Boardman CX Owners Thread

fret

LiveGiantly wrote:

I am a Giant person with no intention of purchasing a Boardman CX BUT I enjoy reading this thread....

Unlike some who are trolling

Muzzledoctor

It's very interesting hear people dismiss SRAM based on using Apex. I've now got Red, Rival and Apex on various bikes and find the Red far superior (as you should expect) with zero loss front and back. I've also used Shimano and it is a preference thing in the end. I changed the front brake to BB7 and is much better, and have not had the huge issues that most have had with the Microshift front derailleur. I have, however, bought a Rival replacement as I like my kit to match even if it is only by manufacturer.

This has been a great thread to read and communicate on and I commend all for their contributions. Long may it continue.

bigmul

From getting my 2014 CX Team I've found using SRAM to be a pleasure compared to Shimano, however I'm comparing Apex to Sora though. Using my roadie with Sora and winter gloves is a huge pain though, far easier to use the double taps and get much crisper shifting. Would I see a big difference in upping the roadie to 105? Ask as looking to put SRAM on it currently....

Thanks all!

meanredspider

It's a preference thing but I found Apex agricultural in comparison to 105

bigmul

Hmmmm, 105 is much cheaper than SRAM, so something to consider!

arthur_scrimshaw

I found Apex more sensitive to cable condition than 105, but I also much prefer the action and feel of the Shimano group set.

LiveGiantly

105 groupsets AKA 'fit & forget'....that's how reliable/durable they can be...

veronese68

fret wrote:

LiveGiantly wrote:

I am a Giant person with no intention of purchasing a Boardman CX BUT I enjoy reading this thread....

Unlike some who are trolling

This is a very useful thread generally for disc braked CX's even if not the Boardman. Whilst the Boardman was the only choice when it first came out there are now many others in a similar vein. I can't believe how long it took the others to catch on. The CX sub forum in the road section often has useful information as well.

magnus4ever

Great to read all these opinions on shifting, I'm now even more confident in buying a comp and change the gearing later on (guess I'm going for a 105 as well). I'd be alsomhappy with the apex, I just can't stand the silver color job on the team and the missing lower eyelets on the fork....

One thing i'm immediately gonna rip off are the breaks. I've read horrible things about the tektro lyras, so bb7s will be ordered right away as they're relatively cheap here in Germany.

bikes`n`guns

I have the comp, and tbh,, now that it`s settled, the Sora does the job nicely. And the Lyras aren`t all that bad either

I think I`ll replace as worn, not upgrade for the sake of it.

apreading

If I had to choose between carbon forks OR alu forks with eyelets then much as I would want the eyelets, it wouldnt be a hard choice. Although I think your best bet would be to find an older model quick which has both!

magnus4ever

apreading wrote:

If I had to choose between carbon forks OR alu forks with eyelets then much as I would want the eyelets, it wouldnt be a hard choice. Although I think your best bet would be to find an older model quick which has both!

If it were only for the forks, i'd be with you I just love the black n blue paintwork on the comp...

I'd like to pursue your second option, but unfortunately used Boardman cx bikes are somewhat of a unicorn-like thing in Germany they don't exist...

Wiggle just recently opened up its webshop for Germany, I'm most likely to be one of the first ever over here to sit on one

Edit: although if anyone does have a source for me for the older "pro" ore other models, pls contact me ASAP

meanredspider

bigmul wrote:

Hmmmm, 105 is much cheaper than SRAM, so something to consider!

The other thing I found when I swapped Apex to 105 was that the brake levers were stiffer and gave better brake feel.

EKE_38BPM

fret wrote:

LiveGiantly wrote:

I am a Giant person with no intention of purchasing a Boardman CX BUT I enjoy reading this thread....

Unlike some who are trolling

I think thats me. Oops!

This thread has taught me a lot. Some of it may have been negative (I don't want this or I don't want that) but that helped me work out what I did want when I was buying a new bike so I looked for a bike which ticked my boxes and I ended up buying the bike you lot should have bought, the Planet X Kaffenback 2!!!!

