Wtb - women's mountain bike

ThePrettyDamned

Long shot! As per title really.

Ladyprettydamned is after an mtb and we have our eyes on a new one which is really scraping the top of the budget so I thought I'd put feelers out in case there are local bargains. 

Ideally, rigid forks or hardtail - full suspension not an option, too much hassle and way unnecessary. Ideally, fewer rather than more gears - there isn't a lot of hills around here and we want easy to maintain kit (and a mid spec 1x10 is probably more reliable and easier to maintain than a low end 3x9). However, we would be flexible on that (it's quite hard to get bikes with fewer gears these days!). 

She's about 5 foot 5-6 so a bike that fits is always good! She would prefer women's specific geometry, having tried a couple of mens/unisex and finding them shaped a bit weird compared to ladies' ones. 

She said she could also get on board with a cyclo-cross bike - something that's a bit quicker and more aggressive, but still knobbly tyres. She'd prefer the relative comfort of an mtb though. 

Budget... Around £300 ish. 

Based in Cambridgeshire would be good as we want to try before we buy as we both found ourselves surprisingly picky as to what we got on with and didn't!