My only major crash happened when my daughter swerved in front of me as I was going about 13mph and I slammed on the front break. Talk about the sacrificial mom, that was me. The next thing I remember - vaguely - is the sensation of flying/flipping, landing on my left arm and the feeling of my helmet hitting my inner elbow. Next thing was my husband telling me to lie still while he lifted my bike off me. I had some pretty major injuries, not the least of which was a damaged tendon in my shoulder that required months of therapy.

I hadn't had KenyonChris's bike safety training, obviously. Today I rarely use the front break at all.

I've also had to stop suddenly to avoid people on the bike path. This one girl was walking in the middle of a narrowed part of the path (her mom, or an older woman, was walking to her right) talking on her cell phone, coming up on a curve. I yelled out, "On your left!" and she didn't hear me, or didn't think I was talking to her, so I went to go around her to the left and a couple on skates with dogs on leashes were coming toward us at a pretty fast clip. I back-braked and skidded to a halt right behind that girl on the phone. No one was hurt.

Having done both, I'd rather skid that flip any day.

Roxy