Ducati Monster Forum

I'm sure you can all imagine what this will be about  :-X

One of my mum's dogs has a tendancy to chase and try to bite my bike's tyres on my way out from paying her a visit. It'll usually run along side, and if I slow down it'll dart in front of the wheel, so of course I usually try and keep ahead of it. Today I stuffed it up. I was ahead of the bloody thing going down hill, but for some stupid reason decided I was going a wee bit fast (very steep, poorly surfaced country driveway). So being the rocket scientist I am, I slowed down a tad. Enough in fact for the mongrel thing to get in front of my tyre. In the shock of it all, I turned the handlebars right, forgetting counter steering and thus slamming into the side of the dog.

Edit: My avatar photo was actually taken at the top of the drive.

Thankfully there wasn't much damage to me or the bike. Few scrapes and a massive headache for me, and as far as I can tell a mirror that needed replacing anyway was shattered. Sadly, fluffy lived but hopefully it won't chase my bike anymore.

On the bright side dear old mum has agreed to fully replace anything that's broken.


Since this is the riding tips section, I'll provide the one tip I think will work. It isn't to do with remembering counter steering, rather shoot all f*cking dogs on sight.

Anyone else had a run in with "man's best friend"?

Edit: Damage update. Now that my head isn't completely wooly, on closer inspection the bike is a tad worse off than I originally thought. Front and rear right indicators are completely broken, right mirror gone, rear brake lever bent almost in a "U", massive dent in fuel tank, handlebar ends are shaved and bst of all my lovely exhausts are scraped to f*ck. Time to start modding  ;D

 [bang]

i can't even kill a cockroach...
so a dog or a cat is impossible...
i almost crash my bike once when a cat came out of nowhere...

well,we have hospitals to go to...
but cats and dogs in my country,they don't have one..
our vets is limited in tools and knowledge..

have seen a documentary about animal's ER...somewhere in europe i guess...
i wish they have one in Malaysia...

my .02.... ;)

sorry for my english

Why can't your mom keep it inside while you're leaving?  ???

No, no, it makes much more sense to shoot all dogs  [roll]

So, to actually address the issue properly.....


I'm confused about the "forgetting to countersteer" thing. You need to train yourself to the point that you don't need to remember such things...

I was wondering the same.....I've been attacked/chased by plenty dogs on my bicycle...usual because they were left on their own. I can't understand why if you know the dog owner, you can just ask them nicely to leash him while you leave

We see lots of dogs on the twisty.  Some try to chase us etc.  On one occasion, we stopped and actually picked up this puppy that looked lost and put it on top of the tank and rode him to the nearest house hoping they will find owner or home.  We do have hearts.

(on occasions we have stopped to check on small turtle that was crossing and almost got hit)

^  Best line in the story.


I would have run the bastard over, no brakes or anything. Natural selection!!!

I'm a bit confused as well, and since this is the riding tips section I'm going to be a bit anal-retentive.

There is no such thing as 'forgetting to counter-steer'. Counter-steering isn't something you can choose between, like "Hey, I'm going to counter-steer this corner, and not that corner".

It's purely a function of speed. At any speed above trivial, your bike always counter-steers. It's the only way to initiate a lean at speed.

Exactly 18mph is when counter-steering takes effect. I don't think it varies by bike either.

i feel your pain when i first got my bike licence when down to show my mate my new Kawasaki zzr250  he was not home so i took off doing about 60 km,s a make the beast with two backsing dog run out in front so what i did is a slam the front bakes and went over dropping my new bike so pissed off 

My bike is my lover.

A dog is somebody else's pregnant dog.

Given a choice, I know which one I'll pick :-)

You're having your 'mum' pay for your boo-boo? She didn't drop the bike, you did. Next time restrain the dog if it's that persistent. 

Dogs are hunters, so their ability to track a moving object is pretty good.  I've never had to do this, but I've heard/read that braking hard and then accelerating hard is a good way to throw them off.  I guess it will vary on a case by case basis though (dog's coming from behind, from the side, etc).

If all else fails though and it's a choice between me and the animal and contact can't be avoided, the IZ_ little bastard is going down.  I don't hunt and it bothers me if I hit a squirrel in the road but it's not worth the pain/bike repair. 

No sign of OP.


Maybe the dogs ate him.

