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Motorcycle Safety and Awareness
Welcome to Think Bike, the podcast about all things motorcycle and the voice of motorcycle safety and awareness in Alberta. Your host is Liane Langlois.
Liane:Hey, Hey, everybody. Welcome back to another episode of Think Bike. This week, we're combining dogs and motorcycles in ways that I don't think I've ever seen. But I have founder of Go Roughly, Jess Stone with me. Welcome to the show.
Jess:Thank you so much for having me. I'm so excited for this conversation.
Liane:Well, I've seen so many people carrying their dogs out there in in all these different fashions and we'll get into Go Roughly. But first, who is Gest Stoned and what got you into writing?
Jess:Okay. So that's a whole a whole can of worms there. But I'm Gest Stoned, a Canadian as well, originally from Toronto. And what got me into riding? Well, I learned to ride in Africa.
Jess:My husband and I were both aid workers in Africa, which is where we met, and he wanted to do a North To South America road trip. He had gotten from Los Angeles down to Panama, ran out of money, couldn't complete the trip, and said he wanted to do it. And so he was saving up all of his money for it, we were both working in the same area. And he said, you can come along, but you have to learn how to ride. At that point, I had no idea how to ride.
Jess:I lived in Toronto before, always public transit, didn't have a driver's license for a stay or I didn't have know how to drive a standard car, didn't have my own car. So it was all brand new, But he taught me how to ride in Liberia on the in the suburbs of Monrovia, and it was it was great. It was we had two little one sixty cc motorcycles, and we went through the basics. I was the only woman really out there riding. It was all guys, and it it was just a fun thing, I think, for people to see or they were just like, who is that, and what is she doing?
Jess:But, eventually, I got it. I did maybe about, I don't know, 2,000 kilometers before we left Liberia, and then we did our own North to South America trip.
Liane:North to South America. So did you I mean, you have to bypass in the canal. Right?
Jess:So for this one, we started from Los Angeles. We went up to, I think, just a little bit above Whistler is how far we got because of the weather. Turned around, made it down to Panama. We flew the bikes across the Darien Gap at that time, and then we we rode down to Santiago, Chile. So it was eight months on the bikes.
Liane:Yeah. I think I only, I personally know one person who has gone through the Darien Gap with their bikes and that is crazy all on its own fellow self flats racer. So you guys don't just go well. Okay. Where's your favorite place you went riding?
Liane:Let's let's just do that before we get into the addition of the dogs.
Jess:Favorite place? I think the top of Route 40 in Argentina. Right? When you cross from Bolivia into Argentina, it's like red rock. It's all like dirt roads.
Jess:It's wide open spaces. There's there's llamas running around, and it's just it's fantastic scenery, fantastic riding, everything that you would want. And there were no people, which is something that I love as an introvert.
Liane:Yes. Yeah. You and me both. Alright. So what was the inspiration behind Go Roughly?
Jess:So we started at the, the company's called Ruffly itself, and we started that when we lived in Guatemala. So after we did some moving about, we settled in Guatemala. And soon after, I got a dog. Always wanted a dog, but my lifestyle would never would allow it. But we said, okay.
Jess:We're gonna be there for a while. We'll get a dog. So I didn't want just any dog. I got a German Shepherd, a nice, big dog. She was a puppy at the time.
Jess:Her name was Moxie. And we wanted ways to to outfit her. So Guatemala has a lot of vibrant colors and craftsmanship. And so I started working with some local artisans and created a whole line of dog gear, collars, leashes, beds, bandanas, all of that. And on top of that, we only had our motorcycles because we we we rode them down, and we didn't wanna get a car.
Jess:I didn't want a side a sidecar or a trailer because I didn't feel comfortable with having, like, a third wheel. So my husband, Greg, he set out on trying to find ways that we could bring Moxie along as an 80 pound dog. And he designed, which is now the K9 Moto Cockpit, which is a motorcycle dog carrier for all size dogs that you can mount to the back of your motorcycle. So they ride in the the laying down position, and most of their weight is on the passenger seat and just some of it's on the luggage rack. They're securely harnessed in, and you get to bring them along with you on all your adventures.
Jess:And we we created it really just for us because it was a need that we wanted to to go and travel, but we didn't wanna leave Moxie at home. And soon enough, people started also wanting to know how they could do it, and that's how we started manufacturing them ourselves.
Liane:Well, and I noticed in one of the videos that you have up on your socials that there's a spot for their tail to come through and just be flying out behind the
Jess:There is. There's a a tail hole in the the K9 Moto paw guards. The paw guards are there so that they keep their paws inside. Some of them, some dogs like to stretch out a little bit. We want them to keep everything within the cockpit.
