Handlebars - mine felt very wide to start with, but now that I'm used to them, I wouldn't dare to make them any shorter. Anyway, you need quite a bit of room on there for all the handlebar furniture - bell, levers, fluffy teddy etc.
Frame size - mine is also a 54 frame. I'm 6'1" and I found it easier to mount and dismount when I compromised and dropped the seat slightly from the (?) recommended height of lining it up with my hip-bone.
Falling off - I've done this twice, both at zero or near-zero speed. First time, I was riding down a narrow lane in town, slowed right down, put my weight onto my left foot, swung my right leg over to dismount and the extended back on my Berghaus jacket caught on the seat post. I fell off and felt very stupid; my pride was hurt more than anything. Second time, my wife and I were negotiating a hand-gate to the side of a cattle grid. I put my left foot down onto what I thought was evenly cut grass, but put it into a 4" depression (blame the varifocals?). I fell sideways straight onto the cattle grid - it didn't move and neither did I; I was pinned down by the bike and if any limb were to go between the bars on the grid, it would have ended up in the mud and cow-poo below. My wife, who thought I had been knocked out, lifted the bike off and set me free. Since then, my back has ached in a slightly different way and, after that, I lowered the seat another inch.
Security - a mate told me that he paid something like £110 a year for his bike with a specialist bike insurer. I mentioned leccy-bike insurance to my house insurer, and they have done it for something as low as £30 for the two bikes, so that's what we have. You never know how good your insurance is until you have to use it so, to be on the safe side, we treat the bikes as though they are uninsured and take no risks at all. We invested in AXA bike locks youtu.be/7be1NtK7e_4 they are brilliant, but the beefy chain alone weighs 2.15kg. I carry it in a rear pannier.
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