Specialized or Boardman

simon_masterson

grechzoo wrote:

im worried about sora myself on the allez sport. the elite comes with lighter wheels and tiagra for £175 more. feels like a lot, but it might be worth it in the long run, can see myself not needing an upgrade for years. still its tough to go for a 900 bike when i know i need to spend another 200+ on pedals shoes, safety, tools and clothing etc.

with the cycle to work scheme, it should soften the blow, still its a lot of money. having test ridden a road bike now though, and being blown away, there no way i can stop myself from spending this money.

There are good reasons for opting for Tiagra, but future-proofing is the main one, to be honest. Shimano might upgrade Sora to a 10 speed eventually, I suppose.

But the £175 won't benefit you in the long run enormously. It will give you a slightly nicer bike in the short term, which is understandable except for the fact that there are indeed plenty of kit bits that you could spend that money on.

If you're serious about having a light bike you'll want to upgrade either, and the wheels on the Elite aren't going to be very much better. By the time you come to sell it, you will almost certainly lose more than £175, and aluminium bikes tend to have a shorter service life than others anyway.

If you're spending this kind of money on a road bike, to be honest you'd probably be better either to spend a bit more (£1200-£1500) which could get you some significantly nicer wheels, or get a cheaper bike. Chances are if you really wanted to upgrade the wheels you could get a pair in a Wiggle sale or something.

But weight and performance are ludicrously overhyped among newbie road cyclists these days anyway; you're all better off than many recent Tour de France champions, so stop complaining.

grechzoo

Simon Masterson wrote:

grechzoo wrote:

im worried about sora myself on the allez sport. the elite comes with lighter wheels and tiagra for £175 more. feels like a lot, but it might be worth it in the long run, can see myself not needing an upgrade for years. still its tough to go for a 900 bike when i know i need to spend another 200+ on pedals shoes, safety, tools and clothing etc.

with the cycle to work scheme, it should soften the blow, still its a lot of money. having test ridden a road bike now though, and being blown away, there no way i can stop myself from spending this money.

There are good reasons for opting for Tiagra, but future-proofing is the main one, to be honest. Shimano might upgrade Sora to a 10 speed eventually, I suppose.

But the £175 won't benefit you in the long run enormously. It will give you a slightly nicer bike in the short term, which is understandable except for the fact that there are indeed plenty of kit bits that you could spend that money on.

If you're serious about having a light bike you'll want to upgrade either, and the wheels on the Elite aren't going to be very much better. By the time you come to sell it, you will almost certainly lose more than £175, and aluminium bikes tend to have a shorter service life than others anyway.

If you're spending this kind of money on a road bike, to be honest you'd probably be better either to spend a bit more (£1200-£1500) which could get you some significantly nicer wheels, or get a cheaper bike. Chances are if you really wanted to upgrade the wheels you could get a pair in a Wiggle sale or something.

But weight and performance are ludicrously overhyped among newbie road cyclists these days anyway; you're all better off than many recent Tour de France champions, so stop complaining.

normally I would totally agree, spending 900, why not save up 300 more and get a better bike.

but in my case with the cycle to work scheme, i have to stay under 1k. and 1k equals a payback of around 650, with this massive amount of discount, it also mean that me choosing a bike 175 less on paper, will really only save me 80-90 quid after the savings on the scheme. (so you see the value im getting with this scheme means i might as well top it out at 1k.)

going with a 900 alu bike gives room for shoes and pedals which will be the most epxensive accessories anyway i think. all that for around 650 after all the savings on the C2W scheme. seems great.

or should i seriously consider focus or planet x carbon if im going to top out the scheme anyway? (which means the 250 accessories will have to be off my own back,) also might be a bit much for my first road bike that will be used proimarily for a 10 mile commute each way.)

that or i could just go with a boardman tiagra which will give me much more room to buy all the accessories i need, and prob be around the 600 mark after all said and done.

i dont know...just need to get the scheme voucher process started with my boss anyway and see what i think in a week or so when i come to choosing a quote. any more advice you guys could give on this would be brilliant though.

slowbike

For a primarily 10 mile commute each way you don't need anything swish ... but it would be nice!

