My neighbour wants to buy a new bike for gentle commuting + riding bridleways, towpaths, etc. I think she’ll be looking to spend around £3-400. Should be able to find something decent at this price I think.

Thing is she is always put off at the test ride stage by the brake lever reach – she has small hands.

Anyone aware of brakes with reach adjust / swappable lever blades or other things that suit smaller hands. Any brands better than others for this?

AFAIK about 99% of bike brake levers have some form of reach adjuster built in… from simple screw/allen bolt to posher ones on disk brakes. It will down to laziness of the demo bike owner if that isn’t sorted for her. It should be as simple as asking for them to adjust them for you.
I hope this doesn’t put her off.

Agree you’d absolutely expect reach adjustment on a mid/high end bike, but I wonder if this is the case down at the bottom end of the market … or whether the people who shift cheap bikes can’t be arsed to adjust anything to make a sale.

I’ll pop into the local cheap bike shop and have a look.

My missus is tiddly and uses some old Avid Speed Dial levers, which are nicely adjustable.

Swapping the grips for some skinny ones like Renthals will help once she’s bought a bike.