The psychological aspect of getting back on the road is one of my largest road blocks (no pun intended). Riding on the local bike paths doesn't really bother me, however out of personal preference I would rather ride on the road so slowly ramping up is probably the best course of action.

Ever since my accident I've been second guessing myself, wondering if perhaps I became too comfortable with being on the road with cars. I keep wondering if there was anything I could have done to prevent the accident. I was riding north bound and she was driving south bound. I did see her, however I took my eyes off her to see what the track was doing in to the right of me. All I remember was seeing "something" coming at me off to the left. How she didn't see me I'll never know. By the time I was able figure out what was going on it was too late. I couldn't even get a colorful metaphor out of my mouth before I hit her car. She was very freaked by the whole thing and I think she was ready to bolt the sceen. Here is the deal with trying to get money from her. Her insurance policy is for minimal and there is no property damage coverage. She doesn't own the car. She doesn't own a home and lives with her family. She is close to 70 years old which means she is probably close to retirement (I think she is still working). It was an accident and I know she feels terrible about it. She called me at the hospital and was in tears. I kinda doubt that she would be faking it. I do have lawyers and we are pursueing a route that will hopefully not require me to go after her personal resources. I'm not the type of person to be vendictive or revengeful, but I do want something to pay for what has come out of my pocket.

As far as making sure my family is protected "in case something happens", yes I did that about a year ago and I'm thankful that I did.

Thank you so much for all of your support and advice. I can't tell you how much I appreciate it all. I think tomorrow I will get out on the local bike path and start to ride again.

May the wind be at your back (unless of course you like head winds). :-)

Yeah!!

Good for you.

Most of all, make it an enjoyable, relaxed, easy ride.

Well, I guess I will put another slant on this one.

I have read up on bicycle fatalities. About 800 are suffered per year. Of these, about 80% are car/bike accidents (I don't know what the others are).

The interesting thing is that for hour of activity, cyclists have half the risk of motorists! I know cycling FEELS much more dangerous. I think this is because every near miss comes close to ME and that is scary. In a car, I think a lot of people don't even notice when something comes close to a fender or not. Also a large percentage of vehicular deaths are caused by DUI and going to sleep at the wheel and just plain inattentiveness. Cyclists tend to not ride whilst intoxicated, or very sleepy, and if they are inattentive, they lose that habit quickly.

The odd thing is that the fatality rate of cyclists is really overstated. Very nearly 50% of the fatalities occur when it is dark. How many cyclists ride while it is dark anyway? I do predawn training rides with an active lighting system. I bet that the vast majority of the nighttime bicycle fatalities were riders without lights.

Also, a significant percentage of fatalities were suffered by children. I think that day riding adults have something like 1/8 the fatality risk of motorists.

I saw one place that broke down bicycle fatalities by time of day and day of the week. When are most of the bicycling miles ridden? I would bet Saturday and Sunday mornings when the club rides occur. But when I examined the data, Saturday and Sunday mornings had, if anything, lower fatalities then week days. It seems that club rides have nearly a 0 fatality rate.

Remember, all I am talking about are fatal accidents.

Keep the pedals spinnin':thumbup:

One possibility that I did not see mentioned, take up mountain biking. If only to get back on the bike and get the feel of it again.

That way you can go out and hit some nice easy fireroads where the only other trafic will be other trail users and take your time getting back in the groove and keep riding.

Then when you are ready too, get back on the road.

Or you could get a cyclecross bike so you could ride the dirt roads and every now and then venture out on the street.
With the cross bike you will not loose to much to your old road bike but it will feel more at home then the mountain bike when you hit the road.

Once again I say, Keep the pedals spinnin' .

It will also give you another way to spend time with your daughter out side being active. And just think of the fun you will have teaching her how to ride:D


Slainte:beer:

Sorry for your injury. I hope you will be OK.

Unfortunately the car violence affests not only cyclists but also pedestrians and drivers themselves, everyone.

If anything else would kill violently or injured that many people, it would be stopped one way or another. But with the Car-Culture it goes on and on.

Someone even drew a poster about the car violence:

The mountain bike solution was going to be my answer but someone said it first. Mountain biking is fine unless your going to do technical jumps, which would you'll put you in a worse situation. Your're going to have to take it easy. Go slowly.

Everyone out there is not the same type of rider. There are some people out there that can handle speed and others can't. I know I'm no the type that can handle 20 mph on a bike in city streets as I'll probably get myself killed. I don't know what kind of rider you are but at that speed anything can happen.

What's wrong with going slow? Seriously. I'm a slow rider who rarely goes over 12 mph. I'm more of a cruiser type with no rush or deadlines to meet. If I'm late for work, that's too bad. I'm not about to kill myself on a bike for an extra dollar.

It may be time to trade the road bike for a slow hybrid with low pressure tires. This will prevent you from going fast and you'll get more exercise than the road bike at a lower speed. When you think about it, you have nothing to prove and a lot to lose by going fast. It may be time to retire the Lance Amstrong special and get a bike that you can smell the roses with.