Thought I was going to dump it this morning

[BLS]

I've been riding for years, but I'm no pro. I'm just now getting comfortable finding out just how far I can lean this bike over after roughly 3,000 miles on my 09 FJR.

I ride it to work pretty much everyday, finally got my brainbucket and sena SMH10 working.

I ride pretty sanely and try to keep it under 100mph (it's not easy).

So this morning (about 30 minutes ago) I'm riding to a clients, which is about an hour from my house. I'm riding in the back country of WI, doing about 65 or so.

Nobody on the road to speak of, and I'm listening to the local talk station.

Coming up around sweeping right hand corner, I noticed a big ole country cat standing in the grass on the left side of the road. I think nothing of him, until he decides to start crossing the road. His angle and speed couldn't have been any more perfect (or worse, depending on how you look at it). He wasn't crossing straight across...it was almost like he was trying to attack my bike. I went to speed up and he changed direction more up the road, I then decided to let off the gas and he changed again.....

For a brief second, I KNEW I was going to hit him and I thought 'Well, is this really how you're going to dump it?'

Sure enough, I smoked the poor thing. I was bracing myself for wiping out, etc. I've never hit an animal with any bike before so I had no idea what to expect.

Sadly, when I hit him, my FJR made a 'THUD' and my bike barely moved. I looked in the mirror and he was rolling back into the other lane of traffic.

I'm quite certain he didn't make it, and as much as I can't stand cats (hate the little sh1ts), I obviously felt a bit bad.

I'm sure this story is probably a bit anti-climatic from what you all expected. I can tell you that in my close to 25 years of riding....I've never been that freaked out. I had no idea what to expect, and was very surprised at how little it affected the bike/ride.

Anyway, I don't know if anybody else here has hit an animal or not at 65mph, but it freaked the crap out of me.

 

[Blind Squirrel]

During my motorcycle safety course the instructor told us "if it fits into a frying pan, don't bother trying to avoid it. You can do more damage by trying to avoid it than you will do if you just run over it."

 

[ahchiu]

Glad to hear you came out ok and did not go down, I know that a local fourm member hit a small deer and split it in half and stayed upright.

 

[ahchiu]

During my motorcycle safety course the instructor told us "if it fits into a frying pan, don't bother trying to avoid it. You can do more damage by trying to avoid it than you will do if you just run over it."

+1, I was told that if you can eat it in one sitting

 

[BLS]

During my motorcycle safety course the instructor told us "if it fits into a frying pan, don't bother trying to avoid it. You can do more damage by trying to avoid it than you will do if you just run over it."

That would have been nice to know about an hour ago. :lol:

But I'm a 'trial by fire' kinda person anyway, so now I know.

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

I hit a vulture in the middle of my headlight on my last bike. btw Vultures have 5' - 6' wingspans! It didn't affect my riding the bike at all...broke my headlight though.

The only thing that scares me are deer and large idiot dogs that feel the need to act suicidal and run at your front tire as you go down the road.

Cats, squirrels, rabbits and small animals stand no chance to a 800+ lbs bike/rider coming at them. The only caveat to that is as long as they don't run out in the middle of tight curve on you, then you could have problems.

 

[dcarver]

Stayed upright with this strike..

 

[GeorgiaRoller]

That's one big ass cat!!!

 

[BLS]

Stayed upright with this strike..

Holy. Sh1t.

 

[bucky]

I've been riding for years, but I'm no pro. I'm just now getting comfortable finding out just how far I can lean this bike over after roughly 3,000 miles on my 09 FJR.

I ride it to work pretty much everyday, finally got my brainbucket and sena SMH10 working.

I ride pretty sanely and try to keep it under 100mph (it's not easy).

So this morning (about 30 minutes ago) I'm riding to a clients, which is about an hour from my house. I'm riding in the back country of WI, doing about 65 or so.

Nobody on the road to speak of, and I'm listening to the local talk station.

