Mountain Bikes in Halfords

c montgomery

First off thanks to everyone for the advice I received to my earlier enquiries about full suspensions mountain bikes.

In the meantime however my place of work has decided they will only deal with Halfords in relation to the bike to work scheme so I have to buy one there.

Because I can spend up to 1000 euro with the BTW i am looking at getting a Broadman MTB. Have never met anyone who has one but the specs look good.

Can anyone please give me advice as I really don’t know much about them.

Link to bike below.

http://www.halfords.com/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_10001_catalogId_10151_productId_502033_langId_-1_categoryId_165499


Many Thanks

littleknown

looks like a very good deal to me, especially from a shop, you can get similar deals on other bikes e.g canyon for the same money but i reckon its always better to get from a shop if you can,nice bike

has picked up some good write ups as well

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbht/ht_Pro.html

penexpers

I think Halfords sell Kona bikes and that's what I would be looking at.

CheGuedara

Nice spec on the boardman for sure - just make sure its €1000 and not £1000GBP - that would be a shock to the wallet!! (you could be looking at THIS (=e1000)

I think if I was in the market for a kona however that I'd have to look into Cycleogical to see what's 1/2 price in there first

BostonB

CheGuedara wrote: »

Nice spec on the boardman for sure - just make sure its €1000 and not £1000GBP - that would be a shock to the wallet!! (you could be looking at THIS (=e1000)

I think if I was in the market for a kona however that I'd have to look into Cycleogical to see what's 1/2 price in there first

You wouldn't bother with the cycle to work scheme?

CheGuedara

No, by all means it should be availed of, but don't let it be your only avenue of investigation. If it was available to me and it provided the best value for money (not necessarily the lowest price) I would def utilise it - getting the Boardman that comes in at e1000 would be practiacally robbery if you could avail of it and you were in the higher tax band.

But I wouldn't rush to hafords to buy say, a Kona (in particular), given the sales that some shops have on them. If for arguments sake there was an e1600 Kona down to e800 in Cycleogical I'd probably go with that even if it was a little more expensive. And then I'd have an LBS that has staff that really knows their stuff & can actually service a bike to go back to in the future, not the ham fisted fumblings of Halfords tweenies with their novelty toolkits and puzzled looks.

I'm not sure how that company can decide to only deal with one other company for something like this in anycase - is it not some form of cartel/monopoly thing? Definitely robs the workers of choice. The scheme itself doen't make the same links to certain other suppliers does it?

Hypothetically, if the OP could get his boss to be a bit more flexible, think of the saving getting a e2000 bike at half price in Cycleogical and then the saving from the scheme applied to it - that could bring it to less than e800 out of the workers pocket!! (I think, I'm not Eddie hobbs so my math is liable to be off).

BostonB

You could buy the bike in the Cycle to Work approved shop, then get it serviced set up somewhere else. Whats the chance of getting a bike at 50% in Cycleogical?

CheGuedara

You could get it serviced elsewhere true enough but I'd gamble you'd be better treated as a returning customer with a bike they sold you themselves in any bike shop.

As for the 50% thing, I'd imagine the chances are pretty good. Certainly the last time I passed it it had 50% sale posters up in the windows and going in it was on almost all bike stock. My dad even got an R3 built up there coz he couldn't beat the prices he was quoted anywhere. Don't know if they've finished the sale, I haven't passed by in a few weeks now.

Anyone else out there know?

c montgomery

Unfortunately I have to buy the bike in halfords if I wanna use the bike to work scheme.

The Boardman pro is retailing at 1330 in halfords in Ireland so I may actually go for the cheaper Boardman team instead.

Link below,

All advice and criticism welcome

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbht/ht_team.html

Jawgap

c montgomery wrote: »

Unfortunately I have to buy the bike in halfords if I wanna use the bike to work scheme.

The Boardman pro is retailing at 1330 in halfords in Ireland so I may actually go for the cheaper Boardman team instead.

Link below,

All advice and criticism welcome

http://www.boardmanbikes.com/mtbht/ht_team.html

If it's for commuting only why not go with one of the hybrids?

