Boardman CX Owners Thread

arthur_scrimshaw

Well the bb5 isn't the greatest and can be more of a faff to set up but works well enough. You say it works ok on the interrupter levers so it sounds like a cable setup issue rather than the calliper itself?

fret

Brakes do need a firm hand to work as well, don't forget there are no servos
A half-hearted squeeze won't stop you.

bigmul

My BB5's bind no matter what I do, if I get them set so they don't bind then the pads are so far from the disc that there's no chance of me stopping.

Would shimano disc brakes work with the SRAM levers?

fret

All brakes will work, but how they perform is different. SRAM own AVID, so they are designed to work together.

I have no issues of BB5 brakes binding when correctly set up, this sounds like them possibly not returning, so I would start by checking the cables and following some of the set-up videos on boob-tube. Setting them up correctly seems to be the main problem.

tincaman

The nds bearing has seized on my new Kinesis back wheel after less than 100 miles. I freed it up but it needs replacing, can't be ar@ed to send it back under warranty, anyone know what size it is before I take it out?

secretsam

There's a lot of posts here on Boardman's CX bikes - surely they can't be that good/bad????? Or am I missing something?

arthur_scrimshaw

SecretSam wrote:

There's a lot of posts here on Boardman's CX bikes - surely they can't be that good/bad????? Or am I missing something?

Clue is in the thread title
Despite being around for a few years it still seems to be popular despite its Halfords image. I bought a Team model in 2012 to convert into my main commuter/bad weather bike and it does the job very nicely.

EKE_38BPM

Arthur Scrimshaw wrote:

SecretSam wrote:

There's a lot of posts here on Boardman's CX bikes - surely they can't be that good/bad????? Or am I missing something?

Clue is in the thread title
Despite being around for a few years it still seems to be popular despite its Halfords image. I bought a Team model in 2012 to convert into my main commuter/bad weather bike and it does the job very nicely.

I think that the Boardman CX started off as a good bike with really good VFM, but Halfrauds/Boardman have scrimped in an attempt to increase the profit margin and have changed components over the years. The 2014 model seems to not be as good as the previous models due to problems with cracks (paintwork) and el-cheapo FDs.

All of this comes from reading this thread, no personal experience.

tkmaxxx

Yes bedded them in , there is a lot of slack i find on the drop bar brakes , and when riding up on the haunches there is no chance of getting them to really bite... only scrub off speed.. is there any good guides around to adjust them -perhaps try to take out some of the slack ? im a numpty with bikes as never had one before so dont have a clue were to get started! (thanks in advance! )

fret

basically.

http://www.ecovelo.info/2011/04/15/a-fo ... sc-brakes/

Slacken off the Allen bolts.
Insert a business card on the OUTSIDE of the disc & pad.
tighten the adjustable pad.
Tighten the Allen bolts
Slacken Adjustable pad.
Remove business card.
Adjust pad.

Job done, takes about 5 mins once you've done it a few times.

tincaman

tincaman wrote:

The nds bearing has seized on my new Kinesis back wheel after less than 100 miles. I freed it up but it needs replacing, can't be ar@ed to send it back under warranty, anyone know what size it is before I take it out?

Got the size, its 17287-2RS.
The online shop I bought it from wants the wheel back to send to Kinesis. Isn't my contract with the shop, they have to sort it, not Kinesis?

fret

Under the Sale Of Goods Act 1979 (as amended) the contract of sale is with the shop and yourself. State this fact to the shop, write a letter, get names etc.
You are entitled to a refund, replacement or repair under the above act. You are also to be "not inconvenienced" (i.e. not without transport or having to return it yourself, even to the shop)
If you bought the item with a credit card then the contract of sale is between you and the card company and the card company and the shop. Contact the card company as they will then take it up with the shop.
The manufacturer may well want to inspect the wheel in case there is a major component problem, which is perfectly reasonable. But you are still entitled to a replacement in the meantime.

