Cognitive

My wife is currently using my daughter's BSO (a dubious lineage Kent 1800) and can do 15-20 mile rides on paved trails without problems. We are contemplating upgrading to a real bicycle, basically an entry level Specialized Women's Myca Step Thru mountain bike or similar. She loves the chubby tires, gears, and solid feel of the mountain bike and the build quality and the ride of Specialized as well. Definitely not road bicycle material with aero handles or thinny non suspension wheels.

As our daughter will leave for college in a couple years we will keep the bicycle. Is such a 'mountain bike' practical for a daily rider for a mid 50's woman? 5 ft 6, 125 lb, excellent physical shape, no intention of taking the bike off road. Or should we go for a more conventional step-thru that would prove useful as she grows older?

I have a hybrid, Specialized Expedition, and while I love it, it's a bit on the heavy side and 7 gears. They make it in step-thru and also in 21 speed also but more $. We prefer Specialized as our LBS is super awesome. Is the gearing for such a bike (mountain bike) not as conducive to relatively flat (-1% incline worst case) trails?

Our trails are pretty nice and paved (Monon, Hagan-Burke, etc) but to get there by bicycle we have some awful paths (glorified sidewalks) that have more bumps than I can count. I can't see a decent road bike surviving such a beating, while mountain bikes or hybrids have no problems.

Retro Grouch 

Give the lady what she wants. I would, however, try to talk her into getting some smooth tires.

morningrider

what about a hybrid ? has smooth and wide tires and can handle the rough paths you're talking about and will roll better on the
pavement then those knobby mountain bike tires.

volosong

Yeah, do this. I have an ancient "mountain bike" that I used for my cross country bike ride. Panniers front and back, the whole works. I say "mountain bike" because it was built the year after front suspension came onto the market. Didn't want to pay the high cost of an initial adopter, so went for the non-suspended bike. I guess it would be considered a hybrid if it were sold today.

A few months ago, I found a pair of Michelin City tires hanging in the corner of my LBS. They are pretty smooth, for MTB tires. No knobbies at all and just a little grooving to help repel away the water on the road. I like that the tires have a reflective strip on the sidewall that aids side visibility at night. Sort of like a white wall, but reflective. They weren't all that expensive either. Same size as the knobbies they replaces, just a lot smoother.

If you are interested, here is the Amazon link, however they don't have any 26" with the reflective strip. User reviews are pretty good. Just about everybody seems to like them. A lot of people carry these tires. They must be popular.

sknhgy 

Love my 26" Trek 820 mtb with slicks for paved roads and trails. If I could only have one bike it would be a 26" mtb.

John E

My wife is timid in traffic, but rediscovered bicycling when she borrowed my mountain bike for some basic trail riding, which she really enjoys. I send the vote for a regular mountain bike with surface-appropriate tires.

Null66

Well, she should get what she wants, but you could ask her to test ride hybrids, comforts or city bikes.,

You can find those with wider tires, upright position but lighter then a mountain bike.


My SO rode a rather bespoke Giant hybrid for a lot of miles.

Cognitive

Thank you all for the input! I guess the real question is not what she'd like today, but say, 5 years down the road or more, when we're 60 or so. Would a step thru hybrid be a better idea for someone who puts 10-15 miles a day at that age? Neither of us is looking for century rides or ride your age rides so the issue will likely be to convince my daughter to ride a hybrid for the next year or two

I offered my Expedition to them so I could get a road bike but they shot down the idea in a hurry. Wonder why...

energyandair

My wife is same height, same weight, and likes similar rides.

She has had a Trek mountain bike set up with Schwalbe Marathon tires since her mid 50's (10 years ) and commuted on it until she retired 3 years ago

About 15 years ago when her bright yellow Specialized Crossroads hybrid was stolen while we were on holidays, we replaced it with a bright red Cannondale mountain bike because the scale seemed better for a person of her size. When her Cannondale was stolen at work we replaced it with the 2nd hand grey Trek which we figured would be less of a thief magnet

She now also has a Birdy (very nice folding bike) but of all the bikes, the Trek is the bike she loves the most.

bikemig 

My vote is to go used. Vintage mtbs with rigid forks are widely available and inexpensive. Add some slicks and you're in business. The daughter can take it to school or your spouse can ride it. If your wife wants to upgrade, you can sell the bike for what you paid for it.

chasm54

You're talking as if 60 is old. I ride fairly frequently with a 61 year-old woman who thinks nothing of riding upwards of 60 miles in a day. She'd be amused at the suggestion that she needs a step-through hybrid, her favourite machine is a cyclocross bike.