Coming up around sweeping right hand corner, I noticed a big ole country cat standing in the grass on the left side of the road. I think nothing of him, until he decides to start crossing the road. His angle and speed couldn't have been any more perfect (or worse, depending on how you look at it). He wasn't crossing straight across...it was almost like he was trying to attack my bike. I went to speed up and he changed direction more up the road, I then decided to let off the gas and he changed again.....

For a brief second, I KNEW I was going to hit him and I thought 'Well, is this really how you're going to dump it?'

Sure enough, I smoked the poor thing. I was bracing myself for wiping out, etc. I've never hit an animal with any bike before so I had no idea what to expect.

Sadly, when I hit him, my FJR made a 'THUD' and my bike barely moved. I looked in the mirror and he was rolling back into the other lane of traffic.

I'm quite certain he didn't make it, and as much as I can't stand cats (hate the little sh1ts), I obviously felt a bit bad.

I'm sure this story is probably a bit anti-climatic from what you all expected. I can tell you that in my close to 25 years of riding....I've never been that freaked out. I had no idea what to expect, and was very surprised at how little it affected the bike/ride.

Anyway, I don't know if anybody else here has hit an animal or not at 65mph, but it freaked the crap out of me.

Glad you are ok, but why do some people hate certain animals? Especially an animal as harmless as a housecat? They are only animals, and probably someone's loved pet. I never could figure that one out. How would you feel if that was your child's pet and you heard that the person who ran it over said he hated cats? Even if it was totally unintentional?

Years back, someone ran over one of our housecats. The person came to the door, explained what happened and said they were sorry it happened. That's class.

 

[Donal]

The only ting I can add is if you are going to hit something, try not to be applying your front brake at the moment of impact. This will allow your front suspension to 'soak up' a little more of the energy and just could make the difference.

Only problem I've found with that piece of advice is remembering it at the time

Don

 

[BLS]

I've been riding for years, but I'm no pro. I'm just now getting comfortable finding out just how far I can lean this bike over after roughly 3,000 miles on my 09 FJR.

I ride it to work pretty much everyday, finally got my brainbucket and sena SMH10 working.

I ride pretty sanely and try to keep it under 100mph (it's not easy).

So this morning (about 30 minutes ago) I'm riding to a clients, which is about an hour from my house. I'm riding in the back country of WI, doing about 65 or so.

Nobody on the road to speak of, and I'm listening to the local talk station.

Coming up around sweeping right hand corner, I noticed a big ole country cat standing in the grass on the left side of the road. I think nothing of him, until he decides to start crossing the road. His angle and speed couldn't have been any more perfect (or worse, depending on how you look at it). He wasn't crossing straight across...it was almost like he was trying to attack my bike. I went to speed up and he changed direction more up the road, I then decided to let off the gas and he changed again.....

For a brief second, I KNEW I was going to hit him and I thought 'Well, is this really how you're going to dump it?'

Sure enough, I smoked the poor thing. I was bracing myself for wiping out, etc. I've never hit an animal with any bike before so I had no idea what to expect.

Sadly, when I hit him, my FJR made a 'THUD' and my bike barely moved. I looked in the mirror and he was rolling back into the other lane of traffic.

I'm quite certain he didn't make it, and as much as I can't stand cats (hate the little sh1ts), I obviously felt a bit bad.

I'm sure this story is probably a bit anti-climatic from what you all expected. I can tell you that in my close to 25 years of riding....I've never been that freaked out. I had no idea what to expect, and was very surprised at how little it affected the bike/ride.

Anyway, I don't know if anybody else here has hit an animal or not at 65mph, but it freaked the crap out of me.

Glad you are ok, but why do some people hate certain animals? Especially an animal as harmless as a housecat? They are only animals, and probably someone's loved pet. I never could figure that one out. How would you feel if that was your child's pet and you heard that the person who ran it over said he hated cats? Even if it was totally unintentional?

Years back, someone ran over one of our housecats. The person came to the door, explained what happened and said they were sorry it happened. That's class.

Don't get me wrong, I felt horrible that I hit it. I certainly didn't want to kill the animal.

I would think you could ascertain that from my post, but apparently not.

