Noob advice required - Boardman hybrid?

sparklehedgehog

Im looking at buying a hybrid (as i like the mtb style bars on a road bike) for general use and trying to regain some fitness as feeling old at 34.

Would i be going badly wrong buying the Boardman Hybrid Comp bike from Halfrauds for £499? Is this ideal for a £500 budget? What other decent alternatives could you recommend with your wisdom please?

Thanks in advance

John

apreading

Its a fantastic bike for the money. Might be worth considering the Team rather than Comp version though, because as well as component upgrades, it has a carbon fork which makes the ride much less harsh. I have done thousands of miles on mine now (Hybrid Team) and wouldnt change it for the world (well maybe for a full carbon version but they dont make them and they would cost alot more!).

If you want alternatives and have a Decathlon near you, they have a range of Hybrids which is similarly good.

Compared to these, everything else looks poor value, but may be worth considering the Specialized Sirrus (more relaxed ride but poor components for the money, not good value but a great frame).

If buying from Halfords, I recommend joining British Cycling - for about £20 membership, you get 10% off everything at Halfords in store, even if the bike is already discounted. So on a £500 bike, the £20 membership would save you £50 - no brainer really...!

neal1984

apreading wrote:

If buying from Halfords, I recommend joining British Cycling - for about £20 membership, you get 10% off everything at Halfords in store, even if the bike is already discounted. So on a £500 bike, the £20 membership would save you £50 - no brainer really...!

This is good advice. I wish I knew this when I bought my first bike (Hybrid Comp) as it would have saved me £50. I've bought 2 bikes from there since and used the discount on both saving me around £120.

So back to the bike. I was a great bike although I did have bottom bracket issues with it. I no longer own the bike as I went with a road bike. I currently have a Boardman Team Carbon road bike which I bought on the strenth of build quality of the Boardman Hybrid. I'd go for it if its really a hybrid your looking for.

chris@68

Can only echo above thoughts - a friend was looking for a bike for his son, I pointed them towards the Boardman.
They found the BC deal and bought a Comp.
Said son does around 16 miles a day, commuting to school. He loves it.

The above bike came boxed, straight to me for final assembly and check-up. There were a few loose bolts, brakes needed aligning etc - nothing major and TBH and I'd always suggest anyone gives a new bike a full once over, checking all bolts etc. before the first ride.

Only issues he's had, in 12 months of ownership = creaking developed, traced to loose chainring bolts and a loose saddle.

EPO Delivery Man

Bought a Boardman Hybrid Comp a couple of months ago for commuting, absolutely superb bike, you cant go wrong with it. The components are good and i couldnt find anything that was near it for spec and price. I do 30 miles a day commute and it can zip along on nice flat roads and do climbs as its not overly heavy.

Buy it now!!

wandsworth

I also have a Boardman Comp. I have been commuting 9 miles each way on it in London almost every day for nearly a year, and have also been doing laps of Richmond Park on it, and have found it very good. I recently bought a carbon road bike (Focus Cayo Evo 6.0) as my "good" commuting bike, and thought that the Boardman would feel clunky after riding that, but I commuted in on it today due to the bad weather, and it felt fine. Less nippy than the Focus of course, but not clunky at all. The big difference was getting back on my MTB aafter riding the Boardman - the MTB felt like a monster truck.

Also, I think the Boardman is a nice looking bike.

Get it checked over by your LBS before riding it as Halfords can be a bit sloppy with assembly and set-up.

sparklehedgehog

Went to Halfords Spalding to get the Boardman Hybrid Comp. Had only the display model in so after arguing that I wouldn't pay full price they agreed to knock off 10%. Then said give is an hour to set it up. Whilst they were doing that noticed the other one they had (same model but smaller frame) had a warped front disc. Whilst they were setting mine up they noticed mine had one too so obviously couldn't take that. They then went to swap out the wheels from the dearer carbon forked bike and realised the discs are the same but wheels are different. So they said well I could have the dearer bike but only 10% off even though by this time we'd been there 2 hours.
Then they wanted to put a gypsy brake disc on it off the shelf that they put in the cheaper bikes and I said no so then they said well we can't do anything see you later!!!! Fools!
Can't believe how bad an experience it was and how badly we were messed about. The boss was ducking fuming!!!! Left at 6pm as they closed, empty handed, and had been there 2.5 hours for nothing!

apreading

Eh? The could have just swapped the disc rotor from the more expensive bike if they were the same - no need to swap the whole wheel...!?!?!? And what is a gypsy brake disc??

Possibly the problem is that you went on a Saturday, and they only had saturday staff on - its the same in many shops... I have 'worked out' that the Halfords near me seem to have 1 knowledgeable bike person and you have to go when he is in otherwise just any old person, often the manager who is helpful and knows a bit but not necessarily his stuff.