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I'm after a n new cx bike and I'm struggling to see anything for £1k that beats the Boardman CX team in terms of spec. I want hydro disc brakes and can't find anything else that has them at that price. Buying on cycle to work so needs to be £1k or under.
Will be used for the occasional summer commute off road, and a mix of road/lanes/singletrack/forest roads at weekend.
Any suggestions?
I can't find anything with hydraulic discs at that price point either. If you're willing to take cable discs, a whole world of decent spec'ed bikes opens up for you.
I've got an Arkose 4, which is fine as a commuter. I don't want another one as a cx bike.
So I guess the next question is 'any more suggestions?' 🙂
Cable discs aren't an option I'd consider.
If you've got an Arkose 4, what do you expect a Boardman CX Pro or similar to be worth spending ~£700 on in a salary sacrifice scheme for over the Pinnacle?
Couldn't you simply get a set of CX tyres, possibly a nice set of CX wheels and be happy? 😆
Some nice looking cross bikes available from Planet X..........
doncorleoni - Memberhttps://www.evanscycles.com/pinnacle-arkose-2-2017-adventure-road-bike-EV275623
Next question?
when are Evans signing up to the Halfords C2W scheme?
Why not get a cable disc braked bike on C2W then replace the brakes with a set of Deore hydraulic ones for circa £120?
With the C2W scheme can you add your own money to the £1k budget?
I am currently looking at cx bikes for around a grand-ish and i currently have this at the top of my list at the moment....
http://www.allterraincycles.co.uk/cube-cross-race-pro-cyclocross-bike-2017
@pocpop
Loads of potential problems there he'd need to replace the complete hoods for hydraulic, plus the calipers. And the cable runs might not be designed for hydraulic hoses on the frame.
If you've got an Arkose 4, what do you expect a Boardman CX Pro or similar to be worth spending ~£700 on in a salary sacrifice scheme for over the Pinnacle?Couldn't you simply get a set of CX tyres, possibly a nice set of CX wheels and be happy?
Arkose 4 has guards for a start so I'd need to take them off, going away for a weekend I'd need to do that on a Thursday night, then put it back into commuter mode on the Sunday. Way too much hassle.
You can't top up the value on C2W, not officially anyway. Apart from the red cables that cube looks good. Our scheme is with Halfords so planet-x is out.
As for buying a bike with cable discs, then as above I'd need shifters and a set of brakes.
Evans are on ctw I think from this:
https://www.evanscycles.com/b2b/ride-to-work
Boardman is really good for the money... Had a good poke around one in halfords yesterday and it seemed well built.
But as above I think the 2017 arkose bikes offer better value and better geo (plus they look better in my opinion... Yours may differ).
I have history with planet x so won't be recommending them.
Evans don't do Halfords cycle to work scheme, they have their own.
The arkose frame is fine as a commuter, but its a bit dead feeling and really lacks 'zip'. And I don't want the same bike twice, all be it in a different colour 🙂
Or check out Vitus bikes
Nice but I doubt I would get an already discounted bike on CTW. Might give them a call to check but most retailers only let you get a full price bike.
Wouldn't have a whyte for proper CX, don't think you can go wrong with the Boardman for a grand, Halfords would get you other bikes in, but nothing that is as good value.
Yeh I got a Bird Zero last year 🙂
I've loved my Boardman.
Definitely feels different to the Arkose and CDF. Livelier, faster.
I would say that for £1k it's hard to do better. Once you get to £1300+ then there are some good alternatives. I haven't looked in sales though.
Wouldn't have a whyte for proper CX,
Hi Prawny - just wondering why not on the Whyte?
The boardman is a good bike let down by heavy wheels. Get yourself over to superstar before the 30% offer ends, if you do go for it
https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-x20-105-carbon-cyclocross-bike-2016-75222.html
£99 over your budget but what you get is a top Ridley X-fire from a few years back.
This is a proper race X bike. Change of wheels would make it top class.
And in untypical STW fashion I'm recommending a bike I don't have.
I want hydro disc brakes
Sorry!!! It doesn't have hydro's.
Buy a cable braked bike then swop them out the calipers for a set of Juin Tech R1's. as good as hydraulics with less faff.
