I'm building up a bike for my missus to learn to ride on. And I mean learn from scratch. It's coming along quite nicely – apprpriate size, decentish bits so if she does get into it she will enjoy it (14" inbred, my old rebas, hope/mavic/juicy 3s etc).

Just one thing i can't decide on: should i build it singlespeed for her to learn on and then add gears when she's confident coordinating pedaling, balancing, braking etc? Or should i gear it from the off? I'm leaning towards ss'ing it at the moment but am happy to be persuaded away from the idea. Can't decide!

Gears all the way – maybe 1×9 tho for simplicity. Unless its very flat around where you are she will need gears for any hills

if shes learning then put gears on it – but lock them out

then teach her

unlock gears at a later date

That's a fair point. I was planning pretty flat stuff to begin with and a 34×18 to make life *really* easy for her.

you mean she can't ride a bike at the moment?

easy SS then.

Theres an awful lot for a non-rider to master to begin with (at least based on teaching my 6 year old, which I do understand, is different from teaching an adult).

surely 1×9 is best some gears to play with but no extra chainrings to confuse the issue

unless she has thighs like geoff capes or you live in holland/east anglia

In my opinion she will only ride it if she likes it and her criteria will be very different to yours.
My Mrs loves her bike, not because of the technology or quality, but because she thinks it looks nice. Think about going to the shop to buy a complete bike so she can pick something she likes.
Id say definately give it gears tho, she doesnt have to use them to start with but if shes working too hard it'll put her off, possibly for good.
You can introduce the better quality bike youve built for her once she's hooked.

unless she has thighs like geoff capes

heh. Thankfully not.

In my opinion she will only ride it if she likes it and her criteria will be very different to yours.
My Mrs loves her bike, not because of the technology or quality, but because she thinks it looks nice.

Yep, very true – which is why she's been part of the decision making process all the way through. And why it has a pink headset, pink grips and will have pink pedals to contrast with the black frame. heh.

you mean she can't ride a bike at the moment?

That's precisely what i mean. Basically she felt left out of the fun that me and the kids have so wanted to learn to join in.

(at least based on teaching my 6 year old, which I do understand, is different from teaching an adult).

I'm expecting a lot more tantrums and tears. And that's just me.

Been there and lost! Were trying again this summer and this time I'm not taking her up the long blue climb at Dalby.Going down, was as bad.

Built up a bike for the gf last summer. It did a few laps around a local lake and that was about it.
Tried to decide between buying a cheapo Halfords jobbie just to see if see enjoyed it or to build up something better. Something better won of course but i've told her if she doesn't use it this summer it'll get sold. It's a lovely 15" Myka Pro with Reba Teams and weighs in a shade under 25lbs with pedals which is lighter than any of my bikes. Waste of a nice bike just sitting there though. 'Only' cost around £500 though making good use of deals and the classifieds.

I hope you fair better than me and that your good lady actually uses hers, although with days out with kids in mind you've probably got more of a chance.

My Mrs knew how to ride a bike, but off-road was something she knew nothing about.

We bought a year old Orange p7 for £275 from Neilson (the active holiday company) in Brighton Marina in 2001 so she had something decent to start on.

Lovely little bike, even if its only seen dirt about 5 times since. Its benefitted from all my cast off's too. Fox forks, XT, etc…

she will want gears, hell, i would want gears!

let her pic rides/ go on rides herself etc. and be patient.

the wife was attempting to get air off small jumps after a few months riding in circles. no encouragement needed.

she will get upset if you try and tell her too much/pick holes. make a few basic suggestions and let her try it out on a few rides.

yeah, it's dificult balancing my enthusiasm and not getting so carried away that she gets put off…

If your wife wasn't into MTBing before you met her then you should leave it that way. Voice of experience talking here. It'll lead to arguements when you try and give a little bit of advice or encouragement. You'll have twice the amount of bike cleaning and maintenance to do. And bang go any rides with just your mates – you'll have to take her along as well whether you wanted to or not.

Here's my wifes bike, spookily similar circumstances. Never ridden before, went with Singlespeed and it was much easier for her to get going without gears. She's now up and running with some general steady trails. I've just ordered some gears

Cheers for the encouragement Smuzzy – that's a nice bike to learn on!

My girlfriend learnt to ride on my SS to get the basics of balance and because it was there.

When we got her her own bike we got one with gears and she cursed me for that to start with, but now getting used to gears just using the middle chain ring and rear block and occasionally venturing to the rest of the chainset.

just using the middle chain ring and rear block and occasionally venturing to the rest of the chainset.

Heh. After 30+ yrs of cycling, it sounds like me.