Ask her if she wants you to be happy.

Tell her mtb’ing makes you happy.

Should help to put things into perspective..

Hate, such a strong word, confused yep i think she is maybe a little. Thing is she enjoys being out on the bike as well, started on a cheap mtb, now she rides a nicely spec’ed canyon. She understands my need for a road bike as well, and 2 bikes in the hallway and 1 in the spare room. She understands the bike mags floating round the flat.

What she doesn’t get is the constant new parts, upgrades etc…she has the mindset if it works why change it and no sneaky purchases from me as she spots them a mile off.

My Mrs is getting a bit pissed off with me riding and fixing bikes. We have 2 young kids, so I try and plan my riding around them all as much as possible.

TBH, it’s getting to the point where I’m seriously thinking about knocking MTBing on the head and doing only road, purely down to not having time for the seemingly endless maintenance required on the former.

double post

I live by the following quote

Happy Wife, Happy Life.

but this is also true

Happy Life, Happy Wife.

Agreed with mrsB years ago that i would cycle to work so we would only need one car, so i pretty much have free reign on the spending front. The kids mean we do have to plan stuff as the the misses also wants child free time for her own past times. We both get a weeks holiday away from the family with mates, mines biking obviously and we both get weekends away. Does take some compromise, but the kids are worth it. The misses has no real interest in cycling over having a bike for trips out with the kids, but has always accepted I’m a cyclist. If I’m honest I’m glad she has no interest, i enjoy the time apart.

It all came to a bit of a head for me 6 months ago. It isnt the bikes they hate, it is something you devote more time to than you do to them.

We had a clear the air chat, and I explained how important bikes are to me, and she told me what she wanted. After kids, women need to feel they are more than “Just Mum”.

My job takes me away a lot (longhaul airline pilot) so when I am home for a weekend, just disappearing on my bike isnt fair on her or the kids. Now we both try and consider a fair balance – it seems to be working at the moment.

Hell, Ive just built her a nice light Hardtail, and she has even been out on a few rides with me while the kids are at school!

As for all the bike stuff in the post, I tried explaining that all my stuff comes by post (Dont have a LBS, and build it myself anyway) as I dont physically go shopping.

No such problems with mrs rocket she realised a long time ago that if I like it it must be good

Some good posts on here. Thank fully I think I’m in the lucky category. The missus never complains about what I spend on bike parts etc. As other people say, the only time she gets a bit mardy is if I’d spending too much time out, and not enough time with her and baby.

We trade time out – so if I have an evening down the pub with my mates, I owe her one evening of baby sitting. We take time to go out together, have annual break away as a family. And also have weekend breaks away with friends either together or separately. She’s off to Morocco with her girl friends in a couple of months, which gets me a couple of weekends in Wales 🙂

Everyone’s happy.

women NEED something to whinge about so that they can use it against you when they want something, or so that they can whinge about you with their friends/ family/ children/ neighbour’s cat. if it wasn’t bikes it would only be something else. by having a hobby, you are basically giving them what they need.
Women are EVIL, never forget that.

Mrs Nobby is, at best, ambivalent toward my bikes. She concedes that she should have realised from the outset how important cycling was to me – when we first met I was staying with a mutual friend having split from my ex and the only possessions I had were my car, a bag of clothes & my mtb.

Over recent years she has taken more of an interest in the bikes themselves but that was after she opened a letter from our insurers which gave away the values :-/

No purchase seems to go unnoticed these days.

I took the Simon Side approach (above) and agree that it is the way to go. She actually tells me to buy myself bits if they are getting tatty etc.

Mrs O is indeed awesome!

My girlfriend refuses to venture on anything more challenging than a towpath or gentle bridleway, even though she has a nice mtb. It’s simply not her thing. I would like to get her offroad more, so that we could both enjoy biking off thebeaten track, and she does enjoy walking in rugged places, but she just won’t bike there. i live in hope that I can eventually persuade her to try something a little more challenging than a towpath one day.

Money isn’t an issue for her so spending loads on bikes and bits wouldn’t be a problem. We both have what we need to enjoy our cycling though. As for me going mtbing; she encourages me t and likes that I have a great time. She does yoga, which I doubt I’ll ever get into, and I think it’s good to have separate interests as well as shared ones. To each their own. I doubt I could ever be with someone who was oppsosed to something I enjoyed and felt was worth spending money on.

Nobby same for me. I rode before I met her, Infact I rode a hell of a lot more but I have had to compromise due to little in being born.

I tend to get up very early and ride every Saturday morning making sure I’m back for about dinner. Once a month I do a full days riding plus I try and get out out for an hour after work twice a week.

I never have a lie in as I let her have it on the Sunday and will sort things around what she wants but she still says biking comes first with me.

We get married on Friday and she is moaning because I go on about my up coming trip to antur stiniog more than the wedding but then how many men go on about there upcoming weddings? Sigh

Seriously? Am I really reading this? Get off the forum and out on your bikes for goodness sake. This thread is actually not a thread it is a final straw.

Ps am off out on mine now.

“Ps am off out on mine now.”