Jess:And yeah, there's a hole that the tail can come through and and they can just let it fly.
Liane:I mean, it's it's amazing. So, okay. So you create all these different dog products and are there different like styles of dog carriers, like bigger, smaller?
Jess:So the K9 Moto Cockpit comes in five different sizes. So it's got the Nano for like, think like a Chihuahua or something less than like 20 pounds. Then there's the mini, the intermediate for like your border collies, the standard, which is what Whimsy and Moxie wrote it. Then there's the jumbo for dogs that are up to about a 120 pounds. So it depends on the size of your dog and and the way that we size it.
Jess:It's it's the same way you would think of like a riding helmet. You want it to be snug so that you're not moving from side to side when you're when you're doing twisties or if you have an emergency stop, but it's nicely cushioned into in cradle to keep them comfortably in place.
Liane:How quickly did your dogs take to the carriers? Because I can imagine that would be interesting. It's like, why am I going on this dog bed way up here?
Jess:Yeah. You know, it takes basically a weekend. It's much quicker than you would expect, and it really depends on on the rider themselves. Just like anything with a dog, if you get excited and you show confidence, your dog is gonna follow because they look to you for for for what they're supposed to be doing and how they're supposed to feel about a thing. So if you're anxious about something, they're gonna get anxious.
Jess:But most riders that we have, they say it normally takes them a weekend. You can get them used to the cockpit on the ground. They you treat them, have them walk in, turn around, lay down, all the basic commands. And then when it's mounted on the motorcycle, you can teach them how to leap up, which is normally a quick thing with some treats, and you just get them up with the with the help of the harness using the handle on the back of the harness and get them into the cockpit. Others lift their dogs in, and then you harness them in, you put the goggles on, and you go.
Jess:And we always tell our riders that the dog gets so excited about the new sights and sounds and smells that they're experiencing along the way that they haven't experienced before. And they're at a whole other level now because now they're higher up than they normally are. So it it's different for them. They get focused on that. They're not gonna be so concerned about being harnessed in because that's what some people get concerned about of, like, is my dog gonna like it if they can't, like, stand up?
Jess:We want the dog laying down so that it's nice and comfortable. The weight is low, not high up like a passenger and moving around. And so that's what most of our riders report back that within a weekend, they're ready to go. We've had some people who get their cockpit on a on a Saturday, and then on the Sunday they've taught their dog and on Monday they're off for like a multi week trip. So it's it's normally quite quickly.
Liane:Well, dogs like to learn and especially if they're motivated to do so and be with their person.
Jess:Correct.
Liane:Always a good thing. So you mentioned, I like to call them doggles. Do do your dogs always wear doggles?
Jess:Yeah. So that's one of the the key pieces of safety equipment that we we always promote. One is the canine motor harness. We always recommend harnessing your dog in. And I know that can be controversial, especially for motorcyclists actually, because you think about when you get into an accident, you'd want to be able to leap off and be able to get away from the bike.
Jess:And that's what we're taught as riders. For the dog, the dog isn't wearing all of the Kevlar gear that we're wearing. It doesn't exist for them. And so what we did is we created a cockpit. Our carrier is meant to withstand the impact of of a crash.
Jess:And so we wanna make sure that the dock stays within the carrier and not get flowed out into traffic and and have all of those problems of of of escaping and and running away from that situation. Most of the time, the crashes that that we've had, that many of our riders have, they're normally on on road off road crashes that you tip over. It's normally just down on the side and and it'll hit the side of the carrier. Your dog stays nice and safe in there. And then you can just undo the harness when you're ready after a view sort of assess the surroundings.
Jess:You can unclip your dog from the cockpit and then safely bring them to a place while you figure out what you're gonna do with your bike and all of that. So that's one piece of safety. The other is the the goggles that we really we love. We work with RecSpecs that are company that has goggles for dogs, all different sizes, colors, and all of that. It's fun.
Jess:And the one time that we didn't have goggles on Moxie at the very beginning is when she got a bit of an eye infection. It's one of those things that you need to make they're so sensitive with their eyes and if something gets in it from the wind or debris, you want to make sure that they're protected. And so eyes always have the goggles on. The other piece of equipment some people use that we use as well when we're riding for like prolonged periods at high speed, like think of the highway or something like that for hours, is the ear protector. And that's sort of like earmuffs for a dog, but they're specifically made for dogs to help dull the sound and the wind and the noise.
