Dogs and motorcycles

[jbl302]

When I would go riding, everytime I leave my parents house, as i left the yard, the neighbors big Lab use to chase me, and I mean he hated bikes and riders. He would go for my feet. One day as I came home. I know he could hear me coming, as all my bikes I had were loud and could be heard from down the street. I turned the corner I could see him crouching down waiting to go for me. He started running after me. I thought this time I would try something different. I slammed on brakes, and he runs past me and stops and turns, standing there facing me now. I took off riding straight for him.He turned and started running, with me right on his tail. He would try and go for me but I would turn and go right after him again. after a few of these moves, he just ran, looking back at me a few times as he ran looking confused. I was all over him, he running and looking back at me, my front tire almost touching his rear end, he went straight for his yard. I turned and went home, which was across the street. After that, that dog never chased me again, from then on as I left for a ride or was coming home, he just looked at me as I would ride by, not even a bark from him.

[jbl302]

Back in 74, I had a brand new CL 360 Honda, had it about 5 months when this happened, and yes i wish i had it now. I was riding on the back roads a few miles from home. a few houses here and there, up ahead i see a big dog, i was going maybe 50 or 55, i slowed to about 40, if i knew then what i know now how unpredictable animals can be, i would of stopped. i moved over in the lane, noticing the dog did not see me, just as i was at him he took off across the road, taking out my front wheel, i went straight over the bars, landing on my hands and i went tumbling down the road. when i stopped, i got up my hands a little raw but ok, a scrape on by elbow bleeding but not bad enough to see a Doc. as a biker i went for my bike to grab the clutch to keep it going, something i always do after a get off, mostly on the dirt. this was different, as i went back. the bike had skidded about 50 feet on the road on its side, but the groesome part, the whole skid, the dog was under the bike. i picked up the bike off the dog, by this time it had bleed a pool of blood about 3 feet around, diff shades of red, and i knew this was bad for the dog. a young couple my age heard all this came out to see if i was ok, girl said go into the house and wash off my elbow, which was bleeding, just a bad scrape. i saw the dog kick a few times that was it. i was ok, i asked if it was there dog, she said, no, it was the old mans dog across the street. i said lets go tell him what i had done. he came to the door, he was near blind,talking at me, but not looking at me, im thinking , i just killed this mans seeing eye dog. but no, just his pet,a big german shepard. we buried it behind his house, said i was sorry, it still bothers me now. The bike had a scrape on the brake pedal and right grip. turned key on, hit the button, and without hesitation, it started, went home, rode slow to see if everything was straight, had that bike a few years and loved it. and yes i wish i still had it.

[jbl302]

My last dog story. I grew up near the water in NC, I use to like to ride down to the landing, on the sound. There was a couple of ''S'' turns i liked to take that went down to the landing. A nice twisty tree covered road running down to the sound. There was this Dalmation that use to chase me. not as bad as the Lab but, just chase and bark. I came around the turn one day and in my lane was this Dalmation, he was chasing a car in the other lane coming towards me, but this dog was running in my lane coming straight for me, the dog didnt see me, he was busy with the car, i could not go right, there was a ditch there, or left in front of that car coming at me, there was a ditch there too. I slowed down almost to a stop, just as the dog noticed me, well he put on the brakes. this dog was in a full run to a slam on the brakes , first he went stiff legged and sliding on his feet, then he was back peddling, if you can imagine that. all this time getting closer to me. as he got almost stopped he fell over and rolled a few times. stopping just in front of me. I had slowed and was barely moving foreward, he stopped 90 deg in front of me. I stood up,I went over him, like you would go over a log in the woods, stand up, front tire and then the rear tire, right over his chest. He got up and took off, not hurt, but yelping as he ran. I still rode down there for years after that cause i liked the twisty road. That dog never chased me again. He just looked at me as I rode by.

[jbl302]

Here's something that happened that was funny as he-- at the time, but could of turned out bad. One saturday years ago, I use to ride past this girls house I had a crush on, it was a dirt road went back a few miles to the river. my buddies bike was broke,so i said hop on lets go, I had a Honda CL 360, well she did have 3 sisters. we got back there riding down this dirt road, a dry sandy dirt road, my buddy decides to drag his feet on the dirt kicking up a dust cloud laughing up a storm, we were going past this old run down house some one lived in. old falling down house, but some one lived there, well evidently they didn`t have power at their house, across the road in a field was a pole with a temporary meter on it, and an extention cord going across the road to there house, well my buddy was dragging his feet and all of a sudden he slammed into the back of me, he had caught this cord with his feet, a second or 2 later i noticed what he did, I looked to my left to see the front screen door of this old house fling open and the end of this cord fly up in the air. heaven knows what it was connected to, but whatever it was, tv or lamp, Im sure it hit the floor, we laughed our azz off, rode down the road by this girls house, who wasnt home. then down to the end which ended down at the river. we had to come back out the same way, this dirt road went through the woods with marsh on both sides, only one way out, back by this house we just dissconnected, not knowing if we were going to get shot at or what, this is the back roads of North carolina. well we didnt get shot, but just some very bad looks as we went by. later that night we raided a watermelon patch on my bike. between the 2 of us we held about 6 watermelons dropping a few on the road back to my house. laughing all the way. It was great.

