Quote Originally Posted by colorisnt View Post
It's always the owners. Even the best dogs can be spooked by a bike or have a herding instinct and lunge after a bike if they aren't used to being around them. 99% of the dog owners on the trails are excellent and very respectful, which I love. I love dogs so I am happy to see people out enjoying their animals. I also have a very well-behaved dog with pretty perfect recall. We've never once had an issue. However, I would never bring him out there without a leash on. Most importantly because it's the law and secondly because I don't want to put him in a position to fail with all that traffic. It's a shame some dogs have owners that either don't care or don't want to pay attention. I really don't relish kicking a dog but if it's my life and safety in question, I will do it. And the dog was fine when he left. He was more startled by it than anything, which was the point. A 50 lb dog vs. my limited range of motion while standing over my top tube stood a good chance.
+1...I love dogs but hate it when owners are irresponsible like the incident you describe (if the owner had been paying attention, you wouldn't have been put in the rotten position of having to kick the dog--hope she realizes that). Getting back on the subject of rides, I tried out a different group ride this evening. We only went 15 miles (often they do 20 and I'd be happy to do more) but I definitely fit into this group better than the other one in terms of speed so will probably try to go semi-regularly even though it's a bit of a haul from where I live. It's nice being able to ride with a group and keep up...I even felt like I could have gone faster at certain points during the ride (mostly because there were times people were coasting when I would normally have kept pedaling). I also found out about another supposedly beginner/intermediate ride that is closer and happens on Wednesdays, so may check that one out. Next ride will be Sunday's 50 miler at the Bicycle Coalition of Maine women's ride; hopefully that goes well despite my not having gotten in as much mileage beforehand as I would have liked (weather has often been uncooperative).