"The odds of being injured riding fast on a singletrack trail are higher than the likelihood of encountering a bear. The point is not to protect cyclists from themselves. Instead, we hoped to protect bears from the inevitable knee-jerk calls for their eradication — in that park or in the municipality."

Do you have examples of the mountain bikers (this is the group we are talking about) calling for the eradication of wildlife?  You do realize that wildlife encounters are part of the reason we ride?  Same reason most anyone goes into woods.  Doesn't really seem like this argument was well thought-out.