Recumbent - Falling and crashing

Is it hard to balance a recumbent? Pardon my ignorance but I just can't resist.
What about falling and crashing? To my uneducated eyes it looks as though it would pretty hard to jump off and avoid falling/crashing.

Hard to balance? Not really - maybe a 5-10 minute learning curve is all it takes to be steady, and perhaps a week or two to be really confident with handling.
Falling/crashing? Yes, I've done both, but it was due to not clipping out fast enough from the clipless pedals than to the laid-back position. I've crashed on my MTB, too, for the same reason. Difference was: on my recumbent I fell all of 16 inches down to the pavement (you can guess how bad the fall was on the upright MTB!) I'm familiar with road rash!
No, I can't jump off my recumbent like my MTB and I don't have the advantage of body English to hop curbs and other obstructions. I do find that in an emergency stop, if I just drop a leg off the cranks fast enough I can usually avoid going down (easier to do, of course, if you're using platforms) - and I'm still seated!
On the other hand, banking steeply into a really fast turn under full spin is unlike any upright biking experience, believe me! Riding my recumbent has actually improved my balance and turning abilities on my MTB.
I feel like I'm getting the best of both worlds!

Putting your foot out makes good sense. That is what I do on a motorcycle. The whole recumbent thing looks, and sounds like a blast.

Re***bents don't just look like a blast, they are a blast.

As for emergencies, with a bent, it is much easier to just put your feet down than on a regular bike. If your are unable to avoid a fall, bents' are in general much safer that uprights because if you fall, you fall on your side and not directly on your head such as you would with an over the bars incident which is next to impossible to do on a re***bent no matter how hard you apply the front brake.

I have long pondered the relative safety of recumbents. They definitely have the edge in mishaps involving the front wheel, but I still worry about sitting so low in traffic.

What happens on a 'bent if you hit an unavoidable pothole. On an upright, an inexperienced rider will go over the bars, but more experienced riders hop the obstruction. Ive only once hit a pothole full on , with a loaded touring bike, and that gave me a real jolt but no other damage.

I can see real advantages, during this icy weather, in riding a bent trike. Has anyone ever tried skidding on ice in them? Id like to know how they handle.

Originally posted by MichaelW
I can see real advantages, during this icy weather, in riding a bent trike. Has anyone ever tried skidding on ice in them? Id like to know how they handle.

Here's a product page for a trike:

http://yellowbike.com/products/rider.html

Down near the bottom of the page is a link to a QuickTime movie of some guys riding around on ice and snow. It looks like a trike might be *the* way to cycle in icy weather, but they're awfully expensive machines to subject to those conditions.

You have to be more careful when riding a recumbent. These bikes are too expensive to wreck them. I test rode a Bike E and was super careful not to do any damage since a fall could cost a couple or several hundred dollars in repairs. I believe the reason you don't hear about recumbent accidents is because the average bent rider is older and more responsible. If you drive like a bike messenger, don't get a bent. These bikes don't turn as well as a road bike and they are certainly not as nimble. Although they tend to stick out when riding in the street, you never really feal secure since the car's bumper is almost at your level.

Still.. I think they're the best bikes in the world.