1. Just watch for the rush hours. Here it's 7-8am and 5-6pm. The rest of the time there's a lot less cars to deal with. I don't worry about it though. If I have time to ride at 6pm I'm going at 6pm. I'd rather die on my bike than eating hamburgers watching Desperate Housewives.

2. I hope so, then I can take all that money I spend on condoms and buy a carbon fork.