Sitting at work. Envious.

My missus knew I was an obsessive MTBer when we got together. She also knew my bikes were my 1st priority. It doesn’t stop her moaning though, even after over 15 years of living together.

She once told me that she was fed up about me talking about bikes and didn’t want to hear any more about them. A few weeks later she then had a right go when I ordered some new forks & brakes and didn’t tell her about them.

Does she want me to talk to her about them or not? 😕

Mind you, I still go buying stuff and if she doesn’t like it then it’s a bit tough really.

Really don’t get why anybody would have an issue about somebodies hobby? Do they really want their other half to be really dull & sit around at home all the time?? Doesn’t matter what the sport or hobby if they enjoy it why on earth shouldn’t they do it.

I rode before meeting Mrs Billy and she has no problem with me riding. Once the mortgage and bills are paid I can spend the rest of my money on whatever I want, and if I blow all of it on bike bits so what? She knows I’m not going to spend more than I can afford. Love her she’s great.

My mates Missus on the other hand is the complete opposite and complains continuously whenever he spends any money on his bike, even to the point where she has had a pop at the LBS about the amount she thinks he spends there! He has a chunk of money coming to him soon, and wants to spend some on getting a new bike to replace his which is 4-5 years old & needs an increasing amount of maintenance to keep going, but she has been moaning to my wife, and doesn’t understand why she would be quite happy for him to buy it whilst he has the money.

Moral of the story: chose carefully!

I’m afraid that the sad fact of the matter is that many women are only interested in shopping and X-Factor.

I’m proud to be different, particularly so at my (old) age, and refuse to justify my 5 bikes. Been there, done that and got the divorce. 😀

Got mine into mtbing. Only damage, the cost of a giant xtc and not being able to get any momentum going, due to the cries of “wait for me!”.

I remember denying thinking more of my bike than ex-wife , then thinking ,wait a minute I ride it 3x per week , I’ve just bought it some bling [ hope seat-clamp ] and I spend a fortune on lube……..v

Well i recon since we had our litte en 4 years ago..i used to gou out twice a week and spend 20 quid a night so theres £8320 quid over 4 years plus i stopped smoking when we had her so theres another £5110 so all in all i recon ive saved about £13000! by taking up cycling 😉

😆 @ mr potatohead

its part of the reason i’m getting divorced as i am a selfish pig who is only interested in anything with wheels, apparently!! although i did tell her that she would still be just as irritating if she was in a wheelchair

Next time they get a cob on tell them you’ve given up cycling and have have taken up smoking crack instead.

I lol’d

They don’t like feeling 2nd best, that’s the problem.

Recently got back with an ex after a year apart. She used to whinge that i loved my bike more than i loved her – she never complained about the money i spent (because we didn’t live together), but complained a lot about the amount of time i spent riding

Since getting back together, she’s been very supportive of me to continue biking as much as when i was single

So, currently trying to balance the ‘I’m telling you this, but i mean this’ logic against getting as many miles & away rides in as possible

On the positive side, her work takes her away at weekends a lot, so i can plan big away rides accordingly

I’ll report back in 3 months if my precarious balancing act has been successful!!!

sorry i didnt mean to offend any genuine wheelchair users

My wife hated my bike during summer 2010, I had registered for a SDW enduro event in September and spent most of my summer weekends going for long all day training rides. She got fed up.

So i bought her a bike in early 2011 and we spent the summer going for rides. The only downside was they were short, flat pootles down the Thames river path…still fun rides with the wife though, i just probably looked a bit daft on £2.5k FS.

She hasn’t been able to use her bike this year, and she’s missed it.

its part of the reason i’m getting divorced as i am a selfish pig who is only interested in anything with wheels, apparently!! although i did tell her that she would still be just as irritating if she was in a wheelchair

😀 made me chuckle

Messiah – quality!!

This raises the question though – has anyone’s wife / better half ever sabotaged anyone’s bike or equipment after one of these spats???

she keeps threatening to do it 😀

she is still on at me today about this bloody helmet……. I haven’t the balls to tell her i’ve just ordered some brake pads 😀

she is still on at me today about this bloody helmet……. I haven’t the balls to tell her i’ve just ordered some brake pads

Well if you’ve got the helmet you won’t need the brake pads…..

Or, even, if you’ve bought new brake pads, why do you need a helmet as well?

Either way, you’re in the wrong by the sound of it.

Back from bike ride now, still fuming, seriously, this forum supposed to be about discussing bikes and trails, if men want to slag off wives/girlfriends go to chat forum. End of.

Can you tell me what other topics you dont agree with, just to make sure I only post on suitable subjects?

My good lady doesn’t mind the bikes/riding at all, Although I may have some parts delivered elsewhere to avoid the inevitable confrontation. I know we can’t pay the mortgage this month but have you seen my new deemaxes ? 😀

And my bike lives in the kitchen/dinner room as does some of my biking gear that live in one of the kichen cupboards and all my other biking stuff is in the bedding box at the end of the bed, does my wife care, nope.
😀

Good luck with your future Wife philfive, think you may need it