Carrera TDF or Boardman Road Race

[Chris Thornton]

I'm looking at getting a new road bike on the cycle2work scheme. It's coming down to the TDF at £499 or pay an extra £170 for the Boardman. I was impressed with how much lighter the Boardman was, but I am out of my depth in knowledge and experience with what I'm getting for the money.
Does anyone have any advice/experience on these bikes?
Cheers
Chris

 

[l4dva]

Def boardmans!

 

[NormanD]

Boardman without question

 

[Peteaud]

Boardman 100000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000000%

 

[Berties]

Halfords is a walk in and buy option with not many fans ,Boardmans are good bikes and now Halfords has lost carte blanche on the brand all the better,have you looked at your local independent local bike shop,for your budget you could get a deal with a last season bike,a price in a lbs will be negotiable at about 12%discount,just go in ask and see what you can get,
you can always give the forum a list of bikes and see what the opinions come up,in my experience dealing with halfords was like pulling teeth and lbs was a ray of help,keep us posted and don't make a quick decision,get the best for your money

 

[Chris Thornton]

Hi Berties - thanks for the advice. I'll be honest and say I'd love to use my lbs...not a fan of Halfords, but the C2W scheme is the only way I can afford either of these bikes and to get it I have to go through Halfords. I'm embarrassed to say I currently struggle to work on a Muddyfox mountain bike and the C2W scheme is giving me hope of a much better commute

 

[Herr-B]

Take a look at Ribble, they do the scheme and I've found the whole process with them painless, including choosing the groupset and other options you don't normally get elsewhere without a premium.

 

[Tight Git]

Be aware that the TDF was about £300 up to a few weeks ago. It's a fairly reasonable assumption that just before Christmas they will have a sale and a massive reduction! So if you can wait a bit it should become a good bit cheaper.

 

[vickster]

There are a number of LBS's that will take Halfords vouchers, e.g. On Your Bike, Pearsons, Condor

 

[defy-one]

my neighbour has the tdf and i would say there is no comparison with the Boardman. the tdf doesn't have a carbon fibre front fork, making the front end heavy and weighty. it just doesn't respond well. go for the Boardman

 

[GlenBen]

As tight git says, the tdf isnt worth the price its at right now, if you wait until the next sale change itll probably fall at least £100, at which point youd be asking a different question.

Id say if you can afford it, the boardman looks good on paper and Ive never heard anyone say a bad word about it.

 

[Arsen Gere]

I paid £290 for a TDF as a work bike, I have had 2 Boardmans. I would never choose a TDF over a Boardman.

 

[lejogger]

On the Halfords scheme they can source any bike for you if they can find it, and this year we had a few staff who were able to go to their lbs with the Halfords voucher, but only once they'd tried and failed to source it elsewhere. They must just pay the bike shop full value in order to keep scheme members happy. It's very good that they acknowledge the Halfords range doesn't always suit everyone - I'm very impressed with the scheme.

However... i've got two Boardmans and I've been super impressed with them. For around 3 years now I'd say they've been right up there amongst the best (if not the best) value range around.

 

[Chris Thornton]

thanks everyone for your help on this. I think the Boardman is looking good. But as I would prefer to give business to my local independent I'll pop along to them to see if I can use lejogger's advice. Once I've had a look at what they have to offer I'll pop back here and see what you guys think

 

[Chris Thornton]

My local independant stocks the following brands:

Cube, Pashley, Lapierre, Ridgeback, Saracen, Dawes, Raleigh, DIAMONDBACK and Haro

I haven't had a chance to pop in yet, but does anyone have any experience with these?