I hope you don't mind this story. There wasn't even a bike involved, but the point is to try and develop a certain attitude for emergency use where aggressive dogs are involved.

This is the annotated version. My two brothers and I were moving into our first apartment. I had my 6 month-old dog chained to a post on the porch. Tom and I had just carried a bookcase into the house and we heard my dog shrieking as she was being attacked by one of those very large male Shepards. We ran to the door and froze. The dog was huge and in fighting mode. He wasn't looking for romance. We were in his territory and he was trying to kill my dog. We looked around for something to hit it with.

Brother Mike never hesitated. He had a soft spot for kids and dogs, especially when they were being attacked by bullies. He jumped out of the truck onto the porch and charged the Shepard. He kicked it halfway across the porch. It got up and came after him with its teeth bared. He met it with a punch to the head that knocked it to the ground. Then he pounced on it, grabbed it by the neck and started pounding its head on the concrete porch floor. After 15-20 seconds of that, he picked it up by the tail and back of the neck, ran it over to the railing and threw it off the porch. I remember it pinwheeling in the air ( in slo-mo in my memory ). It hit the ground face first and took off for home. Its owner met it at the door across the street and we never saw that dog again except at the end of a leash slinking by our house with its tail between its legs.

I don't know if I could do that today, if I were attacked by a dog while riding. I certainly couldn't have then. But I know that the dogs who attack you are usually the bullies and bullies are cowards. If you can at least put on your game face and let them know you're not going to take any ****, they will usually back off and pick on somebody who shows fear.