[Closed] Family rides... are men egotists?

Phil, I'll happily discuss a part exchange deal or a wkend trial with my GF and her Hardrock...S'long as you promise NOT to give her your medusa stare whilst executing a totally rad standing skiddy...Got 3 kids between us, production line is now decommisioned.

Sue, motivation indeed!

if i let her stop for a breather or some liquid, i'm doing her a disservice by not encouraging her to build up her endurance.

medical FACT.

If my mrs properly got into mountain biking I wouldn't mind spending a wedge on her bike, however what's likely to happen is when the boys are old enough she'll accompany us on a flat well surfaced loop round a lake or sommat on the 1 nice summer weekend we get a year. Besides the colour will be much more important than the bikes spec. FACT (as they say)

I was watching the start of the Cooker 29 video and about to reply, "Of course not, look at the lady at the front on this video,"...the one in the nice magenta top.

And then the camera shows her face....with a beard!!!

Tis true, there are mitigating factors alright...

But is it ethically correct for a guy to whack the Singletrack on his fancy schmancy full-suss while the Mrs/GF is struggling on her Trax with the trailer bike tag-a-long attachment?

Suppose the Mrs/GF does catch up eventually, does she really want to hear "well I'm way sicker, radder and gnarlier than you, sweet-cheeks"?

It's amazing that guys will let their OH go on a ride on a POS that they wouldn't get anywhere near. Having a heavy bike with pogo stick suspension and plastic tyres is a sure fire way of putting them off riding. If you can go riding together and she enjoys it, you get to go out more...

Interesting to hear about the different tactics for riding with a slower partner. Mrsbunk always sets off first now, so that I can find her when she's over cooked a section and fallen off into the bushes. I count to 30-60 seconds then see how quickly I can catch up with her. This can get a bit frustrating as it tends to interrupt the flow a bit, but she's getting faster...

sue spells it out perfectly does she not?
surely if a posh bike is needed then she will know what she wants ant what the fek has it got to do with you anyway?

it is how it works in my house thats for sure, my mountain bike is nicer than hers but her road bike is way nicer than mine because thats how our priorities lie.

Mrs/GF is struggling on her Trax with the trailer bike tag-a-long attachment?

This happens a lot in the bikebouy household.. hahaha

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It's a rather good likeness of us that too.. Phah.

surely if a posh bike is needed then she will know what she wants ant what the fek has it got to do with you anyway?

Uh, don't most families have joint bank accounts?

In which case the quality of a family member's ride is a joint decision, no?

That's the way it is in the 16 household and - I'm guessing - in many others too.

His bikes are nicer than my one, because I don't have any interest in bike parts, or maintaining them, whatsoever. Having said that my bike is good enough that he'd still steal it if he could fit it. This is why he has lots of shiny parts and I have lots of money 😐

But is it ethically correct for a guy to whack the Singletrack on his fancy schmancy full-suss while the Mrs/GF is struggling on her Trax with the trailer bike tag-a-long attachment?

Camo, absolutely this is not right on any level! However there's no chance of me ever clamping that HUGE tag-a-long bracket around my lovely Thomson seatpost when she has a crappy stock oem jobby that welcomes gargantuan hunks of scratchy metai with open arms 😉

Jude (mrs mitch) isnt really that bothered about 'stuff' (bloody hippy), and wasnt really into bikes until we had a family day out at Clumber Park a couple of years ago and all hired bikes / trailers, etc.
She then wanted to buy herself a bike, but was quite happy to go for a cheap model from Halfords. That's when my own snobbery kicked in, and I persuaded her to get a nice Cannondale hardtail. She has since (reluctantly) admitted that she prefers and can tell a real difference between her bike and the one she hired at Clumber, but I suspect that without my interference / influence, she would have been just as happy with a cheaper model. As far as riding off in front goes, I usually have a trailer attached to my bike, so am quite happy to potter, and riding behind Jude, who, it has to be said, has a particularly nice bottom, is hardly a hardship. 😀

In which case the quality of a family member's ride is a joint decision, no?

the point was a simple one 16
if she knows what she wants the conversation will go along the lines of this i ride as much as you and would like a bike like yours?

no darling this is a joint decision and you are not having it?

she can get what she wants. 🙄

Uh, don't most families have joint bank accounts?

