MikeyBoyAz

Over the past few months I have been teasing the idea of getting my wife out on bike rides. Finally, in the *spring, my better half finally conceded when I said I would do my usual April charity ride with her at her pace. She took the bait and we started riding in the evenings. She started at 5 miles and I pushed her out to 12 miles before the event. Our total miles for the Charity ride was 31, which is pretty dang awesome. We were using it as a conditioning test for this summer's charity ride which is 50+ miles.

She survived the ride but on one of the climbs she really wanted to stop, and I told her "The legs have to do the same work if you're standing as pedaling really slow, so we might as well just keep pedaling slower and slower;" which is what we did. Somewhere in the middle of the climb we traded bikes; her TREK Pure for my Bianchi Infinito. It was funny to watch her immediately rocket forward on my bike, but she burned out pretty quick because I ride a bit aggressive, and it was ultimately too uncomfortable. She realized her bike was not up to the job of charity rides.

Yesterday we took home her new ride and dropped off the TREK Pure at the LBS for used sale (both at the same place). Her steed of choice is a Bianchi Volpe, which is funny because now we have matching (brand only) bikes. Granted it's steel (which was actually my preference), and has 3x10, but I think after taking care of shoes/pedals and a better saddle than stock, we should be good to go.

Last night we took it on it's maiden voyage and she peeled out the driveway and proceeded to hold a 19mph average for a mile, which would have been fine except I was sporting the FS MTB with 2.5" nobbies. Luckily she paced down to about 15mph for the rest of the night, but it was entertaining and quite frankly impressive to see her ride so well considering how long she has been riding; though she does yoga, so I am guessing that helps quite a bit.


Notes:

*We're in Arizona in the hot zone, so Spring started mid February.
**TL;DR: I purchased my wife a bicycle.

MikeyBoyAz

Oh, yeah. A picture too... and for anyone who needs to throw up because I took a picture of a bike hanging from the ceiling and inverted/cropped it, by all means .


also, the saddle is actually level, but the angle is bad and makes it look rough. Perhaps I will take a garage shot too.

SpeshulEd 

Nice...I've managed to get my better half to ride to bars and shows and stuff now that we've moved downtown, but I still get *****ed at if we go farther than 7 miles or faster than 12mph.

MikeyBoyAz

Here is the non-vomit shot

TrojanHorse

Still not on the big chainring... what is WRONG with you anyway?

Congrats on getting your wife to ride. I love riding with mine.

af2nr

I got my wife a road bike for Christmas, Trek Lexa. It initially looked like I may get N+1, we got MTB's as a wedding gift but she didn't care for how tight some of the trails are. As I looked to get a CX bike by getting rid of the MTB's I figured I would offer to get her on the road first, honestly not thinking she would. She doesn't care for the cold so she didn't ride much till last month. However we went to a local rail trail and she rode 21 miles without much trouble, other than her butt. Congrats to you and your wife!

happyscientist

Very cool. I wish I could get my husband to ride with me, but he won't give it a shot.

SpeshulEd 

After bumming around town yesterday on our bikes, I heard, "ya know, I think I'd like another bike, maybe one without panniers...something lighter would be nice" - which I completely understood as new custom carbon. Ha!

DBrown9383

Noobie question here. I've seen N+1 mentioned several times and have no clue what it means

Mike F

Velominati Rule #12 :

"The correct number of bikes to own is n+1.


While the minimum number of bikes one should own is three, the correct number is n+1, where n is the number of bikes currently owned. This equation may also be re-written as s-1, where s is the number of bikes owned that would result in separation from your partner."

DBrown9383

Love it

cale

It isn't the inversion that makes me want to throw up... Haha You're wife's lucky to have a loving husband who cares for her happiness.

rangerdavid

bbattle

Awesome!! The Volpe is a classic; she'll get lots of miles out of it.

MikeyBoyAz

Thanks all. I have been gloating with the other guys trying to antagonize them enough to get their wives out on bikes too; it's working .

karenashg

On the plus side, the OP has likely removed S-1 from the picture. On the minus side, his household can now be expressed as (N+1)x2, which can get expensive... But worth it!

topflightpro

You've made a terrible mistake.

I too thought it would be great to get my wife riding. And soon enough she liked it enough to give racing a try too. Which would seem great, except now my bike budget has doubled. Two sets of entry fees. Two fancy bikes. Twice as many tires, chains, cables, bar tape... each year.

JohnJ80

My wife and I love to ride together. She's got some neck issues so we built her a Gunnar Crosshairs to accommodate. Great decision and we've had a lot of fun together.

There are different expectations than my normal training rides. We also got one of those Cardo BK-1 bike intercom systems and that has really added a wonderful new dimension to the ride - we can talk conversationally as we ride. Highly recommended.

J.