scared to death!

[tulip]

Are you a psychiatrist? You hit in on the head in one post. Man, my therapist would have an attack if I told her that! You could be earing 150 an hour for those skills!

No, I'm not, but I'll send you a bill .

Just seems like common sense to me...it's your life, what do you want to do? Of course, you may not know until you try it out for a while.

[denny]

I've never ridden a bike in my life until now at age 40. Got hooked on spinning and my tri friends convinced me to take it outside. As of today:
I have had a total of 6 falls (4 of them moving) with 2 nasty cases of road rashes "ruining my fab legs",as a result. 2 sprained fingers that hasn't healed since April, 3 panic attacks at the very sight or sound of a vehichle. I'm extremely fit but need to work more on core strength for balance. Fellow riders call me chicken butt (bad posture) and I can barely make it up the hills in my local park for a 5.75 mile lap. Why do I hang with it? Because it's really true, the more time you spend in the saddle the easier and more skilled you'll become. We'll eventually get over the panic if we learn to "own" our right not only to the bike, but to the road too. By the way, i've found MTN bike pedals work great for a first time newbie trying to clip in. Hang in there.