-
So most important things I've found that have built her confidence are flat bars with easy to use shifters/brakes, gear displays on shifters to show what gear she's in, triple chainset and wide range rear cassette (even if she doesn't need the granny gear often it builds her confidence to have it as an option), comfortable position and saddle, good brakes, light and responsive enough to feel like a road bike rather than a tank.
All sound pretty obvious but to you and me, we can live with DT shifters, drop levers, looking down to see what gear we're and different positions etc. We tried different bikes over last few years but she hasn't taken to any like this one.
TM-
we can live with looking down to see what gear we're [in]
Who does that? If it feels too hard, change down. Gear number indicators are the start of the slippery slop which leads to spending your whole ride looking at your power meter instead of the scenery :)
-
Awesome !
Rather selfishly the addition of gears on her Dawes are a thinly veiled attempt to get Mrs B. wanting to do more adventurous and serious rides with me. She rides day in day out, come rain or shine, but really it has been confined to commuting or an occasional weekend canal jaunt on the single speed. She's agreed to come out for the Dynamo, and we smashed the London to Brighton run a few weeks back, which I wouldn't have imagined 6 months ago — she just was not interested.
Next step will be moustache bars for the Dawes and a sly transition to proper foot retention ... she doesn't know that yet
-
Very good point, it's easy to forget how comfortable we all are with drop bars and clipless pedals etc. My intention was to get a classic touring bike that's comfortable for all day jaunts spending quite a bit of its life on canal paths. Classic looking it should carry a bit more favour than a modern aluminium bike but if a pretty 1" head steel tourer isn't the answer then will go down the same route as the Cannondale.
gbj_tester
🅑🅐🅣🅣
jambon
@TM censorship is brilliant, not to mention professionally executed. Got a similar intention for Madame Jambon, been looking for a Dawes Galaxy for what feels like an eternity. Great stuff.