Boardman bike perception

mondeo · 15-09-2014 8:45pm #1

I am about to buy a Boardman hybrid bike in Halfords and I'm just looking for a general opinion on this brand. Told a few people I'm buying a Boardman bike to be told avoid Halfords and buy somewhere else. I bought a Carrera bike in Halfords before and it was a great bike. Are Boardman as good as Trek, Giant etc ?

MugMugs · 15-09-2014 8:47pm

Got a link for the bike? Halfords are twits generally but boardman are grand bikes

Andalucia · 15-09-2014 9:06pm

wouldn't buy a bike in Halfords if I had to - Boardman are a great bike, but Halfords have a brutal reputation in putting bikes together - want to get someone to give it the once over if you do buy from Halfords

mondeo · 15-09-2014 9:08pm

This is the model here.

http://www.halfords.ie/cycling/bikes/hybrid-bikes/boardman-hybrid-comp-bike-2014

delynet · 15-09-2014 9:25pm

I am sure there are good stores and bad ones. I bought a Boardman Team Carbon almost 5 years ago from Halfords in Sligo and the bike was well put together. I found out after that one of the guys there was an avid cyclist and knew his stuff.

Maybe people may have recomendations as to what stores are good which are near you.

Cee-Jay-Cee · 15-09-2014 9:35pm

Andalucia wrote: »

wouldn't buy a bike in Halfords if I had to - Boardman are a great bike, but Halfords have a brutal reputation in putting bikes together - want to get someone to give it the once over if you do buy from Halfords

Let me correct that: Some Halfords stores have a poor reputation when it comes to bike maintenance etc and some have a very good reputation. The store near me has a good rep and the bike mechanic is supposedly very good with plenty of experience elsewhere and knows his stuff. Just like everything else, there are good and bad everywhere you go.

ruffmut · 15-09-2014 10:00pm

I bought the 2012 version of this bike a few years ago from Halfords when I started out. I found it to be a great bike and still have it for mucking around with the kids.

WillyFXP · 15-09-2014 10:26pm

Boardman bikes are very good, just tell halfords NOT to build the bike for you, do it yourself, it's fairly straight forward.

Lumen · 15-09-2014 10:33pm

They're like the Mondeo of bikes.

PrismES · 15-09-2014 10:53pm

I still have my 2012 version which I use most days (it's my only bike). I think the brand is let down by Halfords IMHO, but I think it's an excellent bike and regularly do long rides with no discomfort. I also find it pretty fast and can keep up with most road bikes I meet.

Brian? · 15-09-2014 11:17pm

There are some quite lovely boardman bikes. I don't have a problem with them. I have a problem with hybrids though.

triggermortis · 16-09-2014 7:50am

Lumen wrote: »

They're like the Mondeo of bikes.

Not in Zurich they aren't. I've had a few people ask about mine, but most people here tend to be on high end Italian machines.

Back to OP, Boardman bikes are good but you have to be wary of the service in some Halfords stores, as previously mentioned

ZiabR · 16-09-2014 8:24am

Cee-Jay-Cee wrote: »

Let me correct that: Some Halfords stores have a poor reputation when it comes to bike maintenance etc and some have a very good reputation. The store near me has a good rep and the bike mechanic is supposedly very good with plenty of experience elsewhere and knows his stuff. Just like everything else, there are good and bad everywhere you go.

Would agree with this, you cannot paint all the stores with the same brush.

OP - Boardman are good bikes, a few people in my club ride them and love them.

DaithiMC · 16-09-2014 9:48am

logik wrote: »

Would agree with this, you cannot paint all the stores with the same brush.

OP - Boardman are good bikes, a few people in my club ride them and love them.

I don't even think you can paint one store with one brush. I have the Road Race bike and it was well put together. I had subsequent issues with a service I had done on it - obviously the build and the service were done by two different people.

OP - I think if you are considering the Boardman range you can be reasonably confident of the diligence that went into the design given Chris Boardman's maniacal focus on design through his career. I believe more in brand's that involve someone who has had this kind of background than the purely scientific approach that throws in lots of materials science and engineering without much thought to user experience.

Boardman bikes, IMO, are no different in terms of those kinds of inputs to other bikes branded by previous legends, Merckx, Lemond, etc. and also bikes that have been known to have input from perfectionists, Bianchi (Coppi), etc. They are building a reputation at the moment so it may take 20+ years for them to become acceptable to the "connoisseurs" !

Giant, Trek, Specialized, like many US brands in the car industry can be considered the "mass producers" so the GM, Chrysler, and Ford of the industry, with the weight in focus towards "function". The European brands, in a similar vein to the structure of the auto industry, tend to focus more on "form" as their marketing strategy. That all said, like the auto industry, with production methods and materials as they exist today there are very few, if any "crap" bikes unless they are rip-offs made in countries which don't care about using others' designs.

Bottom line - I would have Halford's build it but I would tune it myself or have someone you know look it over. Its plain silly not to have the shop at least assemble it as the parts are all modular anyway - its the tuning and fitting that make the difference.

cormacjones · 16-09-2014 10:00am

triggermortis wrote: »

Not in Zurich they aren't. I've had a few people ask about mine, but most people here tend to be on high end Italian machines.

