My SO just rightly upgraded her Kona Tanuki Deluxe (130mm travel) to a lovely Carbon Devinci Troy with all the latest wizz bang like 1x, nice new Pikes and those weird clown wheels that everyone is on about.

I find it abhorrent that there are couples out there where the dude is riding some machine hewn from unicorn horn, scampering up some techy trail whilst their better half is riding either some ancient cast off or a scaffolding tubed supermarket bike.

It made me think, how many on here have other halves that have better bikes than them?

A colleague of mine is still riding his old team bike from the mid 90’s (Custom 853, so still quite nice) his wife is riding round on a Tarmac SL3 or 4.

Same with their MTBs, he’s got a Scott Scale (nice and light, but still 6 or 7 years old and 26″ wheels) shes got a newish Spark 29er……..

Unfortunately, since she bought her latest bike, they’ve had twins. So chances of him upgrading any time soon are between slim and none.

I know two couples where the lady has a better bike than the gent.

Hand me down bikes is no bad thing. My wife used to have to make do with my old intense tracer.

I guess you could argue my good lady has a better bike than me. I ride an on one fatty trail. She rides a Ragley Mmmbop with 150mm revs rct3s, reverb and full SLX/XT. I built it up for her earlier this year after dismantling my old Norco, she’s ridden it a grand total of 2 times.

Made a friend of ours swap his lovely, big enduro bike for the hardtail his partner was on part way down a big downhill on holiday (her first bike holiday). She suddenly started enjoying it rather than being terrified, he was less happy as it one of the few times the bike was actually in its element.

My wife and I had pretty similar bikes, hers maybe marginally better but I’ve recently bought a new 2nd hand frame so I’m back in the lead. Her commuter bike is better than mine.

My SO has always had better and far more expensive bikes then me. Mind you she’s a lot fitter and lot better rider than I am too.

As it happens, yes, for our road bikes. I’m using a Genesis Croix de Fer; nice, but hardly posh.
Her Shand Stoater is due for collection next week, so that’s me way, WAY outclassed…

Subjective really, Cotic Soul v Ragley Ti. not sure which is ‘better’.

I’ll assume Onzadog is referring in part to me.

Both the Road bikes and Full Sus bike are better than mine, but it makes no difference to me. It’s not a competition 😉

I could have much more expensive bikes than I have, but I don’t need them and they would not make any difference to how good a rider I am or how much I enjoy riding.

I’m not materialistic and don’t need the latest greatest thing 😉

My wife’s bike is probably on a par with mine, but hers was new and a full build, mine was a 2nd hand frame built with some old bits and some new 🙂

Same with the road bikes actually, mine was an eBay purchase, hers was new and five times as much!

For a while My Mrs had a much nicer bike. Now I have a very similar one. Maybe more expensive but no ‘nicer’ and definitely heavier.

Yes, but Mrs Yak wins races. I don’t. Mine are fine for my ‘level’ I reckon. The bike isn’t the limiting factor with me 🙂

I’d love to build my missus a new bike, but she’s just not into riding bikes like I am so she really doesn’t want me to. The only time she uses hers is out on family rides.

Our 8 year old sons bike is miles better than hers, but he was riding his in Les Gets and Samoens in the summer so it should be.

My sister has a better bike than her husband.

All my wife’s bikes are better than mine, cx, road and full sus. She earns more than me, and she bought me my cx and my ibis 🙂

rigid scandal (me) vs turner flux with reverb (Mrs NBT)

better half rides a very pimped up surly pugsley ss, she has said that it would only replaced by a jones spaceframe, otherwise it would have to prised out her cold dead hands

Mrs A stole my most favourite of hardtails after it came back from the painters and about 8 minutes after I had finished bolting my lovely new kit to it. So although it’s not ‘better’ than my other hardtail it is newer, shinier* and ‘not mine’ anymore 🙁

She also has a lovely Canyon full susser, although we bought it second hand it’s pretty much exactly specc’d like I would have it just fitted to her instead.

Her road bike has the same groupset as mine, but hers was bought new, mind was piecemeal and 2nd hand, and althoguh her commuter is lower specc’d than mine it’s also considerably newer.

* In fact some of the lighter fancier bits have been deliberately put on her bike as she’s less likely to break them or wear them out like I am, and she’ll get more benefit from the weight loss than me. I may do more miles but that doesn’t mean I deserve a better bike.

