Getting your wife/fiancee/girlfriend/female friend to ride...

lol, bunny is right, I ride with a woman that got on a bike and rode not only with the guys right away but with racers. She drops, gaps and rips better then most of the guys. If your gf is one of those exceptionally cool women that we all want to date like Denise and bunny then by all means throw her into the fray and she will love it or hate it. You are really the only one who knows her.

Gee Greg, you mean I won't be cool enough to get a date until I can do gap jumps? Damn…:P

Everyone learns in different ways - that's why there's different teaching styles. Some people leap in and go big before working on technique, others want to know how/why things work and experiment before throwing it out there. Some women learn really well from their bf's, others don't. In the same way, some people are really good teachers, and others just don't have the patience or the skills no matter how hard they try. Learn which one you are! Also, if like Denise your gf has transferable skills from dirt biking, you can use that when explaining things. Your gf will also let you know what works for her. I know couples who always ride together, ones who sometimes ride together, and ones who rarely ride together. I usually end up picking who I like to ride with, and if it doesn't work for me I don't ride with them again, regardless of my relationship with them outside of bikes.

lol alison. what you doin this weekend baby ;) :thepimp:

Or if she isn't into riding, just accept it. My wife doesn't ride, doesn't want to ride, and is cool with me heading out to do me 2-3 days/nights of riding every week. She likes some time on her own, and I love to ride - so it all works out. For a while I kept threatenting to come home with a nice cruiser for her so we could ride around town, but I've finally realized that it isn't her thing. And its not because she's not adventurous - she likes climbing and snowboarding, she's just not interested in riding. That fact that I come home all facked up and bloody on a semi-regular basis probably isn't encouraging her to get into the sport.

Back to my normal lurking….

hahaha i'm not even going to touch this one…every woman that gets into riding handles it differently, hopefully you'll figure out what works for your partner.

I wouldnt try to teach a S.O. anything ,I am relating paddling here but its just another intense technical sport.I was at a party with mostly paddlers presant , after a few drinks I listened to a group of women talk about their feelings when they paddle WW with their partners … some of their thots and feelings didnt make ANY sense from a logical standpoint and some of it was WAY out there BUT if thats what they think or feel … its valid.

Get someone else to teach yer S.O. there are courses out there

Or hang back and get a friend ,my buddy hardy is a much better paddler than I BUT I been teaching his fiance intermediate paddling tips .Every once in awhile he paddles up sez "how ya doin,you look great ,have fun " (to her … not me) then he fucks off to throw a few blunts in the play hole … smart dude

I see it alot when I go snowboarding. Guys trying to teach their gf's how to snowboard. The best is when they don't really know themselves. I'm curious to know how many relationships go south on a ski slope.

my last GF was a former ski instructor ,if I didnt keep my hands forward I got smacked on the ass with a pole

"thank-you please may I have another?"

. For a while I kept threatenting to come home with a nice cruiser for her so we could ride around town

TAKE her to a shop where they got the electra cruisers with some cool looking women's bikes and let her chose her own.We got the sales pitch from a guy at the electra booth and its just totally NOT about the same shit we look at .He was talking colors (note:most guys can only see about 7 colors), a bike with a paint job done by a female fashion designer .He even pointed out how one bike that had the same paint/pattern as a most popular line of bikini's was a huge seller

mechanicaly these bikes were uninspiring to a gear guy but I totaly got his point

http://www.electrabike.com/bikes.html

I was able to get Mrs Ripper into riding the last couple years. What got her really hooked was riding Whstler. She was able to progress her skills really fast there with the great trails. Good luck and remember to keep it fun.

my last GF was a former ski instructor

Noted. :P

Lot's of gems in this post, and a lot of crap.

My advice (I'm just in the process of assimilating my fiance) is this:

1) Register her in a course. You teaching her is only going to be frustrating.

2) Don't push her at all, just be there and be supportive. She's learning at her own level. You can ride the big shit with the boys later, but when you're with her, take it REALLY slow until she wants to step it up. Don't let her think like she's holding you back.

3) Protection, protection, protection. Seriously, armour the crap out of her. Nothing kills the desire to bike more than an unjury (or even some serious bruising). I'm generalizing here, but most women haven't grown up fighting with the other kids, playing rough sports, and getting hurt, and they're really not going to like it as adults.

