[Closed] Bike for non-cyclist wife

Get her some padded shorts for a start..

yup, decent padded shorts first. See if that helps, if you still want a saddle go Specialized as they have a 30 day return policy that you can use over and over to try and find the best match. Have fun explaining why getting her bum measured is a good thing 😉

Calibre Dune? Then at least one of you will get some use out of it 😉

Depending on height, Pinnacle Kauri. It's meant to be a 26" kids bike. 1x9, hydro discs, pretty light and scope to upgrade wheels etc second hand. It has been ideal for my petite and partially disabled wife.

She isn't a cyclist by any means [b]but would like to come out[/b] on family jaunts on off-road paths and light trails.

Double check this. Then check again. Too many times you hear this as it's the answer the cycling partner want to hear and it's easy to give when the barrier of an unsuitable bike lays between it and it becoming reality. Once the bike barrier is removed the truth will out!

The saddle bit.....remember when you first started riding and it was always a bit sore? It was only your desire to ride that got you to ignore and get past this and your undercarriage toughened up to the experience. The answer is padded shorts then riding more frequently than once ever six months. If the desire is not there then you don't get past this stage.

She sounds like a prime candidate for a sit up and beg hybrid and you need to moderate your off road expectations to more fire road and better. An E variant might do the trick (and be a lot less frustrating for you) but [url= https://www.evanscycles.com/bikes/electric-bikes_c/lifestyle_hybrid-discipline/women_specific ]blow your budget[/url].

MTB with riser stem and bars and a proper ladies saddle

If bum measurement anxiety strikes. carpeted stairs and tinfoil can be used at home. Cover a stair tread in foil, sit the good lady on the foil and get her to lift her feet off the floor. Measure the distance between the dents produced in the foil.

Also your local Fizik dealer should have a selection of trial perches for use.

If you want to save cash, get onto ebay or gumtree and buy the best one of these near you. There's one listed in Preston for under £20!

[url= http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adult-ladies-red-Real-Classic-3-speed-bike-with-basket-/142280574548?hash=item2120954654:g:AUUAAOSw32lYpYM2 ]http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/Adult-ladies-red-Real-Classic-3-speed-bike-with-basket-/142280574548?hash=item2120954654:g:AUUAAOSw32lYpYM2[/url]

They are lighter than they look, don't have any silly plastic parts, and bowl along nicely. Stock wheels and tyres are good for towpaths and Sustrans routes, the saddle is padded and comfy, and the upright riding postion is great for all day. Mrsmidlife did a 50 miler charity ride on hers last autumn and could happily have gone further, and she is no cyclist either. Closest thing to it at the minute is the Pendleton Ashwell.

If you want to spend some cash, this is all the quality you will need.
[url= http://www.cycle-heaven.co.uk/bikes/brands/gazelle/gazelle-orange-c7-women-s/ ]http://www.cycle-heaven.co.uk/bikes/brands/gazelle/gazelle-orange-c7-women-s/[/url]
A friend brought one back from NL a couple of years ago, it is fantastic spec and quality.

[brokenrecord] http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/laura-trott-mtb-1-womens-moutain-bike [/brokenrecord] 😉

£390, very good components for price, nothing comes close.

Some kind of retro MTB - back when they were more upright, with extremely safe geometry. My wife has an '86 Muddy Fox Courier that she happily potters about on.

New stuff is totally lost on her. I bought her a Dolce and she's ridden it twice. Too complicated, too unstable. It's not [i]actually[/i] unstable, obvs, but she doesn't feel safe on it. Which is the point.

Padded shorts and a Tandem 😉

Thanks for all the suggestions! Lots to think about.

Loads of comfy city bike options out there. Pop into Halfords.

I am in same sort of situation.
Was thinking tandem and 24"fat bike, then all family can use and swap etc.

Built up an old Cannondale F800 with carbon forks and 700c wheels for Mrs P, light and efficient on road, can handle a bit of tow path, and I can nick it when I have a flat on my commuter without looking too silly!

