Originally Posted by
Velo Mule
1990's Mountain bikes make great all around bikes. Change to drop handlebars and it is a "gravel" bike. Keep the straight bars for all around riding. Change to North Road type bars for a town bike with plenty of gears to haul groceries a stuff. Change to Crazy bars, Corner bars or butterfly bars and it works well as a touring bike.
With 26" wheels and about a 15' to 17" frame, this should fit her and it won't be some special order bike that you can't find.
+1
My SO isn't particularly athletically inclined, but does ride occasionally. She'd always been envious of my mtb that, despite looking so much chunkier than her bike, was so much lighter.
So I got her a rather nice 16" frame Merida, put street tires on it, short stem, kinda-sorta North Road bars and a long seat post. And suddenly she had a bike that gave the riding position of a Townie, but with 1/3 of the weight off. And a far greater gear range.