Hi all,

I took her indoors for a trip to Coed y brenin at the weekend, hired a bike for her and did a couple of laps of the blue and apart from the sore legs she loved it! She now wants her own mtb, the problem is that I want to get her one with half decent forks, disk brakes and parts that she’s gonna enjoy riding, but she insists that it has to look girly ie. pink or similar type colour scheme! I’ve had a look online but it does seem very limited as to what is available.

So has anyone had to do the same recently or have any advice?

Cheers in advance

Phil

buy something suitable second hand and get it powdercoated in her choice of colour.

[rant] Why do some women insist on having everything pink? My SIL does this and cant for the life of me understand why?
I mean why would you want a pink scooter, a pink helmet, a pink iPhone cover etc?
You dont see blokes going around with everything they own plastered in royal blue do you? [/rant]

bigyinn – Member

[rant] Why do some women insist on having everything pink? My SIL does this and cant for the life of me understand why?
I mean why would you want a pink scooter, a pink helmet, a pink iPhone cover etc?
You dont see blokes going around with everything they own plastered in royal blue do you? [/rant]

Oh come on, look at the amount of rufty tufty blokes on here worried that their grips don’t match their pedals. 🙂

OP, think Cove might do a pink Handjob, might be worth having a look.
Think On One used to do some pinkness too.

Lot’s of pink bikes here – got to be something she fancies.

Specialized wsd is pretty good.

I once secretly built the wife a bike, had the frame sprayed Barbie pink, the night before she got it i floated the idea of a pink bike, she hated it. The next day was a bit deflating. Sold it in classiflids.

My wife’s *girly* bike.

(old pic – now it’s got white brake hoses)

Good luck to the OP, been there try to do that, is still is a PITA.

My advice, have a look through online brand catalogues, then get the model that are in your price range, pick the 4 that seems to offer the best value to you, make her do the same, see if you can reach an agreement.

my wife little medium black number

Get something in a neutral colour, E.G. white and then buy a billion little pink anodised bits from Superstar to girlify it?

Stif have got some discounted SC juliana frames in white!?

how about any bike with these ? 😉

Find a bike she likes, fits and rides well.

Then sort it out :-

flower power by shandcycles, on Flickr

Stephen C by shandcycles, on Flickr

Claire’s custom by shandcycles, on Flickr

Accessorize? This has pink hoses too, now:

Charge with New Drivetrain by LadyAlex mtb, on Flickr

But not all pink bikes are girly*:

Monarch Crest Pinkbred by Simon J Taylor, on Flickr

*IMHO

Powdercoating is the way to go

Have a look at the boardman women’s range. Very nice.

Very jealous that you’ve got your Mrs. interested. Tips gratefully received!

Built my GF a bike up using a Giant STP frame in mint green, white stem, bars cables, fork and grips. My old XTR gears and some pink rotorsand saddle, it looks cool. Only cost me £200 from my parts bin and buying second hand. Now she’s more into MTB I’m thinking of buying her a ‘proper’ bike and making this one into a little jump bike for myself.

New rotors like these

Have a pink (with colour matching components) Giant Reign up for grabs:-
https://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo/5ptu1buQTXEF0ZLnxg_H7D-YptRmsb10-Ytq91p7HKM?

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/fs-giant-reign-custom-and-pashley-trials-bike-open-to-sensible-offers

It’s a bike – you don’t make a fashion statement with one!

This pearl of wisdom bought to you by c_g, owner of blokes bikes despite being all woman. 😉

Trek or Spesh do lots of lovely girly looking ones, at least lower down the range.

And Mrs Grips has the flower Hope brakes too, despite being not particularly girly 🙂

Yes to powder coat- easiest solution.

Although you are making a rod for your own back- now I have to try and find mtb kneepads in pink for christmas… 🙄

My Missus has a Specialised Myka like this one and loves it (it looks much more girly in the flesh), and I want to upgrade the forks for her (Coil Recons, would like to swap them out for Rebas) but she won’t let me as they won’t colour match anymore.