@marrv 18" Wazoo for £400 at the mo?

Shorten the reach with a 35mm stem if the default 75mm stretches out the better half a bit too much.

Mrs F has one of these [url= http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/boardman-mx-sport-womens-bike ]Boardman MX[/url] and is really pleased with it for pootling around. Much [s]better [/s] suited to her needs than the cannondale trail 29 it replaced

Gazelle or Batavus. (Modern Dutch style)

Supreme comfort, little-to-no maintenance. Rasy mount/dismount. Quality. No silly clothing required. Job done.

I've just bought MrsMomo the Laura trott bike linked to above, I'm very impressed with it, was £380 in store (and 10% BC discount)

The geometry is certainly not cutting edge but MrsMomo is happy based on her short first test ride around the block.

in the same situation i bought a pelago capri, as a surprise. She loved it! Phew.

It's a french town bike as opposed to dutch - which means similar position but slightly more sporty (ie light). it's over your budget though.

Gazelle do the van stael. which is similar. and in budget.

Or pinnacle californium looks good. (dutch style but alu)

Have a look at the Specialized Roll (low entry), sit up and beg position, nice comfy big volume tyres and saddle, step through to make it easy on/off. May fit the bill...good luck.

^ Something like the ladies 'Flying D' (used) or something from the recent town bike range (C type)

I'd second a nice Dutch bike to get her cycling. Comfort first, and an ability to handle a simple gravel path with Marathon Plus tyres. A used Kalkoff Agattu if she would like electric, otherwise a Gazelle, Batavus, Pendleton etc...

Forget mountain bikes at this stage, just get her enjoying being on a bike.

Get her some padded shorts for a start..

For a quiet jaunt once in a blue moon?

http://digg.com/video/netherlands-intersection-design

Note the lack of
- Lycra
- Helmets
- Racey bikes and saddles

and these are people that probably ride most days.

Notice instead that almost everyone (even the blokes) rides a variation on

one of those massively heavy Pendleton things

And does so in jeans and t-shirt, looking completely normal.

I accept that saddle hurt for the first hundred miles or so after a break. I accept that to ride every day that shorts are a requirement. And that there are plenty of other things which make cycling look a bit wierd, but are functional for the kind of recreational cycling we like to do.

I'd impose none of that on someone that wants a fire road bimble with the kids! A normal person is quite happy with a big padded saddle that weighs a kilo if it means they don't get butt hurt, and don't have to walk into a pub wearing spandex.

She isn't a cyclist by any means but would like to come out on family jaunts on off-road paths and light trails

thats what mrsalias said. I built a marin pine mountain with sids.

turns out, ten years later, some of her top requirements were not going to be met.....
its (now) got a basket
its got enough gears (why would you deliberately ride up the steepest hill?)
its got fast tyres and full mudguards
its got a comfy big saddle
its got a rack that you can strap a small cool bag with a lunch/beers to
its pink
it goes to picnics, it goes to pubs, it goes to the shops and to the friends houses

[img] [/img]

it doesnt have disc brakes which came as a small shock - soon adjusted.

Thanks, all. Got some good ideas there. Comfort is king/queen. Off to London bike show today to hopefully get summer more ideas.

Sam

I bought a Kona Dew plus for my [I]non-cycling wife[/I]. True to the description, she has ridden it twice. Nice bike though.

My missus has recently had a Carrera Subway. It's decent enough for £250 and looks OK. Worryingly I think she'll get into it and it'll cost me more money.

You could do what my wife did, which was to buy a stiff as hell mens alu road bike with a rock hard Fizik Arione saddle, a -17 degree, 120mm stem and deep drop bars. She liked it as it looked fast...

Thankfully, despite my expectation that it'd be for sale in 3 months, she absolutely loves it as it is fast. The saddle is gone mind you, a very cheap Brad-X ladies saddle is in it's place (and the Arione is on my bike now). I'm more than a little surprised.

