Buying bike for wife

[JohanDiv]

Good advice.

 

The same thing applies to parents buying bikes for their children.

 

Just a funny story......my friend is a passionate cyclist, his wife's idea of exercise is sitting on the couch watching tv and smoking herself to death. She has no interest in exercise and no interest in cycling. She has told him this many a time. Despite this, he truly believed that she would cycle and bought her an expensive bike for Christmas. Come May, she hadn't even sat on it. He was convinced that she didn't ride because the saddle was not right for her. He bought her a new saddle as a birthday present. 10 years later, the bike and the saddle are still un-ridden.  

 

10 years later and they are still married???

[Longbarn Killer]

10 years later and they are still married???

Funny you should say that. Divorced and remarried to each other again.

[Ashchest]

If my wife really want to ride, then she can at any time hop onto my old M sized Dual 26" which is not used by myself currently.  It is a nice piece of equipment with Fox air and Xt group and very well looked after.  Only requirement would be to adjust the saddle lower.    She did take it for a spin a few months ago said she liked it and said it rides and handles awesome!   She enjoyed to entire 1.3km of her bike ride because she loves to cycle every now and then 

[Wayne pudding Mol]

I now allocate my wife and daughters budget to the only cyclist in our house.

 

My wife drove over my daughters unridden bike  - neither noticed the incident despite both being in the car. Replaced the wheel and gave it to my gardener's son who loves the pink tassles. The only reason it was in the way is because my daughter's friend rode it.  One of its 2 rides in 2 years.

Wifes bike apparently didn't have any gears she liked - I sold it and replaced it for one with a basket.  I went to the shop with it once.

 

They do like going to the CTCT though.

[Pure Savage]

Does she ride currently?  (A bike)

 

Maybe off topic - I found wives / girlfriends to be very delicate and complicated creatures especially when it comes to co-cycling.    I have bought many MTB's over the last 20 years for girlfriends and for my wife (1) All of them who were never much into cycling - so the act of buying them bikes were purely out of my own desire to have them enjoy the sport with me.   I think I have over invested in their bikes and I was also over optimistic about them becoming as passionate about the sport and gear as I am.  In reality the bikes were never ridden to potential and other personal interests were prioritised - not cycling.    My wife loves tennis and I much rather invest in good tennis gear to see her enjoy "her" sport rather than a fancy bike that she would only use for the odd casual 5 - 10 km ride.

You buy both your girlfriends and wife bikes? Maybe thats the reason they dont like riding together

[V18]

I vote mercer steel dual sus mtb tandem.

[Pure Savage]

Looking at getting the Mrs a gravel bike in my size, if she rides it, bonus for her!

[Veebee]

we moved to kloof 3 months ago, and there's just hills EVERYWHERE, just getting out of our complex has a 300m climb at like 15%, so I will definitely NOT be buying my wife a bike anytime soon as I know for sure it will be a dust collector.

 

OP, save your money for upgrades!

[BigDL]

Ha - I bought my wife a mtb for her birthday in 2013. Got my daughter a MTB for Xmas that year as well, even though she was mad about horses and had no interest.

 

We did a lekker road trip from pta to Gordon’s bay, then to Durban, then unfolozi, then the berg, around Xmas 2014. Four bikes on the roof of the car. My son and I cycled a lot on that holiday. My wife and daughter cycled once, a km each way, to go and ride horses.

 

Both of those bikes came to Ireland with us and both decorate the wall in our outside area, having not been ridden once in four years.

 

I still dream of long cycling trips with the family, but the dream is fading slowly.

[edkin]

Maybe all these recalcitrant cyclists might change their minds if you get them E-Bikes?