[jbl302]

Back in the early 70`s, I had just started riding, I was 15. I hadn`t been riding long when I got 3 tickets, at 1 time. I got stopped by an unmarket car. Shall I say cornered, he had me. at the time unmarket cars were a new thing, I had never heard of them. Mostly you would see the marked state man, light on top with the emblems on the side. Seems that is all you see now is unmarked cars but at the time in NC it was a new thing, just I had to find out the hard way.When I was caught, it was not far from my house, just down the street, but when he got me I had no place to go. I was had. lets just say I wasnt going swimming. He wrote me up and said we can go to the courthouse or we could go to my house to see my parents. I said lets go home. Well it was 1:30 in the morning and my parents were asleep. I got my dad up and said come in the living room im in trouble. You would think he would of been mad as a mofo, but he wasnt, all he said was, son are you ok. Thinking back when I got caught and the day in court he was totally cool about the whole thing, thinking i guess I had learned my lesson. All I got was a $50 fine and cost of court. The last thing the judge said was, I can make you wait till your 18 to get your license but I think you have learned your lesson so I wont do that. Yes I learned my lesson, NOT to get caught. First thing, dissconnect the front brake light switch. as the years went on I had many places to escape to get away from the cops. nothing gives you away more than thinking your loosing the cops and he is right on your azz even with your light off cause he see`s every time you hit the brakes. at night the brake light can be seen for miles. Run, use the front brakes. use your escape routes to get back out on the main highway, or stop and hide and wait till he runs back and go back the other way. Thinking back we weren`t realy that bad, just do stupid stuff. stuff like doing donuts in someones good lawn with a good set of knobbies, the kind of donuts you can lay pipe in, good ones. or just riding around without a silencer on, making lots of noise after having a few beers. Some times it was just a ride at night and as a car goes by you, just as the car is beside you, you see the reflective emblem on the door and you look in your mirror to see if his brake lights come on.
Move ahead 10 years. I get home one day, and on my front door is a note from the Highway Patrol that I need to contact them about my drivers license. In NC the DMV is at the Highway Patrol station. I take off work to go see them thinking along the way what I have done. The examiner said my lic. is suspended. She wasnt sure why, but it had popped up on their computer to suspend my lic. She said all I have to do to clear this up is issue me a new lic. so they can clear this off my record, and that nothing will go against my driving record. Since those tickets I got 10 years earlier when I was 15, I hadn`t had another ticket. I just know it had something to do with what happened when I was 15.

[richard]

Back when I was in my 20s I had a new Honda motorcycle. I was new to riding on the street so for the first few months I road slow and was very careful. During that time a pit bull down the street on the corner would chase me as I went by. I had to slow the bike down to figure out which side to pass him on as he stood in the middle of the street. He would always make at least some contact with my pant leg but I would just miss him and ride on. This went on for a while and he grew more bold in his attempt to bite me. I also became more competent at riding the bike.

One day I decided to wear my motocross boots but I put the pant legs over them so they wouldn’t look dorky. This time as a slowed to go around the dog I was wearing reinforced boots I knew he couldn’t bite through. As I slowed I thought what the heck I’ll let him see if he can bite me. He ran up and latched on to my ankle with what felt like a lot of force so for the first time I cranked the throttle wide open and the bike roared to life rocketing up to 50mph in seconds with dog still attached to my boot. I think it happened so fast the dog didn’t know what to do. I just figure if I went fast enough he would have to let go so I held the throttle wide open. I don’t know how fast we were going when he finally let go but the momentum sent him skipping down the road like a Frisbee. As he spun off into the nearby orchard I could see him going end over end first head then feet again and again as he bounced over grass and furrows until he came to a stop. When I looked back a few moments later he exited the orchard yelping a little scratched up but at a good sprint for home. He never chased me again.

[jsuchland]

Good one Richard! Ya made me laugh.

[richard]

Thanks :-)

[XS Rod]

Pits got some bite ... don't they? Poor dog probably left a trail behind him before he let go!

[richard]

Yeah I kind of felt sorry for him but I knew if I checked on him he would bite me. I saw him again later but he stayed in the yard or move back away from the road when he heard me coming.

[stone]

had to comment on this because one of my earliest riding memories involved a dog. I started riding dirt bikes when I was 4 and we had a track in the back field that we always had people coming over to ride on. Well a family friend brought his dog (big old mutt built like a house) out with our dog...i guess it needed some company. Well we are all racing around the track, I was on my lil kx60 and I come up to hit the tabletop but as soon as I hit it I see my family's dog run across the landing. She had already gone across by the time I landed when out of no where our friends dog goes right in front of me. I ran right into him and went flying over the handlebars and tumbled a lil bit. I was gasping for air freaking out thinking that I had just killed a dog. He simply looks back as if a fly bit him and kept running. didn't break anything but it hurt enough for me to always remember the incident. haha

after that the dogs got tied up any time we rode

[richard]

LOL!

[headcase]

I had a Yamaha 80 enduro as a first bike when I was 14. It was a real heavy, fat, slow dog that farted a lot. Does that count?