Thoughts on Boardman bikes

[vickster]

A lot of carbon frames have creaking problems with press-fit BBs, not just Boardman.

I had the same on my Genesis Datum but cured it by fitting a replacement Wheels Manufacturing BB where the two sides screw together. Not cheap, around £70, but then neither is a carbon frame.

These are aluminium frames with creaks ...

 

[Lovacott]

You expected it to be poor and therefore sorted out the things Halfords should have done. For you it was the path of least resistance, less hassle than taking it back and arguing the toss with the shop manager.

I actually did take it back the next day (I started a thread about it on here).

The handlebars were loose which made me question the shop assembly torque settings. Also, the drivetrain seemed very stiff.

The guy at the bike counter went over all of the settings and while he was doing that, I played with the display model nearby (for comparison).

Bottom line is that the bike is excellent and the quality of components is faultless (in my eyes).

Poor set up by 17 year old kids in Halfords is not a manufacturing fault born in China.

 

[cyberknight]

You expected it to be poor and therefore sorted out the things Halfords should have done. For you it was the path of least resistance, less hassle than taking it back and arguing the toss with the shop manager. I would have done the same, because I trust my own work more than a min wage spanner monkey in retail. Halfords got away with selling a substandard product because to you the value was good enough to swallow some DIY fettling time. A mechanical numpty buyer would have just tried to ride it straight away then started moaning loudly about the build quality.
Halfords get away with it because they are a national chain and they sell a lot of bikes through C2W. The convenience outweighs the mediocrity for enough buyers.

Maybe an analogy regards the general public's level of interest in bike related stuff ? compared to a a kiddie clunker the bike probably felt great and you see plenty of bikes that are misused and mistreated yet are happily ridden by people whos only care is to get somewhere .Is it a bit like petrol heads who more and likely wince when i pull up in my dacia and they have spent all weekend buffing and tuning whatever it is that makes them tingle ?

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

Bottom line is that the bike is excellent and the quality of components is faultless (in my eyes).

Poor set up by 17 year old kids in Halfords is not a manufacturing fault born in China.

A QC fail is a QC fail, whether it happens in the factory or the shop. You can fix a badly adjusted bike, you can't fix an out of spec size BB that creaks. You got basically a good bike that was poorly prepared. You could have just as easily got a badly manufactured bike that was set up OK, but had faults beyond the control of the shop staff.
Because the price is right and the VFM is there, you expect and tolerate a certain amount of shortcomings. If you had paid three or four times the price for a premium bike brand I doubt you would be so relaxed about it though, knowing how much profit was being made and still couldn't get the product right.

 

[Lovacott]

A QC fail is a QC fail, whether it happens in the factory or the shop. You can fix a badly adjusted bike, you can't fix an out of spec size BB that creaks.

And I would argue that Halfords can't afford to have 5% of people complaining about creaky bikes.

Nobody buys anything much over £100 these days without first reading online reviews.

If the first two reviews say "creaky", they'll spend their money on something else.

You can bet your arse that if my SLR 8.9 had a creaky frame, I'd be warning off others from buying the same bike.

Halfords knows this, the Boardman brand knows this and the Chinese manufacturer knows this.

Quality control is the only thing standing between millions in revenue or potential bankruptcy.

 

[SkipdiverJohn]

How much are reviews tempered by the VFM factor though? If I buy something expensive and pay full retail for it, I am going to complain very loudly about any shortcomings whatsoever. However if I buy something where I feel I'm getting a lot of bang for my buck, my tolerance level is going to be that bit higher on the basis that even with some problem that needed sorting, the VFM was still good.

 

[Lovacott]

How much are reviews tempered by the VFM factor though? If I buy something expensive and pay full retail for it, I am going to complain very loudly about any shortcomings whatsoever.

That depends on the buying power of the buyer.

Someone who spends a months wages on a bike is probably going to be a bit more analytic than the billionaire who used pocket change to buy a bike in order to kill a bit of time while his missus was browsing in Tiffanies.

If I bought an Argos Challenge mountain bike for £99.99, I wouldn't moan if the BB cup and cones failed two years and fifty miles later. It's only cost me a night in the pub with a kebab on the way home,

If I buy a £450 Voodoo from a so called cycling specialist shop though, I want bloody perfection and if anything very minor goes wrong in the first two years, I'll be all over the web trashing it.

I suspect that most UK average earners like myself, feel exactly the same way.

 

[Sniper68]

If I buy a £450 Voodoo from a so called cycling specialist shop though, I want bloody perfection and if anything very minor goes wrong in the first two years, I'll be all over the web trashing it.
I suspect that most UK average earners like myself, feel exactly the same way.

£450/2 years?Come on you have to be joking?
You couldn't expect nothing to go wrong on a £5k bike in 2 years let alone a £450!!
No one but the owner can be blamed if something minor goes wrong after two years.What do you really expect for £450!!??

I would hazard a guess that most 'average earner' riders would just suck it up and sort the 'very minor' issue out themselves.

 

[Rusty Nails]

These are aluminium frames with creaks ...

From what I have read the creaks on press-fit BBs can affect alloy as well as carbon frames. The design on these BBs relies on a very snug fit and accurate machining of the housing for the BB, and even a minor error can result in creaks. This is not really an issue with external bearings, or the old square taper BBs.

 

[vickster]

It’s academic as I think the bike in the OP has a threaded BB (some FSA job I’d)

 

[the_mikey]

Everything else being equal, if Boardman still favour press fit bottom brackets, I'd choose something else (my current Boardman creaks, as did the previous)

They are popular (probably as sold through Halfords and cost effective compared to the 'big' brands)

In general what they offer *looks* good, but I don't like their choice of bottom brackets, it seems a future maintenance nightmare that they're happy to pass onto their customers in return for slightly lower prices.

 

[Lovacott]

£450/2 years?Come on you have to be joking?
You couldn't expect nothing to go wrong on a £5k bike in 2 years let alone a £450!!

Why not?

For clarification, I don't mean normal wear and tear stuff like chains, cassettes and chain rings. They are supposed to wear out over time.

 

[DRM]

In general what they offer *looks* good, but I don't like their choice of bottom brackets, it seems a future maintenance nightmare that they're happy to pass onto their customers in return for slightly lower prices.

The ADV 8.6 has a square taper BB, the ADV 8.9 has an FSA Mega Exo 4000BB , non have a press fit BB

 

[Chislenko]

The ADV 8.6 has a square taper BB, the ADV 8.9 has an FSA Mega Exo 4000BB , non have a press fit BB

It's filled up four pages though 😀

 

[DRM]

It's filled up four pages though 😀

Yes, it’s time to put it out of it’s misery