In junior high, I was already doing my own bike maintenance. From time to time, it became necessary to transport a disabled bike down to The Spoke in the Table Mesa Shopping Center. What better way to do so than to push the stricken bike while riding on another one? A bit of experimentation revealed that grasping the second bike across the handlebar stem afforded me complete control over where that bike was headed.
My new skill came in handy a short time later. There was a bully that went to the same junior high, and rode his bike to and from school along the same route through the Bureau of Standards. It was not a through street for cars, and crossed some undeveloped grassland for about an eighth of a mile. Away from observing motorists and residents, he felt like he could get away with anything -- such as shoving me off the roadway or trying to put sticks in my spokes.
The day he came up and prepared to force me off the road, I simply reached across and placed my right hand on his handlebar stem. It didn't take him long to realize that the situation had changed completely. His nasty/smug look disappeared almost instantly. After I plotted a new course for him that veered gently away (well, maybe there was a rock or two on the shoulder that he had to avoid), he left me alone on that day and ever after.
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