I bought a Norco Threshold on a whim the other week as Evans had 20% off taking it to just a smidge over £1k. Maybe worth holding out for similar deals if you aren't in a rush. Arkose X or Arkose Singlespeed were on my shortlist at the time and in budget.
Have to say the hydro discs are night and day compared to the mechanical brakes on my old cx bike.
@funkmasterp nothing against Whyte, they're just not (any that I've looked at anyway) proper CX race bikes. Some of them look mint commuters that could turn their hand to a bit of CX if needed, but not proper race bikes
Thanks Prawny. I was looking at the Friston in my LBS last week. Lovely looking bit of kit and allegedly a great all rounder that can do a bit of everything.
Scott speedster with shimano kit and hyd brakes, and they take Halfords LOC.
as good as hydraulics with less faff.
What faff is involved in hydro discs? Mine are faff free. Cable discs on the other hand would be a faff.
The scott looks good but the boardman is a far better spec, full carbon fork against carbon/alloy for example.
Put a set of TRP Hy-Rd callipers on any set of cable hoods.
i have a CAADX tiagra with upgraded brakes for sale in the classifieds- £600 for a 2017 model....
Nice video about a Ridley X-fire:
Of all of the bikes mentioned the Ridley X-fire from Merlin is probably the one that I'd get 8)
mm that cannondale is nice, right size and I could pick up from York. But I'd want to change to hydro discs so would end up similar price to the boardman.
Do you take cycle to work vouchers? 🙂
[quote> https://www.merlincycles.com/merlin-x20-105-carbon-cyclocross-bike-2016-75222.html
£99 over your budget but what you get is a top Ridley X-fire from a few years back.
So Ridley use open mould frames that Merlin also get and badge up, or am i missing something?
The only thing with the boardman is that you know it will be £800 instead of £1000 in the next few months.
The only thing with the boardman is that you know it will be £800 instead of £1000 in the next few months.
I'll wait until they do a '10% off everything' day and I wonder if I can also use my British Cycling discount when using a halfords cycle to work voucher.
I stacked discounts when I got mine.
Easter Bank Holiday is pretty normal for Halfords discounts.
That and get the BC membership sorted.
Through cycle to work Alex? I've stacked discounts before but not sure if it'll apply with cycle to work.
Sorry - No I don't know anything about the cycle schemes.
I think you can stack discounts at Halfords, looking into it myself and it appears you can order it with the discounts and then just pay with the voucher when it arrives.
Anyone got, or seen a review of the new Planet-X bikes?
Hydro brakes and 1x11 for £900 seems unbeatable and I've promised myself new bike once I've commuted enough miles by bke in my new job to pay for it out of petrol money. 4 months, so just in time for cross season!
I think you can stack discounts at Halfords, looking into it myself and it appears you can order it with the discounts and then just pay with the voucher when it arrives.
Sounds promising then.
mm that cannondale is nice, right size and I could pick up from York. But I'd want to change to hydro discs so would end up similar price to the boardman.Do you take cycle to work vouchers?
Could take the shifters and brakes off and charge you less? 😀
I can use them on another bike anyway.....
Cheers, but I'd then need to spend around £400 on shifters & calipers 🙂 That wouldn't make sense for either of us.
Gary - I tried to buy new Thule carriers form Halfords last sale. Ordered online with 10% discount for pickup at local store. Went to pay and collect and they wouldn't give me BC discount on top.....
That's unusual Iain, I've bought loads from halfords on their 10% discount days and always had the BC discount applied. Wonder if they've tightened up on that.
So price of the boardman cx team has been reduced by £200 this week, 10% bcdiscount brings it down to £720, I can buy Halfords vouchers through my employee benefits scheme with 11.5% discount, then 3% cashback through quidco brought the cost down to £613.20. As it's 'end of line' I also got £75 to spend on 'accessories'.
Would have been rude not to. 🙂
That Boardman is a serious tempter currently, good job!
What tyre clearance do you think it has for slicks?
I'm running 700 x 35 landcruisers with full guards. Plenty of clearance.
What pallpark gaps have you got to the fork blades and crown with those 35c Landcruisers on?
If at least 38c tyres fit, I am seriously tempted to pop to Halfords and beg them to let me have a test ride using my Marathon Cross tyres, to see what my lower back makes of the geometry.
