Boardman Team road bike

Robi45

Hi all,

First post from me! Looking to upgrade road bike over winter and am seriously impressed with spec/creds of Boardman team bike - super butted alu, ritchey pro wheels, SRAM groupset etc, on paper at £799 is well ahead of the obvious competition such as the allez, Trek series, Giant defy etc.. I'm yet to test ride.
I've read about some of the horrors of some buyers with halfords, but at this stage that isn't putting me off too much....however i cannot find a single review of this bike, only the carbon version which i know won the £1000 group test in the mag this year.
Has anyone seen a review of the alu model or know of any happy, or indeed unhappy owners of this bike? My reqiurements are like many others: club rides of 50/60 miles, the odd sportive and training rides.
Thanks all!
Robi :?

S.J.P.

Hi,
I bought this bike 6 weeks ago and love it. I was wary of some of the bad press that Halfords have received & horror stories, but, what the heck I thought - as you say - at that price, the spec is WAY better than anything else.
My Halfords (South Reading) is ace, the guys there are more helpful & knowledgable than my LBS, who showed little interest when I visited them to try choose/buy a bike.
I had a minor issue with the set up which they fixed straight away. The gears needed adjusting as they were clicking (i am returning to cycling after many years away running & a technical duffer!) and they fixed this & showed me what to do to prevent in future.
Also, their £15 a year maintenance service is a bargain - this covers all labour and as many services you need.
Go buy - you won't regret it!

Robi45

Thanks SJP. Out of interest, did you get / request a test ride? I'm not sure what the halfords policy is on this...

DomPro

Didn't want to post a new thread for this:

Is it possible to buy just the Boardman carbon frame?

weaty

Hi Robi
I am glad you have posted this, I am also looking at the pro and as you say its hard to beat.
My only problem is that I wish it looked a bit more sexy

Good luck

weaty

Sorry, I meant looking at the team :?

The Cookie Monster

as a rule halfords wont let you take the bike much beyond the car park, there is no official protocol on testing bikes, so it depends entirely on how busy they are. best to go early weekday mornings if possible. i wouldnt take the horror stories too much to heart, you have to remember that Halfords sell an incredible amount of bikes (i almost see more Halfrods bikes than i do other bikes when im riding around town) and so you are bound to get a few mishaps, its just that EVERYONE hears about the same ten mishaps over and over again.

and yes, the £14.99 bike care plan service is an absolute steal if youre not a mechanic yourself.

Robi45

thanks for the posts guys and for the advice on test rides. always tricky i know, and i know that evans have a similar approach - providing its not too busy, you might get a ride round the car park if you are lucky.

even on such a well specced bike i would be reluctant to part with 800 notes without getting a "feel" of the bike first, but my fears about halfords are diminishing..
i haven't as yet seen any model details for 2010, so i do hope there isn't a downgrade of spec/increase in price looming like so many others are doing and the "contact us" tab on the boarman web site seems to be missing!!

S.J.P.

I asked for a test ride but was told I needed to go to another store as they only had one Team for sale which was the display model.
My first impressions were that it was extremely light, solid & very quick but best go for a quick spin to make sure you get on with it.
Weaty - not that I'm biased (!) but I really like the look of the Team. I didn't when I looked online but it positively shines in the flesh, so-to-speak. I was going to buy the next model down and told myself that the Team didn't look as good and then I saw it & changed my mind!

weaty

I sat with the boardman book last night, looked at it every half hour, I have now
printed my £800 c2w work voucher, I think it goes on the team

bompington

I'm very happy so far with my team carbon, I got the impression (not tested objectively) that my local Halfords team didn't look that expert (sample: "team carbon, is that a road bike?"), so after all the warnings I decided to spend a few bob on getting the bike checked over at the LBS, I'll maybe never know if it needed it but it's a kind of insurance, if it buys you peace of mind then it could be worth it.
Done a few hundred miles so far and it's going just fine.

Lifeboy123

If you can push your budget go for the Team carbin, Its a great bike in my opinion, yes I would have preferred a sexier big name brand bike but you will be hard pushed to find a bike as light and well spec'd as the Team Carbon...admittedly its not the sexiest.... so other carbon sub £1K bikes you may want to consider are Focus, Planet and Ribble but IMO the boardman is better value

You can always sexy it up later like i am contemplating with either a white or brown saddle and changing the handlebar tape and tyres to matching colour when they wear out and upgrading to a stainless steel set of brakes calipers and adding some flashier wheels ( all in good time of course !)

I must admit have had a few problems with mine , more to do with their set-up than the bike (did have a loose rear spoke) but Halfords without question have addressed these under the warranty

juankerr

I'm tempted to go for the Team in the new year under the C2W scheme. I can't find any reviews either, I reckon it's the lightest bike going for the price and looks decent in the flesh although badge-snobs might disagree.

If paying full price I might choose Ribble or Planet X over the Boardman, but I don't think they'll be available on my works C2W.

Lifeboy123

If your C2W scheme is run through Halfords check with their administrator, they have a bigger list online where you can get you most of the main brand names Trek, Specialised, Focus , Dolan etc for the same RRP but I know this doesn't extend to Bianchi

juankerr

Yeah, I know, I got my Merlin MTB from Halfords C2W, and know they could get me a Cannondale, Dolan, Spesh etc.

They don't do Planet-X anymore as they had a falling out, and don't think they do Ribble which would also be contendors. Shame about no Bianchi's and not sure if they do Focus anymore either.

ex-pat scot

Halfords scheme #can# get you most bikes, but not Planet-X or any from Wiggle (ie Focus).

Rich101

Just a tip for anyone buying one of these not through cycle to work. When I got my comp i made sure i used quidco link to place the order online (you need to open a free account first):

http://www.quidco.com/halfords/

^above gives you 6% cashback on bikes (price ex VAT and delivery) for home/work delivery or 1% for reserve in store.

So in the case of the team that is about £42 back which still covers the cost of the extra £19.99 delivery. The other plus is your bike is put together by a team of guys who only put bikes together and not by the work experience guy at your local store.

Unfortunatly only some are avaliable for delivery.

spursn17

The Cookie Monster wrote:

as a rule halfords wont let you take the bike much beyond the car park, there is no official protocol on testing bikes, so it depends entirely on how busy they are. best to go early weekday mornings if possible. i wouldnt take the horror stories too much to heart, you have to remember that Halfords sell an incredible amount of bikes (i almost see more Halfrods bikes than i do other bikes when im riding around town) and so you are bound to get a few mishaps, its just that EVERYONE hears about the same ten mishaps over and over again.

and yes, the £14.99 bike care plan service is an absolute steal if youre not a mechanic yourself.

I had a 30 minute test ride on my Team Carbon.