Main criteria:

£1k or thereabouts.
Decent air fork (NOT Suntour).
Good standover – ‘s-bend’ top tube a must.

Everything else can be swapped/upgraded later but frame/fork needs to be spot-on first time.

Prefer 26″ or 650b.

I’ve searched far and wide, Trek Skye SLX is the current favourite but fork is a bit compromised.

Over to the hive mind…

Orange Diva

Does it need to be women-specific? Height? Second-hand?

Forget women specific and just look at men’s bikes.

We bought a Spesh Myka for Mrs Gti and….. she hated it. It was comfortable around the shop car park but in real life it was heavy, sluggish and the postion absolutely upright, meaning high wind resistance. She rode it twice and we Ebayed it. Subsequently bought her an almost new women’s road bike and she was blown away by the comfort and the speed of it.

Just had a quick look in Classifieds and they’re mainly medium or large. I would have thought that there’s a good chance of getting a decent 26″ model.

A ‘unisex’ bike would be ok but the standover height is an issue. It has to have a swoopy top tube. The Orange Diva looks good.

Can I ask why the standover is so crucial?

Can I ask why the standover is so crucial?

To avoid the clam slam presumably! 😀

Having said that the standover on my bike is too high for my short little legs, but I haven’t really had any problems.

Her current bike was sold to her years ago by a ‘reputable’ bike shop. It has a massive long stem and NO standover clearance! She has always hated it! The new bike has to have a load of features to rebuild riding confidence…
Riding will vary from flat trails to the Red at Laggan. She did the Red yesterday on a borrowed bike with bald rear tyre and almost seized Manitou Axel forks. But the bike was the correct size for her at least! There was a bit of walking involved, I’m sure that a new bike in the proper size with a better set of components will give her the confidence to ride it all…

Have you looked at the Cube WLS stuff? MrsIHN has a Access SL WLS (2012 model) and it’s a great bike.

2nd hand Santa Cruz juliana? You may guess I gave such a beasty to move.

Had the same issue with my other half, was looking at a SC Juliana as she tried one at Stif and fell in love straight away…she had to settle for a Morewood Ndiza that I had built up, saved me £5k…

You thought about buying a frame and building one yourself. Maybe a good experience for her to see it built up and help with it etc?

Mrs_oab had a few bikes before much reading online had us head to a couple of specific models (she is only 5′ tall). The retro Cannondale F900sl is now her pride and joy, light, fits really well and actually has (had) headshok fork that worked really really well for all 7.5st of her.. It needs replacing, but she will not be parted from the frame… New fork and group set ahoy.

For us everything. Be first, even if it takes a few months \ stems…

BTW you shouldn’t knock a fork like a Suntour Radion it is definitely better than cheap Rockshocx TK forks which might as well be pogo sticks…

Thanks all for the great suggestions, she has gone for the Orange Diva HT. Every part seems to be decent spec. I can bleed Avids so no worries there!
Proper Mavic rims, HT2 chainset, Race Face bits and most importantly, a decent fork! Tyres will be replaced by something a bit gnarlier (tubeless conversion in the works as well) and a TMars dropper will be fitted eventually.
Her sister needs a new bike as well so I have passed on the details of the Juliana (thanks mtbfix) as she is a bit more gnaar!

The Orange Diva turned out to be 29er not 26er. 29er standover height too big. The perils of mail order. Back to the drawing board grrrrrrr.

Surely they will refund if their error?

Check out the Bird Zero for £1000 with Deore 2×10, X-Fusion Velvet forks, and comes in XS size.

It’s really annoying that all the big manufacturers have given up on 26″ wheels. It’s very shortist.

I’m surprised there’s not a nice WLS Cube for that price.

ebygomm – Member
It’s really annoying that all the big manufacturers have given up on 26″ wheels. It’s very shortist.

2 things…
Have you seen 26″ parked against 650b?
Seen plenty of short people on 29″ if the bike is right then it works

Surely they will refund if their error?

I did discuss it with them. They admitted their error. If it doesn’t fit, they’ll take it back.
The 2013 26″ Orange Diva looked ideal. I’m a bit annoyed as I’ve been searching for six months!

