Need Help choosing between these 2.

vim147

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stor ... 65499#dtab


http://www.specialized.com/gb/en/bc/SBC ... ath/Gravel


Cant seem to decide on these two bikes,

Both cost around the same

Both weigh around the same (11.7kg)

90% Road 10% off road.

Was thinking Boardman and using slicks for road use.

As the Boardman is lightweight at 11.7kg i dont think it has the arguement of hybrid vs MTB weight issue ?

Other could be over 700c vs 26", will this make much difference for a casual rider ?

PBo

I would go for the spesh with 700c wheels for 90% commuting.

but if the percentage of MTBing is likely to go up, I'd get the boardman for the better fork.

jeremyrundle

The rock shox are AIR suspension the others are spring, I have the rock shox,

http://www.bikeradar.com/gear/category/ ... -air-10156

I also prefer my buke to say Rock shox than suntour :!:

nation

I tend to think that the Spesh is only going to be a marginal improvement over the Boardman on-road, but the Boardman is going to be massively superior off-road.

Also, the Boardman's fork has a lock-out, and you can stiffen it up just by adding air. The Suntour fork on the Spesh doesn't appear to have a lock-out, and it's coil so you would only be able to tweak it by physically changing the damping oil.

I'd say go for the Boardman if you are going to use it off-road at all. If it was me, I'd be tempted to go for the Boardman just for the all-round nicer spec. The Spesh (as is typical for the brand) kind of seems to be under-specced for the price.