Watch for dogs

 

Different angle (why did biker 2 lay his down?) He was certainly close to getting mushed by the very well alert truck driver.

Edited April 18, 2016 by Living the Dream

Panic braking? Particularly in "different angle" it appears that the front wheel is locked and maybe even smoking a bit (possibly the rear as well - or at least scaring up a lot of dust from the road).

 

SO very glad the second rider managed to bounce AWAY from the path of the tractor, and that the tractor driver managed to move over as far left as he/she did.

The second clip illustrates how lucky and alert the second rider is. Following too closely. Once on the ground, had the presence to use legs to push towards the center of the road, no doubt saving his life. Good thing that truck drive wasn't looking at his phone!

Too late to edit, but of course in my post, I meant our left...or the other left... Or something, because clearly the truck driver moves to HIS right. der.....

Panic braking? Particularly in "different angle" it appears that the front wheel is locked and maybe even smoking a bit (possibly the rear as well - or at least scaring up a lot of dust from the road).

 

I think the rear wheel is actually in the air for a moment before the front wheel slides out to the side.

 

The second clip illustrates how lucky and alert the second rider is. Following too closely. Once on the ground, had the presence to use legs to push towards the center of the road, no doubt saving his life. Good thing that truck drive wasn't looking at his phone!

 

Yeah, the last second "hop" by the rider was a smart move. Trucker did his damndest; his tires are locked up and smoking, too.

Hi all, it's been a while.

 

Have had that happen twice. RULE: Stay the line and accelerate. Bike may have killed the dog, but it would have stayed on it's wheels. No one mentioned the obvious. Learned while driving armored vehicles at high speeds, DO NOT MANEUVER for small animals, hold the line, accelerate, and energy/momentum will overcome the rest.

 

The guy locked his front brake and washed it out, hit the dog anyway. Sacrificing the dog for the sake of the rider (and his family being orphaned/widowed) is the modern world's PC nonsense that allows little mongrels to ride on the laps of car drivers that have the ever deadly cell phone in their face.

 

Rant complete.

I'd agree that maintaining line would have most likely been better for all, but I'm not going to assume that he "chose" to try to avoid the dog. In my mind it's likely a reaction, but who knows what was in his mind?

 

As you said, you were *trained* - most of us don't practice evasive/emergency maneuvers at all, not even mentally; chances are this guy never even considered, what will I do if I'm riding and a dog runs out in front of me?

 

 

Very excellent point. By my training, it's "look long and glance short" visual focus. Anything in the "glance" is nothing you can do anything about. By "looking long" you can evaluate and react to long range threats.

 

Maybe that info can help some riders out. Thanks for that tune up though. Much appreciated.

Very excellent point. By my training, it's "look long and glance short" visual focus. Anything in the "glance" is nothing you can do anything about. By "looking long" you can evaluate and react to long range threats.

 

Maybe that info can help some riders out. Thanks for that tune up though. Much appreciated.

 

 

Hi apps

 

My MOA exactly! That is a good mantra to live by.

 

Dave

The 2nd angle video is clipped. If you watch it further at 24 seconds

you will see the woman rider appears to strike the rider after he hit the dog as he tumbles across the road into her path. It also appears that she clipped him either in his back or head. I expect she was fixated on him as there was minimal deviation from her path. All sorts of reasons why this shouldn't have happened and I hope there were no serious injuries.

Hi all, it's been a while.

 

Have had that happen twice. RULE: Stay the line and accelerate. Bike may have killed the dog, but it would have stayed on it's wheels. No one mentioned the obvious. Learned while driving armored vehicles at high speeds, DO NOT MANEUVER for small animals, hold the line, accelerate, and energy/momentum will overcome the rest.

 

The guy locked his front brake and washed it out, hit the dog anyway. Sacrificing the dog for the sake of the rider (and his family being orphaned/widowed) is the modern world's PC nonsense that allows little mongrels to ride on the laps of car drivers that have the ever deadly cell phone in their face.

