I have a friend who is looking to give up the gym as it bores her and take up riding. She will mainly be doing local cycle routes, some small road rides and some family trails out in Forest of Dean.

Would town bike/trail bike be suitable do you think? Or would a cumuter/ladies specific MTB with thinner tyres be more versatile?

She only wants to spend a few £100 on one as it will not really see many miles.

one of those hybrid type things should do the job. flat bar, road sized wheels with 32mm or so tyres. along the lines of the trek FX series I reckon.

The reality is that she's likely to spend most of the time on the road, or decent surfaces. With care on the more bumpy stuff, those sorts of hybrids should manage fine.

I know I will be slated, but what about the Halfords Apollos tht they currently have on offer. Yes they are crap component wise but the bike wont see much use.

How do you know it won't see much use? Probably won't if she gets a crap one – getting a heavy bike with rubbish suspension is likely to put her off cycling forever.

The Carerra bikes from Halfords are ok though imo – a female friend of mine had one (not this model) and it looked pretty decent – she was dead pleased with it.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_240389_langId_-1_categoryId_165534

I know what she is like. Agree that a heavy bike will win no friends. Trouble is, they are all heavy at that end of the scale.

I have a ladies Specialized Rockhopper, my first bike 4 years ago, still have her. I use my bike round the city and commuting, off/on train, take it on off road jaunts to Alice Holt Forest with the kids. Also light enough to hitch up and down awkward bits and train bridges. I use it for my job giving guided cycle tours, it truely rocks!