I have an entry level road bike - 8 speed which is now out of date (the bike isn't that old) - but it's fine. I don't think I'd be significantly faster on a better bike - although it might feel better I would think most of that would be down to knowing it's a more expensive bike!
The main bits I would consider upgrading are the wheels - beyond that, a new groupset just isn't worth the money against the perceived value of the bike and I'd probably be better off buying another whole bike.

My riding isn't for racing or time trials - although I do use Strava - so I don't really need the optimum set up. I don't have any intention of racing either.
I've joined in a couple of club rides and not disgraced myself speed wise - I was told to ease up on the last one ! So, whilst there were some really "nice" bikes there - wheels costing more than my whole ride - they weren't going any faster (that day!) ... and in the end, it's the engine on top that is the main contributor to speed...

So, back to the question - what should you buy - IMHO, if you're just riding for leisure and not intending to race then you should buy the "best" bike which fits you that you can afford ...
If you're intending to go further/faster then a cheaper model would suffice whilst you build up your strength/stamina and save the £'s for something a bit more racey later ...

grechzoo

thank for the advice.

i have just been advised by my boss to use the whole 1k limit fo the cycle scheme considering the crazy savings, and i have to agree honestly. so my budget is 1k!

now...whether that's for the bike and i spend 250 for the accessories out of my own bank now. or whether that includes the accessories and the bike, i dont know.

heres the thing. i know i have no experience, and any road bike will feel great for me at this point. but i knwo this hobby will stick and i want to do group rides, and sportives. i dont plan on racing seriously, doubt i ever will.

Basically i want something that holds around 60% of its value, is something that i can challenge myself on, and still look at in two years time and know its the bike for me (even as i get more fit, ambitious and knowledgable about the sport.)

I have 1k, decisions

slowbike

grechzoo wrote:

Basically i want something that holds around 60% of its value,

It'll always be worth more to you than someone else ...

If you've got 250 extra earmarked for kit then spend the 1k on the bike ... if you haven't then use the 1k for the whole package ...

Wish I had 1k to spend on a bike!

grechzoo

well 1k on the cycle scheme is no more than £680

i think im deciding not to go with carbon, so im looking at the boardman road comp / allez sport at around 700. or the boardman team, or the allez elite at around 900. (10% at halfords voucher included for the boardman's)

whats the weight of the boardman team compared to the allez elite?

I know i shouldn't get too hung up on things like that but i want to know whats going to be considered upgrade wise a year or so down the line. the boardman obvously has the better groupset. but the specialized i think might be the better frame and wheelset. (and as a beginner im sure tiagra is good enough)

still not 100% sure though, ill make the decision in the end once the scheme stuff is sorted with the boss, but in the mean time, the above choices being my final considerations, any more advice that can be offered will be very nice.

slowbike

Ride one of each ... that's the only way you'll decide ...

grechzoo

both specialized are on order only apprently from evans in reading who say they wont be enough to hold tock for test rides (which sounds stupid to me)

even worse, halfords dont allow their bikes to leave the store.

so test riding either will be very very hard.

slowbike

Look for the specialized concept store - they usually have a similar frame in for you to try.
Dunno what you do about halfords - find someone with the bike you want and blag a try?

fatdaz

Eternal-Bcb wrote:

Really appreciate the replys guys! I've had a go on the Specialized and thought It felt really good. I'll pop to my local Halfords this weekend and check out what the sizing is like on the Boardman.

I had a go on my girlfriends this morning and it felt great. I'm getting impatient now!

Either you mean "girlfriend's" or you're a very lucky man :-)

elvis loved burgers

Id be very careful buying from Halfords. I bought the Boardman road team from them, within 2 weeks the bottom bracket broke, that took them a week to fix and then I noticed the seat post was dented and cracked from where one of their "mechanics" had over tightened it. I had problems with the handlng on the bike, one of their "mechanics" test rode it at about 30 mph and described it as scary!, but the manager still insisted there was nothing wrong with the bikeI ended up getting a refund from them which wasnt easy.

alistaird

stronginthesun wrote:

which boardman hybrid did your girlfriend get ? as iam in the market for one . is she happy with it and the halfords service ?

Not quite the answer, but I bought my wife a Specialized Vita Hybrid and she's been very happy with it. Not from Halfords though...

A