Interesting topic.

I've just lined up four bear cannisters in front of me. Three have expired without being used. (Guess I'm doing something right.) The fourth I just bought from a reputable outdoors retailer.

All have 1% Capsaicin (except the one that recently expired, at 0.857%, which goes into the night stand).

I agree that there's no excuse for being without one. This is cheap insurance, and any rational person would not hesitate to carry or use it.

Good advice about keeping it very handy. There are stories of hunters stalking with loaded rifles who get blindsided by an angry bear just about every year. That's how quick a bear can be.

But of course, the hunters are trying to be quiet. Then there's me, solo, grinding down a trail in the Canadian Rockies in the sleet, and I've lost/misplaced my big bell. So as I go around the blind corners I'm belting out the only songs I can think of, which for some unfathomable reason are all out of The Sound of Music. "These are a few of my favourite &*$%#@ things! you stupid *($#@%* bear!" (True story.) No bears in sight; apparently they don't care for Rodgers and Hammerstein.