Yeah if you have too much in the way of hills that lower gearing may be tough depending on her fitness level. I actually like threaded forks because of the height adjustability and a threaded to threadless adapter gives you that plus the ability to throw whatever stem you want on there. Big questions if that's to be used for a commute: Will it take fenders/racks? Does she like it? Not a huge fan of stem shifters, but they're not the worst thing in the world and you could potentially swap them out for some old mtb 7 speed thumb shifters you mount near the hoods.