Originally Posted by
Mountain Mitch
If you can afford it, get her the better spec'ed out bike. Your hope is that she'll get into the sport and improve. If that happens she'll be able to use that 'starter' bike for quite a while and when she upgrades she'll have something half decent to sell.
I like this approach. My wife jumped into the deep end on her first road bike, getting a Roubaix Apex. Her philosophy was, "I wanna buy this bike once, not a beginner's model that I'm gonna want to upgrade from in a year or two." Over the last two years, she's upgraded saddle, handlebar, stem, computer (cadence) and tires. Though she doesn't ride as much as she runs, she rides enough to realize/appreciate the benefit from each of those individual upgrades, and she's never once looked at another bike and said, "Oh, I think I want to move up to that one instead."
Although... if she wins the Specialized
#ItsMyTour contest, she's already said she's getting an S-Works Roubaix, lol.