Reason 1 You’ll get fit.
Mountain biking is sustained aerobic exercise, akin to cross-country skiing. You’ll slim down, harden up, and glow. I never look better than in summer, when I tend to ride a few times a week. Friends usually remark, “You look great.” Wouldn’t it be nice to hear that? A lot?

Reason 2 You’ll build confidence.
The learning curve can be steep, but once you start clearing obstacles that used to scare you, you’ll have a renewed sense of accomplishment. These obstacles can include clearing a section of trail, conquering a long climb, or mastering a series of switchbacks. The first time you conquer a climb that used to take two or three rest stops, you’ll start to see tangible results of your hard work. This sense of accomplishment will easily translate into other areas of your life. Obstacles become something to overcome, not shy away from.

Reason 3 It’s a social thing.
After years of riding with males and a short stint as a racer, I have come to love and appreciate my female riding partners. Book groups, happy hours, and girls’ nights out fulfill our need to interact with our own kind, but there’s no reason you can’t catch up on the gossip or share feelings on a ride. Girl rides are social outings—lots of picture-taking, chatting, and munching on goodies, and recovering. There’s no pressure. Having fun takes precedence over performing.

Reason 4 Mountain biking vacations are awesome.
Mountain biking naturally lends itself to beautiful scenery. Mountain panoramas, ancient trees, and striking rock formations are the daily norm. You’ll see more animals in a day than Disney can cram into its summer blockbuster. Work in a hot tub or soak in a hot spring for post-ride recovery and you’ll feel rejuvenated, refreshed, and ready for the next day’s ride. Upon your return to life, others will remark, “You must have had a great vacation. You look great. And relaxed.” (See Reason 1.)

Reason 5 Bragging rights.
Maybe you roll your eyes or tune out when others start going on about their epic rides, amazing times, gnarly falls, yadayadayada. Well, maybe you’re just jealous. Maybe you want to do something amazing and epic. Maybe you want to start showing off the (inevitable) bruises that come along with mountain biking. Over time your bragging will go from, “We went riding last night,” to “We rode six miles up the canyon, then rode through four miles of sweet singletrack.” See, it doesn’t even look like bragging. But it is.

Reason 6 You’ll learn mechanical stuff.
In the mountain biking world, it is an unwritten rule that you have to be able to do the basics: fix a flat, tighten and loosen cables, and pump your tires to the right pressure so you don’t get pinch flats. When I started riding, the most mechanical thing I ever did was build a crooked, pathetic shelf in eighth-grade woodshop that earned me my first C grade. Only when I started working on my own bike did I learn the physics of moving parts. My coup de grace came when I fixed a broken chain on a ride. Now I delight in tinkering with my bike, knowing that I am responsible for its upkeep. You’ll learn what washers are and why they’re important. Most women I know wish they were better mechanics. Here’s your chance.

Reason 7 Mental toughness.
Falling off your bike is part of mountain biking. You fall off, you get back on. Unless the pain is unbearable or you’ve broken something, you ride down. You don’t complain about how tough or how long the trail is because complaining doesn’t help the matter, focus does. Crying is ok, even necessary sometimes, but know that sooner or later you’re going to have to get down that trail. You finish even when you don’t want to.

Years ago I got into high-altitude rides, ones that topped out at over 10,000 feet. One particular ride included a brutal 4,200 feet of climbing. After that we rode on flat terrain for a while but then the uphill started again, and my spirit broke. All I could do was walk my bike up the mountain and pray the downhill was coming. Eventually I put my hands and head on my handlebars and sobbed for about twenty minutes. One of my riding partners (who would later become my boyfriend), waited for me while I cried out tears of exhaustion, frustration, and anger. But I got back on and killed it on the downhill. I even had to fix a flat tire in the midst of that crisis, but I finished.

Ladies, you have to start to finish. Now go out and ride.

Visit Carole Nash for great bike insurance and other great deals.

• August 18, 2008 -- How to Keep Your Girl Riding (and Retain Domestic Bliss)
• August 14, 2008 -- How to Get Your Girl to Ride (Without Her Dumping You)

Maybe you made an agreement: she tries mountain biking, and you’ll try scrapbooking. Maybe she’s wanted to get into riding all along but was too scared. Maybe you followed my advice. Maybe, just maybe, she really likes it. The question is: How do you keep her riding?

Below are five more tips on how to keep her on the trail and your relationship solid.

Tip #1 Repetition removes resistance.
Resist the urge to move your girl to an intermediate ride. It’ll bore you to tears, but you need to keep the technical and aerobic challenge levels the same so she can progress at her own pace. This pace will seem glacial to you. Be patient. She’ll let you know when she’s ready to move up.

Tip #2 You’re her mechanic.
Don’t burden her, in the early stages of the learning curve, with knowing how to adjust her cables or even put her front wheel on properly. Check her bike before every ride. Yes, eventually she will have to learn how to fix a flat and lube her chain, but remember she probably didn’t grow up tinkering with her dad in the garage like you did. Cut her some slack.

Tip #3 Continue to watch your language.
As your lady becomes more comfortable on her bike, encourage her to push her limits. Do it carefully, though. If you notice she’s walking her bike over the same rocky patch, encourage her this way, “Great job looking twelve feet in front of you while riding. Keep doing that when you come up on rocks, and you’ll glide over them.” Compliment, then encourage. Sorry, but we’re delicate creatures.

Tip #4 Speed is her friend.
Skiers, snowboarders, and kayakers already know this. If she’s any one of these (or all three!), you can explain the need for speed in this way, “It’s the same as snowboarding, honey. The more speed you have going into an uphill, the easier it is to reach the top. The same principle applies to mountain biking.” If she’s new to the speed theory, demonstrate it for her. She’ll need to see it to believe it.

