Recreational & Family - girlfriend is buying a bike. need opinions

hey all.

my gf wants to get a bike after hearing so much about riding from me. :) now the problem is, finding the right one in the right price range. she doesnt really want to spend more than $300. yesterday we took a look at the bianchi boardwalk (http://www.bianchiusa.com/06_boardwalk.html) but its price is around $500.

any bikes anyone can recommend? she knows she will have this bike for a while and wants to get a "good one" but doesnt have the budget to drop a lot of $$ on it.

thx :)

I'd be hard pressed to recommend a "good one" in the $300 range, but $500 opens a lot of doors. Any chance you could help her out? If not, I'd look at buying used, so you can get a 5-$600 bike for $300 or less.

Try the big box sporting goods stores.
Sometimes they have sales and she could probably get a decent bike for a good price.

Id go used for sure... is there a play it again sports or recycled cycles somewhere by you?

If you look on the performance bike website you will find at least ten mountain and hybrid bikes for less than $300. They may not be up to the same quality of a $500 bike but will perform admirably for many years.

I'm a newbie, but after lots of good advice here, I just bought a Trek 7400FX and am super happy! It seems like the perfect compromise between a comfort bike and a road bike, esp for a woman just getting going. The 2006 models are 7.x FX; I called around to a bunch of Trek lbs to find out who had 2005s in stock, as they were $100 off! You can get a 7200FX women's (step through, but otherwise totally the same; that's what I got b/c it's what they had, but also I'm psyched bc the standover height of the men's made me a little uncomfortable) or men's for around $320...