Lisa,
I'm not disagreeing with you!
I really think that I needed punished for my dogs actions on those two occasions, it would have been too bad for him to be punished, and either person would have been in his rights to defend himself - but it would have ruined my poor dog. Not the people's fault, not my dog's fault - MY fault.
the only area I maybe disagree with you is when you say (I'm paraphrasing) a dog that chases bikes shouldn't be loose - I'm not sure any dog should be lose and unattended - I've heard too many stories of dogs the owners thought were safe suddenly doing something genetically dog-like that the owners didn't expect. I have a next door neighbor dog that might open a single eyelid if a cyclist rode by - guess that kind of dog is OK to be out, but they are rare.
My encouragement for pepper spray as a last resort comes from the difficulty in knowing - I was brought down once by a dog when I stopped at a stop sign - didn't see it coming and I was on the ground being "attacked" - The second scariest tenth of a second in my life before I realized that the back of my neck was getting very wet, but not in any way damaged. The big loopy dog kept me pinned for a couple of minutes (I was still clipped in one foot and couldn't figure out how to get the big dog and bike off me) when a cyclist rode the other way, the dog obviously figured I was no fun and went running after that guy. That dog, which was 100% friendly, needed restrained by its owners and macing it might very well result in a fear aggressive dog. I never saw it again, and can only hope it's owners got it in the house and it didn't get hit by a car or hurt by a scared cyclist.
Reading this and similar forums for years, I've read a couple of times when people have used pepper spray on a dog - and it always seems like a reasonable thing to do under the given circumstances.