The choice is ENTIRELY yours if you want a refund, replacement or repair. If the shop insists that the warranty is with the wheel manufacturer then THEY ARE BREAKING THE LAW. The Act is there to protect both consumer and seller alike.

michaelede

So here we are on Friday night and still no shiny new bike

Can't fault Halfords Newton Abbot so far though, casual enquiry on Sunday re:2012 Team CX. Get one to the shop and start to build it up on Wednesday but had to stop as the bike was in their words "in a terrible state" (how bad must it have been??). One of the staff drove down to another store and got another bike and brought it back after checking it was fine. I think they have rung me every day this week to keep me informed of progress. Bike is ready to be picked up tomorrow. They know I have the BC voucher but no membership card yet but say it's no problem. So far really impressed.
The insurance company on the other hand did super well right up to the point of sorting the voucher out, the voucher was due here Wednesday but nothing turned up. Spoke to them on Thursday, assure me it will be here Friday (next day delivery) so have it sent to work but nothing turned up. Suspect it will be waiting for me or turn up on Monday but yet another weekend without a bike, grrr... but even then I can't grumble too much, three weeks from start to finish and a nice new CX (+ a bunch of bits courtesy of the discount voucher) in exchange for a bent hybrid team. Big thumbs up for NFU home insurance which covers accidental damage to personal items including bikes.

In the mean time I am cheering myself up buying bits and bobs off of Ebay, got some BB7 SL's dirt cheap from the states on the way. Got a few different types of SRAM front mechs finishing over the weekend so will hopefully finish up with something better than the microshift.

tincaman

michaelede wrote:

So here we are on Friday night and still no shiny new bike

Can't fault Halfords Newton Abbot so far though.

Thats where mine came from in 2011

fret

Mine didn't.

I've been totally pleased with mine. The only necessary change was the Microshit front mech, everything else is just me wanting to upgrade as I like to have the best I can afford, even if it doesn't necessarily make a great deal of difference. Over the many years of cycling I have found that near to top of the range components have performed best, such as 105 and Ultegra and the Force is faultless. Many say Rival is actually the best real world SRAM groupset.
I also try to reduce weight on my bikes, primarily OEM wheels are very heavy and often with poor bearings (the Ritchey ones seem good though).

I'm now almost officially "very old" in the cycling world so an extremely lightweight flighty racer is no longer for me, although I still adore them and miss my recently sold Ribble. Doing 90 miles a week commuting means I want a reliable bike and most of the steeds I have owned got promoted to "best" after upgrading and then generally sold as I rarely rode them and rode the bike I bought to replace it as a winter/commuter bike. Most of my bikes have been built up from bits, I've only had 4 complete ones. The only bike that I have kept for well over a year (16 months now) whilst searching for the best all rounder and commuter is the Boardman CX. I don't see me selling it as it will also be used with panniers for a camping trip.

There are now possibly many better all round CX styled disc braked bikes out there, but the ones around when the CX was first around were heavy, 8 or 9 speed and bottom of the range 2300 and occasionally Sora equipped bikes. It took the rest of the world 3 or 4 years to play catch up.
Like the car and motorcycle world there will always be the Friday afternoon bikes and you only ever hear about problems on most forums. How many are actually sold and how many owners have never had problems? Many owners think bikes are like cars and you can just ignore servicing them. Mine are constantly serviced, cleaned, lubed and checked with a 6 monthly strip down (not always :oops: ) to keep them in the best condition I can. 4-5000 miles a year takes its' toll on a pushbike in all weathers.

Long live the Boardman CX, no matter the colour, just don't downgrade the components Mr Boardman.

arthur_scrimshaw

Nice post, seems like we might be of similar 'vintage' :-)
I'm off the bike for a week as just had a minor op and not supposed to do anything to raise my bp so I've been stripping down the CX ready for the new 105 gear to go on. Freehub has been getting noisy so took that off, cleaned and lubed sounds a lot better. Replaced the bb a couple of weeks ago. Not sure why the bb30 gets such a bad press, mine lasted about 8000 miles in mostly crappy weather and took all of 10 minutes to knock out the old ones and press in the new? Easiest bb I've ever done. Serviced both wheel bearings and removed the rear derailleur and cables. That's enough for today.
I'm doing an unsupported Jogle in June with a colleague and I'm still not sure which bike to use. The CX is the sensible choice as it's pretty well there from a setup point of view but it still is noticeably harder work than my road bikes even though my steel bike isn't much lighter? I think its the wheels, I've got RS10's on my Charge Hi Juicer and its much easier to get up to speed and on hills even though I'm running a 25 cassette on it. I suppose a new set of wheels is an option although for that money I could probably set up the Juicer to do the job?

michaelede

tincaman wrote:

michaelede wrote:

So here we are on Friday night and still no shiny new bike

Can't fault Halfords Newton Abbot so far though.

