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General Discussion / Getting started? Frustrating.
« on: September 23, 2019, 09:47:59 am »
I've been a mountain biker for about 30-35 years. Recently I purchased a used Salsa Cutthroat as I wanted a "do everything" bike, especially for when I ride casually with my son (7) and my wife. I did not expect to love the bike so much and now I'm obsessed with bikepacking. I've done some bikepacking as a teen, then carrying a huge backpack but things got much better nowadays.
The thing is, my wife is not into sports including cycling, if we do 10-15 miles together that's a good day, she does not even want me to get her a decent bike and she does not want me to do bikepacking with our son until he is like 12 years old. I also do not have sufficient time off to do long trips by myself, December thru April I go skiing with my son almost every weekend and during winter and spring school vacations, June to September we have to deal with 2.5 months of school vacation eating up a lot of our time off work. Since my wife is not into it, I can't just take 2 weeks off for a bike trip or not even a week and leave her at home with my son. I do not either have any friend who is into this and while I dream of touring the divide some day, I just can't take a month off work.
So my only option is potentially do a couple overnight or two-nights trips through the year at most and not too far from home, until I retire in... 20 years, that's probably all I can do.
Who is in that "busy life" situation? How do you handle getting out there? How do you handle being on your own in that sport, no friend, no support from your husband or wife?
The thing is, my wife is not into sports including cycling, if we do 10-15 miles together that's a good day, she does not even want me to get her a decent bike and she does not want me to do bikepacking with our son until he is like 12 years old. I also do not have sufficient time off to do long trips by myself, December thru April I go skiing with my son almost every weekend and during winter and spring school vacations, June to September we have to deal with 2.5 months of school vacation eating up a lot of our time off work. Since my wife is not into it, I can't just take 2 weeks off for a bike trip or not even a week and leave her at home with my son. I do not either have any friend who is into this and while I dream of touring the divide some day, I just can't take a month off work.
So my only option is potentially do a couple overnight or two-nights trips through the year at most and not too far from home, until I retire in... 20 years, that's probably all I can do.
Who is in that "busy life" situation? How do you handle getting out there? How do you handle being on your own in that sport, no friend, no support from your husband or wife?