When i ride I think I'm probably much more responsible than my friends, who like riding in the middle of the street and stuff.
I live in a smallish town so there's not much traffic, the village roads have sidewalks but I live about a mile or two outside of the village so there's no sidewalks. The speed limits are about 30mph but there's generally large shoulder's I can ride on. I always try to stay as far from the cars as possible but sometimes I can't help it. and i like to ride fast; need for speed and with my worn out breaks I should be more careful on the buisier streets but somtimes I find myself weaving throuhg traffic.
When I'm offroad though I'm kind of crazy, although i never go alone and I have my "saftey pack" as I like to call it. So somtimes I'll take extra risks knowing that even if I hurt myself I probably won't die.
I live across the street from a huge gorge with a large creek (almost a river) in it. So if I go the half mile ride down the street there's this really long bike path i liek to ride on. It has tons of trees and rocks and big hills so I just freak out and go as fast as I can without busting myself or my bike. The only time I slow down is next to the gorge. It's like a 80-100 foot drop and in some places you're on this wicked trail about a foot from a sheer drop. That's major freaky.
When i ride I always have my helmet and there's refelctors on my bike plus I wear gloves to stave off the blisters that alwas come with lots of hard riding but I really should get one of those reflective vests for days when it's not so bright outside.
Personally, I like to build my muscles a lot, so i keep it on a high gear to keep my legs (and somtimes my arms on rough terain) burning. But I also liek to go fast so somtimes on the roads I slip into a lower gear and just go as fast as my legs can move.
For some reason I never seem to get out of breath like my brother, which I guess means I've been getting a good cardio workout like I want to but I still can't run more that about 3/4 of a mile without wishing I was dead. I'm probably just out of shape after the winter though because I used to be able to go a lot farther last summer, but I still don't know.
I ride both for excersice which I desperatly need after sitting all day and being bored and I also do it for recreation because I'm a seriously stressed out person (anxeiety disorders run in the family) so when I ride it's the only time I can relax and stop worrying about this and that.