Second hand bikes / something for the GF circa £200

[Jibber Jabber]

It's my other halves birthday in a couple of weeks and she's angling for a bike so we can get out together.

It needs to be a mountain bike as there are a good few trails around here as well as pootling up and down the tow path by the river. Hard tail I think.

Budget is £200 (the families are clubbing together, I've gone jewellery as per requests!).

Am I better to go the 2nd hand route? There doesn't seem to be a lot on ebay. Any other bike specific sites I should be looking at?

Can't see a great deal about new for £200.

This looked fairly good vfm but she's a shorty at about 5'4" so thinking an 18 inch will be on the large side?

http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/111116224418?ssPageName=...

edit to add - the above was up for buy it now at £175. It's just this moment been re-listed!

Thanks in advance.

Edited by Jibber Jabber on Wednesday 10th July 10:53

[pembo]

One bit of advice I would give is find out what kind of thing she wants.

Last year I went out and bought the OH a nice Specialized hybrid so that we could go for bike rides together, but it turns out she doesn't like the ladies bike shape (being quite tall and gangly makes it uncomfortable) so half way around our bike ride she jumped on mine to see how it felt. Turns out she loved it and especially liked the quickshift gears over the gripshift she had.

The bonus is that she doesn't use a bike often enough to justify buying her a new one just yet but I use mine every day so I've handed mine down to her and just ordered a new one for me

[Jibber Jabber]

Thanks.

She's been borrowing someone elses bike so I think she knows what she's looking for.

Anyone any ideas about where to find second hand bikes online?

[Gumstabber]

pinkbike.com

singletrackworld.com