I’ve only got a 27.5 and she has a 29er

Yep,

She’s got five gears I think, I’ve only got two. She’s also got a basket on the front,and dynamo lights! Although mine does now have a nice brass bell. 🙂

We had a policy decision to have as much carry over stuff on our bikes to keep spares and things manageable.
Brakes, pedals, gears, reverb, wheels are hope so even though different axles the hubs are the same. Completely different frames though. It worked well, only one tube, 26″, (tubeless but same size) one set of pads and one chain link. Now I went and got a new aeris and everything is different. Time to upgrade the wife’s then 🙂

MTB – hers, better fork and brakes.
Road – mine, it’s prettier.
Tourer – A draw, I’d say.

She doesn’t have a BMX, or half a Rockhopper, so I win.

I bought my Mrs an Open, I also have an Open, in the same colour, it’s a bit matchu matchy so I bought one in black (needs repairing) 😳

Yes, but we don’t ride together on singles anyway. She has a decent Canyon FS MTB, I sometimes go running when she’s riding it.

Hers
IBIS Mojo HDR, 27.5, SRAM 1×11

Mine
IBIS Tranny. No suspension, 2×9

Yeah.. I came back from this and Mrs Flamejob had significantly levelled up her riding by going off on bikepark weekends with the boyz who were outgunning her by quite some margin on their DH and big enduro bikes.

That seemed to do her a huge service in riding ability so she demo’d the Troy at Killington Mountain in Vermont and the grin on her face after riding one of the jump lines was enough to greenlight the spend.

ladyfriendwife has a better xc bike than me a nice 29er. I’m on 26er hard tail and cross type bike thing. she’s got a nicer roadbike too. carbon-stayed/forked ally, I’ve got the cross type bike thing. She does not have a fatbike though!

mrs rocket’s bike (GF Big Sur) is probably better than any of mine in an understated full XT kind of way

My bikes are completely OTT like covered in superglue and ridden through Chain Reaction

I have nicer bikes than my (male) OH mainly. Our MTBs are pretty much identical but most of my others (road, cross, TT) are 11 speed and slightly newer than his 10 speed equivalents. For wheels I have a disk wheel and he has deep sections (I focus more on TTs and he is targeting road racing)

I think I also have more bikes than he does, so I win.

My Mrs has a lovely Carbon Ribble Sportiva. I have an elderly Fort cx bike c/w rack, pannier and lots of rust.

We do have matching Fatbikes… and her commuter is much nicerer than mine

[url=https://flic.kr/p/LtitPH]IMG_7320[/url] by Jason WD, on Flickr

To begin with, no. She had a 2nd hand Carrera, I had something much nicer. Now, there is not much in it. I have Ultegra Di2, she has Mechanical, but hers is newer and look more “pimp”.

To begin with, no. She had a 2nd hand Carrera, I had something much nicer. Now, there is not much in it. I have Ultegra Di2, she has Mechanical, but hers is newer and look more “pimp”.

Yes, MsWife’s bikes are better than mine. And they’re in better order.

I’m aware that this sounds a little patronising, but… Cycling is more my hobby than hers, and I wouldn’t expect her to enjoy herself on a crap old bike that didn’t work properly…

I find it abhorrent that there are couples out there where the dude is riding some machine hewn from unicorn horn, scampering up some techy trail whilst their better half is riding either some ancient cast off or a scaffolding tubed supermarket bike.

It’s wonderful when you see him push his many £k worth while she puts in the effort on a climb.

Little wifey has a Banshee Rampant full sus while I have a Santa Cruz Superlight for local mtb rides.
Her road bike is a Campag equipped ti frame while I have a 15 yo ally Cannondale, so I guess we’re roughly equal.
I do have a carbon gnarpoon for Peaks/Lakes etc but she’s not interested in that sort of riding and generally hikes the hills while I ride em

I dont think ive ever seen a pair out with as good a bike as eachother.
The bloke always has a nice hardtail, whereas the lass is near always on a halfords special 😕

His – Ibis HD3 – Pikes, XT, Ibis Carbon wheels.
Hers – Intense Tracer 275c – Pikes, Sram X01, Nobl carbon wheels.

So I’d say they are much much the same… 8)