How are boardman road bikes?

Blade180

I came across a discounted Boardman road bike for the price it looks much better than anything else I have found.

This would be a long term purchase with lots of riding especially with summer coming up .

I need your guy's opinions on it and if it is worth the money.

I am looking for a good and helpful answers/opinions. As I am fairly new to cycling.

I feel like I want it but I don't want to regret later

Here is the link: https://www.cyclerepublic.com/boardman- ... -2017.html

pilot_pete

How tall are you? I only ask because they only have one frame size at that price...

PP

Blade180

I am around 6ft2-6ft3
190cm

pilot_pete

Should fit then!

It’s an entry level carbon framed bike with cheaper end components (which you would expect that that price point). Don’t believe the blurb in the add you linked to - things such as ‘specification and design traits only seen in higher level bikes’, it’s marketing bull... The spec is lower end - Tiagra is fine as a groupset, the Tektro brakes will be nothing special - there are threads on here regarding their performance (or lack of) and how people want to upgrade them.

The FSA crank is ok, nothing special, but the frame is a pressfit bottom bracket which inherently can start to creak, so do your research before committing and see if others have suffered issues with creaky PF30 bottom brackets on these frames.

The wheels are ok, again entry level, so I would guess they are fairly heavy, but at least they have a spoke count which should give them some strength for a larger rider (I know your height but not your weight).

Finishing kit will be cheap aluminium, nothing wrong with that, it will just be heavier than something better quality, but things like bolts tend to go rusty quickly on the cheaper components, but of course can be changed. Saddles are a thing of personal choice so you may find the supplied one is no match for your posterior, but then again maybe it will be. It will again be comparatively heavy compared to better quality items.

There is no overall weight for the bike listed, but I suspect it will not be as heavy as many entry level bikes due to having a carbon frame as opposed to aluminium.

All in all it looks good value at that price for an entry level bike, especially as you are getting a carbon fibre frame. As regards it being a ‘long term purchase’, only time will tell, but I suspect if you get heavily into cycling you will want something better, but at £600 you wouldn’t exactly be breaking the bank if you wanted to upgrade in a couple of years time - you could probably sell it for £200-300 so a couple of years would only have cost you about £300 (other than ongoing maintenance).

PP

pilot_pete

Ahh, just found a link to a review by road.cc

https://road.cc/content/review/230328-boardman-road-team-carbon

Pretty much says what I just said above!

PP

Mad_Malx

PP's review reads a bit negative to me - think the executive summary is right though:

All in all it looks good value at that price for an entry level bike, especially as you are getting a carbon fibre frame.

Boardman's are generally very good VFM. Tiagra is fine and you can easily pay twice that and still get FSA gossamer cranks and tektro brakes. Wheels (and tyres) are likely to be basic, but the easiest upgrade and you can keep the originals for winter or training, or when you are all set to go out and discover you have a flat.

Edit - missed Pilot's update and link so yes, does look very good at £600.

Blade180

@Pilot Pete

Thank you for the informative answer.
I think I will go for it, for £600 mark there is nothing really better out there.
As for weight, I looked if correctly it's 8.7kg.

tonysj

Laurynas wrote:

@Pilot Pete

Thank you for the informative answer.
I think I will go for it, for £600 mark there is nothing really better out there.
As for weight, I looked if correctly it's 8.7kg.

I have the same bike but the year before in black with yellow, looks exactly the same spec other than the colour.
I'm very happy with mine although I have upgraded a few parts, brakes to shimano 105s, tyres to Conti GP 400SII's and the wheels to CERO AR24 EVOs and to be honest I wont be buying a better bike as it good enough for me and anything more expensive wont make me much faster so I will stick with it.
It was my first road bike when I started late 2016 and its a decent bike for the money, I got mine cheap at £750 so at £600 you cant go wrong.. Enjoy..
T

Klaus B

Absolutely a bargain at 600£. Pretty sure you can fit full guards on it, so if you want to use it in winter, you can do it with limited maintenance. I nearly bought one but went in store and was sold out. The bike mechanics I work with say that Boardman bikes are good vfm like reported above. Just change those brakes with Shimano 650 or even better trp 957, the best of long reach brakes but they don't come cheap.. and put a carbon seatpost, as coming with a chunky 31 mm seatpost it's not gonna be much compliant in the rear end. Geometry wise I think it's the right spot between racy and endurance.
Overall unbeatable price wise.

kingrollo

Good find at that price

105 calipers are £25 a go - and the upgrade is easy if you wanted to go that way.

shirley_basso

Excellent bikes and seriously underrated.

pamplemoose

I've got a Team Carbon (now relegated to a Winter bike) and it's a much nicer ride than some the £3k+ hire bikes I've had. For £600 it's an absolute steal. The only thing I'd change straight away is the brakes, as they lack power due to being of the 'long drop' variety. Oh and don't try to fit mud guards. It has all the fixings to do it, but there really isn't enough tyre clearance at the back.

sibike

Go for it .
Just upgrade bits and pieces as and when you feel the need . Brakes and tyres would be on my shopping list .