How to protect self on a bike?

I had a scary incident on an isolated nature bike path today. A tweaker on a bike was giving me creepy vibes. I unfortunately ignored my gut instinct (first mistake) and ended up behind him. I planned to pass him as quickly as possible, but he glanced back and saw me coming, so he swerved his bike to the left to block my path. I sped up and zipped around him, yelling "What are you doing?" as I passed. He punched me in the shoulder (very weakly).

I'm assuming his intentions were most likely to steal my expensive-looking bike. (Not sure what his plan was, since I'm a fit adult man, and he was a tweaked out, scrawny man-child.) Or he was just looking for a fight.

Far less likely is that he was trying to stop me to talk to me, try to sell me drugs or something, and punched because he was angry I yelled and blew past him. Or he was on drugs and wanted to turn around, and thought he had more time. (I don't think so since he definitely saw me as he was veering and seemed to go out of his way to block me, and after the incident he continued going the same direction as me.)

I'm processing the incident, and am generally thankful it went as it did, and he didn't have a knife, or have a strong punch, and that he wasn't successful in stopping me. I've been running through it to learn from it, and to better understand how to keep myself safe in the future. I'd love to hear your thoughts on what I could do better next time.

What I did right (I think)-----------

Noticed the sketchy tweaker and recognized him as a threat

Took the strategy of running away rather than stopping

Resisted temptation to curse him out once I was past him, rode away quickly

What I did wrong (I think)-----------

Ignored my instinct (I should've stopped or turned around at first vibes, shouldn't have followed him)

I'm curious to know if you have any ideas about what could help in this situation. I think the key strategy was correct--to get away--but my main curiosity is what happens if he had successfully blocked me, and I was forced to stop. It seems like too late at that point to reach for pepper spray or any other kind of weapon. I'm not trained in self-defense/martial arts.

A second, scarier question would be how to handle that scenario if he'd stopped me when I was with my ten-year-old son biking.

Submitted July 03, 2024 at 12:10AM by bonsaitreehugger https://ift.tt/2g1eivw