I've gotten into mountain biking this summer and when my wife comes back from living abroad for work in 6 weeks, I'd like her to be able to join me so I was starting to look at bikes for her.
The problem: She's fairly small, and the sub 1000 current value champions all seem to be 29 inch bikes (Airborne, Marin, etc.). Are these still what someone would recommend for someone who is 5'3" 110, and not particularly strong or vigorous in body English (an assumption I make based on her road bike riding/skiing).
So are there any quality low end 26 still out there that equal the Airborne or Marin? Or possibly 27.5, but I haven't seen any of those.
I'm not opposed to going used, but she's less tolerant of fussing with her gear than I am, so I want to make sure that her bike would work perfectly at the get go.
Thanks!
The problem: She's fairly small, and the sub 1000 current value champions all seem to be 29 inch bikes (Airborne, Marin, etc.). Are these still what someone would recommend for someone who is 5'3" 110, and not particularly strong or vigorous in body English (an assumption I make based on her road bike riding/skiing).
So are there any quality low end 26 still out there that equal the Airborne or Marin? Or possibly 27.5, but I haven't seen any of those.
I'm not opposed to going used, but she's less tolerant of fussing with her gear than I am, so I want to make sure that her bike would work perfectly at the get go.
Thanks!