As a veteran of several dog strikes (and squirrel strikes, and a bird strike, and....well....do rocks count?), I'll just say hit the mutt going straight-on if it's stupid enough to jump in front of you.  The best solution is to pen the dog up....but if you're going to hit it, straight works best.  The only damage from my last strike was an oil cooler full of "Fluffy".  Fluffy frikkin' stinks when you cook him!! 

If it is chasing you, as in coming up behind and then running next to you, its fairly easy to give them a nice solid kick without losing your balance.  If they run straight out in front of you, not much you can do besides the quick evasive twitch like you would if someone opened a car door in front of you, but run them over. 

It's good to practice the twitch move anyway as it might come in handy for the car door example, or someone stepping off the sidewalk into the street.  Basically you just keep the power on, no clutch or brakes, and shove (not turn) the bars hard in the opposite direction, then pull them right back.

Shove? You mean counter steer?

I have no idea what he's talking about.

Also, don't kick dogs while riding.

Best advice is do the brakes then throttle and don't bother to turn.

Don't turn because it's just easier to keep the bike upright should you hit it.

Brakes until the dog gets as close as possible then hard throttle. Normally when a predator sees prey slowing down, they do the same since they expect the prey to be making a turn. They don't expect the prey to suddenly accelerate faster than any prey has a right too.

Dogs are great chasers but are horrible with angles. In the case where the dog approaches you from the side or rear, change speeds twice (ex. speed up, slow down, speed up again) and the mutt will not come close to the bike. It's the same technique used on the bicycle and it works every time. If it's a head on... run straight over a small dog and counter steer around a big one (if possible). Like anything else, the key is to keep your head on a swivel and not let the dog sneak up on you (I know... easier said than done).

Much easier on a motorcycle.  I've knocked my fair share of dogs in the head on my road bike.  My college had a lot of rural areas around it which was great for riding, but at the same time some country folk don't deem it necessary to lock up their animals, being dogs, cows, donkeys, or chickens. 

I was on a group ride in the off season so just me and another guy went out for a short run.  We were on our way past a house everyone called "The Chicken House" (always a few dozen of them milling around) looking one way when a hen darted out across the street from the other direction and all I could think was "Shiiiiit. This is going to be messy".  The thing managed to scoot in between my front wheel and bottom bracket, get caught in my buddie's front chain ring, take that around for a couple of spins, and get shot out the back.  The farmer wasn't too upset (I'm sure he had a good dinner) but it was still scary nonetheless.  There are some times when you don't have time to think, you just have to keep it in a straight line and hope you keep the rubber side down.

in the class i took they said that you need to try to fool the dog by speeding up and slowing down but if all else fails kick it in the head. yes they taught that in a REAL class. haha.

the msf class i took also said the slow down then speed up trick is the best way to get away from a dog.  and that kicking a dog is a really bad idea.

the instructor explained it by saying that dogs are natural predators and will try to angle themselves on a intercept course.... so by slowing down, you change their intercept angle, and then speeding up will make it they have no chance of catching up.

he also said that anything that's small enough to be run over should be run over... because it's down to you or what he fondly called "squishables"  haha... and in that situation, you're way more important.

I can't imagine that trying to kick the dog from the moving bike is anything close to a good idea.  I think that is a terrible idea, regardless of if they teach it in the class.
Trying hard enough, I think anyone will wreck attempting that.

a very common problem in thailand with all the wild feral gogs on the street , usually i slow down then acdelerate hard ....been snapped at many times and knocked down once ,,,,,

Kimber.com

You want to hit the dog with a speaker cable??


 ;D

All I can think of when people talk about kicking things while riding is the story my dad tells of an acquaintance kicking a rock at 25mph and the broken ankle that resulted.

Dogs aren't rocks

Get a different DOG!

(http://www.personal.psu.edu/adv11/triumph_doggles.jpg)

Sadly I had an experience today with dogs that almost ended in a hospital trip. I was on a ride with a few friends, two dogs in the road and was going about 60 mph I moved to the the other lane to avoid them and one darted back and forth. I started to lean but it was to late. I braked hard enough to endo and bring the rear up, upon impact both wheels were off the ground. The rear drifted right and tank slapper began, thankfully I have a steering stabilizer that in hindsight probably saved me from the worst of it.  Debated about turning around, I did go back to check and there were two people with it obviously upset. Poor thing knew I should have felt bad but I'm still in shock from the save. Thankfully, I had been practicing my emergency stops and what not recently so I think that helped me avoid crashing. RIP Pouch.