Pick the bike that looks the most fun, and will encourage her to ride more. Starting from the perspective of "I'm getting older, maybe I need an old lady's bike" is not the way to go, in my opinion.

fietsbob

Trek 850 in the step thru version is good .. triple crank. ( Specialized brand franchise dealer is in a different town out here.)

their Shift 2.0 more casual yet, the desire to stop flat footed is where the Crank Forward designs come in ..

Trek's Pure is that .. but the way a front derailleur has to sit relative to the crank means triple crank is impractical .

Substituting a rear wheel with the internal 3 speed + a cassette is a work-around for that.


I used to own a specialized expedition they were calling their touring bike made of steel in Japan that then.

so the recycling the name to a casual, riders, bike design seems Odd.

energyandair

Additional thoughts:

Bike:
26" Mountain bike not hybrid or 29" mountain bike: Firstly for better proportions and secondly my experience is that you can get better quality and lower weight at same price.
Hardtail. She won't thank you for no suspension and rear suspension geared to road use is rare except in small wheel bikes like Birdy or Moulton
Go for light weight and good components.
Could be aluminum or high end steel
Regular frame rather than step through unless she really needs the step through: Lighter, less flex and better availability
Rim brakes are fine for her use. Discs would be OK but are not necessary

Set up:
Raise the handlebars: Most 50+ women including my wife and her cycling friends prefer an upright riding position
Smooth, easy rolling, comfortable tires. e.g Kojak, Marathon Racer, Big Apple. If you are in an area where punctures are a big problem, you will need to compromise this a bit or pay for Marathon Supremes
Comfortable seat: If it doesn't come with one, buy one somewhere that you can try and return or exchange

dachshund

In my opinion a mountain bike will be too heavy and less enjoyable on paved roads. Next would be a hybrid or road bike. I have both, and I’m a woman in my late 50s. I have a Trek FX 7.4 hybrid which is a nice bike, and I use it for basic transportation. Riding for the sake of riding, I prefer the road bike. I much prefer the hand position on the road bike - not the drops, but the little horn around the shifters makes resting on the bar top very comfortable. Plus you’re in a better position to lean into the pedal stroke. I don’t find the hybrid comfortable on longer rides. But that’s me. A light hybrid 9 or 10 speed with medium width tires might be just the ticket. The Trek is fine on bumpy pavement. She should have a good idea of whether or not the straight bars are comfortable.

energyandair

I agree that weight matters but the comparative weight really depends on the bike. For example the 2002 hard tail mountain bike I bought at a garage sale last weekend lists at 24 lb. As it easily fits me, I assume it is a large frame yet it weighs 24 lb including a substantial rack after I changed the OEM tubeless knobby tires to Kojak 35mm foldable slicks (also mounted tubeless). Your hybrid looks like a very nice bike but I believe that with a large frame and a rack, it would be heavier than this.

DnvrFox

+1

At 76, my wife now rides a Trek hybrid. We started at about 65yo with a Specialized rigid 26" "mtn bike" then a Cannondale R300 road bike, which she never enjoyed and now she loves the hybrid for our paved trails.

She does aquaerobics about 4 times per week, is slim (she lost 40 pounds last year) and loves to ride short 5-10 mile rides. 60 is YOUNG!!

Cognitive

I agree - I am 54 and largely think and act like a teenager :-) but I am talking more about possible bike-rider compatibility issues 5-10 years down the road as we will still be paying college tuition by then... I think I mentioned she already complains about back pain after 90 minutes due to the mountain bike riding position. I have no back pain with my hybrid.

It's one of those things that you can't determine with a 15 minute test ride at an LBS. For example, my Expedition rides great, but weighs in at an anvil-like 34 lb. The gearing is a bit strange, as 1 is basically a stationary bicycle, 2 is for uphill, 3 and 4 for level, and 5-7 for downhills, but I rarely use 6-7 and would have loved more gears between 1 and 3. The Specialized mountain bicycle seems to have the same gearing ratios. And weight likely the same as mine. The components are also the same for the most part. So, it's down to riding position and longer term gotchas which as neophytes we won't know until we put in a few hundred miles.

The Trek Pure suggestion is right on the money, actually. The part about flat feet stop is very important to my wife since she's relatively short and has relatively short feet.

qcpmsame 

My wife in 5'-4" and needs a fairly short frame, she chose a Trek 7300 WSD, a hybrid. She has told me the only things she wants changed are taking the suspension forks off and installing road forks and some drop bars as the straight bars limit her hand placement resulting in hand and arm fatigue. The weight is tiring for her with those forks and after an 18 mile club ride she was hurting in her hands and wrists. The weight can be a bigger issue than some would think, up to a point I'd agree. Nothing in the weight weenie category is necessary. Monica is familiar with good drop bar road bicycles, she has a century under her belt in her old Motobecane Jubilee Sport, a wonderful light early 80's Vitus tubed sport road bicycle. The 32 width tires appeal to her now that she isn't doing the long club rides or centuries any longer, just her jaunts around the village or the shorter offerings for the current club. The 7300 has a really low step over height so it suits her very well and the WSD has a shorter reach for her arm length that appeals to her now, upright position lost its appeal, as detailed. It has a triple SRAM crankset, SRAM ders with an 8 speed cassette so the gearing is very well spaced for her needs, no problems with our mole hillshere. The seat was a problem, too thickly padded and those useless springs, she looked at and received a nice Selle Italia women's design road seat with a relief cut out, which she demanded.

