I can see where people get aggravated by a peloton of 20 bicyclists, hogging the road and running stop lights etc.
But, I was riding by myself on lonely country roads, not impeding any traffic. In fact, if I was coming up on a curve, and saw in my rear view mirror that a car would have to slow down to pass me, I would just pull over on the shoulder and let the car pass. I am a polite bike rider.
Nonetheless the mountain inhabitants disliked me.
One day I saw four people out in the yard. They had a big dog with them. As I rode by, Fido ran out and ran up towards me. I saw that he was going to bite my ankle! This goes way back to the wolf days, the wolf bites than ankle of the elk and cuts the achilles tendon, the elk cannot run, and the wolves kill it. This mutt was trying to cut my achilles tendon. Hell I already had a broken leg I didn't need a severed achilles tendon. At the last second, I put my foot out and the damn dog bit my tennis shoe. He got a mouth full of rubber, and he backed off, and I rode on down the road.
A few days later I was riding past the same spot and those people were standing near the mailbox. The dog was not there. I stopped and told them that their dog had almost injured me badly. These people told me that they were upset with me. They saw how their dog had bitten my shoe, and were concerned that my shoe could have injured their dog's teeth! All the while they looked at me with a look of contempt.
No, the NC hillbillies have no use for a grown man riding a bicycle.
I passed by a trailer where there were a few people in the front yard. Four pit bulls came tearing after me. I had the jump on them so I just rode off. A Sheriffs deputy just happened to be behind me. I let him catch up with me down the road. I told him that if I ever got attacked I was going to deal with it, pointing to my seat bag. He smiled and said "do what you have to do to deal with the threat."
