Boardman frame problems?

philjhale

I'm looking to upgrade my entry level MTB to something a bit better. I've chatted to various people and have got several recommendations for a Boardman. I've been told the quality of the components for the price is great. BikeRadar give them a good write up and generally I have found very few negative comments about them when looking on the internet. However when I went into my local bike shop I was told to avoid Boardmans at all costs because the frames were very poor. Can anyone confirm or deny this? What are peoples experiences of the Boardman frames?

submityournentries

boardman have sold 21000 bikes in the last year, and the total breakages was something like 20 or 30 on here? there was a long discussion on here about it a few months ago, and whilst there have been a few breakages, they are few and far between in proportion with the total number sold.

also, if it does break, then in every case ive seen halfords replaced the frame under warrenty.

rockmonkeysc

I'm sure that the frames are made in the same factory as other major brands (Kona?) so quality shouldn't be a problem.
When you sell a huge quantity of something there are obviously going to be more failures than if you only sell a few. How does the Boardman failure rate compare to Specialized or Giant? I suspect that there are worse failure rates on just about any mass produced carbon frame.

jpenno

Was the advice from the LBS also due to the fact that he cant sell you a Boardman? If he puts you off one of them you are more likely to but something from him.

broken weeble

The other thing is the good old "we dont sell em so we slag em off to sell something we do".

Curse my slow typing!!!

rockmonkeysc

I remember dealers telling me to avoid Canondale because the frames break, Specialized because they are rubbish (no reason, just rubbish) Giant because they are too heavy & Orange because they are over priced & Trek because the suspension wasn't very good on the Fuel range. I soon noticed that as soon as I mentioned a bike I liked they would tell me why it was the worst bike I could buy & why their bike was the best.
Never trust a salesman (or men with beards)

colint

As a salesman I take exeption to that comment, not really but it's not quite true. You should never trust a salesman who slags off the competition, one of the first things you're taught in professional sales is to sell the merits of your product, not slag the competition.

If he'd have said "Boardmans are nice bikes, but I think this bike is better for you because...." you'd have been much more likely to take notice of what he's saying.

Go somewhere else, I've just got a Boardman and the quality looks spot on

neddie

Never trust a salesman (or men with beards)

As a bearded salesman WTF ?????

But im 18 stone 6ft 4 and got a boardman quality is good !

sounds like LBS is talking them down because he can't sell them or compeat

philjhale

I've been thinking along the same lines. The annoying thing is that I actually want to support my local bike shop and I want to be able to trust what they're telling me. Unfortunately I can't find any evidence at all to back up the negative things they've said about Boardman frames

Catfish

I have just got a Boardman comp hard tail, all seems fine so far.
I mentioned Boardmans at my lbs which are a Trek dealer and the guy couldn't believe the spec for the money and said you would be mad not to buy one.The only thing he said was better on a Trek was the liftime frame warrenty, but i don't plan on keeping it forever.
If your lbs is slagging them off it's dirty guts cos they can't sell bikes of that spec for such a low price. Look on boardmans web site to see the press reviews, nuff said.

bails87

I've had a Boardman Pro HT for 18 months. I've hammered it and it's still going strong, I love it. Don't listen to the salesman, he's just trying to sell something that he's got.

teulk

I got a Boardman Team MTB HT in april 2009, three weeks later the frame cracked but they replaced it with no problems at all. Apart fron haveing to replace the BB after about 2000miles there have been no more problems

msmith376

I've had a Boardman FS Pro for 18 months and it's just back with Halfords for a new frame (under warranty).

The Boardman range is fantastic value for money - aided by Halfords' immense buying power. So the kit spec is excellent. The weight of the bikes compared to their peers is also pretty low - so the frame is lightweight XC and certainly shouldn't be regarded as bombproof! There is a forum on here somewhere which is collecting info on frame breakages - if I can find it I'll add a link - but Boardman doesn't feature any more than the mainstream manufacturers.

