Boardman Bikes
Comments
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Not sure if anybody's particularly interested, but I took back the Boardman bike to Halfords who exchanged it for a medium frame without a quibble, just swapped over the wheels and saddle.
This bike had been set up much better than last time, and the staff admitted that this was not the first time that they felt that the large frame was unnecessarily long, and they had changed a few previous to mine.
However they also said that they had sold lots of them and were struggling to keep up with demand.
So thanks to Halfords for the swap, and I have had a few rides on the new bike, and it is a really nice piece of kit.Isn't this where I put something funny?0 -
As an indication of who these bikes appeal to...
I went into Halfrauds the other weekend for something for the car, saw the Bikehut section and decided to see what the much-vaunted Boardman bikes actually looked like.
While I was looking, two asian guys with very thick accents appeared.
One picked up the Pro, complete with the rear-wheel stand which it was cable-locked to, and weighed it in his hands.
'Very light' he said to the other one, 'very light, very good bike, it is 531'
Hmmm. Good bike or bad, I do have my suspicions that they'll sell very well to this sort of market anyway.0 -
i am laughing very much at most of this thread.
i am 35 and slightly overweight.
my bike to work voucher could only be used at halfords.
for £1000 voucher i got the boardman mtb pro plus some accessories thrown in.
point one: i would not have otherwise been out in my surrounding forests or roads
point two: with the bike to work scheme i will only have paid, by the final installment from my wages next year, around £720 actual money! haha! £720 for all that kit and that is very very funny you guys
i am laughing a lot!
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vajra j wrote:i am laughing very much at most of this thread.
i am 35 and slightly overweight.
my bike to work voucher could only be used at halfords.
for £1000 voucher i got the boardman mtb pro plus some accessories thrown in.
point one: i would not have otherwise been out in my surrounding forests or roads
point two: with the bike to work scheme i will only have paid, by the final installment from my wages next year, around £720 actual money! haha! £720 for all that kit and that is very very funny you guys
i am laughing a lot!
Not sure what is so very funny. Do you often find yourself laughing at random things in the street whilst people walking past give you a wide berth?
Hypocrisy is only a bad thing in other people.0 -
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PhetPhan wrote:people of the forum,
i work at halfords part time - yes i'm one of the 'monkeys.' and totally disgree with your opinion of myself being a 'pseudo' mechanic. i know my own bikes like the back of my hand and like the rest of the staff can knock together a 'halfraud' to perfection.
what i'm trying to say is - mid range road bikes are not our forte and never will be. we sell mass market iron horses for non-cyclists. now surely this is obvious!?!
p.s. the boardman range are actually really good bikes and are also excellent value just like our carreras. please don't fuel the stigma attached to the halfords brand.
Dude, Ive just read this....I have nothing good to say about the head guy at my local Halfords...he is a downhill and endurance racer and really helped me pick out between the boardman and the GT agressor XCR, he knew his stuff as I had a load of technical questions, you would buying a bike for 650. informed me of a few tips and tricks to look into and the right tools to use.... what I wasn't impressed with though was his staff, they didn't seem bothered at all and were content with the Iron Horse set ups...my point is basically this, talk to the staff as you already know, get to know them and if you are not scared of talking to people then they will come out with what they know for free...right i've ranted on for far to long now. sorry.
I would goto that guy at Halfords time and time again for help and advice.
GmanUK1010 -
farrell wrote:Take it to a proper bike shop and have it set up by someone who knows what they are doing. I'm sure when this is done it will feel great to ride.
There should be a law against putting the words 'Bikehut' and 'Specialist' together.
I went into a branch of Halfords in the East Midlands 2 weeks ago to get a back light. Saw two 'mechanics' behind the counter hitting a very small bike with a very large mallet, they were both sweating and cursing. It was like a bizarre alternative scene from a Scorsese movie
Joking apart this should never happen to a bike :twisted:'How can an opinion be bullsh1t?' High Fidelity0 -
Maybe it was Max Moseleys bike ?0
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You pays your money and you takes your choice.
I bought my MTB from an LBS, and it basically had to go back three times to have issues fixed...each time I told them exactly what it needed and they just plain failed to be able to write anything down. Rather worryingly, when I asked them to investigate a squeaky stem, they swapped it...and for an upgrade at that...because one of the threads was stripped. Now I had never touched that stem, they'd obviously buggered it up on assembly. I do hope that the suspension etc was assembled at the factory. That said, in other ways, they are very good...I'd just rather do the mechanical stuff myself thankyou.
The other day I went to Halfords to get some brake bolts convert my missus' bike to discs...the "monkey" as someone put it, looked round, could not find any on display, so went "out the back" and took some off a damaged bike and gave them to me FOC, that was really nice. Another day, another "monkey" who was probably still at school spent at least 10 minutes talking me through all the different light options (they were 50% off) and opening boxes etc to show me...if only all customer service was that good!
