Topic: Wife wants to ride

[upperlake04]

I won't even let her ride pillion with me 'cos if should anything happen to her I wouldn't be able to live with my conscience.

 That's one of the reasons I make for going solo too and it's a wise choice for older gents. 

[CBJoe]

I won't even let her ride pillion

Ultimately for me it's a bloke thing

macho bravado

To which I say, "Ugh."


mystic_1

+1

I dont chime in much around here, but my wife recently brought up the idea of learning to ride.

To be honest, my palms sweat every time we're in the car and she's driving.  Partly because i'm a control freak (inside my head) and partly because her reaction ability in vehicles scrares me.  But, who am i to tell her to do something different than I do.  I freak at the idea of her being on 2 wheels, but.....

Who am I to tell her that she cant learn to ride.  I insist that she takes ABATE (like I did) and if she passes the course and likes the thrill, then AWESOME.

I'll still freak out everytime that she rides, but i'm sure that she freaks everytime I leave home to go to work.  If something terrible happens, i'm positive that i'll feel the same as she would if something would happen to me.

Its shameful to thinking that the ladies cant ride and it's even worse not giving your spouse/partner the same respect that they give you.

Not being specific to any previous posters, but I'm stuck in an airport and felt like expressing myself 

Cheers.... Joe

[Inkscars]

+1 joe, have a safe flight!

[kghost]

Ha! I live at the airport.

Anyways...thats what I was saying

[CBJoe]

+1 joe, have a safe flight!

Thanks.  not to change the subject, but i just found out that I can get a Guinness to go and actually take it onto the plane with me.

  I cant tell you the joy that i'm feeling right now...... Unless the waiter lied to me...... then i'll try and type to you all from jail.  

time for my Loooooooooong flight and Chicago layover back to Indy.  

Cheers.... Joe

[mystic_1]

+1 joe, have a safe flight!

i just found out that I can get a Guinness to go and actually take it onto the plane with me.

Wow, I gotta fly more.

mystic_1

[Beans]

I just got done talking to the wife and we say if she wants to ride theirs no way u can tel her no.  Let her make the decision to ride and sign her up for a riders safty course and start her son something small.  My wife has been riding firtbikes for years and has also ridin a few street bikes and harleys.  She even told me she would love to ride a harley or have me build her a cb bike so she can go ride when ever she wanted to work and what not. I mean I love the fact she gets interested in the things I like and visa versa.  If it wasn't for her being interested I wouldn't have married her. 

[MickeyX]

Personally, my favorite riding time is with my wife. I'll be honest, I love to check her out from behind as we are heading down the road.  I'm so proud of how far she's come with the rebuild of her own bike by her own hands and the jitters she's overcome in such a short period of time. Of course I worry about what could happen. It could happen in a car too. Or on a plane. Or on the bus. I wouldn't know how to live without her. I also wouldn't know how to live with myself if I kept her from enjoying life in the way she wants. She feels the same way back. That's called respecting the one you love and understanding that when it all comes down to it, you would do anything to see them happy including encouraging them to go beyond the norm and do things that could possibly be harmful. I worry but I also know she is one of the most careful and aware riders I've ever seen on the road. I've ridden since I was 4yo so I've got some years on the road and the dirt. I've also been smashed by a cager and had years of recovery. Believe me, I KNOW what it's about out there and what can happen. So, when she wanted to learn to ride, I didn't hesitate. I referred to the professionals to teach her. We took the MSF course together last year and I was smiling the whole time watching her learn to ride and conquer the demons and doubts. On her first road rides, I rode behind her as a buffer, protector, guide... I felt better being able to watch over her, I gave her honest feedback and she took it as it was intended. It all comes back to respect. She is the person I most want to spend my time with and I'm hers. Even out on the road. 

[upperlake04]

That's a great post MickeyX.

[seaweb11]

Let her ride man!!!!!!!

Built my wife a bike a couple of years ago, hooked her up with lessons and I love riding behind her
Every time I see her get it out, suit up with her gear and ride up the driveway I feel very proud of her. At 40ish she's balls to the wall on that thing I pass her from time to time, just to slow her down. Came in the driveway this week in the truck and she was on her way to the store on her bike.

There were a few scary moments and close calls that 1st season, but heading into 3rd year I think she's ready for one of my 750s
I always asked her when she rode alone if she had a good ride? Her answer for 2 years was never what my answer would be, but this Spring I asked again and her answer was "Great, it was beautiful, I'm really glad I took the bike!"  She gets it now!

P.S. I feel riding behind a new rider will enable you to watch for errors, that you can "diplomatically" bring up latter,
"much latter, trust me"

If you want to show her how you run your line in a corner, go out front, but make it clear that you want her watching and learning.
"again trust me its a good lesson" watched her slip into the wrong lane on the twistys a couple of times early on.

