Why I ride a two person bike and how it can save your marriage/relationship

fireriseace (51)in #investments • 8 years ago (edited)

After reading Mr. Money Mustache's blog a few months back, I became very interested in frugal living and it has changed and improved my life and perspective on things. One of his recommendations is to invest in a bicycle for running errands around town, and also to have a healthy, inexpensive hobby. I thought it was a great idea but with only one small problem. My wife doesn't have good coordination ever since a she had a brain tumor removed a few years back and she doesn't feel confident that she can ride a bike safely.

Enter the two person bike

What about a two person bike?

She said that she would give it a shot so I began looking on craigslist and found one listed at the pawn shop for $250. We were able to test it in the parking lot and it worked ok. The brakes needed a little adjusting and it made some squeeky noises when pedaling. I talked him down to $150 (also probably because nobody was in the market for a bike like this), loaded it up into the car and we were on our way.

First run

When we got home, we decided to take it on a test run and found out that it's not as easy as it looks. First of all, the seat is pretty high. Second, when you first get moving it's pretty wobbly and you even feel like it's going to fall over. When you do get it going though, you feel like it's pretty well balanced.

The difficult part is slowing down through intersections and getting ready to stop. We must've looked like fools when we tried to go through the intersection. Here we were, just trying to stay balanced and get the bike moving across the intersection while everyone sat back in their cars at the light looking at how we wobbled precariously in the middle of the street.

We eventually came up with a system of communication for every time we would start up. We would start counting down 3-2-1 start and that helped us out a little bit. We ended up taking it for about 5 miles down a bike trail that runs along the river and through a park and took some go pro shots all the while.

We got home about an hour and a half later with 40 or 50 pics, some video and a new activity. Riding a two person bike is a unique and great way to spend time with your significant other. You work on communication and building trust. Besides, it has its health benefits and is pretty affordable after the initial investment. We have even used it to run some errands. Just a warning, you will get a lot of strange looks from folks. Also, it's a little bit challenging more so than you would think. It's also a fun topic for when we have company over. People try to ride it and we always get a kick seeing them struggle at first. If you have kids, it gets them out of the house and away from the video games. Thanks for reading and enjoy the pics.