I personally loathe cats, but not to the point where I want to kill them.

Thank you for caring about my well being. But I don't believe I ever espoused I enjoyed hitting it this morning.

There were no houses nearby for me to stop and notify someone.

 

[phroenips]

<snip>

I'm quite certain he didn't make it, and as much as I can't stand cats (hate the little sh1ts), I obviously felt a bit bad.

<snip>

Glad you are ok, but why do some people hate certain animals? Especially an animal as harmless as a housecat? They are only animals, and probably someone's loved pet. I never could figure that one out. How would you feel if that was your child's pet and you heard that the person who ran it over said he hated cats? Even if it was totally unintentional?

Years back, someone ran over one of our housecats. The person came to the door, explained what happened and said they were sorry it happened. That's class.

Off-topic

Why do some people think hate is such a bad word? One of the definitions is "an extreme aversion to/for". Why can't BLS have an extreme aversion to cats?

/Off-topic

 

[A41Billy]

Stayed upright with this strike..

Holy crap! You must have throttled through? I like the Yammie logo chest plate! lol.

 

[marcusorelius]

On hwy 93 sunday in colorado, there where lots of suicidal chipmunks, I aced one poor bastard, not gonna alter my path & risk an accident ( I value my & dukes life more than a wild critter)

Coming up on on twisty corner a car flashed his lights coming at me. I slowed down a touch & then a deer was runing beside me on my right with no escape to its right.

I was watching it and could tell it might jump out in the road in front of me, sheeeeet! Then there was an opening on its right so I laid on my horn and luckly it took it! WHEW!

 

[Fontanaman]

Let's see. The FJR weighs about 640 lbs. I expect you weigh about 200 lbs, and based on what I have seen most forum members are 50'ish or so, most more than so, and exceed 200 lbs, just like me.

The flipping cat weight 5 to 10 lbs on a good day. So we got 850 plus pounds at 60 mph vs a 5 - 10 lbs cat whose weight is 90% liquid. It would be like hitting a water filled balloon that is 10% stiff.

I am no mechanical engineer or Physicist but I figure the cat will loose every time and any rider worth his salt should be just fine, less the emotional trauma of killing a cat.

Carver you sure are harder than hell on you FJR. Killing deer, breaking sub-frames and grab rails..... good God man!

 

[SkooterG]

Glad you are ok, but why do some people hate certain animals? Especially an animal as harmless as a housecat? They are only animals, and probably someone's loved pet. I never could figure that one out. How would you feel if that was your child's pet and you heard that the person who ran it over said he hated cats? Even if it was totally unintentional?

Sorry, but I hate cats too. Don't take it so personal buckaroo.

 

[BLS]

Let's see. The FJR weighs about 640 lbs. I expect you weigh about 200 lbs, and based on what I have seen most forum members are 50'ish or so, most more than so, and exceed 200 lbs, just like me.

The flipping cat weight 5 to 10 lbs on a good day. So we got 850 plus pounds at 60 mph vs a 5 - 10 lbs cat whose weight is 90% liquid. It would be like hitting a water filled balloon that is 10% stiff.

I am no mechanical engineer or Physicist but I figure the cat will loose every time and any rider worth his salt should be just fine, less the emotional trauma of killing a cat.

Carver you sure are harder than hell on you FJR. Killing deer, breaking sub-frames and grab rails..... good God man!

In hindsight, I agree with you. Logic would dictate that I'd be fine. However, when you have a cat running at your bike like he's trying to attack you, you're not thinking about that. You're going 'holy sh1t...this cat is gonna run right under me.' Freaked me out.

Looked back in the mirror and he was still rolling and flipping around into the other lane.

My heart was pounding out of my chest.....but now that it's happened, I'm a bit more comfortable about the bikes' ability to handle the critters.

Just wasn't how I wanted to start out my day.

 

[BikerGeek99]

Glad you're OK.

Do search around here for a member who goes by toecutter.

He took out a jackrabbit.

At speed.

With his toe.

The jackrabbit pretty much exploded.