Jess:Not all dogs who love them because it does restrict them. Having shepherds that, like, have their ears up, it it it does flatten their ears. And so we try and give them breaks as as frequently as we can. But Moxie and I, we did a iron butt. So that was a thousand miles in twenty four hours, and we did it in nineteen and a half hours.
Jess:And so she wore her ear protector the whole time, and she did great. At the end of that trip, she left off and she had so much energy. So she started barking at us in the middle of the night. It was 3AM when we arrived at our hotel. She was just so excited and still had so much energy because she had just been laying in the cockpit.
Liane:Yeah. We had a we had an audiologist on last year to talk about the effects of like riding and especially if you're not wearing a full face helmet and how that can affect your hearing. And I think that's like people I can imagine some of my listeners are probably like, well, dogs put their heads out windows of cars all the time, but that's for like a moment. It's not for five hours. Yeah.
Liane:That is a big difference between why goggles and ear protection would be important. Would you say?
Jess:Yes. I completely agree. Like, when we're we're we're going just at surface street level, I don't put an ear protector on her. Normally, as a shepherd, she can tilt her ears back, and that normally prevents her from getting too much of it. And the other good thing is is the way that we designed the cockpit is the dog is right behind you.
Jess:So her head is, like, right behind your back. So if it ever gets too windy, she can always just tilt behind me and she can stay behind my back because I'm acting as this great big wind block for her. And so she has the ability to, like, sneak out on the side and look on either side of me if she wants to. She can put her head higher up to get the wind and the spells. So it allows them the flexibility.
Jess:So they're not always just in the wind all the time looking out as if you what you might expect, but they have the ability to tuck in and protect.
Liane:Does it feel like having a regular passenger or like, as I would imagine, it's still weight on the back. But I for some reason, I picture it because they're low and compact. It'd be more like luggage.
Jess:Exactly. That's how we describe it all the time. We say it's like a duffel bag with a head on it. So most of the all of the weight is like down there on on the passenger seat, little bit on the luggage rack, and then it's the head that moves from side to side. And when you're riding at speed, like you you can't really you don't tell that much.
Jess:The times when you notice it the same way you do with a passenger when they when you're at slow speed and the passenger is pointing, they're like, look over there, and they shift all of their weight over. You feel a little bit of that at slow speed with a dog. If they if if Whimsy or Moxie sees a cat on the other side, they will will shift from one side to the other and you do feel that at slow speeds or if you're like at a stop sign and you don't have your feet firmly planted. So those are just things that you get used to and have to practice.
Liane:Yeah. No, for sure. Oh, that was very Canadian of me. Yeah. No, for sure.
Liane:We do that.
Jess:Hey, I know. I
Liane:have it too.
Jess:It's still by about still come out. Like I've been out of Canada for a while, but they still it still stays.
Liane:It stays. We're so Canadian. Okay. So you've been on a lot of adventures and the way that I found you was like you kept coming up in my people who I might know in on my Facebook. And the picture that got me was you and I'm guessing Whimsy is the husky.
Jess:Whimsy is a Swiss shepherd. Yeah.
Liane:The white Yeah. The white one. On as everybody knows, I'm Triumph biased on a Triumph Tiger on as everybody else knows, I'm very biased about Salt Flats. So I'm like, I need to know this woman and and what she's doing. Tell me about that adventure taking Whimsy out there.
Liane:And then tell me maybe some more really cool things that you've done with any of your dogs on the carriers.
Jess:So let me just small correct you there. The salt flats that you're showing are the salt flats that are not the ones that I went.
Liane:You're in Bolivia. You're in Bolivia. Yes.
Jess:Yes. Sorry. Yes. No. No.
Jess:No. That's completely fine. We so after we started Ruffly and people wanted the carrier, we said we were gonna take this on the road. So that's how we started Go Roughly Around the World, which is an around the world adventure, which is what we're currently on. So I started originally with Moxie, my German Shepherd.
Jess:We went from Los Angeles. We went all the way up to the Arctic Ocean. We took the Dempster Highway up and we reached Tuk, and then we came back down. Unfortunately, when we got to Baja, Moxie was running in the sand, and she tore a ligament in her knee, sort of like an ACL tear. And we knew she needed to get surgery done, and so we planned for that in Guatemala, which is where our base was.
Jess:And unfortunately, she went in for the surgery for the TPLO, just typical surgery, went fine. Five days later, she passed away due to adverse reaction to a medication. Just completely unexpected. And that's what happened about a year and a half into our our adventure. So it it took a while until we were ready to to continue.
