Mate of mine’s missus’ shall be receiving a beginner bike. Ignoring the second hand market at the moment has anyone got ideas of starter bikes in the £5-600 range?

I’d post what I think but if you guys and gals come up with the same ideas as me then I’m onto a winner anwyay – but if you’ve got different ideas then I’m all ears 🙂

How tall is she and what’s it likely to be used for? I guess the Voodoo Bizango is the obvious choice, but there may be some sale bikes appearing as 2017 stock is discontinued.

Bizango is a prey good benchmark to judge others by at that price point.

As above there seems to be some good discounts around at the moment so it’s a case of keeping the eyes open really.

Go Outdoors have these-
http://www.gooutdoors.co.uk/calibre-gauntlet-650b-mountain-bike-p343871?gclid=EAIaIQobChMIj7zKqd221QIVDx0YCh00JQljEAkYBiABEgLuUvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds

Considered the bizango. Bit heavy tho and my mate who had an older one that got nicked replaced it with a new one but says it’s not as good. I reckon she’s 5’10”.

Genesis Core 20

Genesis may not win the spec wars, but they’re nicely designed and great to ride in my experience.

Decathlon. Wife got a Btwin rockrider 540 a few weeks back, 350 quid. I is very impressed.

Recommended this for a woman at work recently, decent spec list for the money.

http://www.halfords.com/cycling/bikes/mountain-bikes/laura-trott-mtb-1-womens-mountain-bike

~13Kg for a default Bizango for £450 with British Cycling discount is going to be very hard to beat for spec and weight for a hardtail mountain bike.

Voodoo Marasa (rigid fork) is ~12Kg and you could almost certainly knock 500-1000g off that by swapping out the supplied tyres/tubes/pedals, but at £360 after BC discount, it’s nowhere near as good a bargain at the mo (it was £288 with BC discount a few weeks back).

Sadly, the bargain-tastic Laura Trott bikes went out of stock months ago.

Recommended this for a woman at work recently, decent spec list for the money.

The trott sold out months ago, and they are out of stock.

Not supprised really, it was an absolute steal for the money, I managed to bag one for the Mrs just before they ran out of stock.

Very nice bike for the money.
If spending less than £500 the new model carrera kraken is the bike to look at, reasonable kit wirh an Xcr air fork.

If secondhand does become an option, I have a very lightly used Boardman Pro 29er frame & Reba fork I could build up for that budget no problem. In her size too.