If buying a Boardman - the weak spots appear to be the seat tube (on the FS this is the area from the the rear shock pivot up to the weld with the top tube) or the chain stays - I would definitely give the frame a thorough once-over after 20 months or so to make sure any issues are found before the 2 year frame warranty expires. The 2011 range is meant to be launching later this month - so will be interesting to see whether any modifications have been made to the frames.

Interesting to see that many other manufacturers are reducing frame warranties - only TREK have a lifetime warranty as far as I can tell.

sherbert19

msmith376 wrote:

Interesting to see that many other manufacturers are reducing frame warranties - only TREK have a lifetime warranty as far as I can tell.

Cannondale have lifetime warranties too, as long as you have the warranty card.

Steve_F

I've had no problems with mine either but I do tend to be a lot more careful with it and try to keep it lower off jumps and drops as it is an XC bike. My others are much more freeride based so get chucked off whatever I feel like! Oh yeah, it's a Team FS

Stoo61

No issues with mine bought in January 2009. Will be upgrading components around the frame.

Northwind

What it seems to be is that people want to slag them, but they can't slag the componentry so they slag the only thing they can, which is the frame. So people just make up any old pish knowing that it's impractical or hard to disprove. Some guy on STW said the Team FS frame weighs almost 9lbs for instance

They're not massively strong to be fair, then they're not meant to be, they're XC bikes... A few failures reported but nothing epidemic considering how common they are as's been said. It's just LBS Obvious Bull**** I reckon.

ST-Mark

who would want to ride around with that twat Boardman's anme between their legs though? :?

m47een

ST-Mark wrote:

who would want to ride around with that fool Boardman's anme between their legs though? :?

What does it matter about the name?? Surley aslong as the bike is capable of performing as you want it too then nothing else matters does it? Or am I missing something?

Bar Shaker

ST-Mark wrote:

fool Boardman

We only get to hear about his Olympic gold medals, world records, world championship wins and his management of Team GB at the Beijing Olympics.

Please, tell us what you know.

cooldad

Bar Shaker wrote:

ST-Mark wrote:

fool Boardman

We only get to hear about his Olympic gold medals, world records, world championship wins and his management of Team GB at the Beijing Olympics.

Please, tell us what you know.

And he posts here now and again - seems like a normal non fool.

craig_jackass

i heard that to my friend! boardmans are great bikes, my father-in-law has one that i used for a while when waiting for my new mtb, never felt like anything could go wrong with the frame! i belive what was said before, we dont sell them so we will say they are bad! it seems to be a bike shop trend against Halfords! i also got my Voodoo from halfords and the service was great, it seems to be a hit or a miss with them! but i trust the quality of boardman! and frames are warrented for faults anyway.

submityournentries

to be fair in a store near me the CX bike was called a cboarma, obviously someone on quality control was having a lapse day

stueyscott

I love my bike - Boardman FS - but as some of the others have found I was told today that the creaking from the back was not a bearing as I thought but a cracked frame up near the pivot point at the top. Gutted as we are off to CYB tomorrow so trying to find a bike.

Halfords are replacing the frame so no worries there. I guess it's just one of those things.

I'll not be changing it anytime soon though as its an exeptionally good bike.

stone28

Hi Guys,
I know this thread is old be I’ve just came back from Swinley Forest with cracked Boardman Pro HT frame. It’s the white version I am not sure which year is that. I was on it only 4 times doing some simple forest rides! The problem is I bought it quite some time ago, but due to a having a baby I didn’t have chance to ride it almost at all. Now I am afraid my warranty might be out! I am sooooo upset at the moment as I loved that bike. I will post a picture of the cracked frame (you can almost put your finger inside) but you wouldn’t believe minor the incident was.

I was with more than dozen people on the intro ride with guys from BOB club (Berks On Bikes Mountain Bike Club) (by the way guys it was great and thank you very much for a nice Saturday). Anyway, nobody there could believe it as they saw how it happened (at least people directly behind me) I didn’t even fall, just put my foot on the ground after hitting a tree stump and my rear wheel lifted a bit as well. It had to be just really unfortunate angle or something but it shouldn’t have happened from such a small impact. I was in the breaking and just after a turn so the speed was really small. We were riding in a 1m distance max from each other and it was just turn after turn so there is no even place for speed.

