So the missus wants a bike and have been given the task of finding one for her.

Obviously i’m trying to persuade her that quality components and weight is more important the the colour but she’s not convinced.

Anyway whats the current reccommendations for hardtails £6-700? The Canyon bikes seem pretty good value (canyon Grand Canyon AL 29), but any other ‘shop stocked’ bikes to consider before i hand my cash over to the internet?

cheers

Does she need WSD?

not sure! Is there much benefit in the womens designs over mens? She’s happily ridden my Blur LT and Specilaized Epic.

Some of the womens ones seemed more to be a bit lower specced from what i could see, but nicer colours.

She’s about same height as me 5’10

What height is she? All my bikes are men’s!

Cube Acid 27.5 ?

Got my son a small one at Christmas and he’s loving it. The Manitou fork is great for lighter riders. Also has benefit of dealer network

5’10, meant to put that in the previous post but you replied before i’d edited it!

Does she want a hard tail or is it just the budget that is restricting it? All the women I have ridden with recently have been much happier when they swapped onto a full suss. Might get something 2nd hand within budget.

OK so it will be a wheel size decision! Are you on 29’ers?

also quite rocky here so 10mm travel would be good

I was looking at the Radon, seem to be pretty solid geometry and amazing Vfm.

don’t bother with wsd bikes, they prolly won’t fit any better. My sister tried them and found mens bikes gave more options and found a better fit on the mens kona than the womens. Oddly, not all women are the same shape!

In a recommend what you got style – Voodoo Bizango has won so many awards for a reason. Sizing is weird though and limited to two (18 and 20). At 5 10 an 18 might well be fine.

Budget for a new seat.

oooh lots of replies and questions!

nickjb – yeah its budget restricting the choice, she wants a shiny new one as never had a nice bike before so that rules out 2nd hand full suspension

cinnamon girl- wheelsize – well i’m still on 26″ so doesnt really matter if she’s on 29 or 27.5 as i’ll have to carry different tubes for her anyway.

will have a look at the two reccomendations above…

The Cube Acid 27.5 has a vivid pink fork if that helps 😀 , although my son says its ‘salmon’ !

here

Cube bikes are great value

In some ways it would be simpler and more cost effective to go for a 26’er. Not sure if you’d be able to get steel though for your budget so may be worth checking out second hand, having explained that many folk on here make mistakes when buying so you could end up with a bargain. 😉

Voodoo Bizango. I’m 5’10” and the 18 fits me fine. Got mine for £540 (always seems to be a 10% off deal around on the web somewhere). Saddle and pedals would need replacing asap, might want to put a dropper on too.