+1 on the mirror

In the event of an attack I see coming:

• Plan 1: ride like the wind, preferably someplace they can't follow
• Plan 2: long blast on my AirZound horn (works great for dogs; I hope it'd also work for human curs)
• Plan 3: collect as much information about the attackers as possible (license plate #, physical description(s), et cet), and report attack to police ASAP

Note there is no "Plan 4: pull out pistol and pull a Dirty Harry." Though, like most critters in nature, if cornered I will defend myself, I always want to de-escalate any situation. That's for my own safety. Do I even carry a pistol? That's for me to know and for punk to find out. Do You Feel Lucky?

Plan 3 is also in effect in case of an attack I don't see coming.

Those are plans, and I mentally rehearse them fairly regularly. I practice memorizing license plate numbers and describing people I see from quick glances. Practice really helps.

In reality, the one time I was attacked (beer poured on me from a car full of yuppie puppy teens), I was lucky enough to be able follow them undetected through city traffic to their destination, a movie theater.

After they went in, I used a key to let the air out of all four of their tires. This was risky: it took several minutes, made more noise than I'd expected and I could've gotten caught. Now I always carry a small pair of tweezers for quickly removing valve stem cores.

But this will only work if you can follow them undetected. I don't recommend it anyway. Plan 1, 2 and/or 3 all the way.