Replacement Handlebar Suggestions?

Everyone said it would happen, and it did. I "laid my bike down" in the street. I was on my morning commute at about 6:15, with pretty heavy fog, when a deer sprang from my left right in front of me while I was going between 30 and 35 mph. We collided and I ended up losing control. Fortunately, I was able to slow the bike down a bit before going down. I really should have (and almost was able to) been able to regain control, but I didn't pull it off, in the end. Not much damage to the bike. I think the deer made off alright, because I couldn't see any sign of him. I didn't get too hurt, my gear took a little abuse. In the end, though, I ended up with a front end that needs to be tightened up and bent handlebars.

Any suggestions for replacement bars of the same diameter and about the same width (so I can still get the bike in and out of the shed)?

Thanks.

Find somebody that sells Renthal Aluminum bars (7/8" diameter - common dirt bike size) & figure out what bend you'd like to try on your bike. They have a multitude of bends of bars & they are VERY hard to bend!

Good your gear took the brunt of the abuse.

Loren - Sorry to hear about that mishap. Glad you are okay and didn't get severely hurt. Don't be too hard on yourself about the control thing. Just getting through that scene without serious injuries is demonstration of plenty of control.

Every time that I'm coming out of the woods, in the evening (I ride after work sometimes), I'm watchful for deer. I often see them, too. You'd think that they would shy away from some noisy, fast-moving THING. . . OR JUST STAND STILL. Often, they seem to run right in front of me. . . I don't get it. Are they really so stupid, and if so, how do they manage to keep perpetuating themselves?

Matt Lauer (of THE TODAY SHOW) recently ran into (or was run into by) a deer and was injured while he was bicycling.

Gotta watch out for these deer. . . and expect to occasionally collide with them, I guess.

Glad to hear that your protection did it's job. . . better it, than you!

Man, Just glad you're OK.

If it helps, the XT 250 Bend is nearly Identical to the YZ Hi - the YZ Hi is about 5-10 mm higher and 800mm instead of @ 790-795mm stock. Little difficult to tell as a friend bent mine pretty well. The sweep and rise seem nearly identical. I replaced my stocker with Protaper Contour in YZ HI on their adapter left the width. Works great

Renthal, Protaper, Zeta, MSR, Fly all have 7/8" - with cross bars. Fly T-6s are the cheapest @ $35. Stock XT250 steel bars are $30.

ETA Every time I ride either farm I run through easy a few times to flush out the herds. They are thick the last few years. Not much you can do on roads except be watchful.

I've read, in a number of places, that deer are more numerous today than they were in the time of the pilgrims. I guess that's what happens when we kill off most of their predators!

Handy chart here:

http://www.rockymountainmc.com/handlebarinfo.do;jsessionid=77FCF1183835DD90167A8E44A3E2BC72.westring1

We've had good luck with the Rocky Mtn 'Tusk' line.

Sarah

I'm glad to hear that you made it thru your mishap with little harm. The fact that you were able to slow down before taking the spill, shows that you had more control than you think. I agree with a set of Renthal bars. They are a great bar and a well known company. If you go onto their site, they have a chart listing of all their bars with sizes and bends....

Thank you all for your suggestions and good wishes. I have left the bike in the hands of my mechanic to get the front end right, again. Unfortunately, it sounds like I may have to go with stock bars to keep the same inside and outside diameters so that my barkbusters will still fit. He bought a pair of Renthals, only to find that the inside diameter didn't allow the barkbusters to be put back on. (Those, by the way, have been a very worthwhile purchase--they are responsible to taking the majority of abuse on this last incident and a couple of less serious ones on the trails, and leaving the rest of the bike essentially unmarked.) Since I work 70-80 hours per week during the school year, I really don't have time do learn how to do the work on the bike, myself. The good news is that I will soon get a 2 month break.

Odd. We've had no issues yanking bark busters off of stock steel bars (XT & KLR) and then subsequently attaching them to Renthal Aluminum bars. The ones on my XT are Moose Racing too. When installed on the steel bars, the "nut" that goes inside the bar had a thin rubber tube around it that had to be removed for installation in the Aluminum bars. (7/8" OD bars, by the way)

Thanks for the info, KLR. I'll pursue it.

Only time I have ever hit an animal on a bike was about 15 years ago. I centerpunched a badger at about 140 mph on a Kawasaki ZX11. I had a couple of loose teeth for a few days, and the badger was a total write off. Jerry.

Thanks for advice on this. I realized that I tweaked my left handlebar with last week's get off. I just ordered Fly 6061 T-6 Aluminum Handlebars in YZ/WR bend.

I too have had a deer collision, which destroyed the Honda Pacific Coast that I rode to Alaska and back in 2006. I destroyed ~$600 worth of safety gear in the process, but emerged unscathed, apart from a few bruises and a cracked little finger. The deer didn't fare as well.

The Georgia motorcycle handbook warns you, that's a tough way to put venison on the table.

When a Lumpkin County sheriff's deputy appeared on the scene, he said, "Where's my dinner?" I pointed to the ditch where the young deer, now with three legs, was bleeding out, and asked him to put it out of its misery. "Can't do that. I would have to file a firearm discharge report."

Most people have no idea how many deer-vehicle collisions occur annually — more than 1 million per year.

Some idle chat below:

We've got it going on here in a BIG way. Shooting an injured one wouldn't be a problem, however. A couple of weeks ago we were coming down 550N passing Ironton Park. About 1/4 mile down the road the whirly lights were flashing. Stopped to talk with the cops and a rider on an Indian touring bike hit a deer. Speed in that section is 55 MPH. Unlike many of the other idiots we see with no helmets, he was wearing one. Bike was off in a ditch. They said he sustained a serious leg and arm injury. My read is a compound fracture which is serious.

Two seasons ago, we were first responders to another MC accident caused by a bear running out from the woods. To see that happen at 60 MPH was something I hope to never see again. His helmet was worn down to his hair. This guy had all leather on and was lucky. I'll spare everyone the gory details.

Very rare to see bear cause an accident. Deer are another story. They need to step up the hunting as there is an over population of them here. We also have elk and moose which are in the deer family. Those animals appear to be much smarter and are rarely seen on/near the roads.

Let us know how you make out with the bars.It seems that the stock bars are drilled to allow the retaining tabs on the switches/controls to fit in.

I filed the locating tabs off the switch gear and put 1 layer of electrical tape on the bar under the switches. They haven't moved in more than a year.

In the early 20th century, deer were nearly hunted out in the north Georgia mountains. Unfortunately, "Ranger Woody" restocked them, and now deer are a major threat where I live.

He brought the deer back to North Georgia