Left my house, going down MY street. Big brown lab/rott mix comes running up sidewalk on the right side. I was only doing 25. Was figuring on stopping, but had wife on the back. Dog seemed like he would bite at my feet. Was contemplating speeding off but had my bro/in law behind me on his new HD. Was afraid dog would go after him too. I have more of what I call practical science sense. (you know, inertia, angle of descent, speed on impact, that kind of thing). So I decided I'd be the one to deal with this hound. I slowed more, to about 20 and was going to actually stop, kick-stand the bike, jump off and open up some whoop-ass on this dog. But, at 20, the dog decided it was his mission in life to get in front of my tire (?). He started trying to go from the right side, across the front to the left. I'm still doing 20! His weight was pushing on the front of the tire making it turn left. I was still trying to stop with the rear brakes. Bike starts to lean to the right! Tire turning left! I'm ready to pull up my right leg to avoid road rash! All I heard was Captain Kirk... "Never gonna loose you" (talking to his ship, don't remember what episode), and my riding instructor, (mandatory class in RI), "PUSH the left grip NOW with all your might and ROLL ON THROTTLE!!!!!!!!!!!!"
The bike came back up, wife and all! Now, serious problems will occur with the LEFT side, what if I over shoot and lay down the left side!?!?!?
At this point the dog had made it around the front of the bike and was on the left, still running forward. So i decided the dog would be my uprighting brake. As I was topping out to be straight up I let the bike lean a little left with my body weight doing it instead of g-force. Sure enough, the dog was again pushin on the left side front of the tire now. I turned the throttle full and got a house length ahead, where I rear braked and stopped facing the dog. Told wife "GET OFF"! (she was more than happy to). Now it was dog wrecking time! Well, I guess poochie'd had enough or finally figured that the Valk had won. Because as soon as I yelled "Come on" and revved the glass packs rover was all over. Took off running towards the end of my street with me in pursuit, squealin smokin and screamin. I followed that mutt through now stopped traffic, swerving around cars and even on some parts of a sidewalk around bushes to a corner store where the dog stopped and raised it's leg against nothing and started to pee, while kinda hopping around wondering where to go next I guess. At this point I was stopped and ready to get off the bike and throttle the dog, when I also noticed it was shaking uncontrollably. I also noticed ALL the fur completely GONE from both sides from the front shoulder back to the rear haunches. Apparently the front tire had rubbed it all off. (This was later confirmed by all the brown hair stuck to my bike in front). It was at this point I'd decided the dog had learned a valuable lesson. Had I wrecked the bike... but I was OK and so was the bike. (rover would not die by my hand). I got back on the bike and went back to pick up the wife. The dog went the other way. I also need to mention that from the time I first saw the dog to the time I got back to my wife was no longer than 1 minuite! When I got back (two houses down from the store), cars hadn't really moved and people were everywhere. It became clear what had happened when everyone started congratulating me on a job well done. Not only had I saved a very big heavy bike riding 2-up from the pavement at what I am told was at least a 25-30 degree angle, but I had chased away a neighborhood menace that was terrorizing children on their bikes as well. I have never seen this dog again. This happened late spring this year. I got the bike in March. It was my wife's first ride! She knows she's in good hands, and I know God really, really likes me.
RIde safe, Big Dog