Stacy,

Some bikes are easier to ride than others. So try different ones. What you should be looking for in a bike is the feeling that you’re in control of the bike, not the other way around. So get someone who knows bikes to size one to fit you. It doesn’t have to be an expensive bike. But it has to fit your body, so that riding it is a pleasure.

Yes, falling over is going to hurt, and that’s going to happen. In fact, count on it happening. No matter how experienced or accomplished a rider is, crashes and wipeouts are going to happen. Therefore, dress appropriately: helmet, gloves, long sleeves, and long pants with cuffs secured. They won’t prevent the bruising that’s going to happen. But they will cut down on some of the road rash, so that you’re washing less gravel out of the wound.

Also, if you intend to do your grocery shopping on a bike, think seriously about how you’re going to carry those groceries home. Some people use bike baskets or panniers. Others use just a day pack. Obviously, no matter what cargo system you use, there is a practical limit on how much can be hauled. Therefore, you’ll find yourself shopping more often, which isn’t a bad thing, especially once you begin to organize your outings so that other errands can be accomplished on the same trip. The net result is that you’re getting out on the bike more often, which means you’re gaining experience, plus getting some exercise, plus saving money from not buying gasoline, plus avoiding one of the chief hassles of a car, finding a parking spot. With a bike, you can roll right up to the front door.

As several people have suggested, the key to riding a bike is ‘balance’, and balance is easier to achieve when there’s sufficient forward momentum. So really, really slow isn’t safe. That’s when falling over happens. What to you want is a nice, steady forward pace where turns and maneuvers can be anticipated and done gracefully. Once that "clicks" for you, which can happen in as little as five minutes, the hard part and the scary part of the learning is over. The rest of the stuff, being truly comfortable on a bike so that moves happen without conscious effort, comes from "time in the saddle".

Suggestion: Even though grass will cushion a fall, it is very hard to learn to ride on. What you want is a huge, flat surface, wider than an ordinary street, with no one else around. Your local grammar school playground with its typically paved surface is the ideal learning place. It's so big that you can learn to pedal figure eights without crashing into anything. Once you can do that, you're ready for the streets as long as you realize that cars and bikes don't mix well and that you have to stay out of their way no matter if you have the right of way or not. So riding on a street is far different that riding on a playground or a bike path, because defensively skills come into play, not just the mechanics of efficiently pedaling a bike.

Charlie