I hit a deer last year in Sept. In Arkansas. On the way to lunch for the MSTA BS Rally, based in Theodosia, MO. It was really only a fawn, so it's like hitting a big dog. Fortunately I was straight up and down when I impacted. I also didn't have any time to do anything wrong, like try stopping, or swerving. I did not go down. But, it did bend the forks equally. Shattered both the aux lights I had mounted on the forks. Destroyed the front fender. And broke most of the mounting tabs on the fairing side pannels. Oh, and it sh!t all down the right side of the bike! Once I pulled over and did a survey of the damage. I rode it the rest of the way to lunch, at The Cliff House. Then rode it back to the hotel. And home the next day.
Shortly after that a friend had a deer try and body check him off his SV1kS. Didn't knock him down, but did a lot of bodywork damage.
A few years back a friend of mine hit a deer with his ST1300. At interstate speed. He remembers a brown blur, then the whole front fairing disapeared. He also didn't go down.
I know a guy who hit 2 deer within a years time with his ZX10R. The first one was another a hockey check. But it did shatter the fairing, and kill the deer. Didn't knock him down. The second deerstrike was late last summer. He did crash. He did some compression damage/cracking to about 3 mid-back vertebra. He was in a body cast for a while. He had originally swore off riding. But, after the cast came off he ended up buying a S1kRR.
Back in the late 70's and early 80's, when my parents were a BMW dealer. We had a customer who ended up being called "Deerslayer". He killed 3 or 4 deer in a couple years. The last one was really out to get him. He was impaled by the deer ribs. He survived.
You put on enough miles. You take the chance of encountering bambi.