 

Rant complete.

 

None of us has figured out how to overcome the laws of physics, but I think the dynamics of a collision between a critter and an armored vehicle and a critter and a 600 lb. motorcycle are substantially different.

 

In an armored vehicle, even in a relatively small car, the danger with evasive steering is losing control of the vehicle and the collision or rollover that may follow.

 

But, as you move down the hierarchy of size, to motorcycles, the dynamics of collision vs. control change fairly dramatically. Braking to avoid the collision--if indeed it's avoidable and you don't have another vehicle behind you that's likely to rear-end you--is going to be the preferable alternative. OTOH, and this may be what you're contemplating, if a collision with a small critter is unavoidable it's best to take advantage of inertia and the attendant gyroscopic effect of your wheels to maintain stability.

 

It's easy to hypothesize about the optimal reaction, but the key is to practice reacting and hope that your judgment and muscle memory produce the right result for the situation. Acceleration isn't always the right reaction.

Have had that happen twice. RULE: Stay the line and accelerate. Bike may have killed the dog, but it would have stayed on it's wheels. No one mentioned the obvious. Learned while driving armored vehicles at high speeds, DO NOT MANEUVER for small animals, hold the line, accelerate, and energy/momentum will overcome the rest.

 

The guy locked his front brake and washed it out, hit the dog anyway. Sacrificing the dog for the sake of the rider (and his family being orphaned/widowed) is the modern world's PC nonsense that allows little mongrels to ride on the laps of car drivers that have the ever deadly cell phone in their face.

 

Rant complete.

 

Are you talking about the second rider? Cuz yeah, he went down as a result of locking up his front wheel. The lead guy, OTOH appeared to make no change to trajectory or speed before hitting the dog; pretty sure it was the rapid sideways movement (i.e. the running) of the dog that dragged the front wheel into a violent countersteer, throwing the bike down on its right side.

 

A hit on the fairing by a running dog would not have brought the bike down, and a front-wheel impact with a stationary dog also might not have brought the bike down. But with the dog rapidly transiting from one side of the road to the other, a front-wheel hit means a get-off is going to be very likely.

I hit a dog once, many years ago now, while riding my GPX250 (second bike, still on restricted license).

I came around a corner in town just as a golden retriever ran across the road. I got it straightened up and grabbed the brakes, hard, just before I nailed the dog dead centre still doing maybe 40kph. I stayed upright, forks at full compression. The dog rolled, got to it's feet and took off, leaving a spray of crap behind it that went all over my headers, across the left side of the fairing and over my left boot. It took hours to get everything cleaned up so it didn't stink, the headers in particular.

There was an older couple that saw the whole thing. The guy came over and said he was amazed I didn't go down. My reaction was entirely reflex, I had no time to think about anything.

The only thing I can be sure about after the fact is that if you're going to hit something, be as upright as possible.

I had a leashed dog run out at me once on a city road. It was coming at an angle that would intercept me. About 10 feet before the intercept point I applied strong breaking and the dog passed in front, and my wheel road over his leash and I suspect he had quite a flip, because it took the chase out of him. The dog seemed ok afterward.

If I understand several articles and accounts of hitting dog sized animals (not pigs), it is OK to break to attempt to avoid hitting the animal. But the best chances of staying upright are to stay 90 degrees to the pavement and have the throttle on for forward momentum.

 

Fellow Beemeer riders it's been a while. I have personal story to add to this discussion. My motorcycle / dog intersective event occured just yesterday. In this case, I was riding southbound on a 2 lane paged agricultural road. Not much car traffic, but where I live at the cell phone invasion has invaded nearly every car and truck on the road.

 

Slogging along at 45mph on my 48 Panhead Harley, with good brakes and a springer front end. 3 degrees of rake helps deal with these dog interventions.

