The family that plays together stays together. Least that’s what I’ve heard. So last week I finally got to take the other half of the fam(wife) on our first ride ever. She on her Ibex and me on the Nirve Night Owl. I thought the trail was level enough that my wife wouldn’t need her helmet but she was quickly riding better than I’d hoped and I was kickin’ myself afterwards for not bringing them. No one fell though, and we had some nice green scenery thanks to the recent rain.
We sure not much for the night scene(clubs, etc.) so we like to find excuses to hang out together. This was a great one. While racing and rolling great singletrack is fun, I loved taking it easy and found it more relaxing and laughed more on a ride like this. Besides, it was a good excuse to show off my stoppies in front of the wife. Sure helps get her in the mood for late night activities. 🙂
It’s also fun teaching the basics. You forget that all those shifters and brake levers can be a little confusing when you first start. If you look hard(first pic) you’ll notice my wife put on her Specialized BG gloves on upside down, with the palm padding on the top of her gloves. I noticed half way through the ride and had to force myself not to laugh too hard.
Leavin’ me in the dust
We went into some pretty skinny singletrack, further along these railroad tracks and she had no problems whatsoever. Most importantly she had a smile on her face the entire time. I’d been reading RL’s tips for getting your wife into biking and made sure I was positive and didn’t push her or make her ride anything more than a novice was ready for. Still, it’s really encouraging and I can only hope that one day she’ll be out riding epics with me. Baby steps first though. Baby steps.
