KnoxBreezer

Depends on where ya live, but it can be surprisingly easy to take a class, apply for, and receive a HCP (Handgun Carry Permit). The states that issue these usually offer reciprocity to each other. Instructional class and permit fees usually run $200-300.

It's a serious option to consider if you really feel exposed and often ride through unsafe or risky areas.

Mr_H

Don't think a handgun is something I can do really (Don't own one, not really inspired to own one, and my work place would go ballistic if I brought one (I work at a school, so I'm not even gonna touch that line of thought ))

CliftonGK1

Counter Assault (tm) bear spray, available at REI; includes multiple holstering options.
This stuff is really nasty, so if you're gonna use it, be careful and don't be downwind of it, or spray it straight forward while you're riding (ride into a cloud of it.) It's the 8 man boot party of pepper sprays, and you really don't want to get it on you.

CastIron

It's interesting to see some responses in these threads. Many folks (I've done it too) seem to really buy into one means of defense. I'll suggest that you consider having a few available and select avoiding/fleeing danger as your first. With the sole exception of nuclear weapons, nothing works in every scenario. Even Superman had kryptonite.

GGDub

I just use the force. I've been practising as a Jedi Knight now for 10 years. I find the mind trick has the best results.

Me:
"You don't want to rob me, you want to go home and have a beer."
Thug:
"I don't want to rob you, I want to go home and have a beer."

Cosmoline

bikingshearer 

It hasn't happened to me, knock on wood, but a guy I used to work with was once bike-jacked by a thug who stepped out of the shaddows and used his head for batting practice while he was riding by. No warning, no chance to react, no nothing but WHAP. He lived to tell the tale - he even came to in tiome to see the guy riding off with his bike. But this points out what another poster said: no weapon, tool or technique will protect you in all situations.

As for self-defense, I agree that awareness has to be your first and best method. I leave to each individual what, if any, back-up systems you choose. But far and away the best outcome for a confrontation is not to get into it in the first place. That means always, always, always listening to that voice in your head that makes you wonder if that guy over there is a little squirrely, or that tells you that you should have a bad feeling about that street. This was the message from the single best talk I have ever heard on self-defense, and was giving by a guy who was a bazillion-degree black belt in some form of martial art. He could slice and dice any five of us with his little finger, and he still firmly believed in avoidance whenever possible.

Zero_Enigma

Where the heck can I get one of those signs? I'd be riding around and hammering them into the sign posts around here.



Zero

Zero_Enigma

This story really makes me re-evaluate kitting my bike up. I think I'll have to reconfigure my bike to go light again so I can swing it around. Might have to (no joke) practice swinging the bike around just get comfortable with the feel incase a situation like the above happens. Yah it would be funny to see some guy doing "bike-fu" but it's your bike and life on the line. As the saying goes "to care what other people say to be to controlled by them". Screw what others say and try it out. Who knows, it may save you some time.

On the note of getting attacked, I've been fortunate not to have any physical attacks yet. My folks have always been "oh don't ride the bike on the road", "don't ride the bike at night", and "don't ride the bike during rush hour". While thier concerns are valid and are geniune for my safety one can be attacked/hurt any time and anywhere be it with a bike/car or on foot. So what are you to do? Ride that bike on your street to the stop sign only and back home say 100 times to make that equivlent to say 50km? Pfft.. heck no. Everyone grows with experience. I'm not going to shell up in a house with a bike/car I can't use. Use just have to be more aware of the area, people, etc.

A few nights ago I had a shake up encounter that could have esculated to a physical fight but I backed off last minute because I was not really trained or geared up for the situation. I was riding on a lite street and this guy in a TJ Jeeper with I think 4 people rides up behind me while I was trying to open a pack of rice puffs for a snack with my knife. Now nothing wrong with Jeeps. I own one but while riding the bastard yells loud at me startling me to almost fall off the bike and the wheel into the curb. I looked like a bunch of teenager kids. So I gave chase not knowing I had my knife in my mouth at the time. Thier Jeep was at a red light and boxed in with about 20 cars around. I passed them then got back on the sidewalk to go back up the sidewalk (that intersection is under construction and if I where to enage them conviently it's right by a larger general hospital). I stopped and looked back. The guy yells "What are you staring at" as I give them the finger. I was thinking of having a talk with them but with 4 people I was outgunned if a fight happened and I'm not sure they're drunk or not. Also if I did any damage the 20 cars there may not have seem what they did 2-3 blocks back so the story would probably be against me. Besides no physical damage was done to me (ie. thrown items or pushed off the bike or car forced you into the curb to run you in) to I backed off. Originally I was thinking as I had my maglite on me to smash the windshield in but I let the anger simmer then die off then left the opposite way.

