Boardman bikes

Membrane said:

Who would buy a mid to high end bike
from Halfords?

I think that's the key question.

BugBear

in message <[email hidden]>, Membrane

(') said:

Had a gander at the Boardman road bikes at a local Halfords at the
weekend (was in there to get some copper grease). 3 models, one 105, one
Ultegra and the top model Dura Ace based. The top model out of those
three was mixed with a Truvativ carbon crank set. An eerie feeling crept
over me seeing Ultegra and Dura Ace parts on bikes sold by Halfords,
something felt wrong with that. Who would buy a mid to high end bike
from Halfords?

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

It is, but so is Colnago's 'quatrifoglio' tube profile. Lots of
manufacturers are playing with 'distinctive' tube shapes to differentiate
their bikes from competitors. They will be adequately strong, and only a
tiny bit heavier than they need to be.

Quoted message said:

All three had alu
alloy frames, top model had carbon seat stays + carbon horizontal tubes
in the rear triangle.

Finishing detail on the bikes looked poor, but that could have been down
to this particular Halfords branch (I've seen bikes on display half
coming apart in their racks before), or Joe public not being able to
resist lifting these bikes up to see how much they weigh (myself
included :-/ ).

Well, that's the problem, as far as I'm concerned. The specs look OK, and I
like the understated colours and branding. But if you're going to buy a
top-line bike, are you going to go to Halfords? Would you trust Halfords
to built it up? Chris Boardman is a famous cyclist, but he's not a famous
frame-builder, and these frames are presumably produced by Kinesis or
Giant - not that there's anything wrong with Kinesis or Giant frames, but,
if I'm going to buy one why pay extra for the Boardman name?

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/
/-\ You have discovered a security flaw in a Microsoft product. You
|-| can report this issue to our security team. Would you like to
| | * Be completely ignored (default)?
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\_/ * Spend hours helping us fix this problem on your own phone bill?

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Membrane

(') said:

Had a gander at the Boardman road bikes at a local Halfords at the
weekend (was in there to get some copper grease). 3 models, one 105, one
Ultegra and the top model Dura Ace based. The top model out of those
three was mixed with a Truvativ carbon crank set. An eerie feeling crept
over me seeing Ultegra and Dura Ace parts on bikes sold by Halfords,
something felt wrong with that. Who would buy a mid to high end bike
from Halfords?

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

It is, but so is Colnago's 'quatrifoglio' tube profile. Lots of
manufacturers are playing with 'distinctive' tube shapes to differentiate
their bikes from competitors. They will be adequately strong, and only a
tiny bit heavier than they need to be.

Quoted message said:

All three had alu
alloy frames, top model had carbon seat stays + carbon horizontal tubes
in the rear triangle.

Finishing detail on the bikes looked poor, but that could have been down
to this particular Halfords branch (I've seen bikes on display half
coming apart in their racks before), or Joe public not being able to
resist lifting these bikes up to see how much they weigh (myself
included :-/ ).

Well, that's the problem, as far as I'm concerned. The specs look OK, and I
like the understated colours and branding. But if you're going to buy a
top-line bike, are you going to go to Halfords? Would you trust Halfords
to built it up? Chris Boardman is a famous cyclist, but he's not a famous
frame-builder, and these frames are presumably produced by Kinesis or
Giant - not that there's anything wrong with Kinesis or Giant frames, but,
if I'm going to buy one why pay extra for the Boardman name?

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Rob

Rob said:

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

Aren't Planet-X bikes available through Halfords in the UK? Planet-X
have a TdF special offer on at the moment where they offer their carbon
road frame equipped with full Ultegra and Reynolds wheels for £999. That
seems like a much better deal than the Boardman bikes (alas it is a time
limited offer).

--
Membrane

Rob said:

Simon Brooke said:

in message <[email hidden]>, Membrane
([email hidden]'😉 wrote:

<Snip>

Quoted message said:

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Rob

Boardman nothing. The Bikehut in Brighton has some De Rosa's in. I think
I might have trouble persuading the boss that its a commuter bike tho 🙂

Stan Cox

Membrane said:

Rob said:

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

I can't remember the upper limit. I had in mind one of the performance
hybrids at 500UKP.