Thats where mine came from in 2011

I am not going to ask how it went!

Still can't fault the guys at Newton Abbot, popped in this afternoon (after retrieving the voucher from work, a colleague kindly let me know it had arrived) just to check the large was okay for me as I'm 188 cm (6'2"ish) and was convinced the very large was the right size but to be fair the large is plenty big enough, not sure what Boardman where thinking when they sized the extra large because it must be flippin' enormous. They only charged me £720 for the bike in the end before the BC discount and with various other offers they told me about I came out with £900 of kit for £50 on the credit card. Chuffed to bits. They are popping the 25mm Conti Ultra Gator Skins (are the ultra's much the same as other Gator Skins?) on and I'll pick it up and have a rudimentary "fit" tomorrow before riding it home. Feel like a kid before Christmas!

One thing I am nervous of is that I have never ridden a bike with drops before, not sure I even rode one as a kid (BMX was my thing) what things should I be aware of? There was a lot more give in them than I expected, is that normal? @ 94kg I am not exactly light and I found it slightly unsettling.

As of last night finished all 88 pages of this thread and learnt a lot, thank you to everyone who contributed.

fret

Well done, oh and well done on getting the bike.
I took 2 years of faffing before I bought mine. A cantilever braked CX bike finally convinced me that discs are worth far more than bling.
The drops do move about a bit under acceleration as they aren't the stiffest components in the world and you may want to replace them in due course. Welcome to the joys of upgrading.
Ultra Gator Skins are the very same Gator Skins we talk about. Although I have the thicker and much heavier Gator Hard Shell fitted to mine. Been fitted over a year and only noticed last weekend on the wheel change. They have lasted a year/4000 miles+ so far but are now full of slits and wee holes, with a couple that have needed a piece of duct tape or a large patch inside to help reinforce them, so I guess replacements are due. Still plenty of tread left though.

Regarding the BB30, the current one has been fine. I believe mine failed due to lack of grease and servicing after a 50 mile waterlogged off road event last March when I didn't grease it afterwards and hadn't checked it for the previous 5 months either. The one fitted to the Cannondale was fine after a year of normal use. After greasing it survived a further 3 months until June or July when I replaced it. Now it has performed faultlessly and the creaks that I thought were BB30 or crank related were down to the wheels not being tight in the frame.
A service is due shortly, so I will check them then.

I would take the Charge, Arthur. It's Steel so will be more comfortable.

EKE_38BPM

fret wrote:

I would take the Charge, Arthur. It's Steel

(like a Kaffenback)

fret wrote:

so will be more comfortable.

IGMC

fret

And now in English?

bigmul

I changed the front mech on my 2014 Team yesterday to a 105 (5600) after recommendation on a different thread. Definitely better, far less likely to break ones fingers when trying to shift rings ;-)

michaelede

Okay so picked up the 2012 CX from Halfords today. Elected to not ride it home as I wanted to give it a good going over before trusting my life to it. One or two minor tweaks needed but not too bad. I assume they don't usually come with lizard skin protective patches liberally applied at all of the potential rubbing areas? If they don't another thumbs up to Newton Abbot Halfords.

Road it around the car park a bit and found riding on the hoods very comfortable (if I've used that expression please tell me!) and plenty easy enough to use the main brake levers from above so the interuptors will go at some point to free up some room. CX definitely feels lighter than the hybrid and certainly accelerates in a more sprightly manner. Didn't like being down on the drops and the brakes felt crap (I know they need to bed in but they are still bloody dangerous) whilst I loved the concept of the double tap and not knowing anything different picked it up really easily, whilst not exactly intuitive once I got used to it found it lovely. Front microshit mech lived up to its name (won a 10 speed Red Yaw mech on the bay tonight, so it won't be there long) changing down to the small ring was easy but it was a pig to get it on the big ring. Moving up and down at the rear was fantastic and being a able to drop multiple gears was a revelation (I think that is what was happening although I couldn't quite figure out how to make it move multiple gears reliably) Also took it for a blast around the village and really liked the way it climbed, both in and out of the saddle and whipped up a nice steep hill which is heavily potholed in a nice controlled manner plenty of grip from the gatorskins (thanks for the recommendation)