4) Pretty things. A friend (who's wife races DH) once told me that a secret to getting his wife into riding was getting her some wicked gear. Girls like pretty clothes, pretty shoes, pretty cars, and they like pretty bikes. They're just better developed gear whores from the start.

Ladies: I'm just generalizing above, and I know that these points don't apply to everyone, but they stem from experience. Please don't take offence.

Lot's of gems in this post, and a lot of crap.

My advice (I'm just in the process of assimilating my fiance) is this:

1) Register her in a course. You teaching her is only going to be frustrating.

2) Don't push her at all, just be there and be supportive. She's learning at her own level. You can ride the big shit with the boys later, but when you're with her, take it REALLY slow until she wants to step it up. Don't let her think like she's holding you back.

3) Protection, protection, protection. Seriously, armour the crap out of her. Nothing kills the desire to bike more than an unjury (or even some serious bruising). I'm generalizing here, but most women haven't grown up fighting with the other kids, playing rough sports, and getting hurt, and they're really not going to like it as adults.

4) Pretty things. A friend (who's wife races DH) once told me that a secret to getting his wife into riding was getting her some wicked gear. Girls like pretty clothes, pretty shoes, pretty cars, and they like pretty bikes. They're just better developed gear whores from the start.

Ladies: I'm just generalizing above, and I know that these points don't apply to everyone, but they stem from experience. Please don't take offence.

Safety said it best. That's pretty much how it worked in our house. When I came home with a new Heckler to replace her old Kona Manomano, she was ecstatic. She started out taking classes with Women's Only, progressed to volunteering, then to teaching. She met lots of friend to ride with. This is the first year she's not doing any classes, just concentrating of riding.

We ride together a fair bit, but she rides more with her girl friends.

After 4 years of riding, we took our first run down Ned's together this morning. She's always hated Ned's because it was so rough and there was usually a superhighway full of traffic overtaking her all the way down. She's always had the skills to ride it, but still felt intimidated. So we got up real early this morning worked our way down it bit by bit. That new work is absolutely incredible. It smooths it out a bit for her, and still has everything it had before for me. She loved it, felt pumped up, full of confidence, wants to hit CBC next when it dries out.

She is currently taking a couple a course through Endless Biking. http://www.endlessbiking.com/

I had a PM asking my wife for her opinion on the Endless course, this is her response.

~~~~~~~~~~~

I heard you were asking about Endless Biking classes. I'm taking the last
two of the four Progression Sessions, which includes logs and ladders one
night and steeps and drops the last night. These ones are intermediate level; I hear they are offering advanced level series as well. I wasn't able to make then first two sessions which cover basic bike skills like the neutral
position, bike - body separation, etc.

The instructors were Kelli and Kenny Maude. Both were great - they
obviously love what they do and know how to teach a skill in an easy to understand manner. There was about 10 of us in the class, with bikes ranging from hardtails to full suspension downhill rigs.

We did the logs and ladders class last night from 6pm - 8pm in the field
behind Lynn Valley Elementary School on Coleman off Mountain Highway in
North Vanc. They taught the quarter punch and half turn quarter punch so us riders can get over logs and other obstacles. We started practising from going over a line in the ground to a log about a foot in diameter. We also rode skinnies, starting at ground level, and working up to about 1 1/2 feet off the ground.
They bring their own equipment i.e. boards and ladders.

There was no trail ride yesterday as the focus was on learning the skills
and practising many times over to build confidence. Next week, depending on
how quick the class picks up the steeps/drops skills, we may have time for a
quick jaunt down a lower Fromme trail.

I really enjoyed the class so would recommend to give them a try. Perhaps
try one class to see what you think - the drop in fee is $30 - email them via
their website to let them know which class/date you want to come to.

I've also done the Spokeswomen mountain bike camps twice and found those
really good too; they only offer two day weekend sessions but they are
packed with lots of skill building and riding on trails!

~~~~~~~~~~~

next, don't teach her yourself. You will get blamed for her falling. its better for her to complain to you about something someone else made her do, than an extremely quiet drive home.

Good Advise, Think of it like your dad trying to teach you how to drive a car…. my god what a mistake :)

I got lucky, When we moved to north van and my wife was walking our new dog she stumbled onto what I know it now to be "Boundry" on Fromme. When I got home from work she took me on this walk.

She was looking at the trail with a huge smile on her face and said "we start shoping for bikes this weekend"