IGMC (I'll Get Me Coat)

arthur_scrimshaw

Well go off and start a Kaffenback owner's thread
I enjoy the banter on here, as long as it's good humoured which it invariably is!

newtonuk

A couple of my mate's got Kaffenbacks... One swears at it (not by it, at it but he has got flat bars on it for some reason), the other sold it because it was too heavy for what he wanted... He's happy with his Boardman CX Team now though.

Never had a go on-one (Ha, did you see what I did there... Planet X, On-One), they look okay, but I wouldn't want a full steel bike though.

boscofinnigan

Hi Bikeradar Forum users and Boardman CX Owners.

I new to road cycling, but having taken part in my first Adventure race last year I now have the bug. Im having a bit of a dilemma in terms of which bike to choose. I would like to enter more adventure races which typically comprise of 10k running, 50k cycling on road, 10k cycling off road and 2k canoeing. The problem im having is that most guys in these races are using road bikes, generally wrecking good bikes on the off road sections but are fast on the on road sections.

My question is would the Boardman CX Comp Bike 2014, be competitive with slicks? I know its a couple of kgs heavier than road bikes but then again so am I compared with the guys im racing. The bike is currently £540 at the moment with halfords discount, not bad for a Sora, cyclecross but unfortunately no carbon forks. Any help appreciated, thanks.

meanredspider

boscofinnigan wrote:

My question is would the Boardman CX Comp Bike 2014, be competitive with slicks? I know its a couple of kgs heavier than road bikes but then again so am I compared with the guys im racing. The bike is currently £540 at the moment with halfords discount, not bad for a Sora, cyclecross but unfortunately no carbon forks. Any help appreciated, thanks.

How hilly are the courses? That's mostly where you'll pay the price. Does the Comp have disc brakes?

boscofinnigan

Quite steep hills in parts yes. Brakes are Mechanical Discs. Would that be better or worse. I found the road bike with standard brake pads required a lot of distance to stop or slow down on the downhill parts. Perhapes I shouldnt have been using them at all. :?

meanredspider

Discs will buy you back a bit of the cost you're paying for the heavy bike and will at least allow you to use the speed the weight will generate downhill. It's probably worth a go.

fret

I've done some rides on the CX and can't tell much difference in real world terms with a lighter road bike when fitted with 23mm tyres.

If you ar after a 'cross bike, then Cantilever brakes are supposed to be powerful, more so than normal road calipers, but in my experience they are just scary and dangerous and even worse when it's wet.
I bought some TRP upgraded ones and they were no better than the cheap Tektro fitted as OEM.

As for speed, the re is very little difference in my 9 mile commute on the 7.5kg Ribble I just sold and the 11kg fully kitted Boardman, probably about a minute. Obviously fitness will play a part, but through my years of commuting my time has stabilised to within 10 minutes difference on all the bikes and that takes into account weights and wind conditions.

A disc braked bike is hardly any difference in weight to a lot of standard alloy bikes at 10kg, so go for it.

newtonuk

fret wrote:

I've done some rides on the CX and can't tell much difference in real world terms with a lighter road bike when fitted with 23mm tyres.

If you ar after a 'cross bike, then Cantilever brakes are supposed to be powerful, more so than normal road calipers, but in my experience they are just scary and dangerous and even worse when it's wet.
I bought some TRP upgraded ones and they were no better than the cheap Tektro fitted as OEM.

As for speed, the re is very little difference in my 9 mile commute on the 7.5kg Ribble I just sold and the 11kg fully kitted Boardman, probably about a minute. Obviously fitness will play a part, but through my years of commuting my time has stabilised to within 10 minutes difference on all the bikes and that takes into account weights and wind conditions.

A disc braked bike is hardly any difference in weight to a lot of standard alloy bikes at 10kg, so go for it.

I was within 90 seconds of my best commuting time, set on an aluminium Cannondale Synapse, on the Team CX with 28mm Gator Hardshells and mudguards last week.

tincaman

tincaman wrote:

My CX is now 2 1/2 years old and maybe time to comment on a few of the upgrades.

