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Bikers gather to remember rider killed in crash

Staff photo by Chris Stewart Ericka Williams and Charles Cooper mourn the loss of fellow Young Blood Motorcycle Club member Earl "Big Dawg" Grant Friday, Aug. 14, at the RTA pole along West Third Street at Bish Avenue where Grant died Thursday night after losing control of his motorcycle.

ENLARGE PHOTO

Seen in this 2009 photo, Earl "Big Dawg" Grant, a member of the Young Blood Motorcycle Club, died in a motorcycle accident Thursday, Aug. 13, on West Third Street in Dayton.

ENLARGE PHOTO

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By Steve Bennish, Staff Writer Updated 10:02 PM Friday, August 14, 2009

DAYTON — Barbecue grills were fired Friday, Aug. 14, as members of about a dozen bike clubs and their families spread out on a sunny summer evening, some relaxing in folding chairs, to remember Earl “Big Dawg” Grant, a vice president of the Young Blood Motorcycle Club.

The grassy lot at West Third Street and Bish Avenue buzzed with high-power motorcycles and talk of a lost compatriot, killed Thursday night in a fiery crash on West Third Street.

The 40-year-old Dayton resident, a maintenance employee at Community Golf Course and car stereo installer, died when he was thrown from his bike into a metal RTA pole as he and a Pontiac Catalina were headed east. Grant’s bike clipped the front bumper of the sedan as he tried to pass and change lanes, Dayton police Lt. Brian Johns said Thursday night.

Grant was not wearing a helmet and witnesses told police the bike rolled on for at least another city block before it exploded . Witnesses also told police Grant was traveling in excess of the posted 35 mph speed limit.

Among the clubs represented at the memorial included Bad to the Bone, Dragon Masters, The Toros, Night Strikers, Uncontrollable Women and the Panthers.

Young Blood member Aaron Hawkins said Grant, whom he knew for 20 years, worked two jobs to support four children.

“He was a good guy,” Hawkins said. “He took care of his family.”

Khrista Grant, his sister, said arrangements were pending with House of Wheat. Survivors also include his parents, Joyce and Ronald; a brother and three sisters .

Kristen Bruns, who worked with Grant installing stereos, said, “He was the kind of guy that you could call up and ask for him to do something, and he would be right there.”

Fellow club member DuJuan “Scooby” Brooks said Grant lived to ride his motorcycle. “First thing in the morning, he’d call me up and say, 'Where’re we riding today? We’d ride up to Detroit, Louisville, Chicago to represent Dayton, our part of town. That was our hobby. That was our life.”

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