I would bet my left nut that P-X will be doing the carbon XLS with apex for a grand again soon. They were even doing them for £800 as a self build option round Christmas.
About 1cm clear over the top half each side id imagine 40 wwould fit aswell.
I have a Boardman CX pro. One of the originals with canti brakes. It's built up as a proper road bike with an old Ultegra groupset. It's a fantastic bike. Not light, but a great all rounder. Boardman didn't do cross so the geometry is classic road bike. And it handles like one. So I've taken mine racing. Road racing not mud. Just for fun. It's running Schwalbe G-One Speed tubeless 32c with mudguards (soon to be carbon) and could take much wider.
Aside from the three and a half kilos of weight it's carrying, it's every bit as capable as my much more expensive Defy SL. Buy with confidence.
Went to look at the CX Team on Friday and try to get a test ride, best they could offer me was to pop in next week to do a turbo trainer session, they are apparently only insured to let e-bikes be test ridden away from stores these days (some old bloke died during a test ride a year or so back, don't know exact circumstances).
The tyre clearance looks very tight at the rear to go beyond 35s, 38 slicks might just about happen, given how the Rocket Rons have some knobbly tread. At the front, 38s look a muc better possibility, with the 35 RRs having ~1cm sideways clearance and ~1.5cm clearance to the fork crown.
Gary M, you did well to get £75 of free accessories, as the CX Team isn't supposed to qualify for that from what I saw online and in-store! Did they let you use it to buy something that cost more than £75 if you wanted, such as a Tacx 2240 smart turbo trainer, or did accessories have to cost less than £75?
[i]Gary M, you did well to get £75 of free accessories, as the CX Team isn't supposed to qualify for that from what I saw online and in-store! Did they let you use it to buy something that cost more than £75 if you wanted, such as a Tacx 2240 smart turbo trainer, or did accessories have to cost less than £75? [/i]
Mate in work ordered one the other day and he asked in the store he's doing click and collect from if the £75 offer applied. He was told 'yes, I suppose so as it's an end of line bike'. I applied the same logic in the store I'm picking mine up from and got pretty much the same response 🙂 I'm picking it up tomorrow so we'll see how it goes. The £75 isn't a deal breaker so not bothered if I get it or not.
Had a look at boardman site and it shows the medium as out of stock, but available on the halfords site which is a bit odd. So glad I bought when I did.
I'm not concerned about tight tyre clearances, it'll be used on forest tracks, man made singletrack and country lanes so nothing majorly muddy
I'm wondering what type of riding people generally do with the Boardman CX Team 2016?
By stacking the discounts right now (Store discount to £800, BC membership 10% off, vouchers 8% off, Top cashback 3.15% off) I think that the CX Team is available for around £640.
How does the CX Team compare as a do-it-all bike for commuting/off-road/touring to bikes like Genesis Croix De Fer or Jamis Renegade Expat, for which I currently can't get a deal so they are £900 or £1k without hydraulic disc brakes. How does the Boardman CX Team's lack of steel frame, different geometry etc make it compare to them for touring?
Are the current CX Team wheels really ~2400g?
Makes the £162 Cosine Disc set a nice weight reduction! http://www.wiggle.co.uk/cosine-23mm-alloy-clincher-disc-brake-road-wheelset/
Just back from my turbo test ride...
The 55.5cm fitted me great, back felt fine. But having ridden Shimano STIs on my road bikes over the last ~20 years, I found the SRAM "double shift" lever very alien and unpredictable, I came away thinking I wouldn't be able to get to the base of a hill and get in the gear I wanted. It almost seemed random whether I shifted up one or two gears at a time, while doing a triple change was reliable.
Hedge End staff were very helpful in accommodating my test, especially the lad who had fun fitting a folding turbo tyre to the 19mm rims and then getting the Tacx turbo clamp to hold the rear wheel in place!
Really not sure, going to have a ponder, especially given 38c tyres look a non-starter.
Are the current CX Team wheels really ~2400g?
No idea but I'll be upgrading them at some point anyway. Rode it to work this morning and it was a pretty enjoyable experience. Feels really solid and planted. Love the lack of front mech, gives a really quiet, smooth ride.
I have double tap on my 'best' road bike so using it isn't an issue for me.