Concerned husband

[Panhead]

Personal experience with my daughter was to have her ride with women. She would ride with me and no matter what I did or showed her on clearing things, she couldn't get the hang of it.

She went on the womens preride at Waway a couple of years ago and had a blast. Came to realize that what we see as just lifting and popping over a log or rock might as well be climbing the wall of China to them.

Get her on a womens ride and let her have her fun.

 

[Kmoodymz3]

your wife sounds like me when I started. My husband was concerned he would be arrested for abuse based on the number of bruises on my body😀

What did I do to over come it besides ride a lot?

1) proper bike fit and a good quality bike. Since your wife is very small bike fit and weight can make a lot of difference. Typically guys go out and buy a really great bike and their wife says "I don't need something that expensive" when in reality it is probably the opposite (being pretty lightweight myself) I rode a bike > 4 lbs heavier than my husband's who is almost 100lbs heavier than I was and he expected me to just clean the logs as easily as he did. I soon discovered my bike was just too big for me making it harder to control.

2) Ride with people who are willing and able to explain a technique, not just show how it is done. Women learn differently than men. The Mars and Venus thing... I need to breakdown a technique to master it. She may need that too.

3) I agree core body and upper body strength is really helpful. Lynda Wallenfells has a great series of core body exercises that take about 15 min to do and they are great. Unfortunately her website seems to be down right now but check it out at lwcoaching.com when you get a chance. In addition I do balance work on a stability ball and I have found that it really helps me when I get "out of shape" on a bike. Today I hit a muddy spot that was covered in leaves, and my bike went sideways taking me by suprise. A year ago I would have gone down, today I was able to bring it back just from having a good sense of balance. I was even thinking "I'm going down" when I saved it. I was totally shocked. Basically it only requires a stability ball. Start with sitting on it when you are watching TV. Work up to sitting on it without feet on the floor. once that is mastered and you can sit on a ball easily start rolling the ball to create instability and bring it back under controll. Once that is easy then begin to kneel on the ball, I held on to a chair/couch to do this at first. Once that is mastered start rolling the ball while you are kneeling on it side to side, front to back, see how far you can go and still hold it. I have now worked up to kneeling on the ball and being able to pick up 15 lb dumbells from the floor and doing curls, tricep extensions, and other upper body work. OK this took me a while to work up to but I have to say it is probably the single most effective thing I have done to keep me from falling and I saw improvement in my biking balance/awareness immediately and it just keeps improving.

4) Finally (sorry this is a long post) taking a MTB Skills course is invaluable. I've taken Gene Hamilton's course and he not only focuses on technique but the whole mental aspect of MTB which I have discovered is huge. I highly recommend his course. I use his techniques every ride.

If you and your wife want to ride Allaire I would be more than happy to show you around and give her pointers along the way. I have helped several of my friends learn to ride.

 

[dstdub]

wow...thanks for the continued input everybody. Though the wifey is not into the forums world, we BOTH are reading these posts and appreciate the support. She's gaining range of motion on her shoulders.

Dumbells and the stability ball seems great.

thanks again!

 

[pooriggy]

Though the wifey is not into the forums world, we BOTH are reading these posts and appreciate the support.

stick around...reading and posting to threads is good therapy

 

[RosyRambler]

There are some really great suggestions posted here.

You mentioned your wife 'hates off the saddle pedaling'. MTBing is about 'body english'. It's not like road riding where you spend almost the whole time in the saddle. Guiding a MTB down a trail requires subtle and not so subtle body movements, be it arms, legs, hips, shoulders, body weight in front of or behind the saddle, to the left or right of the saddle. These movements are usually accomplished standing on the pedals (usually with knees bent to some degree), or with your backside just grazing the top of the saddle, without your full weight on it.

Here are a couple of tips for when she's back on the bike. These can be done in a parking lot or a grassy field:

Most of all practice riding out of the saddle.

Get a section of 2x4, or 4x4 and practice riding over it standing.

For balance, ride the bike in slow circles, to the left and then to the right. *Make the circle get smaller and smaller. Sit in the saddle keeping the bike vertical to the ground, and lean your shoulders a bit to the side you're turning to keep the bike from falling over. You may have to stick out your knee towards the inner circle.

Ride figure 8's.

Ride on the white lines in a parking lot trying to stay completely within the line - sitting and standing, fast and slow.

Have a mini "race" against each other, but see who can get from point A to point B the SLOWEST without putting a foot down.

Practice riding up and down on curbs.

These skills techniques can be used as a bit of a warm-up before getting out on the trails.

Oh, and always look where you want to go, don't stare at the front wheel or the ground immediately in front of it.

You're in the right place on mtbnj to find other riders willing to help out.
Good Luck!🙂