Quoted message said:

Aren't Planet-X bikes available through Halfords in the UK? Planet-X
have a TdF special offer on at the moment where they offer their carbon
road frame equipped with full Ultegra and Reynolds wheels for £999. That
seems like a much better deal than the Boardman bikes (alas it is a time
limited offer).

I was after a hybrid - I had a look on the web site and couldn't see
anything that offered decent price/components, but I didn't look *that*
hard. It'd have to be pretty enticing for me to 'go Halfords'.

Rob

Membrane said:

Had a gander at the Boardman road bikes at a local Halfords at the
weekend (was in there to get some copper grease). 3 models, one 105, one
Ultegra and the top model Dura Ace based. The top model out of those
three was mixed with a Truvativ carbon crank set. An eerie feeling crept
over me seeing Ultegra and Dura Ace parts on bikes sold by Halfords,
something felt wrong with that. Who would buy a mid to high end bike
from Halfords?

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick. All three had alu
alloy frames, top model had carbon seat stays + carbon horizontal tubes
in the rear triangle.

Finishing detail on the bikes looked poor, but that could have been down
to this particular Halfords branch (I've seen bikes on display half
coming apart in their racks before), or Joe public not being able to
resist lifting these bikes up to see how much they weigh (myself
included :-/ ).

--
Membrane

similarly, decathlon have some road bikes in at around a grand, with
an interesting variety of components, and carbon rear triangle. they
didn't exactly look *bad* but who'd buy one at that price from
decathlon?

ric said:

similarly, decathlon have some road bikes in at around a grand, with
an interesting variety of components, and carbon rear triangle. they
didn't exactly look *bad* but who'd buy one at that price from
decathlon?

The difference being that Decathlon do (or did) supply bikes for at
least one of the tour teams.

As an aside, Google Groups now correctly handles replies, putting no
spaces at the top of the post and placing the cursor at the bottom.

Jon

in message <[email hidden]>, Jon has

moved ! (') said:

ric said:

similarly, decathlon have some road bikes in at around a grand, with
an interesting variety of components, and carbon rear triangle. they
didn't exactly look *bad* but who'd buy one at that price from
decathlon?

The difference being that Decathlon do (or did) supply bikes for at
least one of the tour teams.

Do (AG2R) - and they're very good bikes:

http://www.btwincycle.com/EN/index.html

--
[email hidden] (Simon Brooke) http://www.jasmine.org.uk/~simon/

;; For in much wisdom is much grief; and he that increaseth
;; knowledge increaseth sorrow.." - Ecclesiastes 1:18

Rob said:

Membrane said:

Rob <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Quoted message said:

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

I can't remember the upper limit. I had in mind one of the performance
hybrids at 500UKP.

Quoted message said:

Aren't Planet-X bikes available through Halfords in the UK? Planet-X
have a TdF special offer on at the moment where they offer their carbon
road frame equipped with full Ultegra and Reynolds wheels for £999. That
seems like a much better deal than the Boardman bikes (alas it is a time
limited offer).

I was after a hybrid - I had a look on the web site and couldn't see
anything that offered decent price/components, but I didn't look *that*
hard. It'd have to be pretty enticing for me to 'go Halfords'.

Rob

Though the cycle2work scheme is run through Halfords you can get them
(the scheme people not the shop) to order in pretty much anything.
When my company did it a couple of years ago you couldn't get Planet-x
but I did get a Specialized through it.
The £1000 limit is the limit at which the company can lend money to
you without being licensed.

In article <[email hidden]>, Membrane
[email hidden] says...

Quoted message said:

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

From an engineering POV funny tube shapes and sizes are usually about
stiffness-to-weight ratio rather than strength-to-weight ratio. Carbon
fibre allows a lot of fine tuning in the layup - it's quite possible
that the sides of the square tube have more layers of carbon fibre than
the top and bottom, giving greater side-to-side stiffness combined with
a bit more spring vertically. Or it could just be a marketing gimmick.
:-)

Rob Morley said:

Quoted message said:

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

From an engineering POV funny tube shapes and sizes are usually about
stiffness-to-weight ratio rather than strength-to-weight ratio. Carbon
fibre allows a lot of fine tuning in the layup - it's quite possible
that the sides of the square tube have more layers of carbon fibre than
the top and bottom, giving greater side-to-side stiffness combined with
a bit more spring vertically. Or it could just be a marketing gimmick.
:-)

Top tubes on Boardman road bikes are alu alloy.