Halfords Bikehut Rugby I salute you! 0 -
I have just bought a Boardman comp road bike from Hellfrauds, i didn't even get out of the car park before i took it back to them cos of a loose crank, poor gear set up and a vibration coming from the front forks which didn't seem natural!
i've now been riding it a week and its on its way back again although it is a very nice bike to ride. had the same problem last year when i bought a carrera fury from them, in the first month i was back in the shop four times with the same problem but as its with the cycle2work thing i'm stuck with them as a vendor!
if they don't manage to fix the problem this time i'm not going to get fustrated with them i'll just take it to a proper bike shop and get it sorted there, i really can't be bothered to keep going back and could only suggest people do the same.0 -
I like the look of these bikes, and Halfords wouldnt put me off seeing as I build most of my bikes up myself. A bit of fettling is good for the soul.
A LBS did manage to put my mates brake blocks on backwards once - which meant that they just wouldnt stop the bike in extreme conditions. And he found out descending a mountain path on a mass off road ride - must have had about thirty of us waiting at the bottom of this hill and he hurtled down it like a pro - shouting 'No Braaaaaaakes' and ended up in a hedge some distance away. Hilarious. So every cloud has a silver lining.0 -
Are the Boardman range of bikes worth re-evalulating now ?
It's the road bike that's come out of the secret squirrel shed after all0 -
I think its the same range - but they've had good reviews. The Nicole Cook bike isnt on sale yet is it ?0
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Any more thoughts on Boardman Bikes?
The top model with Red and Zipps looks ridiculously good VFM but I just can't get over the Halford's thing...
I've never actually seen anyone riding a boardman bike whilst out and about.0 -
velohead18 wrote:The amount of road cyclists who do not know about the trim feature on Shimano l/h STI's confounds me....three clicks, not two for a double chainset. Fix the rider, not the bike!
This is such a great point! After having my bike for 4years - only recently did I discover that the left hand STI - DOH! :roll: (Sora in my case) allows you to do 'half' a click to help remove chain rub on the f/d.
More people should realise this as it seems some think it is a Campag only feature!! Perhaps bike shops should point this feature out when they sell you the bike?Mens agitat molem0 -
I have seen a few Boardman bikes about - a duathlon I did had 2 in there out of about 80 bikes. The hybrid bike looked gorgeous - and I'm quite happy to have a bike that not everyone else has got - not that it would bother me - I've got a Giant TCR !0
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there are lots of tails of woe from halfords ... avoid them I say.
you'd get a much better set-up bike via wiggle.
or planet-x ... and their bikes kick the arse off Boardman for VFM.
I can't help feeling the cycletowork scheme has an awful lot to do with the halfords/boardman bike retali strategy0 -
There's nothing wrong with DA of course. And nothing wrong with the frames. What I was trying to get at, badly I must admit, is the shoddy workmanship you get with Halfords. Me? On my bike I have Campag Record of course mate! Put on properly because I did it.NorwegianBlue wrote:giant mancp wrote:Don't know why you're surprised quite honestly. All these bikes are Halfrauds 'specials' with Chris Boarman's name on the tubing.
I mean, for the money, what do you expect? Surely not reliability and quality parts?
You wasted your money because you were pulled in by the hype that an ex british champion has brought out a range of bikes and has given Halfrauds the 'privilege' of selling them.
Let me get this straight. You're saying Tiagra, Ultegra and Dura Ace aren't quality parts. What do you have on your bike?h0 -
I've got 2 Boardmans, a Mountain Pro and a Hybrid Team. I got the Hybrid a week before the mountain. The Hybrid, i believe, had been set up by the work experience lad, i was a death trap the tyre wasn't on properly, the front brake caliper wasn't tight onto the fork mounts and on the front changer would engage the gear properly.
I was meant to take it home boxed but i didn't have time to stop them building it. Luckily i took it home in the car otherwise i'd probably be dead now and be typing this from the other side. So after re-building it and it being great to ride i called in and mentioned to the manager about how shoddy the setup had been, and to make sure that my Mountain wasn't set up by this muppet that had done my hybrid. He promised to do it himself. Which he did. I didn't even have to set the set post height, it was perfect.
At the end of the day it's not Boardman's fault, they're probably the best value for money bikes out there. If you're capable of setting it upyourself, take it home boxed, if not stress how you want it to be perfect and it willDan daren't but he did anyway!!
Boardman Mountain Pro
Boardman Hybrid Team0 -
I recently bought a Boardman Road Comp on the Cycle2work scheme and searched the market for comparison bikes whilst doing so. The main problem appears to be not with the Boardman range, but peoples opinion with Halfords.
Needless to say, I had mine constructed at Halfords in Aberdeen and have had no problems. I am relativelly new to road biking so took it to my LBS for a check up and all was fine. They were very impressed with the stats on the bike and its looks. It is an entry level bike but it boasts the same qualities as some better brand production bikes which were slightly more expensive.
I personally am glad that I bought this bike, because if I bought a better known brand for the same price, the spec would have been less. Likewise, as I have stated if I bought a better brand with the same spec, my pocket would have been emptier.
