Boardman Bikes Premium?

[Drago]

You're doing it wrong. From "People Just Do Nothing":

Craig's letting me use his Lynx. He's actually perfected the perfect blend.

Yeah?

So is it just two sprays of Excite?

No, no, no. One spray of Excite... ..two sprays of Dark Temptation... And then, the last bit, just a mist of Africa.

For best effect should I be spraying my groin?

 

[BigMeatball]

Boardman premium bikes are
- too expensive for newbies who aren't yet influenced by brand and advertising
- too cheap for the average wannabe posh cyclist who can't see past brand

They can't win so might as well just cut their losses.

Same problem with Decathlon and their fancier brand van rysel: great bikes with unparalleled value for money that nobody will buy.

 

[dodgy]

Boardman premium bikes are
- too expensive for newbies who aren't yet influenced by brand and advertising
- too cheap for the average wannabe posh cyclist who can't see past brand

They can't win so might as well just cut their losses.

Same problem with Decathlon and their fancier brand van rysel: great bikes with unparalleled value for money that nobody will buy.

Apart from me, maybe. Put it this way, I was driving Skodas for years despite their terrible image, all my mates laughing along until the adverts started getting 'cooler' and actually quite funny. I must be largely uninfluenced by marketing and branding (thought not completely perhaps)

 

[rogerzilla]

I can't really fault my Team Carbon for the £850 it cost new (I did change a few bits). It's not a massively inspiring thing to ride - I have no experience of other CF bikes but it is noisy and dead-feeling - but it is light and the components were fairly well-chosen. The PF30 BB has given no trouble, possibly because it has never got wet.

Do I feel slightly ashamed to ride it? Yes, I suppose I do. Not because it was cheap, but because other riders assume I'm a n00b. I'd rather be seen on one of my older steel bikes, which are a lot cheaper but much "cooler".

You can go too far the other way: a mesomorphic 50-something on a Pinarello Dogma would be a bit sad. I'm not going to win a cat 4 race, let alone the Tour de France.

 

[BigMeatball]

I can't really fault my Team Carbon for the £850 it cost new (I did change a few bits). It's not a massively inspiring thing to ride - I have no experience of other CF bikes but it is noisy and dead-feeling - but it is light and the components were fairly well-chosen. The PF30 BB has given no trouble, possibly because it has never got wet.

Do I feel slightly ashamed to ride it? Yes, I suppose I do. Not because it was cheap, but because other riders assume I'm a n00b.

must be fun when you overtake them on their overpriced specialized and bianchi

one of the finest pleasures in life.

 

[rogerzilla]

must be fun when you overtake them on their overpriced specialized and bianchi

one of the finest pleasures in life.

It's best on a home-built fixie. Or a Brompton. You can't lose a race on a Brompton; either the rider on the racing bike is humiliated by being beaten, or he/she has merely managed to overtake someone on a clown's bike

 

[matticus]

See also: Wiggle and "DHB". I wonder if they would have sold anywhere near as much "Wiggle"-branded clothing?

 

[Drago]

I can't really fault my Team Carbon for the £850 it cost new (I did change a few bits). It's not a massively inspiring thing to ride - I have no experience of other CF bikes but it is noisy and dead-feeling - but it is light and the components were fairly well-chosen. The PF30 BB has given no trouble, possibly because it has never got wet.

Do I feel slightly ashamed to ride it? Yes, I suppose I do. Not because it was cheap, but because other riders assume I'm a n00b. I'd rather be seen on one of my older steel bikes, which are a lot cheaper but much "cooler".

You can go too far the other way: a mesomorphic 50-something on a Pinarello Dogma would be a bit sad. I'm not going to win a cat 4 race, let alone the Tour de France.

Much like my SLR carbon. The geometry is slower than my Felt, it's not a smoother a ride, and isn't quite as comfortable as my alloy framed Felt. It's not a bad bike by any means, it's simply not a great one - it's nothing that the big manufacturers haven't sometimes done better with alloy for 3 or 400 less.

In fact, it's almost as if it's carbon for the sake of it, rather than carbon because it's actually bringing the rider a tangible gain at this price point. In a sense though, that's not a bad commercial move - the sort of people who watch GCN will also blindly clamour for carbon, as it must surely be automatically be superior to aluminium, right?

Wrong.

But the GCN masseev are happy to buy lots of them and make halfords very happy.

I got mine less than half price from a friend at only 30 or so miles of usage as he decided he was going to buy a house and was raising cash, but I'd have been mighty aggrieved if I'd paid 900 or a bag of sand for one.

 

[rogerzilla]

The CF does mean it is as light as bikes costing many thousands. But it's surprisingly flexible at the rear, causing rubbing issues on climbs, and it doesn't give a particularly plush ride. It's almost as if it's stiff in the wrong plane.

 

[BigMeatball]

Just checked their website and they do have a couple of newer and higher spec models (slr 9.6 and slr 9.2). The 9.6 looks very slick and well equipped (3.3k for ultegra Di2 is not bad).

 

[Maherees]

And I like the new 9.0 gravel bike. Well spec’d.