 

A dog KNOWN, not that I know the people around here, crossed the road so fast and aggressively that i locked eyes on it when it was 6 feet from the left side and moving fast. I had enough time to just open the throttle when we made contact, I center punched the Australian Shepard 3" behind his left shoulder. Killed in Action.

 

My bike went down on the left side initially, then flopped over on it's right side, don't know why that part happened, but both floorboards were folded up and bars bent. Not much damage overall.

 

Bike weighs 800 pounds. I'm guessing the dog was 50 lbs or so. The fine people that stopped to render aid (which consisted one person who said she was a nurse, put 2 snot rags on an open head wound. Mostly stood and talked about that old dog is always chasing cars.

 

Injuries were a deep laceration above the left eye across the forehead like a "Y", another one below the left eye. Looks like a horse kick in the face sideways. EMTs, Sheriff and firecrew were most excellent. I was 3 miles from home, one of them got their trailer and hauled the bike to my house and wheeled it up the garage while my wife and I were at the hospital.

 

Lots of off the leash dogs around here, but for the most part they are no danger. This dog was known to the owner and locals for being a bicycle and car chaser. He wasn't entering into a chase from my point of view. He was crossing the road fast and as hard as he could go.

 

Not anymore he won't tho. Been a great riding summer or both machines here.

Sorry for your interaction.

 

Dog off leash. Known car chaser. Dog causes crash. Rider lucky, escaped with life.

 

If it was me, I'd jump in both feet and make the owner pay.

 

Fence or leash your goddamn animals people. Even a loose cat can create problems.

 

Glad you are ok.

 

MB>

In the '70's I had issue with an ankle biter that would chase me every morning on the way to work in our neighborhood.

 

He would be waiting as if on schedule to chase and attempt to bite my left foot, running at speed with his head turned to focus on my foot.

 

On morning, there was garbage pickup, with appropriate garbage truck on his side of the road. Veering to the left, I lined up with the on-facing bumper and then veered right inches away from said bumper.

 

He never saw what he hit.

 

I circled back to ascertain whether the impact had killed him - it had not.

 

He was on wobbly legs, with uncaged eyeballs in different orbits. He shook his head, finally focused on me at a stop within a foot or so, yelped, and headed back to his yard at high gallop.

 

From that point on, he only sat on the sidewalk and watched me go by - it was definitely a learning experience that cured him of chasing motorcycles (at least, mine).

If it is a repetitive encounter, I have heard that spraying the dog with a water pistol will sometimes teach them a lesson. Maybe use plain water the first time, then if that fails, use water laced with habanero pepper sauce. I don't know if it works.

MB, thank you sir. Mutts chasing things is only one notch lower than people that have small yappers that run all over inside their car. Now that, i'd like to toss a can of pepper spray auto discharger type into the car. Sorry, that's the Army SF guy coming out in me. Much appreciated.

 

JWMMcdonald,, I like that method of dealing with them, I managed to ax handle pool cue one once at about 20 mph. Couldn't decide to use the golf tee off shot method, so I end punched him as he tried to bite the handle. Didn't go well for the thing. I'd like to take the issue to the owner, but they frown on such things, call it "road rage" and such.

 

Will, pretty useless method at 50 mph or so, works fine in a house, out walking, running, riding a bike or MC, something that inflicts PAIN works the best. I love dogs, we wouldn't let a horse do anything like, we've elevated dogs as pets to human levels in the household.

 

Glad I had a steel frame springer front end on the bike. They resist that kind of impact better than hydraulic forks I think. I could be wrong, but from what the neighbor said, it was nearly cut in two, 21" NARROW front tire. Not alot of bad damage considering, folded and wrecked bars, grips and mirrors. Floorboards wiped out. Front end seems good, both engine sides seem fine, even the HD saddlebags came out ok. Fiberglass with steel supports. It's an old hard tail. But still a classy ride. Have to run the 98 1100 RT for a while