Riding the curves can be and is great fun but it can also be catastrophic. Half of us, here in So. Oregon, ride the curves everyday just to and from home. Ever notice how many drivers come at you around a curve and are over the centerline? I see it everyday here at home on the street we live on. I know that we teach how to use the apex while negotiating a curve but on a residential road that may not be a good practice unless you can see through the curve.

     Yesterday, while riding up the hill to our house I had to dodge a dead turkey and then a gray squirrel ran out in front of me and I had to dodge it. That’s not all....I was looking in the right rear view mirror to see that I had missed the squirrel and as I started to look ahead again a doe was running alongside me on my left side. I have absolutely no idea where it came from and I had no place to go because there was a large cliff down to the creek on my right side. Thank God the doe split off to the woods on my left but believe me, for a brief moment, I wasn’t sure what to do. I was locking up the front and rear brakes to allow him enough room to pass in front of me but it would have been a very close call.

     The deer are not only in the woods. A couple of days ago, while downtown Rogue River, I saw a buck and doe cross main street. That was really on my mind as Judy and I rode home after dark the other night.

     This does not begin to list the number a hazards around us everyday while riding our bikes. It is a dangerous but enjoyable sport. Don’t get the belief that it can’t happen to you. It’ll happen when you least expect it. Stay alert, you never know what’s around the next curve.

     All of the above is just what I experienced in only a couple of days. We have a lot of riders here in Southern Oregon and I'm sure just as many stories from each one about near misses. It's the ones that don't miss that we read about in the news paper. We want to talk to you and not about you....