Tip #5 Practice on-road.
In the early stages of learning how to mountain bike, getting used to the equipment is half the battle. Take the bikes on errands, to lunch, or on paved paths. More time in the saddle, regardless of the kind of time, will increase her confidence level. Stop signs are good for practicing braking. Hopping curbs will teach her about speed (see Tip #4). Call these rides urban assaults so they sound advanced.

Sooner or later she’s going to either love or hate mountain biking. If she comes to love it, you both win. If she comes to hate it, well, enjoy the scrapbooking.

• August 14, 2008 -- How to Get Your Girl to Ride (Without Her Dumping You)
• August 21, 2008 -- Girls – Seven Reasons You Should Start Mountain Biking

But she doesn’t ride. Why not?

Maybe she’s not comfortable on a bike. Or maybe she’s comfortable on a bike but has visited you in the emergency room too many times. Could be some past boyfriend ruined any chance of her ever riding again. Probably she thinks mountain biking is too hard core.

But wouldn’t it be great if the two of you could ride together? Wouldn’t it be cool if once a week the two of you could go for a jaunt or if (someday) she could come along on a group ride?

Well, she can, but she’s going to need your help. Below are Tracey’s Top Ten Rules for getting your girl to ride. The rules don’t guarantee success but might increase your chances.

Rule 1 Start the discussion.
Begin talking about how great it would be if the two of you rode together. Promise it’ll be just the two of you until she’s ready to ride with others. If she has girlfriends who ride, encourage her to ride with them a few times before she ventures out with you. If she doesn’t have any female friends of the dirt variety, find a local group of strictly female mountain bikers and drive her to her first ride. She’s intimidated by your riding ability, the sport, and her own insecurities. Tread carefully.

Rule 2 Do not overinvest.
If she doesn’t have a bike, borrow one or get a used one cheaply. Buy only the essentials: bike shorts, glove, and a helmet. A thousand dollars is a lot of money to spend on what could turn out to be only a one-day outing. You don’t want her to feel guilty about the $600 Trek spending the rest of its years in the garage.

Rule 3 Tell her the basics.
Knowing how to corner is important, but not necessary for the first ride. The most intimidating, confusing, and important things about mountain biking are shifting and braking. Give her a lesson on shifting gears and using the back brake. Tell her about cross-chaining so she doesn’t work against herself. Do this in the parking lot right before the ride so she remembers. Teach her trail etiquette and explain why uphill riders have the right-of-way. Stop there. Answer her questions, of course, but resist the urge to tell her about torque and ratios. Her eyes will glaze over under the haze of too much information.

Rule 4 Start slow.
Maybe your girl is a yoga instructor or world-class skier. Doesn’t matter. Take her on a beginner ride. Remember mountain biking is an inherently dangerous sport. Just because she’s in shape doesn’t mean she’s ready for an intermediate trail. She needs to focus on braking, gearing, and trail etiquette. Throw a rock garden or steep uphill into the mix and the chances for failure increase exponentially.

Rule 5 Be a gentleman.
Give the bike a once-over and fix any mechanicals before the ride. Get her bike off the rack for her. Put the front wheel on. Carry everything except her water. This means all tools, extra tubes, and the windbreaker.

Rule 6 Watch your language.
I’m not talking f-bombs here. I’m talking about how to give her advice while she’s on the trail. Women speak more indirectly than men. Ever notice how, if your girl wants you to take the garbage out she says, “Do you want to take the garbage out?” Of course you don’t want to take the garbage out, but she wants you to, and this is her way of asking you. Replace “You need” with “Why don’t you try” or “It might be easier for you to do x if you do y.” Practice using these phrases before you hit the trail. Remember it’s not what you say but how you say it.

Rule 7 Be patient.
There’s a good chance she’s going to get discouraged and angry as she’s fiddling with the gears and trying to stay upright. She might even yell at you—even though you’ve done nothing wrong. Whatever you do, do not yell back. She’s frustrated and wants to impress you. Try not to shake your head when she walks her bike over what looks to you like a couple of pebbles. Do not laugh when she has the fall of the century. Most importantly, stay within her field of vision. There’s nothing scarier than being left to your own devices in unfamiliar territory.

Rule 8 Watch her body language.
Even though you’ve told her “We can stop any time you want to,” she’s not going to be as vocal as she should. She knows you’re hard-core and hardly ever stop; she doesn’t want to ruin your fun. But if she’s huffing and puffing after the first half-mile, take a rest. Don’t ask her “Do you want to stop?” because chances are she’ll probably say no. If she refuses to make eye contact with you, she’s angry. If this happens, get off the bikes, enjoy the scenery, and kiss her sweaty forehead. If she wants to turn back after ten minutes, tell her the first twenty minutes of any ride are the most difficult. Determine her level of frustration/anger and decide if negotiating another ten minutes is going to be worth it.

Rule 9 Lie.
Tell her how great she’s doing even if she’s not. But don’t overdo it because her BS meter will go off. If you can’t think of anything positive to say, tell her “You’re a beautiful rider” or “You look sexy on bike.” Then you won’t have to lie.

Rule 10 Accept that this is not a real ride.
Chances are, you’re not going to get a workout: you’re going to be stopping, starting, encouraging, and explaining. Both of you are paying your dues on this initial ride, but who knows? With a little effort, patience, and tongue-biting, she could turn out to be the best riding partner you’ve ever had.

• August 18, 2008 -- How to Keep Your Girl Riding (and Retain Domestic Bliss)
• August 21, 2008 -- Girls – Seven Reasons You Should Start Mountain Biking