Just be careful at night. I was riding at night when that happened. It's too hot in the day and that day was around 43-44C w/ humidex at night, ick. You could use some alternative spray method to pepperspray if your country does not allow it. Get a bottle at the drug store and fill it with bleach. Anyone that's gotten bleach around the nose knows it takes a good half a day or full day to get that smell out of the system. Shoot in the eyes and the targets not going to have a good day. Even the mist of bleach in the eyes stings. Warning I've heard bleach in the eyes can cause blindness. Not sure on that one but if someone else knows let me know.

Definately I think a good light of at least 10W would allow faster reaction time. I'm using some 2.5W Xeon I think right now and that barely gives me any reaction time in pitch black areas. You'd probably get a 1 second reaction time if you're going 5-7kph but at that speed someone running for you could get you. Looking to upgrade my lights soon as sundown is already creeping back 1-2 mins a day now.

Zero

CliftonGK1

Bleach in/around the face will seriously mess someone up. To the point that it is illegal to carry a mist sprayer or squirt gun full of it for the purpose of spraying people. It's a felonious assault charge in some places.
Bleach in the eyes can cause blindness.
Bleach in the mouth can cause chemical burns to the mucosal lining of the mouth, esophagus, and trachea. (depending on the amount and concentration of bleach, it can be lethal.)
Do not spray someone with bleach

NattookRuJunuik

thats the best story ever.

GGE

One Sunday afternoon when I was in graduate school, stopped on my bike at a red light at a busy intersection a block from my apartment, someone smashed my head with a brick (so I'm told by witnesses), then as I was losing consciousness, sucker-punched me in the mouth. I woke up in the ambulance; remember very little about exactly what happened. The crease in my skull lines up perfectly with the even larger crease in my helmet, which probably saved my life. Yet another reason to wear a helmet.

GTcommuter

A friend was riding home late one night. A guy stepped out from behind a post and hit my friend in the chest with a 2x4, hard enough to knock my friend off the back of the bike. Luckily he is 6'7", 230+, and was training for the national rowing team at the time. The next thing my friend remembers is waking up in the emergency room with cuts, bruises, and several broken ribs. His bike was leaning on the wall next to his bed. The nurses said he just walked in the front door and collapsed. He can't remember any other details of getting his bike back from the guy, but his injurys suggested a fight.

MichaelW

We have had a spate of bike jacking. The perpetrators seem to be older teenagers and the victims, younger ones. One 12 yr old girl was chased by a young man as she left a sweet shop. He pulled her off her bike and rode away on it. Another 13 yr old boy was stopped by two youths on a pedestrian bridge and forced to hand over his bike.

Cyclaholic

When I was 10 years old I was bashed while riding home from school by a couple of thugs, they beat me senseless and took my bike. They didn't have to be so vicious, they were triple my size and could have just taken the bike.

I started martial arts training once the bruises healed. I decided that I will not be a victim ever again. I've been training ever since.

When I was in my mid 20's I chained up my bike at the train station and shouldered my laptop bag. As I turned around two junkies jumped me - no warning, no option to hand over the bag or wallet, nothing, they just got stuck into me like animals. I left one unconscious and bleeding but the other somehow managed to get away. I decided to pay the extra fare and take my bike with me so they wouldn't mess with it after I left. There were a few people around but everyone just turned a blind eye, pretty much what I would expect in that sh*tty neighborhood.

digitalia

i saw a brief story on the news the other day that some guy in here in Toronto almost got jacked for his bike WHILE RIDING IT. i guess the perp ruffed him up pretty good, he ended up in hospital, but the guy didn't make off with his bike after all. i just remember seeing footage of this Specialized frame (MTB, i think?) jammed in the back of a cop-car as the guy was getting trucked off to hospital.

can't seem to find the link to the story online any where - anyone else here of this?

h00ligan

my friend was murdered by a serial killer on a recreational ride.

don't really want to go too into it, but here's the story. The second girl, Melanie. You really have to be careful and aware.. i always cringe when i see people listening to iPods on a bike.. in the daytime, you are just losing so much of the environment - at night time,well.. yah.