Nice to see you back, Sharon, and glad you're recovering. I've had my share of close calls and falls, but nothing in the same class as you and Emily have experienced. My accidents have all been road or trail induced, not collisions. I can appreciate, though, how it just takes a fraction of a second and how these collisions sometimes just can't be avoided. Hope you get a good summer of riding in.

Good to know you're safe and sound in N.C., Emily. Yup, any ride is better than not riding. Roads with no shoulders, though, not good. One thing about our area is that all roads have wide shoulders - not many paved, most are dirt - but always an option to head to the shoulder if need be. In fact, with the wide tire bikes, I often just ride the sand and gravel shoulders for fun when I get tired of riding pavement. (We have to have wide shoulders on our roads because of our heavy snowfall. No place to pile up the snow, otherwise.)

Got lucky and sold off two of the aluminum bikes at a reasonable price. Now have only steel bikes, with the exception of two of the fat bikes which are aluminum. I'm fine with aluminum on snow bikes or any bike that will be ridden a lot in the rain or mud. Probably more practical than steel, though I've ridden steel a lot in wet conditions, too