Hey everyone,
I’m trying to help my girlfriend find a new bike. She’s 5’7”, she’s a size 6 I think, and has a smaller frame. She does have shorter legs as well.
I’m kind of on the fence about what to recommend to her, I think much like myself, she’ll spend most of her time riding in the city along paved lakeshore paths, or forest reserves, etc for exercise. I may take her out to do some mountain biking from time to time, but nothing overly technical and full of rocks, stumps, or jumps. Neither of us will be doing any hardcore downhill riding in Colorado or anything like that.
For that reason, I’ve been thinking she should get a comfort bike. The reality is, she probably will be doing little Mountain Biking, but at least it will give her the option to do some, if she chooses. I don’t know that she’ll get into hardcore road biking either. I think a comfort bike would be good enough to enjoy riding primarily in the city and will be nice to have the upright position and the extra suspension of a comfort bike.
On the other hand, I also know that like ANY “multi-purpose tool”, it will allow you to do more then one thing, but NOT excel at either. I’ve had a Trek Navigator 300 for about 3 years now, and I’m starting to realize that I need to buy a DEDICATED bike for mountain biking and road biking. I’ll probably spend the money on a new MTB in the next year, but buy a used road bike.
I’d also like to mention that through someone she knows she can get a pretty good deal on Trek bikes, so she’s only going to be sticking with that brand. As far as her budget, I’d say up to $600 would probably be what she can spend on this.
Based on all of that, I was thinking the Navigator 3.0 WSD or the 7300 WSD would be the best for her?
Link to Navigator 3.0 WSD:
http://www.trekbikes.com/women/wsd_p...avigator30wsd/
7300 WSD:
http://www.trekbikes.com/women/wsd_p..._path/7300wsd/
Does anyone have any experience with these?
I’m going to admit right now that I’m completely naïve about frame construction, so I’m also wondering if the frame on these bikes is weaker for MTBing because there’s no top tube? Should she be more concerned about the step through frame cracking if the bike is really taking a beating on a trail?