Thx all for the responses. To followup on some of the suggestions:
- Track is
110% not an option as mentioned. We are not in our youth anymore and neither of us are up for the rigors of track physically either, not is there any chance in hell I would ever get her into a racing suit. She has proper gear - full face, proper MC jacket, gloves, etc (including, yes, chaps, spare us the style critiques, but it's better than riding in jeans) but all the gear in the world doesn't change that reality that when you reach a certain age a spill hurts more, things break easier, and overall things takes longer to recover from. We are at that age, so any sort of racing thing is out from multiple angles.
- Giving up group riding isn't going to happen. We belong to a riding organization which has a huge social aspect as part of it, and that aspect as well as the riding have been most enjoyable. Besides, the issue is often less pronounced when we are riding
with a group anyways, as mentioned - it tends to be at it's worst when it's just the two of us for that matter, but yes, it seems to crop up randomly.
- I did't just start out with her riding in big groups. We spent a good portion of last season riding just the 2 of us, or with maybe 1 or 2 other close friends from our organization who understood her limitations as a beginner and rode within them to reduce any pressure to ride beyond her abilities. We had one moderately sized group ride last year over 3 days and it went well, but it was a stepping stone. The latter half of this season was the first time I felt comfortable with her going on a
large group ride and for the most part she did excellent.
- The "slide your butt off the seat" type of suggestions are not without merit if we were talking about negotiating a 80KPH rated corner at 130, but remember, she's riding a 650 cruiser, not a sport bike, and we are rarely riding more than 10 over. She's not interested in riding in any "sporty" fashion whatsoever. The corners she sometimes struggles with are not corners which would require anything more than
confidence to negotiate faster even in a chair riding position, nothing else.
- She isn't interested in being a passenger again, she legitimately enjoys riding her own bike and I'm confident enough in her abilities at this point to not feel the need to try to steer her away from riding. Reality is if that happened she'd probably lose the willingness to participate in riding anymore and it would crimp my riding time as well as a result since It'd be one of those things that I'd be doing alone again, instead of enjoying as a couple. And yes, I do enjoy riding with her - we have had some great adventures.
- Style of bike isn't probably negotiable. We are the cruiser sort. She's also not overly tall and flat footing any bigger of a bike is going to be an issue - she can't even flat-foot my VTX for that matter and it has a very deep saddle type seat on it. I'd also like to keep her on a light/nimble bike for at least another full season to gain more experience . She likes the cruiser style and I can't see her having any interest in something other than a cruiser honestly, and again,
she has tons of lean left on her Vstar - it's not that the bike isn't capable, it's that she just doesn't have the confidence to use it.
I am still contemplating but I do like some of the non-track course options that have been presented.