In which case the quality of a family member's ride is a joint decision, no?

I guess I wasn't trying to comment on how different couples should decide on expenditure (another often heated debate!), but to say that when I have wanted a bike (or camera, car etc etc) that I have thought about what I want myself. Part of that is listening to the opinions of others who know more, but in the end making the choice myself. In some ways that's easy as we had a joint account for all shared costs, and then our 'own' money for spending on anything we liked. But I would no more tell him what bike to get than he would tell me.

Barsleymitch - ah yes, following a nice bottom! I think I might remain riding slower than most chaps ... 🙂

I like to think of it as the Simon F Barnes legacy!

sue delivers the point far better than i do but it's about the same i think. 🙂

I told my wife if her assessment for this year goes well, then I'll let her have a nice bike.

Sadly she's not achieved her performance objectives. Again.

I can't be seen to be rewarding her for poor performance now can I?

When we rode Passporte de soleile last year we saw this attitude taken to a ridiculous degree by a gang of French lads and one solitary girl.

It was obviously one of their GF's. They were all on 6 inch all-mountain GNAAAAAAR. And Mr thoughtful had obviously said "why not come along. You can use my old bike"

This poor girl was on an old (and I mean old) GT Zaskar. V brakes, Judy's,. I mean FFS! They went hooning off. She pottered off behind them

Can't remember the name of the run. But its the one with the corkscrewing berms through the forest. Silly steep. As I was hooning down I saw her struggling in front of me, then just disappear off the top of one of the berms. A few of us stopped to see if she was ok. She wasn't.

Her BF and his mates eventually came back. She was helicoptered off the mountain

****ing idiots!!!

This ^^^^^ is kind of where I was going with the OP, although it's an extreme case.

Of course many women choose their own bikes. My point was merely observational. This year I've seen loads of women riding complete POS bikes next to their SO's bling-bling sex-machines. That is all.

Many of the women seemed to be struggling with their POS bikes and putting a brave face on.

Her BF and his mates eventually came back. She was helicoptered off the mountain

maybe he'd gone off her and didn't have the heart to say..

we can't all be gentlemen you know..

It was only when the BF and mates realised that there was nobody there to applaud their sick moves 😉 that they sensed something was up.

My wife still hasn't forgiven me for insisting she buy a Hardtail bike with discs and all those confusing gears when she wanted something with a basket and a 3 speed hub. When she does go on any singletrack she will absolutely not go first...

Jeez, no way could I put up with some bloke thinking he knew what bike would be best for me. 🙄 Sticks two fingers up at the ex Mr C_G, no cheap tat for me and yes it's a Litespeed cos I'm worth it. 8)

Binners - blimey 😯

(Although Yunki - 😆 Sorry, shouldn't laugh, not funny ...)

I guess what you're saying is that there seems to be a lot of guys sticking girls on basic bikes on unsuitable terrain, which either puts them at risk of injury or is likely to leave them struggling to keep up.

Both of which probably puts them off biking altogether!

So why do some guys do it? (Obviously not you lot who are all either lovely or AWESOME!) And why do they ride off leaving someone who's not as good as them struggling to keep up? Is it cos they don't care? Only think of themselves? Or don't think at all?

I think there needs to be more of a focus on appreciating girls on bling bikes and admiring from behind (Not that I'm feeling unappreciated or anything ...)

Edit - c_g: yey!

I think there needs to be more of a focus on appreciating girls on bling bikes and admiring from behind

I think that's something we can agree on, Sue!

Mrs 16, BTW, has asked for a Carrera Kraken. So that's what we're saving for...

For mountain biking the OP is talking about me! If we go for a ride off road (Mrsnacho hates roots and rocks so tow paths, green runs only) with the kids, I will be on my nice Whyte 19 she will be on her old Spesh hardrock with the trailer and kids. Sometimes we may swap bikes if it's a steep hill or she fancies a break.
BUT if we were on the road I would attach the trailer and kids to my old Gary Fisher Kai Tai 29er hybrid jobby whilst she showed off on her new bling £1000+ Trek WS road bike.

