Mirrors are an offensive weapon. I check my mirror when I am about to do something. Every now and then I check just because I can. But I also know that 1/2 of bike accidents are collisions with fixed objects! Maybe the rider(s) should have been more focused on what was ahead? A mirror would not have given the o.p. enough warning to escape harm. Lights would not have given the DRUNK driver any incentive not to weave into the o.p. I'm saying this because of the advice the o.p. is getting to light up and get mirrored. As I said, I have these things. In some places they are mandatory. I just don't want the o.p. to have any illusions about how useful they are in keeping him safe.

I have a nice bright light to SEE with at night. It does not flash. It can but I don't use flashing in front. My rear lights flash and can be seen for many times the required 200'. That makes me legal. Not safe(r). The 1% of drivers that can take you out ... ... when it's your time ... ... that's not fatalistic. I'm just saying that the advice to choose roads with lower traffic loads is a great idea. But riding only on trails and MUP's?? Riding wouldn't have any place in my life if I had to throw the rig in the back of a car when I wanted to ride. My bike IS my car. I'm on it every single day, rain or shine, and I cannot completely avoid traffic. All I can do is reduce my exposure to the roads that do not have bike lanes or speeds over 30mph.

O.p.'s bike doesn't look that bad. I'd ride it. A shop can tell them if the frame itself has been damaged. All I see from here is the obvious: a new front wheel is deffo in their future. I dumped my motorcycle after only two months. I was on the New York Thruway at 60mph. The bike hit a guardrail almost instantly and was totally destroyed. I continued to slide for 1/8 mi. and burned off most of my clothing. Not a single broken bone. I was 22 and had saved for that bike for years. I never got another. By the time I might have been able to afford one again, I had a wife ... ... bikes, bicycles are a lot of what motorcycles bring you. I tell myself that. I would definitely try the bicycle thing again if the first crash left me in as good a shape as the o.p. is in. Godspeed.