--
Membrane

It depends entirely on the staff in your local Bike Hut. One fo the
lads in my cycle club works at our local Halfords and really rates the
bikes. The top tubes do tend to be Boardmanesque, ie on the long side
for the size of bike, but otherwise, if built up well, they are really
solid pieces of kit and good value.

I'll have a look next time I am in there to see if they have any in
yet.

...d

Membrane said:

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

It depends on the credit license being used. The free downloadable one
limits you to a grand, but if the employer does a bit more paperwork and
pays a small fee you can get a license that will go over.

The one here is limited to a grand because management were worried by
folks in Glasgow leaving jobs having bought very high end computers on
the similar scheme a couple of years ago. But if you can make a case
they've got the license and you can get a Very Expensive One.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Membrane said:

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

I think it depends what direction you're stressing it in, or such was
the reason why motorcycles went to box section tubing on high end models
back in the 80s (though I have no idea if that was kept up, or abandoned).

Holding a square tube horizontally, the side walls are in-line
vertically and theoretically would help resist bending better: think how
a ruler is much more difficult to bend if you do it along the plane of
it, rather than perpendicular. But like I said, I don't know how that
translates in practice.

Round tube is equally strong in all directions, and I guess is a lot
easier to make.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Rob said:

Membrane said:

Rob <[email hidden]> wrote:

Quoted message said:

Quoted message said:

My employer had a cycle to work scheme - the catch being that you had to
get the bike through Halfords. Which pretty much ruled it out for me.
The Boardman bikes might make me look again when/if it's relaunched.

Quoted message said:

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

I can't remember the upper limit. I had in mind one of the performance
hybrids at 500UKP.

above GBP1000 your company would need a consumer credit license. Quite
doable but more trouble than they can be bothered with for many
firms. My firm allows me to chip in but doesn't offer any share in
the ownership of the bike thus bought. AIUI Halfords can source bikes
from other suppliers if you want but check first as I am sure they
will be less keen for the lower profit margin

best wishes
james

Peter Clinch said:

Quoted message said:

Their square top tubes also looked really strange, afaik round tubing is
the strongest shape, it looked like a fashion gimmick.

I think it depends what direction you're stressing it in

My assumption may indeed have been to simplistic. FWIW the square top
tube on the Boardman bikes is positioned such:

/\
\/

But I don't know if the top tube in a bicycle frame needs to be
preferentially strong in a certain plane. I suspect not, in which case
my guess is that for a square tube and a round tube of equal weight,
round is the better shape.

--
Membrane

Membrane said:

My assumption may indeed have been to simplistic. FWIW the square top
tube on the Boardman bikes is positioned such:

/\
\/

Hmmmmm, the motorcycle ones tend to be square rather than diamond IIRC.

Quoted message said:

But I don't know if the top tube in a bicycle frame needs to be
preferentially strong in a certain plane. I suspect not, in which case
my guess is that for a square tube and a round tube of equal weight,
round is the better shape.

I suspect it wouldn't make much difference, to be honest. Which gets
back to your first theory of it being a gimmick, but that doesn't
necessarily make it a deal-breaker. For example, GT's "double
traingulated" frames serve no real purpose and may even be a slight
mis-feature, but GT have turned out plenty of worthwhile bikes over the
years that people have usefully got about on.
Diamond frame bikes are, in practice, generally quite similar (at least
in any given material at any given price level), and stuff like the
frame being the right size and equipped with suitable components will, I
suspect, be far more significant than tubing cross section.

Pete.
--
Peter Clinch Medical Physics IT Officer
Tel 44 1382 660111 ext. 33637 Univ. of Dundee, Ninewells Hospital
Fax 44 1382 640177 Dundee DD1 9SY Scotland UK
net [email hidden] http://www.dundee.ac.uk/~pjclinch/

Membrane said:

Isn't there a £1000 spending limit under the bike2work scheme? If so
then afaics only the entry level Boardman road bike would quality.

Only in what the employer pays. When I got my bike under the scheme I
paid the balance over £1k direct to the shop. I didn't get the tax
break on the extra but I got the bike I wanted.

Tony