The bad is mainly the brakes, absolutely horrible after the hydraulics on the hybrid. Couldn't even lock them at low speed, on a damp road & down hill. I know they need to bed in but seriously these where crap. The other thing I didn't like was the flimsy flappiness of the double tap lever, it didn't feel remotely solid and just seemed to wave around in the air. The one for the front mech had a LOT of travel before it would push up onto the big ring, yuk! (I think the front mech is the same as the one on the Team Hybrid and with the shifters on that it never missed a beat) Do any of the levers further up the range feel more solid? Not sure if I had the standard tape on the bars but it doesn't feel overly cushioned and when down on the drops the shape of the bar seemed quite triangular.

Overall pretty happy with it, in a lot of respects a nice step forward from the Hybrid Team but I can't for the life of me figure out why anyone could consider the brakes to be remotely acceptable. I know they have to be set up correctly and I will double check the setup and do them myself and continue to bed them in but the sooner the BB7's get here the better (and the sooner SRAM get the MK2. of the hydraulics on the market even better! I'll be first in line for them) I can't really complain at all, the areas I don't like are the areas I thought would be a bit borderline but the brakes better improve quickly!

fret

A good report.
Yes, the OEM 'bars are pretty awful "ergo" shaped which put you in certain hand positions only. Some like them, I hate them so fitted a curved bar. There isn't much padding on handlebar tape. Fit extra around the existing or put gel inserts underneath, although you will get used to it.

The brakes probably need adjusting correctly, this seems to be the biggest problem. If it's the new 2014 model then it appears from reports that there could be issues with bad cables.

The front mech has 35 degrees of movement in the shifter compared to 25 for Shimano. If there is excess movement where nothing happens then they need adjusting correctly as there should be zero loss movement in the operation. I can confirm that there is no difference at all in movement/operation between the Apex and top of the range Red which I have fitted, although they do feel a bit lighter in their shifting.

The magazine reviews have not had any bad input on the new models and I guess most of the problems are down to the main supplier of these bikes and not knowing how to set them up properly.

michaelede

FFS, sub 2 miles of riding and first flat. :evil:

Edited to add: Okay, so where do I get the correct Velox rim tape from in the correct size (18-622, I believe?) please? Many thanks.

fret

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/velo ... rp-prod426
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s?q=rim+tape

newtonuk

Has anybody ventured into removing the bar tape that the 2014 Team model is supplied with? Before I try to remove the "interrupter" brake levers, I'd like to know if I'm facing self adhesive tape or if it's re-wrappable.

michaelede

fret wrote:

http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/velox-rim-tape-cloth/rp-prod426
http://www.chainreactioncycles.com/s?q=rim+tape

Thanks for trying to help Fret but which one? I assume the 19mm one as the 16mm is too narrow? (I am assuming the 18 in 18-622 refers to the width of the rim being 18mm internally?)

bigmul

newtonuk wrote:

Has anybody ventured into removing the bar tape that the 2014 Team model is supplied with? Before I try to remove the "interrupter" brake levers, I'd like to know if I'm facing self adhesive tape or if it's re-wrappable.

Did my boardman roadie a couple of weeks ago, was adhesive stuff. Not tried the CX I'm afraid.

newtonuk

bigmul wrote:

newtonuk wrote:

Has anybody ventured into removing the bar tape that the 2014 Team model is supplied with? Before I try to remove the "interrupter" brake levers, I'd like to know if I'm facing self adhesive tape or if it's re-wrappable.

Did my boardman roadie a couple of weeks ago, was adhesive stuff. Not tried the CX I'm afraid.

Does removing the tape render it useless and will I need new tape if it is the adhesive stuff?

bigmul

You probably could use it again so long as you tape it when finishing the wrap, but I used some new gel tape, feels much nicer!