So,

Wife wants to get into mountain biking a little bit, and to be honest i’m fed up on fire roads with her.

Currently she is practicing standing up on the pedals and using her legs as suspension
using the gears
looking ahead for obstacles – still not spotting up coming hills
general fitness

future skills potentially
weight distribution
chosing a good line

anything else? does anyone know where i can buy liquid patience?

she’s not too bad on the blue route at glentress for example

A friend to ride with who is also shit? 😀

Then they can do the blue while you do a proper loop!

great plan, so frist conversation should be.. “would your sister like to start mountain biking?!”

Being relaxed on the bike and not panic grabbing the brakes.

Aline coaching if near to Sheffield.

just don’t bother.. biking is your thing, not hers, it’ll only end in tears

[video]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VB4cFLxJdn8[/video]

Honestly. Pay someone else to do it. A pro will prob make a better job of it, she’ll enjoy it more and theres nothing to stop you riding together in the meantime.
I tried to teach my wife the basics, we were just getting frustrated with each other and she wasn’t learning anything.. a pregnancy put paid to her riding and she’s never gone back..

My tuppence would be,

1) concentrate on fitness and easy trails, some skill will then evolve organicly and if you do then go out on more interesting trails she wont be knackered on the first run/hill.

2) pay someone, its probably cheeper than a divorce

Just think of the satisfaction once she’s manualing past you on the downhills while sticking a finger up.

Or misery 😀

Yeh paying someone sounds cheaper than divorce or getting her pregnant – currently in Aberdeen – any volunteers!?

Handy one this: if at any point she simply refuses to take on board a piece of advice you’ve been giving repeatedly for weeks, then get absolutely anyone else at all to give her exactly the same advice and she’ll immediately start doing it.

The best tip that someone gave me when I started was: on descents leave the front brake alone.

Please refrain from giving your wife ‘the tip’ on the trails, it will cause crashes. Were not exactly respected enough by others who use woodlands etc as it is!

Mrs C is very “independent woman” and was having no mincing about the skills section while I failed at “cycling 101”.

So she followed me round the 10 under route, fell off thrice, got a fright, had a laugh, got back on and has been bitten by the bug ever since.

In her words “not being scared to fall off is the best feeling ever”.

Love ‘er, I do.

Currently trying to stop the OH selling her bike.

I wish you luck!

Tricky….

Monkey arms and wide knees, commit.

Best advice I got when I started out ( by one if my dads friends) other than that, don’t be patronising, ride slower, don’t ride off on the DH sections at a million miles an hour. Ride with her up the hills. Make sure her bike works and isn’t shit

I’d avoid it and just keep your leisure worlds separate. My wife is still my best mate after 17 years but I wouldn’t want her coming biking with me , and there’s nothing she’d like less than getting cold and soaked riding round a forest for a few hours.

Our lives are none the worse for that.

You do your thing, She does her’s. Sit round the kitchen table with a glass of wine and chat once in a while. As long as you think she’s hot then all will be peachy.

Just sayin.

DO NOT DO IT DO NOT DO IT

buy her a puppy or something, new car even just dont do it.

Mountain biking night = blokes stuff.
Every other night watching Hollyoaks = girls stuff.
All your mates will form a splitter group and never talk to you again….unless she’s really fit, in which case they’ll all suddenly want to ride up hills behind her.

Do do it! Biking weekends away are fab and having someone who actually fancys you to relax with afterwards makes a totally different evening to drinking with some blokes off the leash for a weekend.

Skills wise ensure a reasonably light fully functioning bike an understanding of the gears and how not to use the front brake. Then let her play but never ride off and leave her.

Crankygirl has more bikes than me now.

^^^^^ what Crankyboy says!
Same boat with Mrs Muttley

Add the Downsides

Beware of creating someone better than you a monster! 😳

commenting on a nice bit of kit normally results in a “get me one too” or a “do they do that in pink”

Not as “resilient” to setbacks still have the occasional foot stamping episodes and what are best described as “little moments”

If you’re serious …

Buy her a bike that fits and is at least as good as yours.

Get her some training – there are a few women trainers south of the border (Ally Campbell, Kate Potter, et al), not sure what options you have up north.

Best money I’ve spent in a long time.

Just drop her and wait at the top of the hill with a stopwatch, she will soon give up (or kick your ass).

I would never EVER try to teach my wife anything. She knows everything already!

This is the best skills book out there IMO. http://www.amazon.com/Teaching-Mountain-Bike-Skills-Training/dp/0974566039

If I was in the OP’s situation, I’d makehave someone else teach her how to ride.

