Shootingstar,
i was actually thinking of starting a thread about it when I made that post. Glad to know it made you think about this too.

But I wasn't thinking about the basic safety stuff like wearing a helmet and checking your tires or bringing water or ID. That's like puttin gon your seatbelt and bringing your ID with you in the car. No, I was thinking about accumulated effect of adding of all the other little things that together might make someone just decided "Oh the heck with it!" and not go for that ride at all.
I read regularly here where women have a hard time getting motivated to get on their bike, and often the excuse becomes related to all the preparations and special stuff you have to do or wear beforehand.

My big step last month was abandoning the added step of recording my mileage and average speed after every ride. The heck with that. Now I just leave the computer on the bike and set it back to zero after each ride. (I do like to know how many miles some rides are, since we do a lot of varied rides in the countryside here). I've also stopped adding electrolyte powder to my water bottle, except for rides of over 25 miles now. I used to ritualistically put it in my water every time.