Jess:We knew we wanted to continue with our our life is all about dogs, and we needed to bring another one into the pack. And so that's when we we spent some time, and then we got whimsy as a puppy, as a white Swiss Shepherd puppy. And so I started training her when she was three months old. And by four months old, we were on the road again. So we started and we continued all the way down south.
Jess:And we talked at the Darien. We actually hiked the Darien with whimsy. We spent the five days crossing with with a patrol opposite the migrants, and we did that trek across the Darien. And it was something that I will absolutely never forget. But we continued on from there and made it all the way down to the tip of South America to Ushuaia, and and then backed up to Buenos Aires, and then back to Mexico.
Jess:So we're now gearing up for the next leg of the trip because it's around the world, and the next leg is gonna be Africa. So that's where our next adventure takes us. But I think going through South America, it was dream for me and for my husband Greg of being able to take our bikes and our dog in all of those different places. We rode through the Amazon in the heat of the summer, and it was crazy to sort of see what the environment was like. Unfortunately, there were a lot of forest fires happening at the time in the Amazon.
Jess:And we went through Brazil, Never had been to Brazil before, so that was a whole new experience. And what we did what we were we were going through is we kept looking for pet friendly activities because we wanna include whimsy in everything that we do because we're we're a pack. And so we did things like we hiked over the Andes. We did like an eight day trek over the Andes with Whimsy. We did some other longer rides with her when we were in the the desert.
Jess:So we've been able to do all of these great experiences with her. And just having the dog along brings just so much more joy and pleasure for us. And I like I mentioned, I'm an introvert. So for me, having the dog there, she actually opens things up in a way because people focus on her. It's not so much they see me and I'm riding.
Jess:They they do see me and I'm riding, but they wanna ask all the questions about Whimsy and about who she is and and how does she experience the adventures and that that that helps me and it makes it fun for me.
Liane:Oh, I trust me. I relate unless I'm in a something for a professional reason. I just don't don't like the attention. What is the reaction from people when they see you guys coming?
Jess:It smiles. Big smiles. People are just really excited to see it. A lot of the times they'll say, I've never seen anything like this before, but it's always funny. If you if if you've seen something similar, you always wanna mention it to the person who's doing the thing.
Jess:So I often get, oh, I know somebody who has a chihuahua that they ride with or somebody whose other whose dog wears the goggles. And it always makes me laugh because nobody ever says, wow. That's a cool carrier. Where did you get that? And I was like, we designed it.
Jess:That's the thing where people focus on. She's wearing goggles. How cool is that? So it makes me laugh, but the people have been really positive. You know?
Jess:Like, they'll they'll ride up beside us. They'll film us. They'll they wanna take photos. Sometimes I get some of the girls in the different countries that we've been in. They wanna sort of sit on the motorcycle to see what it's like with the dog behind them, and we get to get some great photos and stories with them and sort of show them some of the things that are possible.
Jess:Because part of Go Roughly Around the World, it's actually a fundraiser. It's a $100,000 fundraiser for the nonprofit Girl Up. And so they work in in I think it's like over a 100 countries around the world, and they've got these Girl Up clubs where they work to provide them with the skills that they need to advocate for issues that matter to them. So it really does matter, like, which country it is. The the topics are across the board, but it's what's what do they wanna fight for and how can we do it?
Jess:And that's what Girl Up helps provide. So we've been running this fundraiser. So I've been at I've had a chance to meet some of the the girls in these clubs along the way. And so whenever I get a chance to to see, like, the little girls and, you know, some of them are really shy at first, and they see this big dog, but then they come over and they give her a treat. And you just see this big smile on their faces when they start asking the questions, and they come out of their shells, and it's just wonderful to see.
Liane:Oh, there's nothing like a well behaved dog to bring everybody together. That's that's for sure.
Jess:Well behaved? Sometimes. Sometimes. You
Liane:know, if I if I saw you out in the wild, my first question would have been, where'd you get that carrier? Because like I'm I've seen people, you know, custom cut holes into saddlebags or like tank bags so their little heads can pop out and stuff. And I'm like, there's gotta be a better way. So when I saw your thing, I'm like, oh, I mean, not just for like as a safety advocate, as a safety organization, what you've done and how they're protected and like really safety is paramount for that is what really draws me to your product. Like it's custom made for a purpose with safety at the top of mind.
Jess:So And that's and that's what we wanted for for Moxie initially and now for Whimsy and all the dogs that we've got out there because there wasn't a carrier out there on the market that did what we needed to for a big dog. A lot of them were were like luggage, like you think about soft sided luggage, and I'm thinking, how am I gonna put an 80 pound dog in something like that? How am I gonna feel comfortable? And that's that's also the other aspect of of riding with your dog. You need to still be able to ride like a good rider.
