IamNed

My wife used to struggle with a Schwinn MTB (and a few others I had her try) until I picked her up an older Bianchi Avenue hybrid that fits her for next to nothing on craigslist. I put an old Brooks B17 saddle as any of my other saddles bothered her. With the saddle it weighs 28 pounds. It’s quite ugly, but she absolutely loves tooling around on it, sits upright, and is surprisingly quick on it. It’s a very solid bike and she loves the trigger shifters compared to grip shifters. Our little 12 mile ride to a produce stand last Sunday she averaged 14 mph for the ride. Every other bike she has ridden she was painfully slow on.

Maybe find a CL hybrid bike for peanuts that you can sell for peanuts if she doesn’t like it.

Gresp15C

In my view, most people are more likely to be motivated to give cycling a chance, if they have some personal ownership of the process. That's why I suggest that the OP should encourage the process and take part if asked, but otherwise, hands off and see what his spouse chooses for herself. And then as any good spouse would do, male or female, be gallant, help get it home, find a place for it, and so forth. Find out what cycling style she prefers, and go along with it. And so forth.

Machka 

Yes!!

And also encourage her to go for a decent bicycle ... something that isn't a tank ... something she can lift.

danmyersmn

I had a similar project trying to find a light bike that works for my wife. We ended up with the diamondback calico st. It was a light all around bike that worked well. Well enough in fact that my wife was riding enough that she upgraded to a 2018 diverge e5 recently.

Performance Sports has a couple nice models from breeze, fuji & diamondback that may be good options.

Gresp15C

I'm still happy with my Diamondback Haanjo Metro, after having it for a year. It's a hybrid, and weighed in at 25 pounds without attachments. Diamondback (owned by Raleigh) has a corporate discount program -- if it's available at your workplace and you can wait for the bike you want to be discounted, you can get some pretty good deals. DB makes some versions that are sized and set up as women's bikes.

littleArnold

Yeah she is like only 5' tall, 100 lbs and I am like 5'5", 165 lbs. We are both very small. She has like no strength. She can't even bench the bar when I take her to the gym with me and I usually put two 45lb plates on both ends and rep with 225. She can't even lift that 45lb Mountain bike off the ground and I can easily lift it up with one hand and put it on the bike rack on my car. So yeah it's a combination of her small 5' 100 lb frame and that she has very little muscular strength. She has a hard time balancing the weight of the bike, I guess muscles you would use to balance it. She does fine balancing the Trek Hybrid because it is lighter.

Machka 

Over in the Touring forum, one of my suggestions when it comes to loading up a bicycle for a tour is that, for me, ideally the bicycle and all the gear should not weight more than half my body weight. When the weight of the bicycle, and all the gear, weigh more than half my body weight, I struggle to get that bicycle up any sort of hills and cycling become a chore.

The 45 lb mountain bike is almost half her body weight alone with no gear. I'm not surprised she had trouble with it.

Make sure the bicycle you get her is down around a quarter of her body weight. Make sure she can lift it and carry it a short distance. If she can do that, she'll feel much better on the bicycle.

martianone

+2, etc.
Having experienced a partner who was, emphasize was a little shy about cycling- you need to let her make the choice. Go to several bike shops to look at and try as many bikes as possible.
My partner is also untall and was uncomfortable with several bikes.
Your role, should include making sure the fit is optimal.
Many shops will try to sell her something that just isn't an optimal fit - be firm with the shop.
That said- you also could help guide her toward something like a flat bar road bike.
These are often light weight, a little more upright riding and often are available in smaller sizes.
Don't be sucked into the male or female specific branding, if you compare the geometry of a number of so called
Female specific bikes to the male models - numbers match. Difference is color.
Let her choose, help her get what fits.
After she gets a bike, start by going only on short (<8 km) rides easy terrain and little traffic. But not on a mup, if you can avoid it. Go to an ice cream shop or out for breakfast or lunch. Don't go out Sunday morning. First few times you go out, watch carefully to make sure the fit is really optimal. Sometimes a small tweak of saddle, handlebars, etc can make a big difference in long term comfort. Along with the bike, get the most basic GPS speedo, this will help her be able to directly see her distance and speed. This is an important feedback. Also don't cheap out on a light weight and comfortable for her helmet and gloves. Plus encourage her to try some riding shorts, not the skin fit type, something that looks more like regular shorts or athletic pants. J&G touring short is a good example. Most bikes models have various levels of components, probably don't need top model, but over time a mid level model may provide better service. Invest wisely!
My partner has been riding, happily, with me for soon to be 35 years.

Brooke1687

Trek Verve? It has a step through frame on the women’s model, it rides upright and it super comfortable. The newer models have wider tires.

My husband has an older model Verve, we were looking at a DS or a Fx for him but we found such a good deal on it we went for it. I have a Neko, which is the women’s model of the Dual Sport. Sometimes we switch because I’m recovering from a hand injury and the Verve is so comfortable.

littleArnold

I decided to get her a Schwinn Hybrid Women's bike. Paid like $370 for it. Went to a bike shop saw the bike and she really liked it. She loves it. It is upright so it doesn't hurt her back. It has a lower position than my Trek bike so it's easy for her to get on and off of it. Ligthweight so it is easy for her to get on and off of it. She loves it. We rode after bought it and she loved it. Didn't hurt her back. Was easy for her to control and get on and off. It was in her favorite color too, purple


only thing negative is people online who reviewed it gave it about 4.5 stars, but said shifting was weaker compared to the Trek bikes. For my wife that is no big deal, she never shifts and mainly likes to stay on flat trails. Comfort was most important to her and she could care less about shifting, she just prefers to ride in one gear the whole 10 miles or so we bike ride together.

asmac

My wife is a nervous rider but does her best to humour me and join me on my rides. When I replaced her ancient bike, I wanted something that was reasonably light, had a step through frame and was easy to shift -- i.e. an internal geared hub. Ease of mounting a rack, bottle holder and fenders was also a consideration.


I settled on this model from MEC. It's a Canadian store (think REC) but the principle is the same. She's quite happy with it.
https://www.mec.ca/en/product/5048-4...d-Tape-Bicycle