52telecaster

trust me, i am in no way as mature as she is about it.

ramzilla

Paddler Humor/Sarcasm...............................

You know what they call a tandem kayak: a "divorce boat".

snow_venture52

I began riding in 2009 on a crappy but endearing Roadmaster purchased at Walmart for $80 (a splurge at the time). The next day I woke up late for work and had missed the bus so cycling was the next option (no car). It was really difficult those first few months but I came to really love cycling.

What does this have to do with my SO? He loves cycling as much as I did back in the early 2010s. It's how we met and will always have a special place in my heart. We moved in together, got a car, and I quit cycling almost completely!

Several years and weight gains later last week I decided to try getting back into one of my favourite hobbies and rode to work, ran errands, and got groceries (groceries means food and food is a holy experience not an errand). I still felt that thrill I used to feel 11 years ago-going out on the road under my own steam feels great! Only difference is now I have a wonderful mechanic and partner to make it smoother than ever.

snow_venture52

I'm mature until it comes to cute animals. Sometimes I even see those animals riding my bike!

due ruote 

Maybe with a shorter stem and Northroad style bars?

MeadMan2

My two outdoor passions are alpine skiing & biking. My wife & I meet skiing & while she rode a bike before & after we married, it wasn't until we got a tandem that she really came to love biking. The other nice thing about a tandem is that there are tandem rallies all over the country & in Europe that we have attended which indulged her passion for travel.

When it comes to me buying more bikes, she has no problem with it. When I attended a bike swap a number of years ago, I came across a 1924 Mead Ranger like the one my father had when he was in college. Needless to say, I wanted it but didn't have the cash with me. When I told her about it when I got home, she urged me to buy it, which I did later. When I discovered my Mercian which was being sold by a friend, she wasn't happy about me buying it. I went ahead & bought it anyway & when he delivered it to our home one would have though it was her idea, she was so excited.

Now for the bad news. Today I asked her if she wanted to try riding the tandem. She said that she thinks she is done with it. She gave up skiing several years ago. The combination of deteriorating physical strength & dementia has taken it's toll. Fortunately she doesn't wander away from the house so I can go on several hour rides & last ski season I took her to adult day care once a week so that I could go skiing. The only good news is that although I am 81, I can still ride my Merkx & I refuse to give up the drop bars & clipless pedals. After getting new ski boots for last season, I think I can ski nearly as well as I ever have. I guess I have reached the age at which one has to take it one day at a time.

3speedslow

My wife of 30 years has an anger which has built up over the years towards me over my bike/riding hobby. Exploded last year and he’ll has descended onto my house.

garryg

When i came up with the idea of buying bicycles and touring on the Kettle Valley Rail Trail in our mid fifties my wife was game. We had not ridden since we were kids.

It was 38 degrees celcius the first day and all slightly uphill,Seven years later and a few more tours under our belts we still enjoy riding.

She did tell me she was swearing at me for a good six or seven hours that first day but i could not hear her. God bless her

squirtdad

how about a tandem C2 ???

ramzilla

In my world everybody gets their own OCA. Unless we're fishing (of course).

Russ Roth

This. My wife never had much of an interest in riding before she met me; her mother bought herself and her 2 daughters some nishiki mtbs while she was a teen which they rode a few times but she hadn't ridden in several years when I met her. I built up a nice flat bar road bike with top notch wheels and on our first ride she complained that her hands hurt from coasting too fast on the bike path. She soon learned not to death grip the brake levers and our rides progressed at a reasonable pace. She rode that bike until I bought her a trek pilot 2.1 with carbon fork and stays; we dumped the 105 for rival and tossed the wheels for r45 hubs with a23 rims, I think both of those were new products that year. She really liked having a white and pink bike and it helped her catch the bug even more. She now has a race bike, gravel tour, cyclocross, and dual suspension bike and uses them all. Yesterday she went MTBing with the kids and I and rode the road bike on the trainer. Last week she took the gravel bike on a bumpy MUP. So they all get their share of use and she will borrow my track bike for meetups and will take a tandem to ride around with the kids though I still ride more then she does on a regular basis.

ExPatTyke

My wife has no interest at all in riding a bike - she borrowed our daughter's bike a few years back to try cycling again and decided she really didn't like it.

However, my wife is completely supportive of my cycling, and when I had my accident a couple of years back she was the one who encouraged me to get back on the bike, and to book the Roubaix trip as a recovery incentive. Spending an afternoon in a cold field in northern France surrounded by drunken Belgians is proof that she loves me.

Apparently our next trip has to be to the Tour as the weather will be warmer.

non-fixie 

I may have made a mistake.

Until recently it was pretty easy to sneak a new frame into the house and put it on the stand. As long as it had a familiar color and shape, mrs non-fixie wouldn't notice.

Or so I thought. Yesterday she walked in and asked: "What's that Van Tuyl doing on the stand? New?"

It was.

*** Long silence ****

"How much was it?"
"40 euros"
"Oh, that is very reasonable"

Phew.

So, boys and girls, be sure you know the consequences of getting your SO aboard before making the effort.