Back to OP, Boardman bikes are good but you have to be wary of the service in some Halfords stores, as previously mentioned

The clue is in the OP......

padjo5 · 16-09-2014 10:08am

Know a few riding Boardmans, nothing but satisfied owners as far as I'm aware, usually decent value too. Good luck with it.

mondeo · 16-09-2014 1:24pm

I do like the fit and finish of the one I want, its comfy too. I'll probably just take it home in a box and assemble it myself. If I need gears adjusted or whatever I'll let my LBS tune them up.

fat bloke · 16-09-2014 1:47pm

Love these.

http://www.wiggle.com/boardman-slr-98/

Would I be right in saying that Boardman altered their pitch a little bit recently? When they came out first they seemed to be much higher end machines - up around the 3 and a half to four grand mark, with top spec groupsets and zipp wheels. I think the cheapest bike they did was over a 1000 quid. Then a year or two later, the entire range seemed to be focused downwards. Bikes starting at 700 and going up to around 2 grand, but no top drawer halo bikes with dura ace or sram red.

The OP asked about perception, and that marketing alteration did change my perception of them. It's a mistake to price and spec them so closely to the carrera range and I think the Halfords connection was only ever going to detract....

I still like them though. It's a great name, could be a great brand and they are nice looking bikes. The brand is worth cultivating and could be looked after a bit better I reckon.

gman2k · 16-09-2014 1:58pm

All this talk about crap service in Halfords annoys me, you can get atrocious service in many local bike shops.
Some of the things done to my bikes by well known LBS were incompetence of the highest order.

Captain Flaps · 16-09-2014 2:03pm

I have the 2012 edition of that exact bike bought from Halfords on the bike to work. I got it flat packed and built it myself as I didn't trust them to do it properly so I can't comment on their build (though I've had mixed experiences with that in the past.

Here are my main thoughts:

- It's a light enough bike, nowhere near like a racer or similar but I have no problem lifting it over gates or barriers (there's a silly pedestrian entrance to my estate that requires dismounting and lifting the bike over). I have all the stock bits that came with it so i'm sure you could cut the overall weight down a bit by fitting some of your own bits.

- Parts: a week after I bought mine I went into a drain and bent the front wheel and disc quite badly. Not wanting to throw on a cheapy one immediately I went back to Halfords and ordered a replacement for €90. If you're looking for parts look elsewhere as 'original' parts are charged at a premium (I found the same wheel online for much less later).

- Longevity: I've ridden this bike most days since April 2012 at least 10km a day. All I've done in the way of servicing is replaced tubes, oiled it and cleaned it. If I cycle to work and it's raining it stays in the rain until I get home as we don't have a covered bay. I'm certainly not the most careful owner and it has yet to throw up any kind of issues in the time I've had it.

- My one regret is that as a 6'4" rider the large frame is definitely too small for me. I find that long rides are a bit rough on my back, though I have adjusted the height of various components to reduce this a fair bit. I don't think they do an XL (or they certainly didn't when I was buying) so be wary of that.

My criteria for a bike might differ to yours but in terms of a nice, reasonably priced, reasonably lightweight hybrid for commuting and the occasional longer venture (100km circle of Dublin is my usual one), I'd have no problem recommending this as an owner. Never heard anything bad about Boardman bikes beyond general Halfords bashing and the usual 1K+ Bike Owner snobbery.

fat bloke · 16-09-2014 2:29pm

gman2k wrote: »

All this talk about crap service in Halfords annoys me, you can get atrocious service in many local bike shops.

Separate points I think. Other shops being crap doesn't excuse Halfords.
It's probably a bit unfair alright to generalise completely, there must be some bike nuts in some Halfords somewhere.

The general Halfords point for me comes from shopping there for anything else. I find it hard to get a hold of any sales people when I go into the store, and whether it's a car stereo or a wiper blade the staff are often, in my experience, uninterested in doing much more than shrugging and pointing to stock on the shelf.

dub_skav · 16-09-2014 3:55pm

I have a 2009 team Carbon and really like it, haven't done as many Kms on it as I would have liked, but plenty of 100km plus days out and even a 3 dayer in Kerry.

No complaints whatsoever, bought in Halfords Carrickmines and bar having to re-index the gears after a few weeks (which you would get with any bike I'd imagine) have had no problems.

PrismES · 16-09-2014 3:55pm

fat bloke wrote: »

Love these.

http://www.wiggle.com/boardman-slr-98/

Would I be right in saying that Boardman altered their pitch a little bit recently? When they came out first they seemed to be much higher end machines - up around the 3 and a half to four grand mark, with top spec groupsets and zipp wheels. I think the cheapest bike they did was over a 1000 quid. Then a year or two later, the entire range seemed to be focused downwards. Bikes starting at 700 and going up to around 2 grand, but no top drawer halo bikes with dura ace or sram red.

The OP asked about perception, and that marketing alteration did change my perception of them. It's a mistake to price and spec them so closely to the carrera range and I think the Halfords connection was only ever going to detract....

I still like them though. It's a great name, could be a great brand and they are nice looking bikes. The brand is worth cultivating and could be looked after a bit better I reckon.

They still sell high end bikes but through a different channel http://www.boardmanbikes.com/road/air98_Di2.html

Halfords seem to only sell the "Consumer" models.

Boardman bike perception

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