It all goes along with Americans having tunnelvision about cycling. It's ok to dress up like an acrobat and ride around in a big circle once a week with friends, but choosing a bike for transportation is looked upon as an act of desperation.
I've heard many comments around town while shopping or commuting, but while touring I only heard one.
A woman came out of a grocery store, looked at my Hunqapillar fully loaded for a weekend trip and said: "Don't tell me, you lost your home in the mortgage crisis!" I couldn't believe that assumption, but I satisfied her with a story. I told that, I hadn't, but I guess I was, technically, homeless. I told her I had been a broker for AIG before Elliot Spitzer went on his hunting spree, had gotten out before the ax fell, and sold my house in Scarsdale just in time. Of course my wife thought I was crazy and left me for a doctor down the street. Fortunately she didn't know about the off-shore accounts so I had plenty of money but was just wandering the earth in search of a new beginning. The look on her face made it all worthwhile.
I couldn't just tell her I taking a 4 day weekend.
Marc