[icehog3]

I am sorry to hear of the loss of your friend as well, Vic, my prayers to her family and friends as well.

First off, I never trust anyone...anyone...when riding. I assume every car coming to an intersection may pull out in front of me, or turn in front of me. Confidence is important, but overconfidence can be deadly.

I also believe in a combination of riding both defensively and assertively. I ride asseretively to positions of relative safety. When the position becomes "less safe", I look for a safer position and put myself in it. Not only keeps me safer, but keeps my mind engaged and doesn't allow me to daydream or take anything for granted. One might think this makes riding less enjoyable, but I find that keeping myself in the safest possible position actually makes the ride more relaxing.

Riding wll never be as safe as driving in a 4 wheeled vehicle, as the protection just isn't there....but my way of riding has kept me relatively safe in almost 30 years of riding. One crash when I was overly tired and shouldn't have been riding....my decision making skills and reflexes were severly diminished. I stayed up in that crash, with no damage to me or my bike, but some decent damage to the SUV I sideswiped after avoiding a straight on collision. The other was my recent crash when a drunk bicyclist pulled right into my path....managed to brake to about 10 MPH before hitting the ground...just minor road rash and minor damage to the bike. A relatively cheap lesson about not assuming I am safe just because there isn't an opening large enough for a car to pull out in front of me in stopped traffic.

Ride safe my friends, and I promise to do the same. Like Vic, I want all my friends around at the next herf.