Boardman or Carrera?

sparan

Hi all,
I currently have a Stevens San Remo and am looking to buy a new bike. i had my mind set on the Boardman Team Carbon for £999.99. But then I saw the Carrera Virago Carbon for Carrera Virago Carbon 949.99. Both have excellent reviews and now I can't decide. If I went for the Boardman, I would upgrade the chainset from the 34x50T to a 39-53T.
I would also be upgrading the wheelset on both bikes.
Any and all advice is welcome.

Thanks,
Andy

mf5

Just to throw another couple of bikes in that you may want to look at Cannondale CAAD 9- my favourite bike for this price and planet X do a bike at this price as well, personally i wouldn't buy a boardman or a carrera

marin_maniac

Boardman

Squillinossett

Boardman, love mine!

juankerr

Boardman

sparan

mf5 wrote:

Just to throw another couple of bikes in that you may want to look at Cannondale CAAD 9- my favourite bike for this price and planet X do a bike at this price as well, personally i wouldn't buy a boardman or a carrera

great...thanks...more to consider. I think I have ruled out the Carrera, and I wouldn't pay that price for an aluminium bike. I have always like the Planet-X bikes...decision time...

sparan

by not wanting to pay for an aluminium bike, I meant that I am also ruling out the Cannondale. This is because I already own an aluminium bike.

sparan

by not wanting to pay for an aluminium bike, I meant that I am also ruling out the Cannondale. This is because I already own an aluminium bike.

guilliano

Ribble if you really want to stick to £1k

rich164h

As he's looking at the Boardman and the Carrera he will be on the Halfrd scheme, which means that any thing from Ribble is unlikely to be accesible. It might be worth asking though. I know that they've stopped being able to get Planet-X bikes due to the additional cost of selling via a 3rd party but maybe Ribble have a different policy.

mroli

Boardman - Planet X will cost you another £100 due to the expense to them of the voucher scheme. With £100 you could personalise your boardman a lot.

keef66

He's in the Netherlands; how does that qualify for the CTW scheme??

Boardman or Planet X then. Or possibly a Focus Cayo? Or as already mentioned, something from Ribble.

mf5

I know you said that you didn't want to spend this money on an alu frame but I have ridden both CAAD 9 and the carbon bikes around this price and the frame of the CAAD9 is excellent and I think better than the carbon bikes of this price range,can't wait till I can afford one! But carbon wise I would go for the Planet X defiantly

sparan

keef66 wrote:

He's in the Netherlands; how does that qualify for the CTW scheme?

Yeh, I don't actually know what the 'CTW scheme' is...I would be able to have anything delivered a UK address, but I'm pretty sure I'm not eligible for any scheme.

I have heard bad things about the service at Halfords when buying/assembling the Boardman. Which is the better out of the Boardman and the Planet-X for components, hardware and all the technical stuff?

sparan

and thanks very much for all the advice so far

rich164h

Unless you are being employed by a UK company and paying UK tax on your earning the scheme won't be accessible to you. It works by deductions to your gross salary and the share that would otherwise go to the treasury can pay for some of the bike cost, hence the net cost the employee is signifantly lower than a cash purchase.


If you are employed and paying tax in the UK but living in the Netherlands then I guess you could find someway of doing it, but you'd still need to get your employer to set up and administer the scheme. It can't be done by the employee.