We frequently ride together now just to get away from everything.

[tramp]

wow, what a thread
yea, let her ride
stay with her till she relaxes and feels fine on a bike

[Marie]

LETS HER RIDE AND HELP HER TO LEARN WELL !!!! 

If she rides well and she gets happy with her bike, she maybe happier and you may have good times at night after a good ride 

[Trevor from Warragul]

To make it quite clear, I haven't said "No"!  Why else would we buy the bike?

Since getting the bike we've also bought a ladies DRIRIDER jacket (with armor), ALPINE STAR gloves, and an ARAI Vector helmet.  She already has ROSSI boots.  When the tax cheque comes through we'll look at some DRAGGIN JEANS.

We went out & she rode the bike really well today.  She's quickly gotten the hang of leaning it over.  Took her a while to learn to turn her head (e.g. the bike will go where you look).  She did some slow speed braking & was good at that too.  I think it helps that she grew up on a farm & her Dad bought her a Honda 90 stepthru when she was 10 or so.  She used to howl around the state forest dirt tracks up Healesville way for about 4 years.  She's actually a better rider than I was at this stage.

Still gonna ride shotgun though..

Trevor

P.S.  I'm having fun giving the VTR250 a "deep clean".  It looks very nice.  When she complained about me cleaning her bike I said it was the only way my other bikes would accept hers in their garage (1971 Kawasaki H1A, 1972 Honda CB 350/4, 1976 Moto Morini 3 1/2 & 1978 Honda CBX)

[74cb750]

I bought my wife aN S4 Kawasaki 400cc triple. She didn't like it because:
1-no electric start 
2-it sounded funny 

whatever I sold it. Don't think she was really all that interested in riding.

[Uncle Ernie]

I'm reminded of playing raquetball;  I like to play with people on my skill level.  Once in a while, I'd go with a noob, but for social stuff, I'd rather go walk downtown, grab a cuppa, whatever.

OTOH- I read things like "let" her ride.  On TV I hear women saying things about being "given" power.  HELLO!- you either have power or you get it.  If someone GIVES it to you, whatever it was they gave you was responsibility- not power.  If someone is going to ride, it's because they ARE GOING to ride.  Either you do, or you don't. 

We need a family chat to find out what her expectations of hubby is.  If this is to bring us closer together- better to go to a counselor together.  If she's doing this to ride- then she'll do it with you or without you. 

That's how Kathleen is anyway.  I stay out of her way until dinner time.  Then I look pretty good to her because I do the cooking.      

[Frankenkit]

Yeah, I think people are getting Morini and Ros confused here...
I venture to think it might've been a little more nerve-wracking for MickeyX to watch me start riding because we both work at a hospital and see carnage pretty often, but also, I was going from bicycle riding to taking my newly-functional (and still somewhat buggy) cb650 out on the road.  Big difference, that.

I was (and sometimes still am) nervous, waiting for her to get home after work because cagers are crazy.  It's not that I doubt *her* abilities.  I'm still shaking some of my own nervous issues with riding, too.  I'm still new, probably only about 500 miles under my belt, maybe more by now... but there are no delusions of invincibility here.

My first several rides I was about terrified.  I'll admit it.  I was very glad to have MickeyX there.  She was also really good about the kind of feedback I got. I knew where I went wrong, and she said I did well, or that I needed to *stop* at some of those stop signs instead of slow way down, how to pick a good line around a corner, or maybe not crank through my gears so fast because she couldn't keep up...     Now, I'm finally settling in where I'm a bit more relaxed, still perceptive of everything around me, and still, always, listening to my bike, feeling it out.  We're both kind of a work in progress. 

Morini- I really wish we had that 250 here... that's not available in the states, is it?  It's hot!  I'm glad you're being so supportive of your wife.  I suggest, though, that when you look at pants, you get something with armor instead of just kevlar.  Have her try on the Joe Rocket Alter Ego pants or something like them, with CE hip and knee armor.  I'm spying the draggin' jeans, but only because I currently wear forcefield armored underpants under my jeans right now.  Good stuff but pricey.  the JR stuff is at a decent price-point considering she's new and may ultimately get spooked and feel it's not for her.  It's also a very good thing that she has a new or relatively new bike to learn on.  A lot of my newbie anxiety was due to the fact that my bike wasn't quite 100% when I started learning to ride it, and I needed to basically make it to school and back (20mi) without killing the engine, because due to poor charging, I have one or two good starts in one trip, and that's it.

Just be supportive and if you need your 'you' time, explain it, but don't be surprised if, once she's comfortable, she wants hers, too.  I think it's awesome that she finally felt like she can "do this" and it's great that you're supportive, too.