I am not sure what to do now. If the warranty is out, do I still have some chance to get it replaced or something? The frame shouldn’t break after something like that. It’s a mountain bike and I wasn’t even riding in the mountains. No jumps, nothing. Just ride in the forest. There where people on bikes with no suspension at the front so the ride wasn’t really jumps etc. It’s barely used bike and you can clearly see it from its state.

Thanks for any advice.

Radek

cooldad

Talking to Halfords might be more use.

winter_zombie

philjhale wrote:

I'm looking to upgrade my entry level MTB to something a bit better. I've chatted to various people and have got several recommendations for a Boardman. I've been told the quality of the components for the price is great. BikeRadar give them a good write up and generally I have found very few negative comments about them when looking on the internet. However when I went into my local bike shop I was told to avoid Boardmans at all costs because the frames were very poor. Can anyone confirm or deny this? What are peoples experiences of the Boardman frames?

i have a boardman team pro hardtail, when i asked for advise at evenscycles i was told to avoid them too LoL
Then he tryed to sell me a Orange Mtb

i have nothing buy great views on my bike and its brillent
i also get nice comments when im riding at sherwood pines and even a few people have come up to me to have a good look.

if their's anything you would like to know as i am a boardman owned please let me know, il be glad to help and it would be nice to see anouther boardman owner

cooldad

winter zombie wrote:

philjhale wrote:

I'm looking to upgrade my entry level MTB to something a bit better.Etc...

i have a boardman team pro hardtail,Etc../

Apart from the post immediately before mine, this thread died a natural death two years ago - I doubt the OP is still keeping tabs on it.

supersonic

stone28 wrote:

Hi Guys,
I know this thread is old be I’ve just came back from Swinley Forest with cracked Boardman Pro HT frame. It’s the white version I am not sure which year is that. I was on it only 4 times doing some simple forest rides! The problem is I bought it quite some time ago, but due to a having a baby I didn’t have chance to ride it almost at all. Now I am afraid my warranty might be out! I am sooooo upset at the moment as I loved that bike. I will post a picture of the cracked frame (you can almost put your finger inside) but you wouldn’t believe minor the incident was.

I was with more than dozen people on the intro ride with guys from BOB club (Berks On Bikes Mountain Bike Club) (by the way guys it was great and thank you very much for a nice Saturday). Anyway, nobody there could believe it as they saw how it happened (at least people directly behind me) I didn’t even fall, just put my foot on the ground after hitting a tree stump and my rear wheel lifted a bit as well. It had to be just really unfortunate angle or something but it shouldn’t have happened from such a small impact. I was in the breaking and just after a turn so the speed was really small. We were riding in a 1m distance max from each other and it was just turn after turn so there is no even place for speed.

I am not sure what to do now. If the warranty is out, do I still have some chance to get it replaced or something? The frame shouldn’t break after something like that. It’s a mountain bike and I wasn’t even riding in the mountains. No jumps, nothing. Just ride in the forest. There where people on bikes with no suspension at the front so the ride wasn’t really jumps etc. It’s barely used bike and you can clearly see it from its state.

Thanks for any advice.

Radek

Did you buy it new, and when?

stone28

Hi supersonic,

Yes, I bought it new and about the age - I was convinced It's around 2 years old as I was on it only several times since I bought it (moving house, first baby, etc.) and you can see it by looking at its state. Anyway just found my letter of collection and was shocked - it was dated Feb 2008 so it means I bought it some months after that but still it means I have it for more then 4 years!. First two it wasn't even outside my house I think ;-(..... Before finding that paper I could bet it's around 2 years.

cooldad

Standard Boardman warranty is two years on frames. Four years might be pushing it a bit.