I'm a mainly utilitarian rider, though I often ride for fun, too. 90% of my travel is by bike, because I gave up the car. I have an old steel-frame hard-tail hybrid bike with road tires, platform pedals, and a rack with panniers. When fully loaded, the rig weighs a ton. I rarely go much faster than 25 mph, mostly because I live in a hilly city with dense traffic. It's a large urban area with a mostly bicycling-friendly culture, but stangely enough, very little bicycle-specific infrastructure. As a result, the vast majority of my riding is VC, though I prefer to ride on MUPs, if they happen to take me where I want to go. I mostly ride on 30-35 mph arterials and residential streets. I avoid main roads with speed limits exceeding 40 mph unless I have no choice. I don't ride on sidewalks, and I do try to maintain a civil relationship with the many motorists I encounter. (I've had very few altercations with motorists, and only one where the driver questioned my right to be on the road.)