News Feature

You may know Jason Simons and his dog Indy – short for Indiana – from their MOTO BROTHERS website, or follow them on Instagram. Jason, with the help of The Humane Society, rescued Indy as a seven-week-old pup from a shelter in Houston, Texas. Now a grown dog, Indy shares Jason’s two-wheeled adventures across America, from long trips to Sturgis for moto rallies, to simpler (ha ha) commutes through the streets of Manhattan to work every day. Jason generously offered to share some of his insights on what it’s like to ride with a pooch.

All of us reading this understand deeply the joy and tranquility of cruising down the road, the smell of leather, trees, and open road mixing together. There’s really only one thing I think is better than riding a motorcycle ... riding a motorcycle with your pup on the back.

Ah man, when you are pushing that throttle in the middle of nowhere and your pup puts his little head on your shoulder to see the road ahead … that’s one of the best moments in life.

Whenever we pull up, people always ask to take pictures ... and that’s cool. I don’t blame them. But what I really love is when people say to me, “We know it’s old to you, but it’s so new to us!”

The best part about this is it never really gets old.

Every time I strap Indy in and throw my leg over the bike feeling his weight against my back I have a sense of comfort, excitement, and, most importantly, responsibility.

Jason and Indy tackling NYC highways — Larry Arace

Ah man, when you are pushing that throttle in the middle of nowhere and your pup puts his little head on your shoulder to see the road ahead … that’s one of the best moments in life.

Riding with your dog is really, really dangerous. Forget about dropping your bike; Dropping your bike with your dog strapped is enough to kill or seriously wound him. Dog helmets are a joke, made more for costumes (believe it or not the safe dog helmet industry is not a huge one).

And then there’s other people. I remember driving home from a club meeting. It was dusk and lightly misting – not really, fully raining, but the roads were slick. We headed toward a bridge and ended up on this incredibly narrow road with massive barriers on either side. It was extremely challenging riding.

I looked in my rearview and noticed a car SO F***ING CLOSE to me you wouldn’t believe it. I immediately hit on my throttle, but I was going as fast as I was comfortable with. So now I was pushing myself past my speed comfort limit in the rain, on a narrow slick road, on a bridge. This car tailgated me for a minute before I found a chance to take my hand off and motion for them to fall back. It was then that I noticed they were trying to film me.

This is honestly the single greatest danger. It’s awesome that people want to film us; I know we look unique and we aren’t camera shy, as you know from our Instagram. For some reason people think it’s cool to put our lives in danger for their snapchat stories.

But when we aren’t almost being killed by amateur photographers, it is really the best experience. We were headed to upstate New York on the motorcycle and I saw a beautiful field with a lake and forest. I just pulled over, unstrapped the pup and we headed off hiking. You always have a buddy to ride with and share in your adventures no matter where you are.

Jason and Indy — Larry Arace

At the end of the day, the decision to do this was the best one I’ve ever made. It took work to get the rig set up and get him trained but now I have the best road partner anyone could ask.

Best of all, your pup loves it. Indy gets to come everywhere with me, and when we are out there on the open road, the smells and wind … he genuinely loves it. We made the carrier large enough so he can curl up; usually about mile 200 or so of the day he tends to do just that, and take a nap. He also likes napping at the exact times I am trying to get good camera footage of us on the road.

Every time he hears or sees a motorcycle go by his ears perk up as he checks to see if it’s one of our moto crew. He can actually identify my friend Cristi’s exhaust sound and starts flipping out when he hears it … usually before I do. Most people say they would never be able to take their dog because of the sound. Well yeah … it took months of training to get Indy to like the sound of motorcycles; but with the right training most dogs can get there.

At the end of the day, the decision to do this was the best one I’ve ever made. It took work to get the rig set up and get him trained, but now I have the best road partner anyone could ask.

You can read more on Jason’s training experience in his article: Train Your Dog for the Motorcycle. | Links: