Got my Boardman and took it for it's first outing

Rich101

Fist of all a big thanks to everyone who helped out in my thread in the buying advice forum:

http://www.bikeradar.com/road/forums/viewtopic.php?t=12635398

Well here is is My Boardman Comp 09:



It came on Friday delivered to my work (I ordered it on the previous Saturday). It came in an absolutely MASSIVE box, easily twice the size of the bike so i had to ditch that to fit it in my car. I spent my Saturday morning setting it up. My thoughts on build as it came are pretty good, nothing seemed to be loose our set up wrong apart from the front gears that needed a little attention. The chain came on the larger cog and i couldn't get it to change down. I've played about with the gears on my mountain bike enough to understand how to fix this but if i hadn't done this before i could have been pretty stuck. Other than that it was a case of adjusting handlebars and seat position then fitting my SPD SL pedals and bike computer.

With reference to the sizing, this is a large and I am 5'11" and it is just about ok. There is plenty of scope to make the reach a little shorter, i've settled for moving the seat a few cm forward from the position it came in and it now feels really good. The stock stem is pretty big however and could easily be changed to a shorter one. Honestly part of me still thinks i should have got a medium but either can be made to fit me happily enough.

My first ride was eventful to say the least, i set off from mine and 100m down the road my computer fell off the stem when i hit a bump. I had to wait for 2 cars to pass before i could retrieve it, watching it dissappear under each of them thankfully not under a wheel. Having fitted it again - properly this time, i set off and went about another mile before i stopped at the top of a hill. Now i'm not used to SPD pedals at all so when i set off i totally messed it up, panicked and ended up upside down in a ditch with the bike on top of me still attached. A big thanks to a passing roadie who checked i was ok, i was fine bar being massivly embarrassed and having been stung by nettles. Not an experience i care to repeat however! I went another 5 miles before i realised my water bottle was nowhere to be seen eventually working out it had jumped ship while i was upside down. I had to ride back and get it and decided to go home to save myself any further accidents.

I've since been out again twice with no problems at all, done 50 miles in total, the bike feels great but even though i'm used to riding my mountain bike i don't seem to be as fast as i was expecting. I reckon i average 10-11 mph on the mountain bike but that includes off road sections. On this i'm averaging almost bang on 15mph. It seems to be working the muscles slightly differently from the riding position on the mountain bike but maybe i'm still just getting used to it. Yesterday i overtook a guy on a mountain bike but another mile down the road at my house i was only a couple of meters in front still despite riding like i had someone behind me and putting some serious effort in. I feel like on some sections i'm not going any quicker than i can on the MTB the only real difference i see id that i can accelerate quicker, hold a slightly higher top speed for longer and hills are marginally easier. Perhaps i was expecting too much too soon? I think some serious miles are in order to get me faster, watch this space

pickled

Congratulations on the bike. It looks great.

I suspect we've all done the falling off thing.
When I first put SPD's on my mountain bike I fell off in the lounge when trying them out!

Mothyman

you'll soon be raving about the Boardman - it will come good over a longer distance.
did you move the saddle a few mm or cms?

i also bought slightly big rather than small and have slowly tweaked saddle fwd - i might tilt the bars towards me - and maybe adjust stem if necessary
let us know how you size yours up

enjoy

justresting

If you've got your seat height set I would say the frame size looks spot on. When I got my Defy 1 I felt too stretched out so I've put a shorter stem on which made a vast difference.
I think a lot of it was just being used to an upright position on my mtn bike and I think I may eventualy go back to original stem ( I went from a 10 cm one to a 7cm, which may be a bit extreme)

ps nice looking bike

skyd0g

Nice one - glad you got it ...finally!
...I've had my '08 Comp for about 7 months now and am still "tweaking" it - a few mm here or there to get it comfy & feel it's mine. In fact I've just changed the bars from the supplied Ritchey Ergo bars to FSA Omega Compacts - which feels soooo much better (for me). I could never get a good position on the hoods and on the drops with the Ergo's.

I've not done the "stop / whoa! I'm still clipped-in" thing ...yet! (although I've come close on occasions) ...but I have SPD's on my old Orange Clockwork, so am a little more used to them.

Nice one, keep us updated as to how you're getting on. 8)

Grazy81

Sounds like you first outing was about as successfull as mine as i ended up with a puncture and had to walk home. Then when i got to where i had locked my old bike up the day before all i found was my old lock cut in half.

Garz

Sounds like a nightmare first ride mate but I think we've all done similar things. Your speed and riding stance will take a few rides to set in, until then I wont panic about comparing to your MTB till you achieved this.

Takis61

What a ride, we've all had similar, have to say that made me laugh.
Don't get too hung up on average speed as this is affected by many things, wind, traffic lights, hills etc. - but you will see your speed go up as you get used to, and train into, a road bike.
My "average is still "only" around 26kph (16 mph) but I have long patches on the straight at 35 kph (tailwind helps of course).
Nice looking bike !

MikeWW

Congratulations on the bike-looks nice
Road biking seems to use the outer thigh muscles far more than on an MTB and is more of a continuous effort
I was a lot slower than I expected when I started on the road but am gradually seeing the average speed move up.

Headhuunter

justresting wrote:

If you've got your seat height set I would say the frame size looks spot on. When I got my Defy 1 I felt too stretched out so I've put a shorter stem on which made a vast difference.
I think a lot of it was just being used to an upright position on my mtn bike and I think I may eventualy go back to original stem ( I went from a 10 cm one to a 7cm, which may be a bit extreme)

ps nice looking bike

See I have the opposite problem, I'm 6'3" and I have a long torso (room for bigger lungs!) so I need a long stretch and often find it hard to get a good horizontal riding position

Dess1e

Get your position checked if possible, The stem lenght looks proportial in the photo. For a road bike its normal to have the saddle set level as well, your appears to be pointing slightly downwards. Join a local club or ride for inital guidence.

pompeypoppy

First of all, congratulations on getting your first road bike!

My first outing sounds very similar to yours, and you will find that you notice imporvements every week when you start off.

And going up hills you always think back to the first time you fell using spd pedals, and realise that the grazes were worth it!

Hornetto

Don't worry about the speed - as I'm starting to find it comes with practice. I too thought I'd be faster at first, but have worked my average speed up from 14mph to 17mph (over the same route) just by riding more regularly. Er, and replacing my tyres for better ones helped too...

Rich101

I went out last night for a 21 miler, I got totally soaked (the thought actually came into my head that i'd be better off in some lycra :shock: ) but i definatly feel like i'm getting more used to it. I only had a couple of disagreements with the pedals, i'm getting much better at planning ahead when to unclip, the only real issue i have is getting the loose foot back on the the pedal when i get going, unless i look down it's 50/50 as to wether the foot slips or clips in nicely. I've found if i'm on a hill or pulling out from a junction it's often best to put my heal on the peadal instead because this doesn't slip and then clip in later when i''ve got some speed up and am in a safer place.

I felt a lot more comfortable on the bike, i think i've got a position sorted that i quite like. The fist few times i went out i found that my wrists and hands took a real beating from having my weight on them a bit and soaking up impacts from potholes and bad surfaces. They felt a lot better now and didn't give me any trouble at all. My legs seemed much happier too, previously aching legs limited my speed rather than cardio fitness but they were fine last night.

My average was just under 16 mph so getting up to a figure i'm much happier with, i'd like to be at more like 18 consistantly so that gives me something to aim for. I really noticed how the bike holds speed, on the MTB once you get to 15mph it becomes a struggle to get over it and you lose any speed you add pretty fast. On the road bike it seems like you can pedal hard to get to a speed and then just leave it in the same gear and put minimal effort in to keep the speed. On the flats or minor up hills i found i could change up, pedal hard for a few seconds taking advantage of the SPDs then back off, change up again and repeat the process. I think it was more my expectation that changing up would be difficult and unsustainable like on the MTB that stopped me doing it. So on a reasonable flat i could happily get it up to 21-22 mph and keep it there which feels pretty good.

Dess1e I'll have a look at the seat but it feels good to me at the moment, anymore tilt upwards might be a little uncomfortable. I've thought about joining a club but to be honest i'd want to be a a certain level of riding and experience so i could keep up. I wouldn't want to turn up to my local club ride in my baggy shorts and t-shirt and proceed to fall into hedges and ride 4 mph slower than everyone else. Give it time

MikeWW You are right about the different muscles used, i'm learning a bit better to take advantage of the spds and put in power all through the peadal stroke, that is definatly calling on muscles i havn't used before too. Glad you are seeing improvements, I can see some after less than a week which is encouraging.

Mothyman I moved the seat forward by probably 1.5 - 2 cm if you look on the picture you can see most of the rail is forward of the seat post. This position does now feel bang on in terms of length, i may adjust the saddle back a little bit as i get used to riding like this. The saddle height feels good, it's much higher than my MTB saddle position i could maybe up it by another 1-2 cm and just touch the floor still. I'm not sure the tilt on the bars would help length wise much, i've seen some people who have reversed the stem so the bars sit a little highter overall but i don't think i need to now i'm used to it.

Thanks for all the encouragement everyone

skyd0g

You may find that after a little while, you'll want to move the saddle back to a more central position on the stem. I felt "stretched out" at first, when compared to my MTB position which is more upright.

richardspooner

Rich having recently done the complete reverse you did after three years on road bikes (Boardmans by the way), I can say it's just technique you've got to get used to. Which you've pretty much figured out yourself by the sounds of it. You are coming to it with a massive amount of raw power from the non stop pedalling needed for MTB's and the extra weight to haul along, and therefore a huge advantage. Put it together with getting used to the fact the you can maintain a constant pace on roads (unlike off road), and you've got a great starting point.

It'll click somewhere along the line and you'll just go 'oh yeah'. Try some good hills and I bet you any money you'll just eat them up no sweat.

I wouldn't worry about the unclipping/ clipping back in. After years of using cleats on the road I screw it up at times to this day still. I still have the deep scar in my ankle from my first outing in them and I didn't clip in properly and slipped, the pedal taking a huge scoop of flesh out of my ankle. We all have to suffer the 'couldn't unclip in time tango', I think it's an initiation or something!