Boardman was better known for his road / track exploits than his mountain biking.

CheGuedara

Very respectable bike - frame seems to be a fairly standard lightweight butted aluminium affair, meaning its aluminium (light) and the tubing has been tuned so that its thinner where it can afford to be to save further weight.

The Reba fork is a nice feature: it's air sprung (so you'll need to get a fork pump BTW) meaning its nice and light and its got rebound damping to fine tune the ride and a lock out (you'll love it, it means you can still hockey the bike up hill as well as downhill). I have the Reba race fork and so far it seems to be totally reliable, no mechanicals.

The disc brakes, haven't used Avid (only Magura or Hope) but the company has a good reputation. As a rule this type of brake are serious anchors - carefull with the front brake, its a 185mm rotor so quite powerful till you're used to them.

SRAM gears - good, not much experience with them but as an alternative to Shimano they seem to be an exact rival and the components specced seem to be batting in the Deore LX price range. That means it's going to be pretty light as well as being durable enought to take a bit of XC racing.

The wheels look ok, disc specific rims and sealed bearing hubs means maintenance & servicing in the future should be a doddle. To make life easier for commuting you'll almost certainly have to change the tyres (& tubes) to something much narrower, 1inch if possible, and practically bald to make the bike efficient on the road.

As Jawgap says though - a hybrid might be more suited to the job. The boardman is a MTB and best used for off road but if it's what takes your fancy go for it - just be sure to use it.

BostonB

I have a Boardman hybrid on my shortlist if work gets the CTW scheme going.

c montgomery

CheGuedara wrote: »

Very respectable bike - frame seems to be a fairly standard lightweight butted aluminium affair, meaning its aluminium (light) and the tubing has been tuned so that its thinner where it can afford to be to save further weight.

The Reba fork is a nice feature: it's air sprung (so you'll need to get a fork pump BTW) meaning its nice and light and its got rebound damping to fine tune the ride and a lock out (you'll love it, it means you can still hockey the bike up hill as well as downhill). I have the Reba race fork and so far it seems to be totally reliable, no mechanicals.

The disc brakes, haven't used Avid (only Magura or Hope) but the company has a good reputation. As a rule this type of brake are serious anchors - carefull with the front brake, its a 185mm rotor so quite powerful till you're used to them.

SRAM gears - good, not much experience with them but as an alternative to Shimano they seem to be an exact rival and the components specced seem to be batting in the Deore LX price range. That means it's going to be pretty light as well as being durable enought to take a bit of XC racing.

The wheels look ok, disc specific rims and sealed bearing hubs means maintenance & servicing in the future should be a doddle. To make life easier for commuting you'll almost certainly have to change the tyres (& tubes) to something much narrower, 1inch if possible, and practically bald to make the bike efficient on the road.

As Jawgap says though - a hybrid might be more suited to the job. The boardman is a MTB and best used for off road but if it's what takes your fancy go for it - just be sure to use it.

Cheers Che,

Being honest i dont plan on using the bike to cycle to work everyday. Only on weekend when the traffic is not as hectic.
I will however be using it for trail riding and mainly in ballyhoura so im hoping this bike will stand up to it:)


Edit: BTW were you talking about the team or pro bike??

CheGuedara

The team version - the one that's coming in closer to the e1000

c montgomery

CheGuedara wrote: »

The team version - the one that's coming in closer to the e1000

Cheers Che,
Gonna go for that one i think.

CheGuedara

c montgomery wrote: »

Cheers Che,
Gonna go for that one i think.

No bother - there's a mind boggling array of terms, brands etc etc when you're starting out but you get there eventually.

You're gonna have to give a ride review of it now after bringing it around Ballyhoura mind you

c montgomery

Its just not easy picking a bike!!!!

Was in halfords a while ago and saw this kona reduced by 200 euro to 1100, the same price as the boardman i was looking at.

Link to kona bike below

Gotta decide by friday so again all advice greatfully appreciated

http://www.konaworld.com/09_kula_u.cfm

CheGuedara

Stay with the boardman, the spec looks better