Getting a bike for my wife

On Mar 26, 7:40 am, wrote:
On Mar 26, 7:18 am, "Donga" wrote:

Generally, in my experience, males are very dismissive of the concept
of involving your partner in your sport/hobby of choice.

See this post, the above joke about golf, pretty much any male that I
go sailing with - it is always the same gear - you have to fight for
your time, or trick your partner to get the time away, why would you
ever choose time with your partner over sailing/cycling/whatever you
do.

I have no problem getting time away to go cycling, but I actually like
my wife and enjoy spending as much time with her on the weekend as I
can - going for a three hour ride on a Sunday really cuts into that
unless I get up and do it at 5.00am and I am not that way inclined.

A sensible partner will support their other half doing what they like.
I invite mine to join me for coffee afterwards.

Just wanted to comment on a few things that have been said....

Wrote:
Generally, in my experience, males are very dismissive of the concept of
involving your partner in your sport/hobby of choice.I can see why. Whilst I would always encourage other women to ride
bikes, it can be really frigging annoying to have someone tagging along
who really slows you down, until they get better/fitter/both, week in
week out.

My partner and I both ride, and both did so before we met. But we
don't ride together much at all - in fact I think we've ridden together
once this year. Put simply, I slow him down. He says he doesn't mind,
but just knowing he's faster than me makes me hurt.

Whilst a lot of the time, we ride at the same time, it would be no
different if I were boar hunting, stick throwing or knitting when he's
riding, or vice versa.

Wrote:
See this post, the above joke about golf, pretty much any male that I go
sailing with - it is always the same gear - you have to fight for your
time, or trick your partner to get the time away, why would you ever
choose time with your partner over sailing/cycling/whatever you do.
See, I don't know why anyone should have to 'fight' for their own time
or trick their partner into doing something. It's healthy to have your
own time to do your own thing. If I'm not happy about my partner going
riding it's usually if we have something already planned, or he doesn't
give me any notice (but even then I normally don't have a problem with
it). Time away from me is what makes him who he is, and I appreciate
that.

Wrote:
I have no problem getting time away to go cycling, but I actually like
my wife and enjoy spending as much time with her on the weekend as I
can - going for a three hour ride on a Sunday really cuts into that
unless I get up and do it at 5.00am and I am not that way inclined.
Why not? It's the best time of day to ride!

Wrote:
Maybe when I am as old as the people who share there views on these
things with me I will be as bitter as them. I hope not.I think it's great to have more women out there on their bikes, but I
think far too many of them do it just because their partner does, and
just so that they can spend time with their partner. That seems sad to
me. Anyway, that's just my observation.

A friend of ours recently took up cycling, and he's so hooked it's not
funny. He bought his wife - who is a lovely, lovely lady - a bike, but
she's just not as into it as him, and he's saying "Gee, look I spent all
this money on a bike for her" etc. I think that's a real shame, because
I do think she was pressured for the sake of spending more time with
him.

By all means, get her a bike. But don't get her a bike if it's not
something she's really interested in. And don't expect her to always
ride with you. Riding with faster people is really quite confidence
shattering

Cheers,
LH


--
LotteBum

LotteBum wrote:

Whilst a lot of the time, we ride at the same time, it would be no
different if I were boar hunting, stick throwing or knitting when he's
riding, or vice versa.

He knits while you hunt boar?

Theo

Theo Bekkers Wrote:
He knits while you hunt boar?Yep.


--
LotteBum

wrote:


How do you figure?

Less balance issues, less likely damage, more useful

I don't know if you would find people who are hard core into skating
would agree with you there, and the fact that you call it "Roller
Skating" shows the level of information that you have on it.

Yer, it thrills me beyond bladder control {:-)



Just because cycling costs a lot more and has more shiny gear doesn't
make it more legitimate as a hobby or form of exercise.

Never been a consideration for me. I've never seen any benefit in lycra
or bikes above $500.

LotteBum wrote:
and without doubt THE best ladies seat in the world
(my neither regions are in fine shape after 85km yesterday and a quick
25km recovery ride this morning, where I'd normally be quite sensitive
- sorry if that was too much info).

Brand and model of seat?
It is an issue here, so I might suggest it toswmbo.

On Mar 25, 7:36 pm, wrote:
My wife has been showing an interest in coming cycling with me.


[chomp]

Suggestions anyone?

