I know quite a few people who don't like to ride outside due to fear of being hit. For me, I don't think about it too much.The more time you ride outside without incident, the more confident you'll feel. I had a fairly serious bike crash and was jittery for the next few rides after I was able to ride again. Soon, I wasn't thinking about it anymore. Same thing happened after a car crash. I would have mild panic attacks driving at times, but the more I drove, the less they became. However, everyone reacts to things differently. See if you can find a relatively safe ride with little traffic to help build your confidence. Good luck and enjoy being outside!

Been hit twice

Only ride outside in industrial areas on the weekend, no traffic, and on bike trails/paths

I know exactly what you mean.

Earlier this year I was in a freak accident while riding by myself. No cars (thankfully) and no injuries (thankfully) but it really shook me up (basically I tried to duck under a low tree limb next thing you know my front wheel turns sideways, locks out, and I’m over the bars). It took me a week to even get on my trainer.

My advice:
-get a cheap set of rollers and practice on them. Get to the point where you can ride hands free or in the TT position. This will drastically improve your bike handling.
-try riding off road for a while. Stick to smooth single and double track
-when you get on your road bike again, consider riding on trails

Also, if you do ride on the road, invest in visibility. Bright lights, bright, contrasting colors... try to make it so you can be seen from space.

I ate it hard in April 2018 and haven't made it back outside yet. The wreck was my fault. I just lost control in aero. Luckily I only suffered road rash but it was a lot! Prior to the wreck, I rode inside mostly for convenience but was super confident outside. I realized I needed to practice handling a bit more. Recently got a set of rollers to practice handling. I plan to only ride outside for long rides as the race approaches. We'll see how that works.

i can definitely relate.

wasn't actually hit, but as I got older, I had the (perhaps irrational) sense that I was playing roulette, and that i'd be hit sooner or later. This occurred after I moved from DC, where I had a 3-mile loop for most of my riding. Once I moved to a more rural area, I had to be on roads with speed limit of 45 mph. Occasionally the limit was 35 mph, but cars still drove fast on those roads. Add the complications of narrow/non-existent shoulders and areas of limited sight range, and it just felt unsafe to be on the roads

that was summer of 2017, and I haven't done a real bike ride on my road or TT bike since. Zwift has helped much in keeping the indoor training bearable.

Oh May was like that for you to? I still haven't replaced my bike yet and just started jogging/running three weeks ago.

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Washed up footy player turned Triathlete.

Most of my rides consist of a repeated 3-Mile loop of bike-friendly neighborhood roads. The alternatives around here are just too risky for me (45 mph+ traffic and little to no shoulder).

I am from Ontario and the drivers up here pass way too close . I have been hit 3 x and I do 90% of my riding on the trainer and only ride outside on '' low flow roads'' on the weekends. I have grown to love my trainer .......

I do all my outdoor training, by doing 2 mile laps, on a traffic free section of bike path. I was in a race 33 years ago, where two of my friends were killed by a motor vehicle. The blood and the guts and gore and death have never left me. I do most of my training indoors. But then last year the lightbulb came on... if I can do a billion laps in the pool, why not do laps on my bike, away from traffic? So I found a perfect section of bike path, and that's what I've been doing ever since. Works out great, and even has a couple nice hills... so 25 laps, 50 miles, gets me 1500 ft elevation, and I don't get murdered by someone texting.

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Athlinks / Strava

I had a bad crash in February this year taking a sweeping right hand turn on a slightly wet morning, hit a spot of oil and went straight down. Came within a hair of cracking my hip and was on crutches and morphine for a few days. Really shook me up as I'm normally a decent handler and thought I was a good wet weather rider after 20+ years riding in the UK including over a decade of cycle commuting year round in all weathers.

I would say it took me a good 3-4 months to fully get my confidence back when cornering. I do 1-2 fast group rides most weeks, and for the first few weeks back on the bike I was a bit of a liability on anything more than a gentle bend - I was so slow that gaps were opening up in front and riders were coming round me. Things improved fairly quickly so I wasn't making a mess of the ride for everybody, but I was still very nervous approaching bends, and had to really force myself to keep pushing the envelop to get my confidence back. And dreaded finding myself on the front approaching a bend without a wheel to follow. I'm cornering as fast I as was pre-crash now (even got complimented the other week when I led a small breakaway through a series of bends and we increased our gap on the rest of the group), but it's still on my mind with every corner and on days when there's any water on the road then I'm not taking any risks.

I've fallen off a couple of times as my own fault, just low speed slip outs that leave me with a little bit of road rash and these don't really worry me much. But, I was hit by a car earlier this year. It overtook me, pulled in and then swung out to pull a U-turn right in front of me. I hit it side on at 28mph and broke a couple of ribs and an 8 day old bike... When I got back out there a month or 2 later I was a lot more nervous than before for sure. Previously i'd always had a sense that as long as i didn't do anything stupid then the laws of the universe would somehow keep me safe and this event had shattered that illusion and for the first time i now felt vulnerable.

I have dealt with this by optmising the controllable elements of the risk. I ride very very early. (In summer i'm out by 5am and i generally don't see a car for the first 30 minutes). I ride on quiet roads only, and at quiet times. I wear red instead of black now. I have a front light/camera and I have a rear light/camera as well as another rear light. I don't ride after work anymore as that is when people are tired and driving home and i am very aware of picking routes where i won't be at increased risk due to a low hanging sun.

