Sold my road bike; fleet is now placcy-free

[wafter]

The Boardman went earlier today; slightly sad to see the back of it as I'd put a lot of time into it and it was fast, comfortable and generally served me well.

However I'd done less than 200 miles on it in the past four years while the frame material made me nervous, I was never a fan of the press-fit bottom bracket and the narrow Q-factor of the crankset made my feet / legs hurt. On top of this it was taking up space and the longer I hung onto it the more it was going to depreciate.

I don't think I did too badly; losing about £150 for 1800 miles and six years of use (well, ownership at least). It's new owner seemed very happy with it


This leaves me with five bikes (shed, tourer, gravel, folder, hard tail), all of which are steel. I'll not write off the potential for another road bike in future, but it won't be composite and likely would either be something tarty and vintage for high-days and holidays, something modern and high-spec or maybe something in the middle.

Regardless it seems that going fast has taken a back seat in my priorities and am currently happy with what the current fleet provides; the Genesis CdF probably being perfectly adequate for "road" duties if I can sort the crankset out.


Farewll Team Carbon - thanks for your sterling service

 

[Ming the Merciless]

Steel is the real deal.

 

[biggs682]

Steel is real

 

[cyberknight]

i have the same bike albeit the year before in yellow/black and still love it , look at new bikes and realize in its current guise with 11 speed rival and new wheels i would have to spend serious cash to get anything better .

 

[Gunk]

Steel is the real deal.

Titanium is even better!

 

[bikingdad90]

better!

At the risk of sounding like GCN:
Quirky angle
Non drive side
Too many gubbins attached.

Nice bike but could do better with the photo 😂. In all seriousness, when I retire or get a massive bonus I think I will get a titanium bike.

 

[Drago]

I never gelled with my Team Carbon either. I bought it off a chum who was being made redundant and wanted the readies, so it wasnt something id normally choose but it was a good price and I was helping someone out.

Nothing wrong with it per se, but my aluminium framed Felt appeared quicker, stiffer, of comparable mass and more comfortable, so I was left wondering what the point of it was.

 

[cyberknight]

I never gelled with my Team Carbon either. I bought it off a chum who was being made redundant and wanted the readies, so it wasnt something id normally choose but it was a good price and I was helping someone out.

Nothing wrong with it per se, but my aluminium framed Felt appeared quicker, stiffer, of comparable mass and more comfortable, so I was left wondering what the point of it was.

For me the wheels were always the weak point , the stock ones were good basic wheels but very heavy and sluggish and dont get me started on the stock saddle !!

 

[Gunk]

At the risk of sounding like GCN:
Quirky angle
Non drive side
Too many gubbins attached.

Nice bike but could do better with the photo 😂. In all seriousness, when I retire or get a massive bonus I think I will get a titanium bike.

Drive side for you

 

[Punkawallah]

Drive side for you

View attachment 732007

Don’t encourage him - he’ll be bemoaning the lack of ‘biggie smalls’ next :-)

 

[ianrauk]

One bike I regret selling was my placcy Spesh Rubaix. Such a lovely ride.
Even though I now exclusively only ride Ti bikes, I do plan on getting another placcy one in the future. Just for the fun of it and for something different.
In fact a close friend is selling his plush Cannondale with di2. I'm so very tempted but I'm moving house shortly and that's stealing all my money at the moment.

 

[Jameshow]

The Boardman went earlier today; slightly sad to see the back of it as I'd put a lot of time into it and it was fast, comfortable and generally served me well.

However I'd done less than 200 miles on it in the past four years while the frame material made me nervous, I was never a fan of the press-fit bottom bracket and the narrow Q-factor of the crankset made my feet / legs hurt. On top of this it was taking up space and the longer I hung onto it the more it was going to depreciate.

I don't think I did too badly; losing about £150 for 1800 miles and six years of use (well, ownership at least). It's new owner seemed very happy with it


This leaves me with five bikes (shed, tourer, gravel, folder, hard tail), all of which are steel. I'll not write off the potential for another road bike in future, but it won't be composite and likely would either be something tarty and vintage for high-days and holidays, something modern and high-spec or maybe something in the middle.