[img] [/img]

[url= https://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-chromium-1-2017-womens-hybrid-bike-EV253859 ]Chromium?[/url] Comfy, simple, light, suprisingly quick and efficient.

I've pondering upgrading my partner's bike for a while. One thing that no-one's mentioned here is maintenance. Her current bike is a cheap, fairly heavy Halfords special, which would be fine if it were kept well maintained.

The problem is, she doesn't maintain it, and despite my good intentions, I have enough of my own maintenance to do. The chain sees some GT85 once every 3 months, the brake pads (V-brakes) are probably worn through and the tyres probably have about 10psi in them, so it rides like a pig.

If I bought/built a bike for her I'd ideally go for a belt drive, an internal geared hub, and cable discs (purely for lower maintenance).

I've got a bit of a bike collection and suggested to the GF that she tries a few of them to work out what she wanted. After trying my Tricross, with discs and drop bars she decided that drop bars are dangerous and preferred the sit-up style of my Liteville 301.

Fair enough.

She ended up buying an 80s Peugeot road bike with drop bars and rubbish rim brakes. ❓

OP: Don't try to reason with logic! Just support her decision and be understanding if she wants to change/ modify the bike after a few weeks/ months

I've pondering upgrading my partner's bike for a while. One thing that no-one's mentioned here is maintenance. Her current bike is a cheap, fairly heavy Halfords special, which would be fine if it were kept well maintained.

The problem is, she doesn't maintain it, and despite my good intentions, I have enough of my own maintenance to do. The chain sees some GT85 once every 3 months, the brake pads (V-brakes) are probably worn through and the tyres probably have about 10psi in them, so it rides like a pig.

Snap. My girlfriend cycles to work every day, and I built her a lovely, perfectly proportioned and light Giant - XT gears, BB7 discs etc. She rode it all the time and two years later it was completely shagged. The only time it ever got washed and lubed was the first few occasions when I showed her how she might want to go about doing it herself, and thereafter when I got frustrated and did it.

After the Giant ground to a halt she got a cheap Ridgeback commuter. She doesn't like riding it, with its flimsy rim brakes and poverty-spec gears, but acknowledges there's no point in getting anything nicer because she doesn't want to look after it.

After years of my mrs trying to get the hang of derailleurs, I got hold of an 8spd alfine. The Mrs loves it. Finds it perfect. Paired with a more upright riding position, and a proper female spec saddle and proper female kit it has transformed her riding ambitions. I would go to the LBS and get her measured up. It will cost you a bit but will be worth it long term.

Try borrowing or hiring a tandem, because it avoids the clashes of different abilities, and is more sociable.

+1 for hub gear. My ute has Nexus and a rust-resist chain. Zero problems, just a very light touch of lube when I remember. Swapped the chainring for something more West Country-size than Dutch 😉

I'm going to go against the grain here, does her current bike have a proper ladies saddle and well set up suspension forks in good working order?
Padded undershorts aren't going to bother anyone in a café either.. Unless she wants something to go to the shops!

Take her to one of the bigger bike shops that has loads of bikes on display. Do it midweek when It's likely to be quieter and someone can spend time with you. She can sit on a few and decide which position suits her best. Then she can look at saddles. Shorts are an obvious thing but unlike bloke who seem to just get whatever they fancy, if your wife is anything like mine, she'll be very choosy about fit so again, she needs to find some that fit properly...then buy 3 pairs min. (My wife found some good shorts 15 yrs ago, bought one pair and bemoans the fact year on year!)
Get it all right first time and she is far more likely to stick at it...I think

Definitely something with a hub gear. Look out for something with a nuvinci hub they are stepless + shift perfectly both pedalling or stationary.

Shimano roller brakes are excellent on this type of bike as well

Tandems are fun but...

Wherever your relationship is going, you'll get there faster on a tandem.

Go Dutch. Get her something that she wants, not what you think she wants.