[Closed] Ridding with the Mrs?

I used to think I wanted my dearest OH to ride, but actually, I realised it would not be fun times.

Get all your fast riding out the way first making sure your legs are well tired.

Don't get her to use Strava. QOMs off-road are much easier (it seems to me). I'll go out with the Mrs and its QOM all the way down. She's got dozens of the bloody things.

I used to try to get my ex out with me.

She always came back saying she'd enjoyed it. I didn't, as she constantly moaned regardless of the speed, type of riding, environment, weather etc. This applied to all outdoor activities tbh, I've been having a lot more fun getting out and about with just the kids more recently, far less moaning (although their abilities are more limited).

So I would say yes, if you have a healthy relationship. Just give no advice and take it nice and easy. I guess if she's a runner you won't have to worry too much about carrying copius quantities of cake/drink to keep her going.

Don’t get her to use Strava. QOMs off-road are much easier (it seems to me). I’ll go out with the Mrs and its QOM all the way down. She’s got dozens of the bloody things.

Tell me about it 😉

OP: just chill, you are out with your Mrs not the lads.

Oh god I've thought about it often enough...

I went cycling with my wife once along the manifold trail. It pained me to ride so slow. That's fine though, her hobby is crochet, which she is very good at, I have never picked up a crochet hook. I think it benefits our relationship to have different hobbies...so we get time apart  😆.

Thing is as well if you consider some of the hills we ride up...riding an incline in addition to negotiating rocks etc for a mile for eg in the Peak District. This would be most people's idea of hell, certainly my wife's.

My missus is starting riding now, I'm encouraging it.  She only does half an hour on easy stuff on her hybrid, so I take my Arkose and bimble with her, then I ride home with her then do my "normal" ride.

Conversely Mrs Kilo since I introduced her to cycling loves biking and now in particular off road. She’s doing singletrack 6 in BC next month ( on her own) for the third time, done Sani2c, broke her hand on PPdeS one year, done 3 peaks cx and has a collection of Ibis bikes. It’s great being able to spend big chunks of time biking together

Don't forget to tell her how easy it is, speed is your friend and to stay off the brakes, she will really thank you for this advice.

I love riding with Mrs Wachowchow. Guess I'm lucky.

She hadn't ridden since she was a kid when I met her but once we were courting I happened to be in the woods on my bike whenever she phoned. I offered to build her a bike from my spares pile and she hasn't looked back.

She uses a Kona Minute around town and it has done more miles than any other bike in the shed. Has a gorgeous 2006 HL 5-Spot for woods duties. She wont change the Turner even though I have offered a 'new geo' upgrade.

We have 2 little Wachowchow's who can both ride but we both jump at the rare opportunity to get out on a ride together.

She can ride and will follow me down anything, which to be fair is never too hardcore.

Maybe start her out on low tech but fun swoopy stuff to give the best chance of loving it. I always try and sell the 'seeking the flow' aspect rather than chasing stats.

I hope she loves it. Could be a good investment for retirement breaks.

As long as it's not a training ride, it sounds great. A ride to the pub, a beer or two then cruising back, what's not to like.

Surely she'll be quick enough if she's a fit runner. Go for it.

Mrs PJM is a keen rock climber, so she's good at things like balance and co-ordination.  I built her a Marin full suss just after we first moved in together and took her on a ride through the local woods.  It quickly dawned on me that I was struggling to keep up with her, she seemed to have an uncanny grasp of threading her way through trees and finding traction.

Be careful what you wish for, chaps.

Plan is 4-5 miles, pub stop, ride back.

These type of rides are fine for my other half.  Preferably after I've been for a ride.

I love riding with my partner. I just treat it differently, its never going to be like riding with the 'lads', but we have a great time. On Wednesday it was her birthday and she wanted to ride so we did 28k in the black mountains after work instead of a posh meal. Suits me!

Tandems are a blessing or a curse but there is only one way to find out - we've just been trying ours out off-road for the first few times & it certainly brings the trails alive ☺️

That title could be miscontrued - "ridding me of the mrs"!  Lose a 'd' lol.

