Thanks all. Much appreciated.

I'll be traveling to Taiwan so I'll probably pick up one of the cheaper DaVinci knockoffs over there.

Basically, my gf is an adequate athlete so I consider myself pretty lucky already. I don't want to make her work too hard to get into the cycling/touring thing, otherwise it would put her off for good. It pretty much boils down to either she gets on the bike with me or be left behind for weeks/months at a time.

Thanks again all.