A
My wife has been showing an interest in coming cycling with me.
She is quite fit, has been doing a lot of bike work at the Gym, and is
interested in coming cycling with me rather than us going our separate
exercise ways.
She doesn't have a lot of cycling experience apart from when she was a
kid, so her skills in terms of bike handling, use of gears, general
riding are quite lacking.
We have been to centennial for a couple of rides with her hiring a
crappy MTB from the bike hire guys there, that went pretty well and
she is interested in moving to the next level.
I have a mid low/mid range road bike (Felt F80), I definitely want to
look at getting her either a road bike or a flatbar as we
realistically will only be doing road work.
If it was a roadbike, I would definitely want to get her something
with STI gear, as getting used to riding is and gears is hard enough
without having to take your hand off the bar and reach down to the
tube to change gears when you hit a hill. I am guessing a flatbar
might be easier and less threatening in terms of gears and handling to
start with.
Platform pedals definitely seem like the go to start off with,
clipless is too expensive/scary at the moment.
We had an ill fated and expensive experience with buying her some good
rollerblades for her to come skating with me, I don't want to make the
same error here and drop $1000+ on a bike for her only to put 100k on
it and decide its not for her.
So, essentially I am thinking of a budget of around $500 to get her
something decent that can be built on, but on the other hand won't
have been too big a cost if it doesn't work out.
Given that, it appears that second hand would be the go.
eBay appears to be the obvious choice - are there any other good
second hand cycling options I should consider?
If I go eBay, how do I estimate the frame size that she needs? She is
164cm. It is key that she can easily put her feet down when stopped,
as that gives her more confidence, but I expect that if the framesize
is right we can work that out to start out with seat height.
Suggestions anyone?
She is quite fit, has been doing a lot of bike work at the Gym, and is
interested in coming cycling with me rather than us going our separate
exercise ways.
She doesn't have a lot of cycling experience apart from when she was a
kid, so her skills in terms of bike handling, use of gears, general
riding are quite lacking.
We have been to centennial for a couple of rides with her hiring a
crappy MTB from the bike hire guys there, that went pretty well and
she is interested in moving to the next level.
I have a mid low/mid range road bike (Felt F80), I definitely want to
look at getting her either a road bike or a flatbar as we
realistically will only be doing road work.
If it was a roadbike, I would definitely want to get her something
with STI gear, as getting used to riding is and gears is hard enough
without having to take your hand off the bar and reach down to the
tube to change gears when you hit a hill. I am guessing a flatbar
might be easier and less threatening in terms of gears and handling to
start with.
Platform pedals definitely seem like the go to start off with,
clipless is too expensive/scary at the moment.
We had an ill fated and expensive experience with buying her some good
rollerblades for her to come skating with me, I don't want to make the
same error here and drop $1000+ on a bike for her only to put 100k on
it and decide its not for her.
So, essentially I am thinking of a budget of around $500 to get her
something decent that can be built on, but on the other hand won't
have been too big a cost if it doesn't work out.
Given that, it appears that second hand would be the go.
eBay appears to be the obvious choice - are there any other good
second hand cycling options I should consider?
If I go eBay, how do I estimate the frame size that she needs? She is
164cm. It is key that she can easily put her feet down when stopped,
as that gives her more confidence, but I expect that if the framesize
is right we can work that out to start out with seat height.
Suggestions anyone?