Most if not all of my riding is with the mrs.  18 months ago she persuaded a lardy me to buy us some bikes.  She was thinking something with a shopping basket to pootle along the canal towpath.  4 months in we both had hardtails and 2 short travel full sussers.  Now she's fully padded up inc. full facer if needed.

She is more tentative than me (read sensible) but much fitter.  She is encouraging my fitness and weight loss by riding together, and I am pushing her to try new stuff in terms of mild gnarl.

We're both pretty crap but having a blast.  We don't get enough time together due to busy working lives so this has been fantastic.

Depends if you like the mrs or not and whether you can get her into it and to progress.  Situation is different as we started together and she would be playing catch up.  Whatever you do don't spoil it by making (encouraging) her to do stuff she is not happy with (this will vary ride to ride) and also keep the 'coaching' to the minimum as this can be received as criticism.

We have time booked with a female coach together in a few weeks (she's happy about that) and I can't wait.  Certainly need some coaching - me that is.

Love riding with my partner. She's only been on a MTB for a year & it loving, not so much when she broke her arm in Wales in March & had to have 5 weeks off or riding. Eventually I had to relent & she did a couple of rides with the cast. Including one with myself & a group of mates that I wouldn't've done had I had my arm in a cast.

I hope it goes well for you (both). Seems to have panned out for me and the GF and we are now both as good (or bad?) as each other and it allows us to enjoy travelling with a shared passion. From local trails to The Beast to the Whole Enchilada...

MrsP is the one who introduced me to biking, and most of my non-commute riding is with her.  Turns out we're quite incompatible really, she's slower uphill than me and faster down (actually faster than a lot of blokes which is a permanent source of annoyance - folks loitering at the top of descents, see her pedalling up so set off as she arrives and then she's catching them up all the way down).  So she tries to keep up on the climbs, I try to keep up on the descents and we both enjoy the ride.

We do all our riding together. Neither of us are exactly fast though.

I met herself at a cycle club in 1996, and we do loads of riding together. She's just taken delivery of her 3rd fully bespoke bike - a 650b drop bar do it all with eTap HRD...

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Conversely Mrs Kilo since I introduced her to cycling loves biking and now in particular off road. She’s doing singletrack 6 in BC next month ( on her own) for the third time, done Sani2c, broke her hand on PPdeS one year, done 3 peaks cx and has a collection of Ibis bikes. It’s great being able to spend big chunks of time biking together

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@kilo... random.... did I meet your better half at the weekend in Northumberland?!

Only ever done it once and it didn't go well. I think she waited at the tea rooms whilst I rode back to the car and then went and picked her up. We are in the new forest in two weeks so she is going to hire a e-bike and see how that goes.

I really enjoy it as [i think] does my wife. I just plod along, enjoy the ride and the view and remember to take plenty of fluid and snacks.

Most of our rides together are 15-20 mile slow meanderings through the countryside on bridleways and quiet roads, pub lunch and then a more direct but similarly quiet route back.

There's the occasional day out in the lakes or dales and further afield, it might be the same routes but it's not the same riding as i do with my riding mates. It's good in a different way.

The caveat to the above is my wife and I actually enjoy spending time and doing things together anyhow, be that cycling walking, going for lunch or wandering round a gallery. I tend to draw the line at spa days though.

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@kilo… random…. did I meet your better half at the weekend in Northumberland?!

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The Saddle Skeddadle trip? Yes that’s her, she said it was great fun.

I tend to draw the line at spa days though

Not me.  When we were given a couple of spa vouchers I was straight in there listening to pan pipe music whilst getting a massage then doing the rounds of all facilities at least twice.  Even quite liked the rather small lunch

Do most of my mtb with the missus.  The last time she had serious issues with a ride was Jacobs ladder in the snow on her birthday in december. It all got a bit sketchy and scary in a whiteout.

The time before that was the old karrimor trail at CYB in the cold. Her gear cables froze solid and  she fell off a few times with sub standard coordination

Turned out she was actually pregnant on both sides so had a fair excuse for being worse than usual.

Most of my riding is done with Mrsstu.

