I live in Upstate NY and my wife and I got caught at Deer o'clock' due to a long wait for dinner at a great little café in Hector, NY. Anyway we were in a long right hand curve on Rt. 96A in Willard, NY and a small doe came out of the 'dark zone' formed by the lean angle of the bike and the hi-beam terminator line. I had less than 0.5sec to react and I aimed for the least center of mass on the deer which is where the torso meets the hind quarter, and that's where I hit it. I never had a chance to hit the brakes and actually accelerated when I realized I was going to hit it, this was purely instinctive and, my wife felt a small bump as the bike ran over the deer killing it and never losing control of the motorcycle. We've all heard the saying 'I'd rather be lucky than good' and here's a great example of that. First it was a small doe and not a 300lb Seneca County buck. Second we were on a 2018 Honda gold wing and I believe the from suspension is what allowed me to maintain control of the bike. If the bike had conventional forks one fork would have been in compression while the other was rebounding and creating a very unstable situation, as it was the bike absorbed the hit and we ran right over the deer hitting it exactly where I aimed, the only damage to the bike was a cracked front fender which I replaced for $318.00. The other thing that helped is I'm a pretty seasoned rider that grew up on dirt bikes and has some track time under my belt with about 250,000 road miles over 40 years of riding, this is my 2% contribution to coming out of this relatively unscathed, and 98% luck and that we were on a 2018 Goldwing. My friend and his wife were behind us on their H-D and saw the it happen and he and I agree the front suspension was instrumental in me being able to maintain control.
