One of the interesting aspects of motorcycle riding is watching how dogs react to the bike. A few dogs ignore the motorcycles as they zoom by, but not many. At the very least dogs attentively watch our passing, and several dogs will aggressively bark and give pseudo-chase.
My mind went to dogs on this ride as my brother’s dog, Buddy, was out admiring our motorcycles pre-ride. Really, Buddy was waiting for the word to cross the street and come get his doggy treat that my mom gives him on his visits, but I liked the image of Buddy from over the handlebars and the silly idea of him checking out the Rocket and R Nine T as the two bikes waited for our ride.
I managed to gear up early enough before Bill did, so he suggested I head out for a little bit on my own. I rode the R nine T around one block, and then headed up one of the main roads through the neighborhood. As I came to where I wanted to turn left to get back on my mom’s street, a Jeep SUV zoomed up and had clearly planned to run the stop sign but saw me and came to an awkward stop splayed across the right side of the road I needed to turn on. So I had to turn onto the left side while shaking my head at how crazy someone would drive in a neighborhood with lots of pedestrians.
And there were lots of people out enjoying the gorgeous sunny, warm day. We passed a woman walking her little whippet three different times, and each time the little dog stopped walking and watched our passage. There was another gentleman walking his dog (I didn’t recognize the breed), and this dog was oblivious to us. There are three houses we ride past that must have invisible fences where the dogs race to the edge of the yard, barking at us, and following us as far as they can. I heard that dogs react to motorcycle riders like this because of the odd movement. There’s a human shape up top, but the movement on the motorcycle does not look natural to the dogs. I also have learned that if a dog gives actual chase while riding a motorcycle, the key is to change speed. Stopping quickly will cause the dog to overrun the bike, and as the dog regroups, it is easy enough to speed up and away or change direction.
Luckily so far in our rides, we’ve only been barked at. And I do enjoy seeing the dogs out and about as I ride. On this ride I also saw several of the cabbage white butterflies and had no sooner wondered what had happened to the young Tiger Swallowtails, when I spotted a large yellow flutter up among some tree branches. There was a large surprise for us toward the end of our ride. As we came around a curve, a huge turkey vulture swooped in front of us and looped around for another swoop before heading up and away from our motorcycles. It clearly was enjoying its dead squirrel feast.
As for my riding skills, I enjoyed the smoothness of my shifting gears. I also worked some more on entering a curve. I had a struggle with the on-street U-turn and had to ride onto the grass. I believe I had too much speed going into the turn, so I couldn’t turn as tightly. But even in making a slight mistake, I got to practice the change in surface from road to grass. I enjoy my learning as much as I enjoy my riding.
Flutterby Biker 