Oh, and the frame. I still don't know how she even recognized the brand.

noglider 

I hope to convince my spouse to get an e-bike eventually. The difference between us in both strength and stamina is huge, and the differences are growing. The tandem hasn't helped, and I had hoped it would. It has not strained our relationship, so that's good.

She's good at appreciating good gear, though she doesn't ogle it or idolize it the way a proper bike nut does. I don't go on and on talking about bikes; I keep it brief. Once we were on a group ride, and one of the other folks and I got to gabbing about bikes. She listened. Later, she told me she enjoyed hearing the conversation even though she had nothing to add. That was a pleasant surprise. She has a nice road-oriented hybrid in the country and a steel cyclocross bike in the city.

due ruote 

Maybe she has some frames squirreled away that you don’t know about.

non-fixie 

............ you think so?

RobbieTunes

Met my S/O at the 100-mile or so mark on the 2019 RAIN (Ride Across INdiana). I was doing my 1st century in over a year (so I picked 160...). I'd been long dropped by nomadmax .

She was on her 7th century of the year, 70th overall. She began her riding year in Israel and finished in Spain. I think she's up to 78 after February's century.

So we did 5 more together in 2019. I did 2 more without her. Centenario de Coppi was her first foray into C&V, though she had a custom Mercian painted by Dr. Deltron, damaged in an accident.

Despite weather and restrictions, we've managed a century and a pair of metrics in '20; plus significant mileage indoors. Now we look ahead to salvaging 2020. Part of that will see her on her NOS Guerciotti and hopefully on her Ironman (what?!) this year...

She has a Domane, a Rubaix, and the Gerck... I hope for her to be rolling an Ironman at Hotter'n'Hell, as the faithful congregate there.

She can drop me on the flats and indoors, where the advantage goes to the higher cadenced... I have her on the hills.

She was an enthusiast long before a deserted DIY rest stop on a scalding afternoon in IN brought her into my pathetic periphery. I know better than to inhibit her ride time.

She has been known to utter "It's just a bike." Until the custom painted Guerciotti showed up. Not saying she's transformed from Di2 to DT, but it's out there.

I'm not deserving of her attention, but hope to earn my way into that.

squirtdad

nesteel 

My wife of 27 years (this July) has no desire to cycle, EVER. She hates riding a bicycle. The key word towards my bike "habit/obsession" is tolerance, which she displays.
Seeing how I'm a hypertensive, type 2 diabetic who had a TIA last year (at age 47), she prefers to know what my route is, and how long I plan on riding. If I change it on the fly, I am respectful enough to let her know so she doesn't worry.
She prefers quilting, so the nice sewing machine I bought her last Christmas has been put to good use.

Dwillems26

Not in the least. I could turn this into a winded rant about the topic. She's somewhat supportive, but not much. The kicker is that she tells me she wants to be outside more, do things. She'll do an occasional bike ride with me and the kids, but not often. And now she wants me buy her a $1000 road bike... I don't think she'll be happy with it at all.

I do try to listen to her wants though and reason with her. Need to finish the cruiser rebuild and maybe she'll enjoy that more. I just got myself a road bike, so I'll set that up for her to have her try out before we continue down that path.

ascherer 

My love enjoys riding with me, but she'd never go out for a ride on her own unless it's an errand in the city. We married 9 years ago and on our honeymoon in Vermont we bought her a Cannodale Synapse. It took a few years for us to come to terms with the fact that she wasn't comfortable on that bike, it was too twitchy and harsh for her. I kept a lookout for a nice classic tourer and found a Lotus Eclair for a song. I've been dialing it in for her needs and taste. It has the drivetrain (upgraded from 9 to 10 just yesterday) and wheelset from the Synapse, cushy Rene Herse 35c tires and she's much happier. Riding 20-40 miles is no problem for her. I'm delighted to have my honey to ride with. We were planning to go on a week-long supported tour in the late summer, maybe Ireland or Sweden/Denmark, but that seems unlikely this year.

merziac

Wouldn't that be just grand?

Kabuki12

My wife and I met in the early seventies. She was in her junior year of high school and I was recently graduated and working. I bought her an old 3 speed at a yard sale and we rode bikes together. I was on my Varsity in those days. In 1975 we married and we continued to ride bikes together frequently . By the time we moved on to our sail boat and rented out our condo, she was on a Raleigh Touring 14 with bar end shifters and I was on my Kabuki Diamond Formula. We put our cars in the garage at the condo and did not drive them, just bikes. In more recent years she has had physical challenges that limits her ability to join me on my rides. I bought her an electric assist bike for her good days that she is able to ride. She loves my vintages bikes and is turning a section of our grind shop into a “bike area” for my collection. We are still a cycling couple and she really misses riding like she used to.

sced

Married 39 years, 3 sons, outdoorsy and adventurous. We ride together a lot. She has a Giant at home and an original Ciocc at our cottage on Lake Hartwell. Typical ride ~20 hilly miles. Pics are from last fall. BTW, she wants me to say that she has stage 4 cancer and has been having chemotherapy every other week for a year and a half. Her doctors are pleased with how well she is doing and attribute it too her maintaining fitness. She reads a lot about cancer and says there is just starting to be an awareness of the benefit of regular exercise (if possible).