So, a couple of friends are riding along out in the country, and spot a zebra. Now, this is north Texas, zebras are just a tad bit uncommon around here. So they stop, gawk at the zebra, take some pictures, and ride on.

Later on, one of them, Peggy, is riding a little ahead when a car pulls up beside her, the guy in the passenger seat whips out his camera and snaps a picture of her, and they zoom on off without saying anything. (Peggy's riding a Bacchetta, by the way.)

The other friend catches up to her, says "Wasn't that really odd? Doesn't it bother you?" And Peggy says, "On no, I'm just the zebra!"

So this story is 2nd or 3rd hand and I may have some details confused. But it is the effect mentioned.
Same holds true for tandems and unicycles by the way.
On the unicycle forum, there was a whole LONG thread about "Stupid things people say when they see you on the unicycle". The basic problem there is that people feel obligated to comment on the oddity of your choice of wheel(s) but don't really have anything to say, either, so they blab out something stupid.
Common question on the tandem is how much it costs, or who works harder.

On the flip side, I was riding with Vickie, who was on her Bacchetta, a couple of weeks ago. I think we were in Bluff Dale, Texas, small town in the middle of nowhere, at the convenience store. A man and a boy about 8-10 years old came walking up to the store, and I heard the man explaining to the boy "It's called a recumbent bicycle, etc" I would have figured that nobody within 20 miles knew what it was, but he did.