I would recommend these bikes to anyone and they should be constructed by someone you trust. Whether it is you, your LBS or Halfords, is up to you.0 -
Bought a '08 Boardman Comp - had to go quite far to get one but I got it! Self assembled although derailleur set up was not good. Big thumbs up to Dominic in Halfords of Carlisle. A bit of fettling (no questions asked!) and it now works like a dream. Got my "granny gear" to work which is just as well, some fearsome hills around here!
Halfords get a bad press, perhaps derservedly in isolated cases, but thanks Dominic mate! Happy customer with a bike that gives a lot of bang for your buck!!0 -
I have the MTB pro 08 and its a brilliant bike although I have several stories that go with it already. It took me 3 months to find last year finally found one and drove 50 miles to get it took the misses so she could take the car home and I could get the bike muddy straight away. On the way back the reflectors fell off (big loss I know) I couldn't get the gears to change at all and the back brake just stopped working. To add to it I had to push the bike the last 3 miles as I managed to get 2 p***tures (conti explorers are great for speed but not very tough).
After this I took the bike back to my local store and went mental, its was the first time I had spent anywhere near £1000 on a bike and it was total tripe. The store manager suggested I go for a coffee (with £5 from his till) while he had a look at it, I went back 30mins later and it was 'fixed'. Since then the bike has been perfect, took it in for its 6 week service and they changed the brake pads on the back as they looked like they would need replacing???? Again bike is perfect.
I think if you find a good store with a good manager then all will be well otherwise double check everything before you do anything stupid on it!!
One other thing I bumped into a couple of gents out on their treks at the weekend, they both stopped and said 'nice bike, hang on thats one of those boardman bikes, they are rubbish'
Can't win them all.0 -
I have a boardman and after an initial period where I did have a problem with the front disc brake set up, which Boardman via. Halfords sorted, I have been very happy with it since. As you say if you can find a store with a good manager all is likely to be well. I found that direct contact with Boardman's office's livens things up a bit.
I have since bought two other bikes from different LBS's, I've had problems with both and the LBS's have not excelled themselves.
In my experience there seems to be an unreasonable amount of bad feeling towards Boardman.0 -
I bought My hybrid Boardman 08 and it seems to be fine my local halfords in rugby (local at the time) Set it up fine, the good thing was that because its a boardman they only seem to let a select few actualy set them up so had no probs so far, and for the price its a great ride. Been looking at the 09 range and im even tempted to get a hard tail mountain bike form the range, http://www.halfords.com/boardmanbikes
any clues on which one you would go for?0 -
I have just read this thread which began nearly 2 years ago. I have a Hybrid Pro and race Pro Boardman, so I can only speak from experience. In the summer of last year I started my new hobby road cycling. In that time I have heard many people knock the Boardman Bikes and Halfords.
Whilst I can see the point about Halfords not been a true bike specialist which in turn will lead to service issues, I am unable to understand how anyone can say that the bikes are not good value for money.
Two well known top british cyclists ride Boardman bikes, the MTB, Road Comp and Team Carbon have been given excellent reviews by cycling plus magazine. The new Pro Carbon Race prepared (which retails at £3295) has kit on it which could justify a £5k price tag, which is mirrored throughout the range.
I am a relative newbie to the cycling world and currently have the desire to buy a Carbon bike for the summer, and I am unable to justify spending £500 plus more on a bike that has the same componets shimano ultegra,carbon frame etc just because it is a brand such as Cannondale or Bianchi.
A certain amount of snobbery I detect.0 -
I read these posts regarding Halfords with anger. I did buy a bike from Halfords last year and my experience with two branches was so poor that I sold the bike at a loss because they could not fix a rubbing Disc brake. I did however put the Team carbon on a short list and ordered one through the Lakeside branch in a medium. I went along to look at the bike and despite the fact that the bike was assembled the handlebars were not alligned the front mech rubbed and the gears were all over the place. I asked for a test ride before parting with my money, but was told this was not possible as it was company policy not to offer them, i did'nt even ask for them to rectify the settting up, I just walked out the shop. I really wanted to put my faith in Halfords as the Boardman has such good ratings, but if a shop wants to appeal to proper cycling enthusiasts they need to address their customer service and get the young kids on decent mechanics training courses. The bikes no matter how good will only get the customer in the shop. When you get there the experience soon turns sour!0
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Bilsea
Get yourself on a train up to London, Bikehut at St Pauls will let you have a proper test ride.
I was told the same thing at the Lakeside branch (about 4 miles from me) and will buy my road bike at St Pauls.
PS; got the Boardman MTB Pro and can't fault it, superb.0 -
Too Late I purchased a ribble sportive, I know that I could not test ride that either but there is no way Halfords will ever get my business again.0
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IME, my local Bikehut (Dorking) gave a brilliant service and sound advice. Had no problems with the bike itself, although a couple of the spokes on the Ritchey wheels did come loose but this was easily fixed and can't be blamed on Bikehut.Shazam !!0
