Recreational & Family - Road bike recommendation for wife

I'm looking to get the wife more into riding. She's been tagging along the last year or so on a Specialized hard tail.

I recently bought myself a cyclocross and think it's time to get her into a more road-friendly bike so we can ride farther.

Want to stay low budget in case she doesn't ride as much as I'm hoping for lol.

Looking at these two:

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes//Product_10052_10551_1073201_-1___

http://www.performancebike.com/bikes/Product_10052_10551_1089885_-1_1512507_20000_400306

What do you guys think? Does a non-woman's bike pose any issues? Thanks

A non-woman's bike may make her more stretched out to the bars when the height saddle-pedals is right. If that is the case, it can be put right with a shorter stem. If she is small there may be toe-front wheel overlap problems with the 700c wheels. I have no experience with Microshift shifters, but she may like the upshift from drops ability that they offer. Sora shifters work well and easily from the hoods, but not from the drops. Look at the clearance under the brakes to see if there is room for 28 mm tires.

The first question is has your wife ridden a bike much in her life? Mine had not. I wanted her to get a road bike so we could ride together. She tried the road bike and did not trust herself on it. We got a low cost Fuji comfort bike. She rides it a bunch with the kids. We even got a Chariot trailer to go with it so the littlest one could be towed along.

Go to the shop and let her try a bunch of them. She will tell you what she wants. Get it first and get her in shape and confident, then a more equal solution can be done.

+1
The first question is has your wife ridden a bike much in her life? Mine had not. I wanted her to get a road bike so we could ride together. She tried the road bike and did not trust herself on it. We got a low cost Fuji comfort bike. She rides it a bunch with the kids. We even got a Chariot trailer to go with it so the littlest one could be towed along.

Go to the shop and let her try a bunch of them. She will tell you what she wants. Get it first and get her in shape and confident, then a more equal solution can be done.

and go to a bunch of shops in case the selection in any one shop is too narrow. this small investment in time to find one that works for her will be well worth it---even if you decide to build one from scratch in the end (like i did). if she really likes the idea of a road bike (or any bike, really), you might pay the small fee for a proper bike fitting, so that you can get the dimensions (frame/stem/crank) as close as possible to "just-right" from the get go.