Cycling and your relationship.

[amymisk]

My husband and I started riding together and we enjoy it. Although, I don't ride with him all the time and actually prefer some alone time on the bike. His pace is faster than mine. When we do ride together it is an easy ride for him and I use the ride to push harder than I would otherwise, so it works out.

We enjoy riding and it gives us something to do. We are planning our 10th anniversary in October as a riding trip to Hawaii. So, our riding makes the relationship easier.

[teigyr]

It's made us even busier but that's a good thing

I had ridden a lot before I met DH but had been on a hiatus for a while. DH is very active and when we met, we hiked and walked a lot. I had two bikes so he started riding my spare then he got his own shortly thereafter.

We were at a bike shop with a friend yesterday and DH was looking at bike toys and clothes. My friend, who knew me before DH, was surprised that it wasn't ME buying bike things! I know how it feels though, once you get the cycling bug bike shops become very dangerous.

[lauraelmore1033]

Hubby and I are the classic case of opposites attracting. He's an engineer and I'm an artist and we have few interests in common. Cycling happens to be an area where we can find common ground. He's not into it as much as I am, but it's an activity we can do together that is mutually enjoyable for the most part (as opposed to my dragging him to museums and boring him with art talk and his dragging me to car related events and boring me with mechanical talk).

[East Hill]

Mr. East Hill's always been an outdoorsy kind of guy, and likes to get out into the woods. So, it was (relatively) easy to persuade him to get a mountain bike and get him used to that. A bit harder to get him onto the road bike, and he's still not very comfortable with it (mind you, he's got a 1980 Schwinn LeTour, so it has stem friction shifters).

He rides with me at least once a week. He didn't make it for Sunday's ride, but he did go with me around the reservoir today--so we did a bit over 13 miles on the mountain bikes.

He likes riding the mountain bike, and he likes the reservoir (it's a great spot to see deer). It works out pretty well, actually.

East Hill

[Eden]

cycling me and my hubby have quite a long twisty relationship.
I was the instigator. I had done a fair amount of distance riding when I was in middle/high school. He had a hand me down 10 speed that used to be his mom's. It was really small for him. I convinced him to but a new and much bigger bike.
We did some touring and a fair amount of weekend riding together while we were in college, but when we bought our house, home renovations took over for a while. Meanwhile I was working for a hospital and they were sending a team of disabled riders on the STP (Seattle to Portland). We started riding a lot again training to do the ride with them.
Fast forward a few years. After some more touring and another STP the hubby decides he wants to go to the next level and buys a racing bike, starts racing, joins a team. I start having trouble keeping up....
Now its his turn, he convinces me that I need a lighter and better fitting bike. New bike - I stop having trouble keeping up He convinces me that I should try a race, and I do well, I join a team and start racing!
We're starting to diverge a little bit. I've been doing quite well at road races, he still comes out and does them, but he's been doing track and finding it suits him better. I go and watch his track races, but I've never done it.
We still ride together, but often we are either both racing, or doing team rides, so we probably ride together less than before.

[quint41]

I didn't have an SO when I started riding for real last year, and I still don't. But I've learned that cycling is a great way to meet guys! At our first metric, my friend and I looked around and said, "WOW! We've been doing the wrong events!" LOL

[Trek420]

I didn't have an SO when I started riding for real last year, and I still don't. But I've learned that cycling is a great way to meet guys! At our first metric, my friend and I looked around and said, "WOW! We've been doing the wrong events!" LOL

Oh yes, I remember this thread on the advantages of cycling single:

http://forums.teamestrogen.com/showt...=praise+single

My club even has a Single Cyclists ride, I don't know the successful date results ratio but it is fun.

[Zen]

I didn't have an SO when I started riding for real last year, and I still don't. But I've learned that cycling is a great way to meet guys! At our first metric, my friend and I looked around and said, "WOW! We've been doing the wrong events!" LOL

Sure, you meet guys. And their wives

[KnottedYet]

And their wives

[tjf9]

I am hoping biking will have a positive effect on our relationship. I have lost about 65 pounds in the last 8 months and have become way more active - running, biking and lifting. I think he's felt a bit left behind in the process, because he needs to lose some weight too, but it just hasn't happened for him.