In many ways i'm looking forward to winter when i can Zwift/Sufferfest/TR for 100% of my riding without feeling that i'm missing the great outdoors as much.

I just decided to do most training indoors. Trained for my first Ironman with only 3 outdoor rides and everything else on the trainer. I still take the bike out the month before the race to make sure I get a feel for it again. Also bought a mountain bike last week and plan to use that a lot to build up handling skills. I realize it's not a direct comparison to the tri bike, but I believe it will help. Plus it's a change of pace from being on the trainer without having to get on the road.

I've been hit by a car in college, but somehow got over the fear. Crashed twice. Once was in a race near the dismount where I was doing a flying dismount and hit a patch of mud/ algae. Very slow, but smacked my head. Other read at 25 mph, but bailed into grass and walked away with nothing but some bent bike components. The crashes dont bother me that much. I'm a more observant rider because of them. The car accident in college started bringing fears back recently. A lot more traffic and construction where I ride and a few "aggressive" passes on the last rides I did made me realize the trainer is doable. Ironman showed me 2.5 hours inside wont kill me and that's enough for a 70.3. Sold the road bike and got the MTB.

There was an article in one of the cycling magazines a few years back that referenced what is most visible on a cyclist (to drivers). If I recall correctly, it was the helmet and socks, and not the kit. The reason for this is the movement associated with the moving legs and swiveling head. From real world experience, I believe this to be true as well. Riding with my wife and her friends, they were about a half mile up the road and the two items that stood out were my wife's bright yellow helmet and her friend's bright yellow socks.

I've also started riding with a blinking red light on the back of my bike.

The idea of riding inside only scares me far more than the thought of being run over on the open road...

I've never had a bike-car accident so far (knocks on wood) and I haven't been scared of riding outside. But the more I frequent bike and triathlon forums the more I get the idea in my head that a sizable portion of posters or even a majority of regular posters have had bike-car accidents at some point and that scares me. So yeah, I'm starting to get scared, because if what I said above is true I'm getting the feeling I might be "due for an accident" at some point. The jury is still out on how rational that kinda thinking is though...

Also, if you do ride on the road, invest in visibility. Bright lights, bright, contrasting colors... try to make it so you can be seen from space.


In 2014 I was hit on my touring bike in Oregon. In the month of August that year, there were 12 touring cyclists hit with 8 being killed. I was one of the lucky ones to have survived. Every one of those cyclists, including myself, was wearing bright contrasting colours, with large pannier bags. In my case, the driver said he didn't see me in the bike lane with all my bright gear. In other cases, the drivers were distracted for one reason or another.


It's important to be visible of course but I wouldn't put too much value on it when the problem is distracted drivers.

The day I'm afraid to ride my bike outside is the day I find a new hobby. This is a classic example of confirmation bias in the information age.

This. It's a miracle that I survived my 41- and 33-mile solo rides here in densely populated central NJ this weekend.

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"Go yell at an M&M"

I am still skittish after a near accident. I am on a trainer for 95% of my rides. On the road, I never count on a really effective ride outdoors -- I just do an equipment shakeout on the road.

This reminds me of when I was at a surf spot in West Australia years ago and I nervously asked a couple of local surfers about "have there been any shark attacks near here?"

Without missing a beat he answered. "Nah, mate. I reckon we're about due for one though..."

This. I don't trust the drivers around where I live so I don't even chance it.

Been there and know the feeling; have been hit once (somehow walked away with just some bruises and soreness) and then ate it another time by myself at high speed with multiple breaks and an internal injury that had me in the hospital for four days and needing surgery. I was very skittish getting back on the bike outside the following spring and it took a long time to get comfortable again. The bulk of my rides during the week are in the basement on the trainer given my work/family schedule but I get outside most weekends between late March to whenever the snow starts. I ride early whenever possible and stay mainly on quiet roads to avoid heavy traffic areas, and always ride defensively, looking ahead at intersections, driveways etc plus always looking for potholes, rough pavement and other road hazards. I know this doesn't make me crashproof but it helps give peace of mind in being aware of my surroundings.

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"You can never win or lose if you don't run the race." - Richard Butler

I have a wife, 3 kids and a full time job to support the family.

In no way am I interested in getting creamed by someone not paying attention or being a jerk on the road.

85% of my rides are indoors when the sun is up around 5am. That allows some road time on the weekends with minimal traffic.

Now that it's 7am before significant light and we have full weekends of activities, I'm pretty much 100% indoors.

I believe there are benefits I'm missing being on the road, but the benefit of the worst thing that can happen is I fall off my trainer in the basement outweighs it.

Do what you feel best and will get you to your racing goals.

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Ryan
http://www.SetThePaceTriathlon.com
http://www.TriathlonTrainingDaddy.com
I got plans - https://www.trainingpeaks.com/...dotcom#trainingplans

Just as a quick updated -

After my 70.3 I continue to ride inside until 2 week ago when I start to build to my last race in this season - an Oly local race this morning

Including today's race I have to say I rode about 50-60 miles outside.

Have to say I'm not scared of every single corner and was pretty proud of my confidence level this morning.

Guess it does come back eventually but as some people shared nowadays w/ all texting going on there is no flashy kit that could prevail someone to hit you. - some people apparently are really passionate about only doing rides outside but I do believe a 70% indoors build up to a HIM could only be beneficial

This season the next purchase for sure will be a better trainer and explore Swift. Maybe I can ride ( for 2 minutes ) w/ LS or Frodo!