My good lady is going to get a bike on the cycle 2 work scheme…

She wants to spend an absolute max of £500 but would prefer to spend around £350-400

Its for cycling to work occasionally, paths and the odd jaunt off road,

Anyone got any recommendations ?

thanks

Some sort of hybrid-

Roadbike frame and straight bars and mtb posture.

How much off road?

CX too extreme?

If she has a very short commute then a decent hardtail with slicks will alllow her to do mtbing without recking the bike.

cx to extreme although would be a great choice imo

she really wants an MTB…

Hydro disc brake
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_518273_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

cable disc brake
http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_518287_langId_-1_categoryId_165499

My wife's FSR frame, fork, headset, stem and bars…?

smurf

thanks carlosg

sorry smurf its on the C2W scheme

Anyone on here ride a Scot Contesa ?

Something like a Spesh Hardrock, can be easily made commutable with a set of city friendly tyres and can be taken off road.

Would be my first choice.

Bloody hell mate..

Welcome back..

All good???

hello 🙂

not to bad thanks – how are you ?

Aye, all good(ish) here Bru..

Can't complain…

Billy the cloud sheepBedlington all good??

my missus rode a contessa for 3 years

was the 450 quid model – forks lasted 3 rides , brakes lasted less (had v brakes at the time) – thus the wheels needed changing …..

IMHO scotts are overpriced – and thats coming from someone who sold scott bikes for a living !

look at merida juliet range for comparible spec – but cheaper bikes – that look fairly nice – unlike giants womans bikes! (with their mega short top tubes) just moved my missus onto a merida HFS 2000d (and im not even working in the trade anymore so am fairly unbiased now;) )

http://www.cycletoworknow.com/cart/details/643/merida-juliet-100d-product-information

something like that ?

Billy the Bedlington is as gorgeous as ever of course 🙂 I loves him 🙂

cheers trail rat that looks pretty good and I hadn't thought of them..

alright Justa, hope you are well

look at the Gary Fisher/Trek range

Is she as good as you at the patio pics?

😀

cheers RD – not bad but not been on a bike for a long time. Hoping to get back into this year – feel ready for it !

Hi Al – no but i'm happy to teach her 🙂

GF has a Gary Fisher MarlinGS, not sure if they still make them though, nice and light for about £400 at the time

Specialized Myka HT Comp

+1 for the Spesh Myka.

Her indoors has got the 2008 Myka Expert (silver with butterflies on it) and she loves it.

I've had a bit of a potter on it & quite like it too.

Mondraker do a Ladies bike at £500. Light for the money and really nice looking.

I Got my missus the 07 model WS Carrera Vulcan with cable discs in a halfrauds sale for ~£230 (if I remember correctly), the one linked above above doesn’t look to have changed spec significantly since then…

She’s been coaxed round Swinley on it and hated every second, the bike was more than up to it, unfortunately She wasn’t… Otherwise it’s fulfils it’s weekend tow path and pub duties extremely well…

For a “leisure cyclist” it’s great; plenty of gears, comfy riding position, brakes work well enough… not super light but reasonable in terms of weight and it was quite cheap the weekend boy tried to flog us some Apollo POS for £50 less but I was having none of it…

The frame is an excellent base for upgrading should she ever get more serious (which she won’t) and want fancier parts, They’ll all fit with minimal fuss, the standard parts (IIRC) are; SRAM X4/X5 mechs/shifters, Truvative Square taper cranks, MX2 – 6” cable discs, cheapy 3.5” Suntour fork, and un branded finishing kit… does the job.