Buy a white one and ebay for stickers / decals in pink/purple/baby blue or whatever else gives her bean a twinge

Mark although it is for the wrong reason your GF is right, if you change the fork of the mika it won’t work well. The so had one, quite light very nice, but an absolute pant geometry. Now she rides a more “neutral” kona tanuki and she loves the ride (but still does my head in about the old one being all girly and so and so)…

+1 for accessories.

I am really not very girlie but looked admiringly at a white CX bike with pink anodized cantis and skewers yesterday.

Don’t forget that if you get a very pink bike you have quite a challenge to work out the rest of your outfit to match (or at least not clash outrageously).

Dartmoor phantom – http://dartmoor-bikes.com/hardware/frames/phantom

Thanks for all the replies, it’s definitely given me some ideas! She loves the flower rotors lol

Hi Juan,
What’s the reason for the fork swap being an issue as the Recon currently fitted is the same crown to axle as a Reba just heavier with worse damping?

Hi mark we went for a maro MXE 130mm to make the bike more 06 freindly. If you don’t change the A2C you should be fine. If you do though it is going to screw the rear sus big time.

It’s a bike – you don’t make a fashion statement with one!

Ohhhhhhhhhhhh!!!! Chinny chin chin!!!!

Says one of the most brand-influenced bike tarts on STW!!!!!

Shall we list a few if your bikes, CG, and see what everyone else thinks about your views then??
🙂

Just about every steel hard tail going, American ally, titanium and carbon exotica, road bikes etc…..

Lol at Pete and you’re absolutely right! 😆

Just to reiterate that I put a wink at the end of my post in case others don’t get it. 🙂

Bikes were my life until crap health came along and, blimey, it’s been another life lesson learned. Unfortunately having gorgeous bikes means diddly squat when you struggle to ride them and, indeed, may have to reduce the fleet to pay for ongoing medical treatment.

Another c_g pearl of wisdom – enjoy what you have cos you never know what’s around the corner.

As you were …

Hi Juan,

OK that’s fine then – no plans to change the A2C – yes, I can see that a 130mm fork would make the steering a tad vague !

It’s not much the steering as it actually gave the bike an acceptable HA, it’s the rear sus who got just screwed up. I had to run the bike with less than 15% sag…!!!

Powdercoating sounds like a chore. I’d suggest buying a blue bike, build a timemachine, go back to the early 1900’s when blue was still considered “girlie” and pink “boyish” and give her the bike. Why complicate things?

I am with C-G on this one, I mean FFS some of the bikes posted here are absolutely gopping .. actually most of them are IMO. I suggest you need your Mrs to test ride some bikes to get the feel for them rather than pick a bike for the colour. she’s better off getting a bike she likes then accessorizing with pink water bottle cage, flowery tassles and a Barbie bell.

I also think that more men like pink bikes than women!! And matching kit, I mean Lucy at Bike Verbier is always phenomenally well matched but I certainly don’t bother with that shizzle I don’t in my normal day let along on my bike i’m riding my bike!!! Wow really amazed at waht some people do but as I said each to their own.

Mark although it is for the wrong reason your GF is right, if you change the fork of the mika it won’t work well. The so had one, quite light very nice, but an absolute pant geometry. Now she rides a more “neutral” kona tanuki and she loves the ride (but still does my head in about the old one being all girly and so and so)

Not true always. MsD has the brown version of that bike & it came with an absolutely horrible coil Tora ‘La Femme’. Binned it and stuck a set of air Recon’s on it and it’s transformed the bike. She’s much more confident on it now that she can actually get the fork to work.

Anyone mention the Orange Diva yet?

muddy dwarf did you change th travel of the fork? Or the A2C?

Didn’t change the travel of the fork, although that may be an option in the future.
The A2C ‘may’ be different on the Recon to the Tora but for £80 i didn’t bother checking to be honest as at that price it was worth the risk. I suspect it is slightly longer, but not to any great extent. Just a much more supple and useable fork, one that actually obtains full travel and doesn’t feel like it’s made of stone.
I couldn’t get anymore than 40mm of travel out of the Tora and that was painful on rocky stuff, now it feels like a different bike.

Fair enough muddy, but careful if you increase the travel, the bike doesn’t like it at all.