We just bought him a new bike this past weekend and we're going to start biking together on the weekends. He'll be on his new fast bike, and I'll be on my old bike pulling the bike trailer with our 2 kids. He thinks he'll be slower than me, but I doubt it.

Although our relationship hasn't been strained, we aren't as close as we were before kids. I hope having some family time like this will help a bit...

[Kimmyt]

Cycling is just one more thing we can share.

We met rock climbing, ski/board together, and cycle together. When I met him he had a road bike and I was thinking of getting one. He rarely rode his, maybe once a year or so. I got into it much more, I seem to always go into things gung-ho. I ride alot more than him, but not so much more that our skill level is unequal. He's lucky in that he can ride a bike for the first time in a year and do a century at 17 mph. He doesn't care to push his limits, though, and is perfectly happy keeping at that moderate pace, so we ride well together. Even better, he likes looking at maps and plotting routes, he says it's 'fun'. Hah. I'm so directionally challenged. I love that we can go on rides and he'll plot the whole thing out and all I need to do is enjoy the ride.

Our pattern for hobbies is generally: we're both into it, but Boy doesn't try very hard/have much knowledge of the sport. Met me, I have knowledge but not as much natural skill. I give Boy knowledge. He surpasses me at sport.

At least with triathlon there's a good chance he'll never surpass me on the swim! (and that is one thing he really doesn't care to get into, which is nice for me to have something of my own... i told him some day he can be my jockstrap for when/if I do a HIM or IM!)

k.

[chort]

sbctwin - I have this recumbent: http://www.kk.org/cooltools/archives/001013.php I got it shortly after I was dxed with MS. I was having some balance issues and now had an excuse to buy a recumbent. It's super fun to tool around on.. but this model is also super heavy! 65 lbs. When I got better, I bough a road bike and never looked back at the recumbent. I'm trying to sell it.. But what I wanted to tell you is that there are a whole lot of people on the trails around here who ride recumbents (men and women). They do make lighter ones - I rode one that was 25 lbs and it was speedy! It also cost $1300----I would suggest that he just go rent one for a day (if you have any shops who do that) and see how he likes it. There are lots of different models and he might be able to find one he likes.

I have been trying to get him to consider an adult trike, but he doesn't like the image.

DH was into mountain biking before we hooked up, biking together has just made us closer

[Melalvai]

I've talked on another thread about the friction in my marriage caused by my bicycling...and the riding buddy.

We are both trying. He is trying to be less jealous. I am trying to cut back on the recreational riding. Although I find it easy to categorize a ride as non-recreational!

The other point of friction is that I am a much stronger rider than he is. That is a hard pill for a guy to swallow! He is slowly getting more involved and more in shape, which thrills me to no end.

In the end, I am confident that we will work through all this, there is no fear in my mind that bicycling will ruin our marriage, and our relationship will be all the stronger for it. It already is.

[wiseowl]

Very interesting question and responses! DH and I ride together sometimes, but he is a stronger rider than me but I love riding more, which causes some tension (mostly my issue). We ride together only for a "few miles to an ice cream stand or breakfast spot, and then home", kind of rides- recreational rides, not fitness.

When riding with him, I ride my roadyish hybrid and put him on my mountain bike to give him a handicap, so to speak. After him saying bike speed and power are all about the rider not the bike, we did some trials of my hybrid against his super nice roadie, and he had to back WAY down on that statement!

I love mountain biking, though I don't get out as often as I like. He has NO interest in it and finds it very hard core, which I find amusing.

[indigoiis]

UPDATE: Things are better after I reported to DH from my visit to the local bike shop yesterday that the Friday night rides have a few sets of riders... from "fast guys like you who do a couple of additional half mile loop arounds" to "pokies/noobs like me who ride back with the tandem."

He raised a brow and replied, "I guess I'll have to blow the dust off of my road bike, then."

Yay!