[JohanDiv]

I asked my LBS if they had any old stock they want to get rid of when I was looking for a bike for my wife. The got a previous year Scott Scale Contessa out of storage, still in the box that was selling for R20k the previous year. Gave it to me for R10k. XT components and an air fork, so I think that was a pretty good deal. FFW a year and she has done the Around the Pot 100km race with me in July this year..Running is still her favourite sport, but at least she can ride 3 or 4 times a month with me, just like I go run with her 3 or 4 times a month. Next I was thinking of giving her my 1x11 XT drivetrain so I can upgrade to 1x12    

[Longbarn Killer]

Maybe all these recalcitrant cyclists might change their minds if you get them E-Bikes?

Please don't go there.

[Duane_Bosch]

When we first started dating my other half expressed an interest in cycling. I'm primarily a mountain biker but i'd started on the road to commute.

 

At first I let her ride my mtb and tried to steer her towards the dirt. Maybe taking her to Jonkers on her first MTB ride was a mistake. Anyhow she took to road cycling. I bought her her first bike which was a cheapie Giant SCR and she's never looked back. Ok she does look back. Mostly at me on the hills.

 

The first time we went riding she made it as far as the fort on Chappies. Fast forward a few years and she's done the climb up to Avoriaz in Morzine. Monte Grappa in Italy. Sa Calobra and Puig on Mallorca. And next year we are looking at ticking off a few TDF cols in the Pyrenees.

 

It's all worked out for the best. MTB is my thing and roadie cycling is a shared experience. We've both started spinning classes this year which has taken the get in some training pressure off our road rides on the weekend so if we do a 10kph 4 stop coffee ride on a Sunday it's fine.

[Riaan H]

Haha, I have had a somewhat different experience 

 

I was invited on a ride by some colleagues having been off bikes for probably 20 years and rented a basic HT at the trail. Following that ride I probably rented bikes another 5 times before buying my budget HT.

 

Then my sister in law gave us one of those toddler carrier seats and the wife (who may have ridden a bike twice in her school years) decided we (or I) should take our toddler out for a ride which said toddler loved. Next time around my wife wanted to come along so rented a bike, which she did another 3 times before deciding that the rented bikes had awful saddles, brakes and gears (which she didn't understand). She then decided having her own bike would be better, so given a budget of roughly R10k we looked around till we found something that was new and had at least Deore groupset and in a colour she was happy with. Enter her Scott Contessa Scale (which she paid for). 

 

The Scott was ridden frequently for probably 2 years while I in the meantime joined a club and bough a Camber which she hated as it was too upright. We went on rides together but as I am a much stronger rider she suffered a bit more than she felt necessary and decided that a better bike would partially fix the problem.  I applied some pressure and got her to join the club too which got her fitter, and gave her access to demo bikes. And that is where I learned to be careful before you try.

 

I arranged a demo bike for her the one Saturday and and not quite 5 km's into the ride was informed that she requires a similar bike sooner rather than later. Well, perhaps 6 months later while taking our bikes in for a service I got a call asking whether I would mind if she took the kitchen upgrade fund as a deposit on a sleek, light, carbon XC machine. And thus she has paid for both her bikes so far. I keep it clean and attend to services and she rides it as often over weekends as our schedules allow. She has also out of her own attended 3 skills courses, a professional bike fit and is on her 2nd upgraded saddle. 

 

It's always a tough call to make as to how much to spend as some partners really only ride 'em once or twice and then give up. But, I also often see couples ride together where the husband rides a R100k machine while his poor wife is supposed to keep up (and enjoy it) on a 17 kg MakroDale or similar, 

 

I have been on many rides with ladies on entry level bikes who were wondering whether a fancier bike would make the ride any easier or more fun only to swop bikes with me and be amazed at how different the ride is between say a sub-10k HT and 40k DS, and then buy themselves a lekka bike afterwards.

[Dexter-morgan]

Maybe all these recalcitrant cyclists might change their minds if you get them E-Bikes?

Not Friday yet.

[Baldrick]

Go for the entry level option. Once she starts to complain about the limitations of the bike then you can negotiate upgrades for her and yourself.