Strava is not the reason that other bicyclists stop to check on you. At least, I hope it isn't, but I've never ridden on the left coast, so maybe things are different out there. In the places that I've ridden, your bicycle is your shibboleth, and was so before online communities (or at least that was my experience, prior to participating in rec.bicycles in the mid/late 80s).

I've had other bicyclists stop to check on me, and I've stopped for them, and I think that the reason for that is that we were _outside the village_ at the time. I don't think that many cyclists would stop if you're on a suburban street, unless you are clearly trying to fix your bike; ten miles outside of town, it's a very different situation.

As a motorcyclist, I've seen similar behavior with waving: when riding in the country, all motorcyclists wave, including Harley riders. In the city, very few do. In the middle of Wyoming, where you might not see another vehicle for 15-20 minutes, everybody waves: motorcycles, cars, pickups, tractor-trailers, _everybody_.

And while the village of bicyclists is a great thing, a community, it suffers from the same ills as any insulated villlage. Around here, groups of bicyclists tend to clog the roads on a Saturday morning, riding three-abreast so that they can talk to each other. Having done some group rides elsewhere, where a single-file peloton was sacred, I originally came to the conclusion that it was the natural effect of putting Philadelphians on bicycles. But really, it's the effect of a village that feels secure enough to intentionally insulate itself from the rest of society.