My wife and I have ridden together off and on for almost 35 years, but she was never a die hard cyclist. After we had kids she rode a lot less and I would go out and rack up a lot of miles. In the late 90's both of our bikes pretty much went into mothballs as I got back into surfing when our boys saw my boards in the rafters and that occupied nearly all of our time for almost 10 years.
Around 2008 I started riding again with my wife. I started tinkering and upgrading both of our old 80's bikes. About 2 years ago I started mountain biking at 61 and I picked up a nice older Trek for my wife and we will ride trails together. My wife can't ride the miles or hills I do, especially mtb trails. And I do select the routes that will fit her ability and sometimes stretch her level. For a while I would just start riding and before I knew it she would be some distance behind, but I stop and we will ride together. Currently she is good for about 25 miles of road and 10 miles of trail and we ride 2, maybe 3, times a week with a longer ride on the weekends and shorter rides after work.
But it is not the speed or the miles that has made an impact on me. My wife has taught me that riding is more than pounding the pavement over so many miles at such a speed. She has really gotten me to enjoy the ride and more importantly the surroundings. All of my cycling life has been about the numbers, or more recently how well I rode a trail, but with her I might as well throw all of that out the window. So we stop and she takes a picture of a deer. Pretty cool as I would have never noticed it on my own. Or instead of looking at my computer, I notice there's water in a creek, pretty unique for SoCal, or an area of trees. I'll still go on rides by myself where I am still pushing, but not every ride has to be that way to be fun.
John
Last edited by 70sSanO; 07-08-15 at 10:43 AM.