Lots of things have floated past in this thread, but thus far, as far
as I've read, no-one's pointed out the difficulty of riding with a
partner. If you're a semi-serious cyclist or more, and she's a once
every week or so rider, you may not be likely to enjoy riding
together. Mainly because, you won't be. Your power output will, most
likely, even at uncomfortably low effort, be more than she can do
unless she gets serious. She probably won't be able to hold your
wheel even when you're tootling, and you'll both end up frustrated,
her, because you've flogged her to death and she'll feel awful, and
you, because you'll think she's lazy for not sucking your wheel when
you're taking it so easy. If you slap her on some dunger flatbar,
it'll make it even worse. This is not a good experience.

But, there's an option that is worth considering, if you do want to
ride together, try a tandem. You can't drop her on a tandem, and you
can put in as much power as you want and all she has to do is turn the
same cadence. Tandem's aren't cheap, a road tandem will set you back
around $4,000+ new, but you can get 'street' tandems for around $1,200
new (Apollo tandem sport, for example). You can probably hire one to
try too.

Worth considering anyway.

On Mar 26, 2:58 pm, LotteBum LotteBum.2o1...@no-
mx.forums.cyclingforums.com wrote:
Theo Bekkers Wrote:

He knits while you hunt boar?Yep.

--
LotteBum

ROTFLMFAO

I am a wife! A few years ago hubby had a crook knee, so had some surgery and
bought a bike. Well like all wives - I wanted what he had so off I went to
LBS and bought a Topanga MTB. Fairly top of the range bike in its day.
Sheesh that bike hurt! I tried so hard to do what hubby was doing on his
bike, but I was always the tail end charlie, always the one he was waiting
for. We then inherited a Tandem, and wow I loved to get on that with him. We
did thousands of kms, all over Far North Qld with panniers, tents, all the
gear. The MTB gathered dust.
We then did the Coast to Coast ride up here on the Tandem and I was in awe
of all these women, yes some were on fancy road racers, but some were on
Hybrids and I got it into my head that if I could sell the MTB maybe i
needed to get a Hybrid. Sale was made and I lost $500. With my $200 return
I bought a $450 Hybrid and was rubbished beyond belief because I had never
acheived much on the MTB. Slowly I worked up from being stuffed after riding
6kms to and from work to making a round trip of 45kms to get to and from
work. I bought a pair of knicks and a fancy riding shirt LOL. On my days off
I was off on my own doing 75kms rides up and down the hills of the
Tablelands. THEN I discovered other friends who wanted to ride, so we did a
few overnighters with full panniers. Yep, I sold that Hybrid before Xmas,
lost $200 and have just bought my dream machine and have clocked up 3000kms
on it so far. Tis a well earned Trek Hybrid and I am just on last
preparations for a 1400km ride with another "wife" who is 59 (10 yrs older
than me).
Now I can go for weekend rides with my hubby - he loves the fact that we can
ride together without him waiting at the top of every hill. We can take
panniers on the singles and just have great times. We have done some great
300kms 3 day weekends, and this weekend we are off again for a 2 day 200kms
ride down the Palmerston Range to Babinda and then home via the Gillies
Range. OMG I CANT believe I am capable of doing all this but I am. I really
think the reason I have succeeded with this cycling thing is that I did it
myself, was not forced into it, picked the gear and the bikes out myself and
went out there alone and learnt (the hard way in most instances) how to get
the best out of gears, how to change tyres, fix stems, buckled wheels etc
etc etc. My poor hubby has been behind me 110% ....
Kathy

Bleve wrote:
But, there's an option that is worth considering, if you do want to
ride together, try a tandem. You can't drop her on a tandem, and you
can put in as much power as you want and all she has to do is turn the
same cadence. Tandem's aren't cheap, a road tandem will set you back
around $4,000+ new, but you can get 'street' tandems for around $1,200
new (Apollo tandem sport, for example). You can probably hire one to
try too.

Worth considering anyway.



Or use a child on trailer bike as a handicap system. Our trailer bike is
SS so if I keep in a gear that allows daughter to pedal it restricts me
to a reasonable speed for my wife on the flat, and on the hills all that
extra weight is plenty enough to slow me down.

I don't think either of us would be happy if we rode together (without
the daughter), and Bleve makes a good point. I see a tandem some day in
the future.

DaveB