Best female raoad bike under €1,000

makker

Apologies in advance, i know the bikes for under a €1000 has been done to death, but could not find any threads in relation to female road bikes.

A friend of mine want to buy a road bike under BTW scheme and has asked my advise, as she thinks i'm an expert as i once fixed a puncture for her, but clearly not, so brings me here.

She wants a road bike to use for weekend spins up the mountains, and also for sprint tri's. I'm pretty sure she did a 100km charity spin on a hybrid so has a decent level of bike fitness for a beginner.

The three bikes that caught my eye are the following

http://www.mycycle.ie/trek-lexa-sl-p/trtyrty.htm

http://www.mycycle.ie/racer-p/54645654.htm

http://www.mycycle.ie/giant-avail-2-2013-p/giav2.htm

So if you had a choice which of the three above would you choose? Or if you know any better bikes for under a grand can you please reccommend, preferable in the dublin area and part of the btw scheme.

Many thanks

Lemag

The consensus here from having previous threads seems to be that a non female specific road bike will do the job as well as a women specific road bike. Of the two which you've linked the Trek and the Giant appear to have better components. 10 speed Tiagra vs 9 speed Sora. The wheels are prbably all of a quite similar standard, the frames are all aluminium and the forks all carbon. The Giant would appear to be the only double chainset which would sway it for me. It's not specified whether it's a standard ratio or a compact. My guess would be that it's a compact. Might enquire about this in the store.

Depending on how your friend's employer implements the btw scheme, she may not be restricted to an Irish store purchase.

kuro_man

Halfords do a Boardman ladies bike with SRAM Apex for that sort of money. If you have Axa insurance (or know someone who does) you can get 15% off.

MB Lacey

I tried out the trek lexa sl, it was very comfortable and quick.
I'd hugely advise her to ride the bikes as part of her research aswell as staring at specs on the internet.
Your friend seems well into her cycling, remind her that she can use the €1000 from the btw scheme and top up by another few hundred herself, if she wants to get a bike a step up (component wise).

TheBlaaMan

kuro_man wrote: »

Halfords do a Boardman ladies bike with SRAM Apex for that sort of money. If you have Axa insurance (or know someone who does) you can get 15% off.

Yep. And a nice looking bike it is....
http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_777761_langId_-1_categoryId_212536

It stacks up well against the Giant, well above the Trek and Specialized. a 10% or 15% discount (if not that difficult to get) would really sweeten the deal.

makker

Thanks for the replies guys, some great food for thought, much appreciated.

Like you say i think taking it for a test ride is a great idea and will suggest it to her, in fact i may go along with her and force her to have a test spin beofre buying.

TheBlaaMan wrote: »

Yep. And a nice looking bike it is....
http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_777761_langId_-1_categoryId_212536

It stacks up well against the Giant, well above the Trek and Specialized. a 10% or 15% discount (if not that difficult to get) would really sweeten the deal.

Thats a lovely looking bike and seems to have a great spec, at a great price.

She did mention that colour may swing it for her (typical female), i know she likes white. But colour aside and more importantly it seems to be better spec'd than the three i posted links to, so will deffo take a trip to halfords to have a look.

Thanks again.

Seaneh

The apex groupset, for me, is a lot nicer than either Tiagra or 105, so I'd be swayed to the boardman.

I've even considered buying the female boardman for myself because of the price at the spec! Don't know if they have it in ym size though :P