The R/H SRAM Rival shifter broke .............

I liked the Shimano system so much I decided to change the CX over to it as well. ...............

I have tried various tyres, 28mm Gatorskins, 30mm Marathon Racers, 28mm Conti Sport Contact, ..............

I changed the wheelset to the Kinesis CXDisc in January ..................

I have also changed the BB5 brakes to BB7 about 18months ago, that was worth it just for the ease of setting them up, I was forever having to adjust the BB5's. Braking power was about the same. I have just replaced the front BB7 for a TRP HyRd. ........................

Lighting is taken care of with a Solarstorm X2 with a battery pack installed in the front bottle cage, this battery pack is ABS with removable 18650 batteries......................

Just thought I would add a few pictures to this including accessories:-
Drive chain, 105 with KMC gold chain(bought when they were £10 on Amamzon)


Saddle, Charge Spoon, works well for me


BBB Dinger


Cockpit layout and lighting



ABS battery box, with removable 18650 batteries



Rear lighting, Magicshine 818 + Smart Lunar R2, Polymorph inserted behind the MJ818 to get the angle
of the light level


2 cell 18650 pack to drive the MJ818, white clip is made of Polymorph



Front light beam shots showing colour differences


Front and rear brakes, HyRd and BB7



Tool tube in the back bottle cage for spares, pump is Topeak Speed Masterblaster,
the longer version, had the short one for a while but takes too long to use

newtonuk

£10 for a chain!

fret

Seems a good idea, especially as KMC make very good chains. Change them yearly as even an expensive one will have had it my then.
I like the pump, smaller than my 25 year old trusty Mt Zefal and better than the small pocket rocket fitted to the P-X.
Lights are a good investment, I'm OK with what I use at present, but could do with brighter "getthefackouttamyway" type ones

Russvphoto

Fitted a SRAM Apex front changer yesterday, so much easier to use than the heavy Microshift original.
Was £20 from high altitude bikes on ebay which I thought a good price,
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/SRAM-Apex-Roa ... 5404d0f384

LiveGiantly

tincaman wrote:

tincaman wrote:

My CX is now 2 1/2 years old and maybe time to comment on a few of the upgrades.

The R/H SRAM Rival shifter broke .............

I liked the Shimano system so much I decided to change the CX over to it as well. ...............

I have tried various tyres, 28mm Gatorskins, 30mm Marathon Racers, 28mm Conti Sport Contact, ..............

I changed the wheelset to the Kinesis CXDisc in January ..................

I have also changed the BB5 brakes to BB7 about 18months ago, that was worth it just for the ease of setting them up, I was forever having to adjust the BB5's. Braking power was about the same. I have just replaced the front BB7 for a TRP HyRd. ........................

Lighting is taken care of with a Solarstorm X2 with a battery pack installed in the front bottle cage, this battery pack is ABS with removable 18650 batteries......................

Just thought I would add a few pictures to this including accessories:-
Drive chain, 105 with KMC gold chain(bought when they were £10 on Amamzon)


Saddle, Charge Spoon, works well for me

..........
Tool tube in the back bottle cage for spares, pump is Topeak Speed Masterblaster,
the longer version, had the short one for a while but takes too long to use

All you need now is a rocket launcher installed....

This bike belongs in the army...!!

bigmul

I'd hate to think what it weighs with everything on it!

Do you find that the weight of batteries etc offsets the improvements that the wheels have made?

rubertoe

I like it Tincaman.

Looks like a really good commuter/Winter/Night time bike.

How do you find the Wheelset?

fret

Crosslight wheels are VAST improvement on the OEM. The only thing I would advise is keep the cassette really tight as the alloy freehub will wear. I've had mine a year now, almost constant use until the new wheels 3 weeks ago including 2 off road events.
The Mk1 were 300g lighter than the OEM, new MK3 ones are 1550g or so and more aero. You will notice an improvement immediately