buying a bike for my wife

[jason1]

Hey, any suggestions on buying a womens mountain bike? My wife is short; 63 inches tall.

[Jason]

Welcome to the board.

Do you have a price range? Trek has some nice women's MTB's in small sizes. Though 5'3" is not all that short.

[jason1]

under 700.00, thanks for the welcome!

[Jason]

That is a tough price point, I can't think of anything off the top of my head right now. At about $800 trek makes the 6500 WSD and that is a pretty nice bike. otherwise both Trek and Cannondale make women's bikes at about $375-400 but they don't have disc brakes.

[mayhew]

Well, to be fair, disc brakes don't make that big a difference till it gets particurlarly wet/cold/muddy. V brakes will do well if you're just riding during the summer.

[spurk]

Good thing we live in PA and it is never wet/cold/ or muddy!

[Jason]

I'll never ride offroad again without disc brakes. I would not want to make a loved one that I am trying to get into riding, ride something I would not ride myself.

[jason1]

She will most likely be a fair weather rider, so I dont know if the disc brakes will be a deciding factor, Price is not really set, I could go either way.

[klevens]

There are a lot of entry level small bikes each have their bonus and negatives. If I were in your position I would consider two options...first let her go to lots of different shops and have her try their bikes. Keep it simple and let her see what she feels comfortable on. If she likes it even it doesnt make sense to you she will like riding more. Entry level bikes are all about being able to upgrade the parts so a good frame is essential. You may also try finding a nicer used bike, but a small used bike is not as common.
Elizabeth

[B-RAD]

Watch out for the entry level suspension forks. They are so shitty and heavy. V brakes are fine for a beginner, I'd go for an upgrade in shifting before disc brakes especially at the entry level. Just make sure the frame can be upgraded to disc, for the future, most new bikes are. I'm dealing with this situation with my girlfriend as we speak, setting up her bike,that is. I pretty much stripped her off the rack Gary Fisher because it was a tank that shifted like shit. Like, Elizabeth said, its starts with a good frame and go from there.

For the $700 you may spend, you could, in theory, put something together thats lighter and more suitable than a bike shop buy. It may be used but who cares, reduce, reuse, recycle!

[Jason]

The Trek 6500 WSD has an air sprung fork with a lock out, hyro disc brakes and I believe LX/Deore level shifting bits. One of the things to look for is a shimano crank, which this bike has, it makes a big difference is shifting performance up front. This bike is one of the my picks for an entry level bike that she will not not grow in 6 months. At about $800 it is a decent deal.

There are a few people talking about upgrading and getting a decent frame. Don't worry about that. If something wears out then upgrade. Otherwise you are wasting your money. With bikes today you get a package deal when you buy them. If you buy a bike for $800 and you want to upgrade the fork, it is pretty easy to spend another $600 or more upgrading the fork, just stick that money somewhere safe and pile it up for a new bike.

Here is the situation: Two years down the road, she wants a new fork for her $800 bike. Ok so you pluck down $600 on a new fork. You still have two year old shifters, derailuers and wheels. The other way to do it is sell the bike for half of what you got it for, now you have $1000. Add another 200-300 on top of that and you get a bike that has the fork you were going to buy and a lot nicer parts that are all brand new, the frame probably will be a nice grade also. Another problem with upgrading is you get stuck in a bike, if you invest in an expensive fork it does not raise the value of the bike and you start getting more and more upside down in the bike.

I know someone who bought a bike for $500, they upgraded almost everything, spent about another $1200 on the bike over the course of a year. When we go and list the bike on ebay, everyone just sees the name of the bike and thinks it is a $500 bike new, maybe they take some of the parts into consideration, it sold for $300.

In summary, I say keep your bike as stock as possible when you are dealing with off the shelf bikes and don't become attached to them. As your skills outgrow the bike get rid of it, don't upgrade.

[jason1]

Thanks for all of the great advice, We will head out to the lbs's sometime soon and see what dammage we can do.

[misskitty]

Miss Kitty would consider parting with her much-loved (and ridden) Fisher Paragon disc, size small, for the right price. Great shape, needs a seat!