Going to buy a Boardman Team Carbon - Advice and Upgrades

nufc_fan

I was going to get a Team Pro Carbon as my first road bike but none of the stores have any in my size. Thinking I will go for the Team Carbon which along with British Cycling discount I can get for £900, its the same frame apart from external cabling.

As this is a couple of hundred less than the Pro I was thinking about spending £200 on upgrades to make the bike closer to the spec of the pro. Any suggestions? Two areas I had though about were the Shifter, upgrading to 105 or the wheels, any suggestions here?

Only other idea was a Cube GTC Pro which I can get for £1200, better components but not sure if the frame is any better or if it is worth the £300 extra.

Any thoughts, am I making a mistake?

top_bhoy

If its your first road bike, how do you know what it is you want? Have you ridden other road bikes or even MTBs, commuters, etc? Which groupset shifters do you prefer using?

Perhaps I'm a little out of touch but £1200..even £900 seems to me to be a lot of money to spend on a first road bike. People are free to spend their money as they see fit but as its your first road bike, why not buy a much cheaper bike and get the fundamentals right from the outset? A more expensive bike won't make you go much faster and a cheaper bike (within reason) won't hold you back. Spend the time to determine your best position and cycling set-up. Develop your cycling engine by riding it as much as possible. When you eventually get a better bike, you will really notice the difference and will enjoy it all the more.

mattmaximus

Well you'll need some pedals (and shoes?). Getting that right will make a huge difference, so allocate a wedge of cash there.

The obvious upgrade is the wheels, but I'd save up a bit more and get a really good set of handbuilts. In the meantime ride the stock wheels and then, when you do upgrade, you'll really notice the difference. That needn't cost much more than £200, but it's worth doing it right.

Leave the groupset, 10 speed tiagra will be more than fine and taking apart a lovely new bike seems a shame!!

Minimising the faffing will mean you're out riding all the sooner! Enjoy the bike.

bigmul

I agree, don't go spending more to upgrade when you don't need to. I bought the Boardman Road Race last year as a first road bike, with BC voucher and weekend discount was just over 500. Yeah it's only got Sora, but replaced the mechs now, I spent 140 on fulcrum racing 7 wheels a couple of months ago and the difference was amazing!

Get out and ride a sportive or two, then decide what to do. It's already a nice bike!

apreading

+1 to ride it and see what you like/dont like first.

Having said that, this: http://secure.campaigner.com/Campaigner ... 393v1&_v=2 is a cracking deal on a reasonable set of training wheels, with a great set of tyres and tubes, for not much more than the tyres & tubes would cost full price!

hypster

Hard to better one of these for value for money at under £1K.

http://www.planetx.co.uk/i/q/CBPXSLPULT ... -road-bike

No upgrading necessary either in my opinion.

Dagowly83

Try may not have any in stock, but usually can get one within a day or so. My local halfords don't stock any carbon boardman bikes and I wanted the team carbon, I sized myself up, bought online and it arrived the next day. Took it to my local bike shop and had it set up!

antsmithmk

Might be alone on this but what the hell....

Can you explain the logic of spending less on one bike, and then spending the money you saved on upgrades to bring it closer in spec to the other? Why not save yourself the hassle and buy the one you want?

curto80

Dude to be fair to the OP he did say in his first sentence that he couldn't find one in his size