My previous posting on dog attacks must have generated some bad karma or
something. I've weathered attempted dog attacks before using the
approved method: Slow down to screw up dog's triangulation of target,
then take off and laugh at the dog, now far behind you. This time, it
didn't work because I didn't have time. Riding up the hill leading to my
house, I encountered a liver-and-white Springer Spaniel (no relation to
the Springer Softail, or the Springer Spagthorpe, a close relation to
the Spagthorpe Viking). Actually, the dog encountered me with intent to
harm.

But I digress: I was riding near the (unpainted) centerline of the
roughly 30-foot wide road, doing between forty and sixty clicks (30 mph
for the velocity-impaired). The dog shot at me from behind bushes on the
left side of the road at an impossibly high speed. I later learned he
had been accelerating from the front porch, about thirty feet away,
heading down the very gently sloped approach to the side of the road. I
saw the dog, and before you could say SIPDE, he was on me. Boom! I took
the dog in the left leg, and from the marks on the bike my leg was
driven up the side of the bike with considerable force, making permanent
marks on the plastic parts of the bike, and cracking one panel. I think
I saw the dog spin around when I looked back, but my memory of this
moment is hazy.

I next turned around, and picked the most likely looking house. The
apologetic woman explained that the dog was not seriously hurt (cut
mouth) and hoped I was not hurt either. I could feel the pain in my
shin, and expected a cool purple welt to form soon. Sadly, it has not.
So I'm left with a tender shin, and no cool battle scars!

Interestingly, the one thing that never happened was that the bike never
moved off course. The not inconsiderable impact did not push the bike
off course, nor did it cause me to put the bike out of control from some
gut reaction to the sudden impact. Delayed pain may have helped me
here, as I didn't feel a sudden sharp pain that I can remember.

What worries me about the accident is this: I don't think I could have
prevented it except by traveling much slower than I was. This is not
necessarily an unreasonable suggestion for a residential area, but I was
riding around the speed limit. I worry about what would have happened if
it had been a car instead of a dog, but I console myself with the
thought that it would take a truly insane BDI cager to whip out of a
blind driveway at 15-30 mph. For that matter, how many driveways are
long enough for a car to hit 30 mph by the end?

I eagerly await comment.

Ryan Cousinetc.|1982 Yamaha Vision XZ550 -Black Pig of Inverness|Live to Ride
KotRB          |1958 AJS 500 C/S -King Rat                      |to Work to
DoD# 0863      |I'd be a squid if I could afford the bike...    |Flame to
ryan.cousineau@compdyn.questor.org  |   Vancouver, BC, Canada   |Live . . .


 * SLMR 2.1a * "He's hurt." "Dammit Jim, I'm a Doctor -- oh, right."
                                                                                       