I purchased an OCR 3 for her for her birthday after she mentioned she needs to get on a bike and workout with me. Be ready to ride at a beginners pace, you have to remember how slow you were when you started riding. For me the difference was about 6-8miles an hour. I use our rides as recovery rides, she tells me to go at my pace, but I think it is better to stay together and encourage her. I bought her a HRM after she raved about mine when she borrowed it, this helped her to understand her limits as an athlete, she realized she could ride harder and has increased her speed about 2mph. I bought rodeo style pedals for her, they are platform on one side and spd on the other, she is getting used to clipless, but has fallen 3 times at less than 3mph, basic type fall, stop before clipping out, I caught her once and didn't twice. BTW she bought some sweet Specialized mountain shoes , they are awesome compared to my 4 year old EBAY budget Answers and cost about 5 times as much. Women and their shoes On our last ride she had a blistering cadence, and I was impressed with her gains. I let her set the pace and I sit off her back wheel watching her form and letting her let her HRM determine our speed. Our biggest issue has been communication, from my point of view, I have a wealth of info from years of cycling and I want to help her not make mistakes, she wants to learn herself, just as I did. It has been a very positive experience for me, she watches the TDF with me everyday and we look forward to our rides, we are signed up for a ride in September, sh will be doing a 32 miles and I will be doing my 1st century. It is nice we can share a common goal of finishing our rides. Be patient, it will take a long time for a novice to keep up with the experienced in any endevour.