Originally Posted by
Hunt-man
Well, profile the people you are thinking about "helping". Are they spandex clad bike warriors or something else? If they are in the something else category then keep riding. You might consider a nice can of pepper spray. I don't know what your area is like there but I would suggest you ride with some caution. There are areas of Portland I wouldn't ride in at night even if I had a gun. Just don't assume nothing bad will happen to you. There are some real wolves out there.
i'm quite liberal about these things, and i know i'll get ragged for saying this, but stereotypes are often a good zeroth-order approximation & they probably are true over 1/2 of the time. this is why i proudly wear my university team kit, not so much to "flaunt" as to indicate to others that i'm well-educated and is not a threat to anyone. when i got a flat and realized that i forgot my tire levers this last wednesday, i think it helped convince people to stop when i was waving people down & lend me their lever for five minutes