General Cycling Discussion - bike for wife

i started commuting to work recently, and am loving it. now my wife wants to commute, too, which is great. she actually works on the way to where i do, so we could ride together. the only thing is she doesn't have a bike, so she wants to ride one of mine. i have a trek 520 touring bike and a rocky mountain element mountain bike. i don't want her to ride the rocky mountain, because it would most likely get stolen where she would have to lock it up, and also because it would be a very slow ride if we rode together. i don't want her to ride the trek, because i just bought it for me to ride, and i don't want to ride 8 miles each way on a full suspension mtb. so i was thinking of somehow getting her a bike, but money is tight. i don't want to spend more than $100. are those cheap older road bikes worth the $75 i keep seeing them for sale for? i don't want to get her something that will be stuck between gears all the time and cause more headache than it's worth. she's already mad at me for paying $950 for mine and telling her i can only spend $100 on hers. are there any good websites that sell cheap used bikes or parts that anyone knows of?
thanks.

I bought a 16 year old Trek road bike at a yard sale for $25. I also have a 2003 Cannondale. Last weekened me wife and I traveled out od state for a century. We spent the night in the local high school gym. During the night as folks came in, more of the made apprciative comments on the old steel lugged Trek than on my new bike. Draw your own conclusions.

Peace,
Lou

Planning on a divorce? Dr Laura would say give her your best bike, spend the $100 on a New York Lock for her and then ride what you've got. Enjoy riding together, if she tires of commuting on a bike(probably) you'll get yours back, if she doesn't you'll go bike shopping later on for a good bike she wants and you'll get your bike back. She's probably just torqued off at you and for good reason.

Well, if money is tight, may I suggest to sell or trade your MTB for either a Trek 520 or Trek Hybrid for your wife. Sometimes we need to sacrifice a little for our loved ones. You can always get another MTB later on when you saved up the money. Also, consider the payback for not driving the car to work.

:) :)

Yikes!!! Yeah my wife would kick my ass if I spent $950 on my SECOND bike that I wouldn't let her ride and then set her budget at $100. Good luck with that.

Oh you want solutions? When I bought my Sirrus my wife was thinking about getting a bike to ride occassionally and the guy sold her a 2001 Giant Cypress DX comfort bike for $175 for her to ride out on the beach etc.

o.k, i'm feeling guilty now. let me explain though: i am a very avid rider, both mountain and road. when i bought my new bike she had never expressed any interest in bikes at all. now that i have been commuting and she sees how excited i have been about it, she wants to try. but we don't have much money right now. i do agree that we need to sacrifice a little for our loved ones. i really don't want to part with the mountain bike, so i guess a good compromise would be to let her ride my new trek. meanwhile, maybe we can save up for a few months and buy her a decent road bike too, so we can go on weekend road rides as well.

oh, let me also clear up another thing: we are not really married, i just call her my wife. we recently moved in together, and we each have a dog, so it feels sort of like a little family.

i really am feeling guilty, though-- i realize i am being selfish, and should have just offered her my new bike like a loving "husband".
thanks for making me aware of this.

Get a bike from a garage sale (the season is just starting). Let her ride the Trek to her work, then lock the cheap bike at her work. Then you ride the Trek the rest of the way to your work, where I assume you have secure storage.

gonesh9:

I agree with the others, don't scrimp on her bike. I would recommend not buying a bike for her just yet. You two may find after a month or so that she isn't interested in doing the commute. After a month or so you'll know if she's going to stick with it and then let her pick out what she wants.

Good Luck!

Zack