its fine to do as long as its comfortable. most of the time a woman's frame is not as long as a mens frame, so if she has longer legs and arms a mens bike may be better because the frame is longer. but any way just get which ever bike is more comfortable.

 

It's all in the fit. Some men should have flowers on their bikes for a better fit.

Some Womens bikes have things like shorter cranks smaller brake levers, shorter top tubes. but not all.

 

Women specific bike geometry is one of the most successful (and of course completely stupid) marketing ploys. Statistics show that bike fit specific proportions of males and females are not different at all. As has been posted here before: When the bike fits everything is ok.

However, I would recommend to check the saddle. Here male and female anatomy is different enough so that a different saddle could increase comfort and support longer rides. It is all about the distance between the bones that actually rest on the saddle.

 

my wife is shopping for an entry level mountain bike and it seems at though the manufacturers don't put to much effort into a nice quality hardtail.

There are still plenty of high quality HT available through almost every good bike manufacture, it's just most consumers go for a FS at a certain price. Go to your next local XC race and you'll see plenty of high quality HT bikes.

As far as women vs mens bikes. I think it comes down to paint colors. Women specific bikes come with shorter cranks and shorter stem, but so does a mens small/XS bike. Just find the best bike she fits well on should it be men or women specific. A lot of women just like the paint jobs on the women specific bikes. The only thing you should be concerned about is the saddle.

 

These look pretty good for womens Hardtails......Pretty much repainted rebadged Rockhoppers. But if your serious about getting her a good "Beginner" hardtail here it is.
http://www.specialized.com/us/en/bc/SBCBkModel.jsp?sid=10Myka&eid=4340&menuItemId=9253
And the colors and features will make her happy!

 

There is a lot of info on this in the MTBR "Women's Lounge" forum - see the "stickys".

 

Kaba Klaus is generally pretty far off base with his "Women specific bike geometry is one of the most successful (and of course completely stupid) marketing ploys" comment. It's not the gross geometry changes that make an noticeable difference in WS vs generic fit, it's the details. For plenty of women, the difference in shorter reach brake levers, bar width, crank length, suspension tune, etc may be enough of a difference to make it a smart option. I'm just saying don't get a negative opinion of something just because some e-expert gives an opinion.

As for your particular choices, I don't know the level of your wife's riding skills, but I'll assume she hasn't spent any time on trails while riding a bike. In that case, I don't usually recommend a 29'er because of a couple reasons. First, the standover height is usually a good amount higher making it harder to dismount for those times when you can't quite make it up a steep hill or get stopped by a technical challenge. No one likes to be stuck hanging from the top tube of their bike on their crotch. Second, 29" bikes are a bit slower handling than their 26" cousins, this can sometimes be a problem in slow technical areas, and when you're a beginner every technical section is usually a slow section.

But, if the bike fits and she feels comfortable on it, then it may be no problem. In the end, those two things are the most important, regardless of what bike in particular it is.

 

My wife has a Myka, and thought it fit better after riding some several men's and women's models. It has the same components as the Rockhopper available for the same price.

Her road bike is a Men's XS Kona Jake. Again, she rode several bikes and this time the Men's frame was the best fit after swapping out levers for ones with a shorter reach.

 

Most levers now are reach adjustable. Road bikes use spacers to accomplish this and MTN bikes have a reach adjust screw. You can cut bars down so narrower bars isnt a factor and as stated above, smaller frames have shorter cranks and big frames come with bigger cranks. Doesn't matter if it is mens or women specific. Pick which ever geometry you/she feels most comfortable on.

 

she ended up deciding on a hardrock sport disc not the 29 nine version though. they have a left over at a local bike shop near us and they are willing to take 50 bucks off the original price of 550. so they will give it to her for 500, you think that is a fair price?

 

Eh, Bikepedia lists the '09 Sport Disc at $580, so $500 is a good discount.