mph at night. I saw a shadow in the grass-median, it looked like a person standing there. Two seconds later it darts in front of me, and stops cold. I braced for impact, but somehow managed to get a quick squeeze in the front brakes. I then immediately got the bike to dart Just a tad to the left and just BARELY brushed-by the ****er.

I was SO GLAD I spent all that money upgrading my front brakes. I would have totaled my bike with the factory junk brakes, 100% sure of that.

[Gregory]

Amarillo huh? What brings you there? That was my home town as a kid.

I was out doing a training with the city on a product I sell. BTW, I also saw as many state troopers on the highway as I did deer.

[Chuck78]

going back to the local vintage Japanese motorcycle junk yard today to either get a new used T4 7" lens for a spare black plastic headlight bucket that I had with a good chrome bezel & hardware, or else by a slightly rusted all chrome bucket and bezel gs1000 headlight assembly with a few rust pits on the side - I could buff it out and clear coat it to keep it from rusting there again I suppose. $35. It looks really really cool especially with the shape of the bezel how it is deeper and rounds out, but it's only a 6.5" T4 replaceable halogen bulb set up from my rough estimation. they also have a brand new house and set up that they would give me at discounted price due to the deer rack, but the chrome is so darn shiny & deep that it wouldn't match any of the other vintage chrome on my bike!

That T5 lens was bright, & I had never even heard of it on here or anywhere else - everyone just says find a T4. maybe I am confused, I think it is H4 & H5 actually. those numbers are molded into the head light reflector lens, a DOT designation.

they have a million turn signals at the Rice Paddy, and I determined that my rear turn signals are off of a Honda, as there is a CB400 there with the same turn signals. I will probably dig out some more like that or pull those off of that bike for my front replacements.

the speedometer face project is probably what's going to keep my bike off of the road for the rest of the year, as well as my wife who is too worried about me riding in the cold and in deer season! the GS400X gauges are so hard to find, I could only find a set that was a bit rusted with faded faces. That was a perfect excuse to take the 110mph speedo face and scan & photoshop rearrange it and print a new face that goes up to 130mph! Also adding an oil pressure indicator light in the face of the speedo, as the tach face only has high beem/turn signals/neutral indicator lights built into the face.

I stalled out on that project because I was too busy and I wasn't sure if I was going to try and screen print on the aluminum gauge faces or get a vinyl decal printed

[Guest]

I just drove from DFW to Amarillo and back today. I saw at least 8 dead deer on the side of the road.

Chuck sorry to hear about your accident. Glad you're ok.

Listening to NPR this morning on the ride in. They were doing a story about urban/suburban deer hunting and how people you wouldn't expect to be in favor of hunting were begging the hunters to come save their shrubberies. They had one 81 year old lady who they tongue in cheek described as being "blood thirsty" for deer after they ate her tree.

They said there are now more deer in Texas than people (32 million estimated). I've also seen the there are now more deer in New England than when the Pilgrims landed. God Bless the hunters. We need to distribute salt licks with imbedded birth control.

Rider was killed last weekend in Springfield, Ma after being side swiped by a bear. Then there are the burgeoning wild turkey populations you have to watch for as well. I see dozens on every ride.

Saw a new car in the neighbor's yard yesterday and said congrats. Found out it was a rental because their car was totaled by a deer, this weekend.

Stopped in to see a friend in South Hadley last week and he had hit his second deer this season. Luckily his new weapon is an F-250 with the full Rhino package.

Last year same friend hit a deer that went through the windshield of his wife's car late at night. His face was badly cut and he went to a house to call the police. The lady screamed when she answered the door and saw his bloody face, but at least called the police for him.

While the cops were there arranging for a tow the deer came to life, put the car in gear with its antlers while trying to get untangled from the windshield and started slowly down the road. The cop ran along side the car and shot him multiple times with a hand gun leaving several bullet holes in his wife's car. The cop that shot up his car asked if he could have the deer.

I think we need to take out the "Deer Leader" with a drone strike.

[storm 64]

Dam Chuck, sorry to hear about your scooter but glad your basically okay. They need to up the bag limit of deer for hunters! I don't hunt but I'm thinking about it for the sake of safe motorcycling...

[marvinsc]

Deadly deer strike today, Southern IL.

http://www.wpsdlocal6.com/news/il-state-news/Fatal-motorcycle-crash-in-Massac-County-231625061.html

[earlfor]

They are everywhere, and back out again here. I avoid riding near dawn or dusk.

[alke46]

If I were you I would go buy a lottery ticket before it wears off. Sucks about the bike but you can replace the parts and be back on the road in no time.[/QUOTE]

No, he should save his money....the escape from serious injury is his "hitting the lottery".

Take it from someone who knows this 1st hand. Happened to me back in '83.

[Chuck78]

$120 in used parts to fix everything but the tank. that's including upgrading to a dual filament light bulb set up for the front turn signals from a Honda, so I will have running lights up front. Anything to increase my visibility to cars. I lucked out and got a faded set of GS400X gauges for $15 a while back that I was going to do a custom face before, but hadn't finished, so I have not installed those nor had I installed the better of my headlight bezel or the EMGO head light brackets that I have.

I got both a used 7" H4 halogen refelector lens that fits in my spare headlight bucket and bezel, and a cool looking gs1000 6" bucket/bezel/H4 reflector lens/55w halogen bulb. The 6" is all chrome metal and heavier but looks awesome. The 7" is like what I had & lighter than the 6". Not sure which I will run. Going from tHe stock 7" sealed beam to a 7" H5 reflector lens & 55w bulb was a HUGE upgrade in lighting, massive illumination area! Not sure how much less illumination the 6" lens will have with the same 55w bulb , so that may be a deciding factor in cool looking but heavier vs bigger/lighter(/brighter?).

[Gorminrider]

I'd go for the chrome bucket, chuck because that's what I want for my own bike!
You should take the two lights out and try them but on a curvy road,all bets are off anyways...so goforthechrome!
... I expect somebody really knows, but I think All the light from a particular bulb has to "get out" of the reflector whichever size you use.Brighter bulb is more light. The improvement of the 7" bucket might be less proportion of light lost behind the bulb's shadow compared to the smaller bucket.
If they are both focussed to suit the DOT wouldn't both have the same reach and beam width using the same bulb?...on the other hand, If they were both focussed the same, as just plain spotlamps, the smaller bucket would shine further (subtracting that shadow effect) but the larger bucket would cover more area.