Jess:You need to be able to do the things you need to do. You need to do the emergency stops when you have to. You need to be able to speed up if you need to in a in a certain situations. And you can't have that thought in your mind that if I do those things that are supposed to be the right way to ride, it's going to impact my dog negatively. You don't wanna have that in your mind.
Jess:And that's why we created it in this very sturdy and thoughtful way so that the dog, it's the you don't need to be thinking about that aspect of of riding with your dog. You need to be thinking about the fact that they're enjoying themselves so much. They're they're in the back there and they're getting all of this stimulation, but you need to be able to focus on your ride and ride your ride naturally as best as you can.
Liane:Yeah. The just the fact that you have them fully harnessed in and like clipped in an emergency stop or an emergency swerve. They're like moving with you instead of being banged up against the side of what these other makeshift carriers are doing. And I mean, that's, you know, we're dog lovers here at AMSS too. And that's what, you know, that's another draw for me.
Liane:What is your website? Where can people go to, to look at your products or like I said, I know you got videos up there too. What is your website?
Jess:So the website is goruffly.com. Go roughly like rufflyroughly,soroughly.com. It has all the information there for for both the dog gear and then the K nine Moto cockpit, which is where you get all the information. We've got tons of resources on the website now for riders that are thinking about riding with their dog, have maybe done it in a certain situation or curious about the cockpit and the safety aspects of it. We've got a bunch of articles up there, videos that everybody can can peruse through.
Jess:The mounting for how it can mount to your specific bike. We mounted to a whole bunch of bikes, all different types, the cruisers, the Harleys, the the sport bikes, e bikes. We've now been doing snowmobiles as well so that you can ride with the dog or the snowmobile of the winter and the motorcycle during the summer. So we've been making it all across the board touring, cafe racers, everything. And so if you have any questions, everybody can they can always reach out to us and share a photo of your motorcycle and the size of your dog, and we can give you some feedback about how it could work.
Jess:The good thing is is we also have off the shelf options as well. So if you have an easy motorcycle, let's say an adventure bike that has a luggage rack on the back, and you just need to drill some bolt holes in it to secure the cockpit. You can do it yourself, and it'll be ready to go within a couple days, and it's you can just buy it off the shelf. But we also do the custom mounting where we take you through a a three step process. It's really easy.
Jess:You upload photos of your specific bike. We tell you what measurements to take. You take the measurements. You double check them, and then we we create it, and then we ship it out to you within three to four weeks. So it's it's been great.
Jess:We've got almost 700 riders around the world right now. Wow. People riding with their dogs, big and small. And it's it's just it brings so much joy, and and that's why we do it. We we want everybody to experience that thrill, the same thrill that I get when I ride with my dog because it's something that you'll you'll never experienced before not like that.
Liane:Yeah. No. It's it's crazy. I I if I still had my dog at this time, that would be a carrier that I would absolutely look into. And if I, if I ever go down that route again, I'm fresh in my grieving process still.
Liane:So when I'm ready, maybe we never know, but I know where to go to get a good, safe, stable, perfect carrier. And that's that is the point. Thank you very much for joining me on this podcast. Also, I want to wish you guys all the success in your continued go roughly around the world. I will be following on your socials for sure.
Liane:Hopefully, there'll be some postings from where you're at and the shenanigans that you guys are up to. Sounds like the most amazing life to live. I'm envious.
Jess:Oh, well, thanks. Thanks. I appreciate all of your support. That's wonderful.
Liane:Have a have an amazing trip. Thanks again, Jess. And to everyone else, just hang tight for the bag.
Leeroy:Hey, riders. This is Leeroy with another tip from Moto Instincts, the invisibility mindset. The best way to stay safe on a motorcycle is to assume that you are invisible. If you ride like every car is going to pull out in front of you, you'll never be surprised when one actually does. Position yourself for maximum visibility, avoid blind spots, and always have an escape route planned.
Leeroy:You can't control what drivers do, but you can control how you react to them. Stay visible, but most importantly, out of the way. This is Leroy with Moto Instakes.
Liane:And that's it for another episode of Think Bike hosted by me, Leanne Langlois, produced by Bryn Griffiths at Mighty Mouth Communications. If you have an idea or a question for the show, reach out to info@ab-amss.org or find us on all the socials. Always remember to ride smart, ride safe, and think bike. We'll see you out on the road.