Been to two LBS'

Garz

Went had had a look at some road bikes around my price range of £500-750, one dealer had trek, the other was scott/giant.

The trek dealer was very helpful and I was warming to the 1.5 they had. The other shop the owner was less helpful and his giant range had a lead time of 5-6 weeks! The only scott in the shop was £600 was nice but had not alot of choice.

Just wanted some feedback from you guys on the range mentioned, I can push to 800 or so if I had to but beyond this my wife will crush my nads!

Garz

Either the trek 1.5 or the boardman comp, what would you choose?

jonmack

I'd go for the Boardman Comp, but unless you trust the guys in the store I'd probably take it boxed and build it myself. I built a Team Carbon in work today (Halfords Weston-s-Mare) and it took me about an hour, and that was including serving customers, you still get the 6 week safety check free of charge and it means you don't have to wait for them to PDI it for you.

guilliano

5-6 weeks for a Giant??? Giant aren't 100% sure when their new bikes will be available yet. All they can tell us is that they have no more of the 2009 bikes and that the 2010 range will be launched early (possibly August). As yet there are no set prices or specs available either so I'd go with what you can get. The Boardman is better specced and is a decent frame but I have no idea of availability

Garz

Thanks for the reply Jon!

I did ring up one of the local halfords and it was one of the 'bikehut' stores. When I looked at this range the other week they seemed to have to order the bikes and may take upto a week. However I was in luck, they had the right size in stock but it was their display model.

Went to take a look and got some money knocked off for it, so fingers crossed it will be O.K. Shall inspect its build when I get it and take it for a spin to make any minor/major adjustments. For its price range component wise its pretty hard to beat which is why it edged my decision on the trek.

jonmack

Yeah the major advantage with the Boardmans is the fact that Halfords get them direct from the factory, meaning they can spec one group "higher" than other bikes in the same price range, and not lose any money.

I've seen a few reports of loose spokes in the rear wheel, so I'd give it a once over with a spoke key just tighten them up 1/2-1 turn. We had a guy return his with 4 or 5 broken spokes the other day, god knows how he managed it, apparently he was a pretty big guy, and the front rim had stress marks all the way round it, god knows what he had been up to with it! But that's the only one I've ever seen returned, and I think that was a very freak case.

Enjoy the bike, I've only just started riding (two weeks ago) and I've already bought a heart rate monitor, a new (second hand) set of wheels, and I'm contemplating the purchase of a turbo trainer.

This cycling lark aint cheap, but I knew that before I started road riding, I already own 4 bikes :P

Garz

guilliano wrote:

5-6 weeks for a Giant??? Giant aren't 100% sure when their new bikes will be available yet. All they can tell us is that they have no more of the 2009 bikes and that the 2010 range will be launched early (possibly August). As yet there are no set prices or specs available either so I'd go with what you can get. The Boardman is better specced and is a decent frame but I have no idea of availability

Your dead right guilliano, the guy gave us a brochure with the new models and pricing and I thought he was being optimistic to quote them lead times. At the end of the day I didnt want to be waiting as this could be some time.

Garz

jonmack wrote:

We had a guy return his with 4 or 5 broken spokes the other day, god knows how he managed it, apparently he was a pretty big guy, and the front rim had stress marks all the way round it, god knows what he had been up to with it! But that's the only one I've ever seen returned, and I think that was a very freak case.

Are you implying you either work at halfords or a store? :?

I do agree with all you have said btw. I started riding last year and bought a cheap hybrid to test the water so to speak. Enjoy it far more than running but like you say it can be a very expensive hobby :oops:

My next project will be mounting my HTC magic to the bars and seeing if the apps available can make a decent gps tracker. If that fails I shall invest in a dedicated unit. Glad your in a similar position and keep sharing your experiences!

jonmack

Yeah sorry, I work at Halfords

I was gonna suggest GPS Cycle Tracker, but it's a Windows Mobile app sadly. I used it on my HTC Touch Diamond but found that on my third ride it stopped working properly then when I got home it told me I had done 742 miles in 45 minutes, when I had been out for an hour or so, so I stopped using it. I now just use bikely.com to plan my routes and in conjunction with my computer and now my HRM which has a stopwatch on it, I can work out average speeds, distances, etc.

Garz

What is PDI it Jon?

jonmack

Pre Delivery Inspection. Basically it's the checklist we go through when we build up the bikes.

Once youve done a few bikes on your first day you tend to just blitz through it and ignore the PDI sheet, just tick all the boxes and finish the bikes, because we've usually got so many to do we have to get them out asap. However the more expensive the bike, the more care is taken (in my store anyway), so starting with the £250 Carreras we give them a decent amount of attention as they're really the start of the "decent" bikes, and all the Boardman range are always built slowly to make sure they're perfect (in my store).

I know we should check every bike to make sure it's perfect, but when building up the £90 bikes it's so hard to get them running to the same level as a Boardman would be, so we just set them up so the gears and brakes are working, everything is tight, and get them outta the stand. I would have said we spend between 30-45 minutes on a budget bike, and usually between 60-90 minutes on a Boardman if time allows (which when building up Boardmans, it always does) because we always wanna make sure the customer is 100% satisfied.

Hopefully next year they'll sort out the stocking issues. The 09 models have been out months and we still haven't seen any of the FS range because the lead times are about 6-8 weeks on them. However in my store we did have the Pro Carbon in stock (£1499) and without a doubt that's gonna be my next bike for sure!!

I think the problem with most Halfords stores is the lack of experience in the Bikehut, seems a lot of stores employ anyone who can open a set of allen keys and let them build bikes. We have 6 Bikehut workers at my store, 1 specialist who has been there for about 13 years, 1 full time mechanic, and 4 full/part time workers (myself included). Out of those 6, 3 of us are able to build wheels, and the other 3 are all very competent mechanics. We're all cyclists, and between us have experience of most disciplines such as XC, DH, FR, Road, Dirt, Trials, so we're a pretty strong team. If you ever need advice on the Boardman range (or any of the bikes really) feel free to call on 01934 416511 and ask for Matt, he's the specialist and will be able to give you great advice. We even have the latest Carrera Virago TT bike in, and the standard Virago too, both great CF framed bikes.

I know I sound like I'm blowing the Halfords trumpet, but I really do love the store I work at and would recommend any of the Boardman range any day of the week.

Myself, I ride a Bianchi (what can I say, it was a second hand bargain!!)

Garz

Thanks for taking the time to explain that Jon, much appreciated!

Halfords do get knocked left right and centre, by the by its deserved but some people are just lucky to get decent local stores and others have to wade amongst the chaff. It's a shame a store like yours isn't local to me, I guess I have to give this one a chance. No doubt I will request any help should I need it, it's great to know help is always around the corner (or in this case a few mouse clicks away!).

jonmack

No problem, enjoy the bike