I got the dreaded "what bike should I get" last week but it turned out to be a really well thought out question... She wants something xc/trailbikeish- will do an occasional duathlon but also lots of bashing around glentress and innerleithen (red rather than downhill).
Budget is up to £750 for the right bike, ideally a little less. She is 5'7, and she's a fairly experienced rider and used to riding hte same trails on an ancient rigid Specialized, looking at hardtail rather than full suss and possibly 29er curious if the price is right. And no pink bits. Oh lastly she wants to sit on it first so probably no direct sales.
So I went Boardman Comp- comes in a small, not a bad part on it, good sensible "just a mountain bike". They don't seem to do small sizes in most of the Voodoos.
(there is a female specific one which is almost identical but with unneccesary pinkness, and the fork wound down 20mm. Sadly Voodoos don't cater well for smalls)
So... What's the competition?
Woman's hard tail for around 750, what about suggesting a mid/entry level Cube. Nice bikes, well spec'd and no pink bits on the woman specific bikes either.
Very hard to beat the Boardman range. There's nothing worse than seeing a friend riding an expensive sucker starter bike decked out in Alivio.
The bike coop? They have a couple of ladies specific models.
Mmm. The Cubes all seem to be nice til you look at the forks.
Hah. The £600 Rockhopper comes with a Suntour XCM! My £300 carrera came with one model up and it was still pish. Not sure what at the Coop can compete with the Boardman tbh, they seem to have binned their nicer Revolutions. too.
You can pick up some very nice Cannondale Prophets for that budget.
I just bought a 2012, 11sp Genesis io id for £750, brand new. Huge bargain, couldn't recommend highly enough.
0.002p = Genesis Mantle 1.0?
No further comment m'lud.
Edit: Should be ok for a sit n' ride from coop.
My mate has a saracen mantra something. Was about 800 notes and a great bike (comes in smaller sizes, 15" I think). It's really light, about 27 lbs if i remember correctly with mostly decent kit. Importantly the recon forks and sun wheels stand up to his 19 stone weight!
Not lady specific but a colleague picked up this year's version of the Jarrah 5 at full price and has been impressed thus far.
Last years in small comes in well under the budget: http://www.evanscycles.com/products/pinnacle/jarrah-five-2012-mountain-bike-ec035898
If they aren't a snob (at that price can you afford to be...) then it has to be a Boardman, specially as they do a the female-specific 'fi' range.