Regardless it seems that going fast has taken a back seat in my priorities and am currently happy with what the current fleet provides; the Genesis CdF probably being perfectly adequate for "road" duties if I can sort the crankset out.


Farewll Team Carbon - thanks for your sterling service

View attachment 731939

I'm pretty sure that your team carbon is a copy of my Cannondale six in my avatar. Just the triangular top tube and down tube (the wrong way round) flat chainstay etc.
Solid carbon bike but not as responsive as a hi mod frame like a supersix.

 

[wafter]

Steel is the real deal.

Steel is real

Indeed... I've pretty much come full-circle from steel in my youth, my first tatty £20 501 road bike at uni via my bone-shaking ally Giant OCR, the CFRP Boardman and now back to those I have now; all sought out because of their frame material.

After years of experience and learning I'm convinced that for most amateur / utility / consumer applications it's by far the best frame material and I have no desire to own anything else; Ti included tbh given some of the stuff I've read about it cracking.

i have the same bike albeit the year before in yellow/black and still love it , look at new bikes and realize in its current guise with 11 speed rival and new wheels i would have to spend serious cash to get anything better .
View attachment 731946

Good work - they seem like great bikes for the money and for what I was I couldn't fault the ownership experience of mine.. it was just a format that I've evidently moved away from while the frame material provided plenty of fuel for my already rampant anxiety.

Would certainly recommend one to the less-paranoid looking for a good budget road bike

I never gelled with my Team Carbon either. I bought it off a chum who was being made redundant and wanted the readies, so it wasnt something id normally choose but it was a good price and I was helping someone out.

Nothing wrong with it per se, but my aluminium framed Felt appeared quicker, stiffer, of comparable mass and more comfortable, so I was left wondering what the point of it was.

It's interesting that your experience was so different to mine; while the bike was no lightweight in comparison to other placcy offerings (IIRC it was about 9.5kg) I found it rode very well and was significantly quicker than anything else I had / have..

For me the wheels were always the weak point , the stock ones were good basic wheels but very heavy and sluggish and dont get me started on the stock saddle !!

Didn't notice a problem with the wheels myself (although have only ever had entry-level stuff); however can appreciate where you're coming from with the saddle!

One bike I regret selling was my placcy Spesh Rubaix. Such a lovely ride.
Even though I now exclusively only ride Ti bikes, I do plan on getting another placcy one in the future. Just for the fun of it and for something different.
In fact a close friend is selling his plush Cannondale with di2. I'm so very tempted but I'm moving house shortly and that's stealing all my money at the moment.

Yeah, I do wonder if I've sticthced myself slightly since, while I don't trust CFRP from a long-term safety perspective, I do appreciate its performance advantages and the Boardman seemed to extol all the cliche'd platitudes you find in reviews - "stiff but compliant" etc.

It would be interesting to try a high-end steel road bike to see how much difference there is in feel and performance. My Genesis is Reynolds 725 but hamstrung by fat tyres, heavy wheels and a less aggressive geometry. It feels nowhere near as sprightly as the Boardman did and was maybe 10-15% slower on average I'd guess. I'd also suggest that the front end comfort was better on the Boardman despite the skinnier rubber; probably because of the fat fork necessary to accommodate disks on the Genesis. That said the CdF got used on far rougher terrain so perhaps I'm doing it a disservice.

Ultimately the proof is in the riding as the Genesis has seen 30 times the mileage than the Boardman in the past four years, which I guess speaks for itself.

Now's probably not a bad time to be buying a used bike; although I think prices at the higher end of the market are holding up better than the bottom..

I'm pretty sure that your team carbon is a copy of my Cannondale six in my avatar. Just the triangular top tube and down tube (the wrong way round) flat chainstay etc.
Solid carbon bike but not as responsive as a hi mod frame like a supersix.

Possibly - since they all require molds (which presumably are of non-trivial cost) I do wonder if there are other bikes out there that are essentially the same..