PORTLAND, Ore. - Are cyclists in our area under attack?  More riders are coming forward after KATU News first introduced you to two cyclists who were beaten up by a gang of girls in north Portland.

So what do the attacks have in common? From what we can tell, the attackers are not looking to steal.  They tend to be random groups of kids out to harass and cyclists tend to be good targets simply because they are not protected, like they would be if they were in a car.  The other thing they have in common is the neighborhood.

"I've never been hit in the face before, so it was quite shocking," said cyclist Shannon Nichols, who was slapped in the face while stopped at a light on North Vancouver last September. "She said something to the effect of 'you gave me the same look the night before and I'm going to wipe that smile off your face.'"

Nichols came forward after hearing about what happened to Ashley Gorman and Heather Moles.  The two were riding home from work in north Portland earlier this month when three young women attacked them. "I felt the thud and then the tire went, and I went skidding down the road," Moles said in a KATU News interview following the attack. 

"There is a tendency to sort of slough it off as kids on bikes or whatever, but these are people getting to work, going to appointments and running errands, just like they would be in a car or anything else," said Jonathan Maus, who is behind the blog BikePortland.org.

He said he was surprised that so many people wrote in to say they were harassed in the very same area.  And most of the cyclists do not think their attacks were because they were on a bike.  Often, racial slurs were thrown out along with the punches.

"I think bicycles are a symbol in some ways of an influx of a different class of people coming into these neighborhoods," said Maus. 

"I'm not really sure if I was targeted," said Nichols.  "I think I was just convenient."

Whatever the motivation is, Nichols and other cyclists want a solution before anyone else gets hurt.

It is important to make the point that thousands of cyclists ride through north Portland every week just fine.  As for solutions, one idea is to put more police out on bikes, but right now it is just that, an idea.