Mrs 16

You do know how wrong that sounds?

Also, a Kraken was my first mtb. I swear it tried to kill me several times - they're evil.

Mrs 16

You do know how wrong that sounds?

Uh-huh. 😳

Also, a Kraken was my first mtb. I swear it tried to kill me several times - they're evil.

This could end in tears. I sense a "what ladies' hardtail" thread coming on... for advice purposes only, you understand. 😉

I still ride the mothers of my childrens' bikes (bought by me) more than they do despite not living with them.

I don't think the hubby / dad is being an egotist. Perhaps he just can't resist the temptation to demonstrate his fitness / skill while all the family are together. In some way to show something for all those hours spent riding and fettling.

This is just an opinion - I don't have kids and Mrs. S doesn't ride.

MrsH has more bikes than me and they are all better than mine too. 🙁

So, does your other half ride a worse bike than you

Mrs carlos has 2 bikes.A Cannondale F700 from around '02 and a ladies Raliegh tourer. When we bought her main bike we had a budget of £1700 and she liked the 'Dale best out of the 20 or so bikes she tried out (at the time the F700 was £1250).

My bikes are an '00 P7 and an '06 Spesh sx trail , both were bought as frames only and built for their intended purposes ,i.e. riding everywhere and riding mostly down.

I wouldn't say theres a massive performance difference in the 2 hardtails despite the better spec being on my bike.One of the main criteria for me was that we wouldn't buy her a bike that I wasn't prepared to ride myself(and get a kicking for the day she got home early and caught me playing trials in the garden on it 😳 )

Mrs Dom has a Giant HT that she chose, its been tweaked to fit her better, with Saddle / stem changes now.
I also fitted a pair of Reba Teams to replace the dreadful Rock hard Dart3`s.
Whilst the time spent setting them up wasn`t understood or appreciated at the time, as soon as we went on our first ride afterwards she was a very happy, smiley person !!
It also gets tyres appropriate to what she`s doing with it too....

TBH its been used a handful of times due to Juniors arrival but I`m happy that my OH has a nice bike to ride when needed, I work on the principle, that the easier/nicer the bike is to ride, the more she will enjoy it and consequently want to do more of it.

I do have more / better specced bikes but then I ride a lot more too.
I would be happy riding my other halfs bike any day (And its great for just messing about in the street on) so I often do 😀

I stole Mrs Clubber's tyres off her bike this morning. Mind you they're slicks and she's pregnant and hasn't ridden her bike more than four times a year for the last few years by my reckoning 🙂 She did love it when I gave the bike to her to replace the Raleigh barge that she could barely lift up the stairs to our flat... (that was 2001ish IIRC so clearly she's having to make do with her bike compared to mine)

As to the blokes who ride with their much slower wives/gf/bf/whoever and race off, I just read it as insecurity and a need to prove their worth to themselves. YMMV.

my wife has a marin east peak FS with 20mm psylo fork on the front

I'm just off to mumsnet to see what penance I should undertake 😳

(she does have hydraulic brakes though, and I don't)

cammo 🙂 mrsconsequence loves her carrera kraken 'W-spec'! no matter how much i offer to buy her big sexy bikes she says she loves her bike and doesnt need anything fancier... its perfect for the terrain she enjoys according to her.

i do think she'd instantly notice the difference if she rode a bike with air forks and proper rear suspension, but she's still anti full-suss after we both starting riding on halfords appollo full suss beasts.

i would recommend changing the headset at the first opportunity though, the standard one makes the bike feel horribly unstable the moment it develops any play and we've also swapped her back wheel out for one with a proper (although still cheap) hub... AKA my old rear wheel lol.

my girlfriends bikes are newer/nicer than mine...

Interesting, Phil – thanks!

Mrs 16 is really keen on the Kraken, although she hasn't ridden one.

She's not after anything really fancy, just something with the Carrera's specs.

I get the idea that me tinkering with her ride would not be appreciated though. 😳