Or is this the beginning of the end?
Mrs P bless her, cycles a bit now and again and can manage around 20 miles on the flat on a good day with a tea & cake stop.
Now I get back from the HONC yesterday and she asks if there were any women riding, I says yes several.
Right she says, I’m gonna have a go next year.
She has a year to develop a bit more fitness and a little skill so I don’t think it’s beyond her.
What’s the collective opinion on husband and wife both mtbing? I know there were some on the Honc, but I did see a “heated discussion” taking place at one point!

Tandems Kill or cure

Saying ‘ I don’t really think you’re up to it dear is not an option’ 😀

Go with it, I have friends who ride with their partners all the time and have a ball. Beware tho she may get faster than you. 😯

the 50k option is easy enough for a rider of average fitness, she has plenty of time to train.

To start with you’ll have to suck it up with ‘easy’ rides whilst she gets her confidence up, but I’d say if she is serious then sign her up to a womens skills day; she’ll meet other women = confidence in itself and learn some skills from a third party, so you don’t cope the tears and aggro if she “can’t do it”. Also, she may find a riding buddy of her own to ride with, which frees you to ride where/how you want to. Once she has a bit more confidence on trails that are not just bridleways/fireroads, she’ll likely naturelly want to challenge herself by riding what you ride.

Give advice, but don’t “tell” her what to do – ends in an argument. I found that after the ride etc whilst having a cake and coffee is way better than at the time too, as it is a discussion rather than becoming emotional and potentially an argument; if you just suggest – “if you find something similar, try this next time” is good, “DO THIS. NOW” is bad. For you!

If she doesn’t want to ride with you all the time, that is OK as if she is feeling pressured she will likely not enjoy it and give up altogether. Also, means you don’t feel “held back” on “easy” trails to suit her ability and you lose enjoyment of riding because of that.

This is from the experience of teaching my wife to ski; me = 20+ years, her = hadn’t seen snow until 21 (Aussie living by the beach)! So paid for a few lessons so she could do the basics herself, and by the following winter we were living in Colorado, skiing almost everyday and my wife was hiking for steep lines and trying to get air with me, so it can definitely work!

I do the majority of my riding with the wife. She has even organised a trip to whistler for us. We have a lot of fun riding together. You do have to be aware that you both may have different objectives. So compromise is a good thing. I have left my wife in a cafe to relax while I ride more, like wise she has gone riding when I am lazy.

They will however never listen to what you advise. I sent mine on a skills course, only to hear every piece of advice I’d ever given to her be repeated back to me. It was well worth the money as her confidence grew.

The other plus is now my wife understands my needs to “update/upgrade/replace”. I do also advise to have an independent “mechanic” service her bike as I was sick of being blamed for things not working.

Remember there are not a lot of women who don’t bike. Embrace it and make the most of it.

I’m quite looking forward to it TBH.
When the roads round here were flooded a few weeks ago we went out and rode to a local cafe, had to come back through the floods past cars that wouldn’t try, she belted through with a bow wave and a big grin. She ain’t scared to get muddy.

My wife to be (in 4 weeks!) rides with me every weekend. The difference with us is that we both started mountian biking at the same time. I do ride more, as i do weekly night rides and several times a week right now thanks to redundancy!!

Our rides together are not as long as the ones i do on my own but that suits me fine. She’s never too far behind either.

I’m very lucky i guess.