gitarzan

A safe bike is also one that you are comfortable riding. That means well fitted as well as your personal preferences with regards to creature comforts. If you are having issues with your butt, back, hands, shoulders, or taint, you are more likly to be not paying proper attention to other issues at hand, such as traffic.

Tsuru

Not sure what a wheel diversion is, but I commute on my road bike, it's the bike I know. I believe if you commute on the bike you are most comfortable controlling, regardless of type, that's the safest option... assuming, of course, the rider is a smart, alert, and safe rider. None of this matters for folks who act like idiots out there (and man, I've seen them all and on all manner of bikes).

Sixty Fiver

Have you ever ridden a Raleigh Twenty ?

Braking issues aside (and these can be fixed) these are one of the most stable bikes ever made.

A lot of small wheeled and folding bikes also have this level of stability and believe this is one of the reasons so many people are buying them... not just because they can be transported but because there is a sureness about them when you are riding.

Many people I have talked to who ride folders are new to cycling or have returned to cycling after a log break and the stability of these bikes was one of the biggest selling features.

You won't race one but for urban riding they are excellent.

apricissimus 

I don't know if "wheel diversion" is a technical term, but I think I know what he means. It's held true in my experience that skinner tires are more prone to lateral movement in certain road conditions. I'm talking things like grooved pavement, seams in the road, things like that.

And oh yeah, there was the time I crashed hard after getting a wheel stuck in a groove in a trolley track recessed into the street. Bad move on my part, taking the track at a bad angle, but it would have been less likely to happen with a wider tire. (These might be atypical conditions though.)

Tsuru

Huh... well, if that's what he's talking about, a little awareness goes along way, skinny tires or not.

rydabent

Personally I still contend that a safe rider on a recumbent has several advantages. First of all you are not all humped up like a dog. Unlike DF riders you are not staring down or at your front whee.. That means you are sitting back with a 180+ view of whats going on. Your hands are on the brakes levers at all times. You are comfortable and at ease, so you are alert. Many recumbents have wider tires that will roll over many imperfectons in the road and not get caught.

UnsafeAlpine

Sounds exactly like a comfort bike, but without the learning curve of a recumbent.

apricissimus 

??

Tsuru

Yeah... lost me too. Even in the drops, flying along, I have a clear view of everything around me except maybe the sky directly above me. So, yeah, if you include the possibility of a plane crashing into you or a hawk swooping in for the kill, I guess 'bents are safer?