jsarsfield wrote on 10/04/10 at 12:45:18:I agree with everything you said except for the animal bit ... Smaller than a dog I won't even try to avoid it .... Many people die trying to avoid animals that wouldn't have even changed their trajectory.
I don't know. I'm a firm believer in practicing what you want your reactions to be. I know a lot of people advocate aiming for center of mass on animals smaller than you.
I think that if you force your brain to make a decision (is it too big to ride through or not?) you are just slowing yourself down and you are putting yourself at potential risk - how do you know that you aren't going to get knocked over. I personally know someone that was knocked down by a chunk of gravel on the road, a deer, a dog, etc. If you always decide that you are going to run over everything that gets in your way, you're going to lose. So personally, I've made the advance decision to steer around things when possible, when I have to react to a situation where I can't steer around, I slow down as fast as possible, and I practice these things. I did recently find out that if I am slowing down, I can still look for opening to steer through.