My partner’s first go on a bike in 10 years, was riding my half fat jones ss for a 15 mile loop in scotland near the cobler…she took to it like a duck to breakdancing…actually she kicked ass, now wants a jones or sometingsimilar for herself and is comming to the ss euro champs.

find the right bike for your lady, and just have a laugh with it, if she enjoys herself and can see you happy ( rathet than all stressy and grumpy cos its not a propper ride etc) then she will relax and ut eill come a lot more naturally

Problem solved!

Calfee X Ellsworth Witness – Shred Singletrack with your Sweetie this Valentine’s Day

Control your laughter

No issue – your laughter will soon turn to tears of boredom

I spent a week persuading mine to have a go – and then the next 2 years trying to dissuade her

I was lucky that my girlfriend already had an on-one 456 and skills training before I met her…still prefer to ride by myself, but it makes a joint ride OK. First ride we did together was the Doethie valley, so she’s not all bad (thought it would be a good test to see if we would get along!).

i’ve all this to look forward to….wife never learnt to ride a bike (obviously my fault!) and has been nagging me for the last 7 years to teach her how to ride one
naturally i’ve been reluctant to do this as i dont want to end up doing the same as the OP….being stuck on crappy canal towpaths, fire roads etc with her.
she’ll never get into the MTB thing as she’s not the type but would like to learn so we can go on family rides together when the kids are older…i’ve kind of promised her i’ll teach her after the baby is born…should be fun(!)

Don’t build up a Prince Albert for her.
Don’t tell her how you got the PA second hand off a bloke in a car park off this site.
Don’t buy a bike that fits her perfectly and expect her to think the same way about bike sizing as any sane person.
Don’t think that just because she’s nailed some slippy rooty section whilst angry that she’s ready for anything more than the park and cake stops.
Don’t lock her forks out and ask if it feels any different. (It doesn’t.)
Don’t expect to ever enjoy a ride again. Sometimes it can be so slow it’s painful.

Do….

Justify building up a blingtastic Cotic Soda by claiming its a bike she will love to ride too and now we can ride together sometimes. Dont worry she wont be able to ride it at all, just fall off all the time and complain how low the bars are and how bumpy it is. You now have a posh new bike 🙂

There’s my mistake. I would love a Soda.

Also take care when talking about ‘sorting out her rear sag’.

stuff that works for us:

spend more time and money fixing/buying her kit than yours – you may be able to ‘nurse’ an out of tune rear derailleur for a few more rides, don’t assume she can do this.

remember to feed her regularly – a little something every 20mins or she’ll get cranky.

she’ll start off colder than you, and warm up faster, and cool down quicker, etc. be patient as a saint when she stops to put on / take off layers, be even more patient when you end up carrying her layers.

pay for some coaching, Campbell coaching were good for us.

some days, if it’s cold, windy, raining, sleeting, she’ll not be up for it. this is fine.

front-wheel lifts are the most useful skill ever, and not as easy to learn as you may think.

15k is a long way.

reds are difficult.

10k swoopy blues are your friend, but there aren’t enough of them – glentress, haldon forest, forest of dean, whinlatter.

cannock ftd is great, but a little trickier.

Llandegla blue is too much hard work for very little return.

the blues at Ae and Mabie are a total waste of time.

Dalbeattie is ok, mostly gravel road with a few tricky bits. It’s about 15k though, so good for building up off-road distance.

Grizedale – we ‘survived’ but found it a bit too tricky, and a bit too far.

BikeParkWales – ‘challenging’ but really good for her confidence – the chute down to the tunnel was bit much.

enjoy yourself – even if it is ‘short’ and ‘easy’.

Teaching your other half anything is not DIY.

If GT is your park call Andy http://www.ridelines.co.uk/

Good guy.

Foot/pedal position when cornering
Looking up and ‘through’ the corners, not down – the single most important thing to add smoothness, speed and therefore fun to your riding.
Brake discipline.

I found going riding with other couples works well, spend a bit of time teaching/showing them, offer encouragement then they can have a play or slow ride round practicing together whilst you & your mate cane it. Gradually build up the technical level and distance and before you know it she will be riding with you.

Everybody wins, as a result the mrs loves mountain biking now and is a good rider, we go on at least 1 mtb holiday each year – at her request! She rides at her own pace…. which can be quicker than some of the blokes we’ve ridden with… she races too and is no stranger to the podium…. did I mention she’s supercompetitive?

Skills for the ladies: http://www.dirtdivas.co.uk/index.htm