Most of the time it's a good thing.😜

Every ride I do is balls out, having to go slow riding with someone else would completely ruin it for me.

I spend a lot of time with my wife but cycling would be a no no.  She hates cycling and cyclists so she is never going to try it anyway.

I built my partner a flat bar gravel bike (or fancy hybrid, or expensive 90's XC bike, whatever you want to call it)

Works perfectly. She's very new to offroad riding, but is plently fit enough so we can cover over 50 miles together in a day, over the Dales, at least 50% offroad on nice wild trails. I just put 700c wheels on my rigid MTB and it's great fun.

I did get her a proper mountain bike at one point but soon realised that on proper techy stuff I'd rather ride on my own...

Sides.

WTF

Times.

Every ride I do is balls out, having to go slow riding with someone else would completely ruin it for me.

[Insert witty Ferris Bueller meme here]

I'm not sure if that's said in jest but I'll assume not, do you genuinely not enjoy just taking your time and soaking the world in sometimes? I enjoy a pedal till I puke then pedal some more ride as much as the next masochist but I can't imagine not enjoying a ride because it wasn't.

I tried with mine.

got 1 mile to the canal. she threw the bike (boardman fs) on the floor and burst into tears. I had to push 2 bikes back through a novelty weekend type doo and buy her some chips.

not been out together since.

my mrs is my fave cycling partner

I am not fast now, so pace is good. we have toured far and wide, and she likes a good drink and a good laugh.

perfect.

do you genuinely not enjoy just taking your time and soaking the world in sometimes? I enjoy a pedal till I puke then pedal some more ride as much as the next masochist but I can’t imagine not enjoying a ride because it wasn’t.

I can soak in my surroundings while still going fast.  But if I want to just completely soak in the world I will go for a walk (which I am happy to do with wife/others)

Nothing masochistic about my riding but I enjoy being out on my own going at my own decent pace without having to wait for anyone else.  Having someone going slow and/or faffing about would make the ride not enjoyable to me.

You probably need to try and improve your imagination if you struggle with the concept that people enjoy different things in different ways

We tried a short local ride on relatively quiet suburban roads 9 years ago, she "froze" every time a car went by... Never again!

At Center Parcs, she's fine, practically no cars and the rides around campus are so short that I can live with the "snail" pace.

 We are in the new forest in two weeks so she is going to hire a e-bike and see how that goes.

If you haven't been before and are not adverse to road riding, drive over with the bikes to somewhere like the car park at either Beacon Hill or Old Winchester Hill summit. You could do a loop with some stunning views from the climbs up the likes of the above and Butser Hill (there's a cafe by the summit but in the three times I've visited including this morning, it has been closed). Very few cars out that way outside the rush hours, even on the ~0.2 mile A32 stretch between Wheely Down Rd and Hayden Lane.

I always remember passing a couple on the trails at Cannock. Mrs is walking her bike up the hill, Mr is in the big cog gently riding alongside. As I pass I hear Mrs exclaim annoyed 'you said there wasn't any hills' 😆😆

you said there wasn’t any

That's reason enough to hate sharing your ride time.

How about 'riding with the OH?'

I've suggested to my boyfriend multiple times about going out on road bikes with me and in fact every time he comments on a bike looking nice i say 'i'll buy it for you' but alas his response is always that I'll either be too fast or he'd get too scared. I'd try it even once if it meant the possibility of us enjoying something together (on top of all the stuff we already enjoy together), even if it wasn't the same pace or seriousness of what I do. I say go for it and see how it goes!

Well that went surprisingly well.

Nice easy 7km to the pub, cheeky pint and back again.

She’s never going to be joining me on a oropervride and has no aspersions to expand riding on a flat disused railway, BUT she had fun and is happy to do it whilst she can’t run as another firm if just getting out there.

Maybd I can use this to my advantage too, applying the N+1 rule. Currently Mrs Carlos’s N = 0

Carlos

Turned out she was actually pregnant on both sides

??

At last Saturday's midweek madness race, I counted it as a victory that (for once) I only got caught and passed by one child (and not the younger child or Mrs). There are perils to having a fast family 🙂