[93EXCivic]

My wife has been expressing interest in doing a bit of riding with me on some mix of gravel, road, dirt roads and maybe some very light XC trails. I am trying to figure out an ideal bike for not a lot of money for this situation (looking used sub $900). Part of my says a big tire gravel/touring bike like a Long Haul Trucker but I wonder if something like an Orge/Troll/ECR (kind of an off road touring type bike) or a rigid mountain bike (like a KM/Unit/Marin Pine Mountain) would be more confidence inspiring. She wants something that racks can be mounted to.

 

[stripes]

So a couple options:
-Aggressive hardtail. The geo keeps her confident and still easy to pedal without having to fool around with rear suspension
- used full suspension. There are some great bikes out there with 26” or 650b wheels that might be just the ticket.

 

[Wheelspeed]

Also depends what you want her to do with you. Stay on gravel, road, and dirt roads for your 'couples riding'? Then something like a used cyclocross bike.

If you're hoping to get her onto mountain bike trails with you, then a hard-tail mountain bike. But then if you have a gravel bike, you two won't have a lot of fun riding together on paved or gravel roads.

 

[Goodwoodz]

My wife was/is wayyy more comfortable on full squish.

 

[93EXCivic]

I figure it will be about 75% paved/gravel/dirt roads 25% green single track. She wants to be able to put racks on it sometimes so it seems like that would knock out full sus bikes but also it seems like a full suspension bike would be a complete overkill and add a lot of unneeded complexity and weight to the bike.

I currently only have a single speed cyclocross bike or an aggressive handrail. I am probably going to try to find a cheaper single speed KM for these rides.