Told my cus to get one of these when she was looking for a full suspension
Lot of bike for the money and she loves hers. 🙂

Linky

Seen plenty of short people on 29″ if the bike is right then it works

It’s the standover height. Other than that, the 29er 2014 bike is great!

I’m surprised there’s not a nice WLS Cube for that price.

All the Cube WLS seem to have Suntour forks all the way up to £1,000 (and beyond). Plus, no decent dealers within range of Aberdeen. The ‘unisex’ Cube Acid comes in a tiny 14″ but they don’t list standover height in their specs and I can’t find anyone in the UK with one on display.

Hi badllama, any ideas on standover height? Spec looks amazing! I’ll try and get a viewing at a local store but the website says either go to Carlisle or I suppose wait while the local store gets one transferred.

Are you close to a branch of Evans?
Norco charger forma 7.2 for £675 or a Scott contessa for £899 both on their website.
Both have air forks (xc30- is this decent enough?) and full shimano group sets deore slx level. 650b but the Norco comes in a 13″ frame and appears to have a slightly dropped top tube.
There’s a nice looking cannondale tango but has suntour forks
Not only website has geometry including stand over but it shows 13″ gas higher stand over than 15″ so may be typo.
Approx 730mm stand over too high?
Edit: add a set of decent forks rebas maybe to the Norco for £200odd still within budget

My 17″ bird zero stand over height isn’t far off my wife’s 14″ dirt jump bike. If the seat was lower she would proudly ride it. As mentioned above, they do come in very small too.

Another vote for the bird zero, great stand over clearance, I have a small at 5’5″. They come up small I think and my 12 year old happily rides it.

Get a test ride!

Simone

Also, there is a small kona explosif 650b on eBay at the moment, looks great.

Simone

http://www.on-one.co.uk/i/q/CBOO26INTR/on-one-inbred-26-sram-x5-mountain-bike

26″, decent forks, comes in a 14″ and 16″, standover is pretty good. I’d imagine someone on here lives near enough for you to try one for size.

There’s a nice 14″ Scandal on the classifieds at the moment.

APF

Have you looked at the Whyte 806 Compact 2015? I bought one for the wife yesterday and is great spec for around £1K mark.

Deveron53 you fix up yet? if not I’ll call round and measure the bike for you this weekend (sorry for the late reply).

Andy

Hi badllama Andy, we’re still not fixed up! (only just got refund for the Orange Diva 29er) If you would be so kind as so measure up please. The required measurement is standover height in the ‘usual’ standover place! Just behind the halfway point of the top tube. Some manufacturers use a point just by the top tube/seat tube junction. The saddle nose is way forward of that point!

If anyone can measure the hardtail 650b Boardman and the Oneone Inbred 26 I would be very grateful.

cheers

I have a 26″ OnOne Inbred 14″ that has been my daughters and my wifes run around bike. It’s in spot on condition, having only ever been used around child friendly green/blues and for going to the shops…it has buckets of standover for someone under 5′ tall and a RS SID 100mm dual air fork with lockout on it.
Hope pro2/Stands Olympic wheels that weigh naff all. If you are interested in that let me know. The current spec is 1x with zee/deore drivetrain/brakes but I have other brakes etc. and 2x would cost £20.

Either way it would come in at waaaay less than your £1k budget even with a new drivetrain and finishing kit.

But importantly an Inbred 14″ with a 100-120 fork is a great frame, with sorted angles, with sensible kit it also ends up being light.

My daughter had one from 8yrs old on 26″ wheels with no standover issues and used it with 24″ wheels before that.

You haven’t said how tall your wife is.

The xs Salsa El Mariachi is really good and super small even as a 29er but it would blow the budget.

Don’t forget this little nugget – Female cyclists do not generally need to push their limits, race against time and increase their adrenaline when riding rough downhill trails. They just want to enjoy the time spent in nature on the bike, and their expectations from the bike are completely different than men’s. They look mainly for safe, easy and, of course, stylish bikes that have good and natural handling.

Hi Chainline, let’s talk via email, your offer sounds good.

No problem Deveron53, my email is in profile.

I’d be happy just to find a “suitable woman” ….