T-Rex
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I am looking for female perspective on a bike for my wife, to introduce her initially to causal trail riding, and hopefully build her up over time to the point she would be able to do a 24 hour in a family team.
This is a very ambitious undertaking on my part. Her one experience on a trail, a partial lap of Manly Dam a few years ago, didn’t end well. She has only agreed to try again because I have agreed to have a go at her sport, which is ice dancing. (I can’t dance and can barely skate, but that’s another story – shows you how committed I am!).
She’s 5’ 2”, 44, about 57 kg, has reasonably strong legs from skating but not much aerobic fitness. She is a decent skier, but not aggressive and would never hit a jump or drop on skis, so I can’t see her ever deliberately jumping a bike.
I have just purchased myself a new duallie, and my old duallie has heaps of good quality lightweight parts on it, so my current thinking is to buy a frame and build her something with the parts from my old bike. I expect I would get very little value out of selling my old bike, and don’t want to spend the necessary $2k + to get her a decent bike in case she doesn’t stick with it, but I don’t want to put her on a clunker. My old frame is a medium, which is too big for her.
So, what features should I be considering for her bike? I think it should be as light as possible, and she would have to start out on flat pedals, but I have not gone much beyond that.
BTW, the whole process of getting her actually trained up and out on the trail is out of scope for this thread, no doubt there will be another thread on this topic. I’m just looking for input on the bike itself.
Thanks for your help.
This is a very ambitious undertaking on my part. Her one experience on a trail, a partial lap of Manly Dam a few years ago, didn’t end well. She has only agreed to try again because I have agreed to have a go at her sport, which is ice dancing. (I can’t dance and can barely skate, but that’s another story – shows you how committed I am!).
She’s 5’ 2”, 44, about 57 kg, has reasonably strong legs from skating but not much aerobic fitness. She is a decent skier, but not aggressive and would never hit a jump or drop on skis, so I can’t see her ever deliberately jumping a bike.
I have just purchased myself a new duallie, and my old duallie has heaps of good quality lightweight parts on it, so my current thinking is to buy a frame and build her something with the parts from my old bike. I expect I would get very little value out of selling my old bike, and don’t want to spend the necessary $2k + to get her a decent bike in case she doesn’t stick with it, but I don’t want to put her on a clunker. My old frame is a medium, which is too big for her.
So, what features should I be considering for her bike? I think it should be as light as possible, and she would have to start out on flat pedals, but I have not gone much beyond that.
BTW, the whole process of getting her actually trained up and out on the trail is out of scope for this thread, no doubt there will be another thread on this topic. I’m just looking for input on the bike itself.
Thanks for your help.