One question for you, are you and your wife certain she'll just give up the bicycle when your daughter leaves for college? If she gets a nice bicycle, of the type she wants what ever that is, losing it so soon may not be pleasant for you, unless its her N+1 turn then. Our daughter wouldn't accept our bicycles when she left for Smith College in 2004, she had to buy her own (bad story with a Wal Mart BSO involved, life lesson learned for her) Now she has my old C'Dale R500T and a sweet Schwinn vintage World Traveler, step through/drop bar bicycle, she is car free and commutes by bicycle and the Atlanta MARTA trains to work and for shopping. Might want to think this point through if all of you haven't, jmho. The daughter's taste, and what ever the current college age people's fad in bicycles is, will matter more than you can imagine.

Bill

sirupate

My wife is using an older Trek 3700 MTB with 26" city-type tires to ride paved multi-use paths. She likes the bike, but admits it is a bit heavy. I'm trying to talk her into a real road bike for next season. We will see. For now, she is just happy riding with me.

So, make her happy if a MTB is what she wants. Oh, yeah, on gearing, both our MTB's are geared pretty low. She usually rides on the big chain-ring and chooses one of the 7 rear cogs depending on terrain. It works. She can't keep up with me anyway when I am riding the road bike with enthusiasm.

Cognitive

I am not sure the colleges in my daughter's list are bicycle 'friendly' plus my older is already in college and I'm not sold on the idea of a good bicycle for college. My older girl's an architecture student and most of her classmates are into the bike culture and all, but few actually ride their expensive bikes around campus (it's not any faster than walking where she is and things get stolen, so we got her the next closest thing to a bicycle, a Honda Fit )

I'll look at the weight more carefully. Perhaps a lighter road bike type with tires more suitable for trails?

big john

Some people think a mountain bike has to be heavy but your example proves otherwise. You can get a new hardtail in the 21pound range. One of my road bikes weighs 24 pounds.

Age is certainly no barrier to road bikes. One of the women I ride with is 63 and she does mountain centuries, fast club rides, and high mountain rides in the Sierra Nevada.

Road bikes can take a beating, too. I have a Gunnar with 35,000 miles on it and I have pounded that thing through potholes and broken pavement for years and I'm over 200 pounds.

I'm a believer in light weight adding to the fun and enjoyment of a bicycle for most of us. On the other hand, if you're just cruising around town and doing laid back type rides, anything will work.

energyandair

Its neither expensive nor complicated to modify a mountain bike to get an upright riding position so don't let that stop you if the bike makes good sense otherwise.

Upright tends to be easier on the back but its more work and its harder on the butt as your center of mass moves back and more of your weight is carried by seat rather than the legs and arms. As we get older our optimum riding position becomes very individual depending on where we get our aches and pains as well as the kind of riding we do.

If money matters, 2nd hand can offer far better value. There are good deals to be had in lightly used high end 26" mountain bikes that are almost non existent in hybrids. With a bit of patience, you should be able to find $2000 quality for $500. If you get really really lucky, you will find even better quality for much less as I did last weekend.

Both feet flat on the ground with butt on the seat pretty much guarantees a really poor riding position (inefficient, hard on the knees and hard on the back) unless the bike is a recumbent.

Cognitive

I am seeing this (last paragraph) on my own bicycle as well so I make sure the seat is adjusted high enough to get good foot movement etc. The hard question is how to convince my wife that feet on the ground may not be optimal :-)

DnvrFox

Depends. For some, the stretched out position of a road bike releases tension on the vertebrae and discs. The upright position can cause the weight of the body to pound through all those vertebrae. When I was having back problems, the only bike I could ride comfortably was the road bike.

qcpmsame 

Definitely not necessary to send her off with a good bicycle for college, go for reliable, and sturdy, and that she likes the ride (theft is what I worried about most.)

I misread your IP (my bad, as usual,) I thought you had said the daughter was taking the bicycle with her. If the daughter's bicycle for college isn't in the picture for what your wife gets, encourage your wife to ride as many bicycles of the type she is inclined towards, then let her discover what things best suit her. The advice above sums up most of the big points for what might suit her, now let her do some testing and a bit of leg work. And, while she is looking you can surreptitiously be scooping out the nice bicycles for that latent N+1 you just know in the back of your mind is coming

Bill