I do 95% of my riding on the trainer even though I have a bike trail right next to my house and countless miles of quiet, paved, rural roads right out my back door. For me, it's not as much about safety as it is about convenience. Most of my riding is done before the kids wake up or after they've gone to sleep, when it's dark outside. I've never been hit by a car or gone down on the road. Of course, the trainer is not without it's own risks. One night last fall, I put the kids to bed and started what I thought was going to be a solid interval session. All was well during the ten minute warm-up. I was staring mindlessly at the laptop on the small table in front of me as I had done so many times before. Five seconds into the first interval, it happened. I thought to myself, "That's weird, the table seems to be tipping over to the right." About a millisecond later, I realized it was actually me tipping over to the left. I don't know if it was the crash that woke the kids in the next room or the sound of me screaming like a little school girl, but they came running in to find me on my back with the bike above me. Still clipped in with the rear wheel spinning away like a buzz saw. I guess my instincts told me to tuck and roll. Fortunately, nothing other than my pride took a hit. I had always just left the bike on the trainer between rides, and apparently my six-year-old still likes to twist, turn, and rotate anything that moves. I now know that includes the trainer's clamping mechanism. In the end, we all had a good laugh that night; the boys learned a few new words; and I learned to check the setup before each and every ride.