Help me decide which road bike

thanks for your input people

on reading the reviews at bike radar, the boardman bike seems more suited to me over the Planet X.

From what I can gather, the Planet X is more towards sprints and the Boardman is more about stability and longer rides.

So based on that i'd say boardman, or have I got my facts incorrect ?
 
ShiWarrior said:
a week or two ago, yes when i was looking second hand, any good?
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I'm not sure, thats why I asked you, but all the reviews I've come across do nothing but rave about them.

ShiWarrior said:
The Giant Defy 1 is Alu not Carbon, s o would it best to get a different Giant? like the Advanced one?
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Maybe somebody more enlightened than myself can answer this one. The Defy 1 is the top of my budget, so to go to a more advanced model may be out of the question, but like I said, I'm sure others can advise better than I can. :)
 
physichull said:
I'm not sure, thats why I asked you, but all the reviews I've come across do nothing but rave about them.



Maybe somebody more enlightened than myself can answer this one. The Defy 1 is the top of my budget, so to go to a more advanced model may be out of the question, but like I said, I'm sure others can advise better than I can. :)
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yeah, hope so, for you , your budget is £1K ?
what about the boardman alu ?
 
ShiWarrior said:
From what I can gather, the Planet X is more towards sprints and the Boardman is more about stability and longer rides.
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My longest ride so far has been 100km and I did that on my Boardman (Team alu) and found it definitely comfortable enough. I've been really pleased with it right from day one and the carbon version can only be better.

In my eyes the only thing that Boardman are missing is prestige but that's not different to Trek, Specialized, Cannondale et al. Still all great bikes.

With the PX am I right that you can customise it as much as you please when you order? That's definitely a nice option but I suppose if you're new to road bikes, you wouldn't know your preferences yet.
 
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ShiWarrior said:
yeah, hope so, for you , your budget is £1K ?
what about the boardman alu ?
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Unfortunately the CycleScheme doesn't extend to Halfords and so I can't get a Boardman bike. They do appear very well specced for their price, but yeah my budget is £1K for the bike.

I don't really have many other alternatives at the minute as I don't really know the competition, but I've read that some Canondales are pretty good too.
 
physichull said:
Unfortunately the CycleScheme doesn't extend to Halfords and so I can't get a Boardman bike. They do appear very well specced for their price, but yeah my budget is £1K for the bike.

I don't really have many other alternatives at the minute as I don't really know the competition, but I've read that some Canondales are pretty good too.
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What about the Planet X Pro Carbon. I got my Planet X gran fondo through Cyclescheme. Planet X allow you to top it up aswell.
 
Russinating said:
the Boardman is more stealable.
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For a start is that even a real sentence?

It's sold in Halfords (90% of the reason) and Chris himself is becoming more of a publicly recognisable broadcaster (10% of the reason).
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No arguments here you clearly get your stats from reliable sources no air plucking happening. /s

I get quite a lot of random chavs and drunks going "nice bike mate" or whatever when I cycle past or stop because they recognise the brand.
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Quantify a lot? Several times a week, twice in the last year. Once ever?

The way you said it makes it sound more like your riding around on a chav bike rather than something desirable to thieves. :p

Oh and most importantly Chavs/Drunks != Bike thieves.

I doubt you'd get that with a Planet X.
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Speculating much? I wasn't going to be rude but that was a pretty ridiculous post. And you asked:

Russinating said:
Yes? Can I help?
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Thief's come in all shapes and sizes from the delinquent, the opportunist through to sophisticated crime rings. Stereotyping them all as if they're chav's is just ignorant.
 
To OP go with whichever you prefer. I prefer the P X but that's just preference. Both are going to be a solid purchase.

The advantage of Halfords is you likely have one close to you that you can actually go and sit on and test to get the right size. If you don't have a solid understanding of a bikes geometry then that's pretty important. Unless of course you live near Planet X store.
 
uniQ said:
*snip*
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Great post, 5 stars.

Chavs shop in Halfords. For rims, stereos, floor mats or whatever chavs buy for their cars these days. Boardman is plastered everywhere. They know how much the bikes cost. Then you've got the rest of the general public that shop in Halfords generally or watched the Olympics.

Most non-cyclists won't have heard of Planet X before. I cycle and I wouldn't know how much a Planet X bike was worth if it wasn't in this thread. I've just asked 6 people in my vicinity "What is a Planet X?" and none of them knew. They're not sold anywhere but online and direct so it's not surprising.

I get at least two chavs a week say something to me on my 2 mile round trip commute. That's at least 0.2 chavs per mile. Specific enough? Most of the time it's a cheeky "nice bike mate" as I'm going past in the opposite direction. Get this a lot around the Downs as that's a seemingly cool place to hang out with their sports hatchbacks, but equally anywhere else from right outside my office in BS1 to Clifton Village. I cycled to the balloon fiesta on it; won't be doing that again.

I wasn't saying all chavs are bike thieves or visa versa, but when a massive proportion of that group plus a lot of the general public know exactly how much your bike and accessories are worth (and recognise your brand instantly) it doesn't swing anything in your favour. Like I said my bike is stored inside both at home and work but I wouldn't particularly want to use it as a commuter if I had to lock it up outside, or certainly not with any accessories on at least.

I'm not saying it's a better bike than the Planet X, or even that its an expensive bike, all I'm saying is those that know little about bikes will know of it and its value and therefore will perceive it as more valuable probably even than some bikes double its price.
 
touch said:
This.

Both are great bikes. If this is your first road bike (IIRC, you only have a MTB?) you probably wouldnt notice any difference between them anyway. You also wont have any preference over shifting style (shimano vs SRAM) because road shifters are completely different from MTB shifters so you'll have to get used to something new whichever choice you make anyway.

Buy whichever one you think looks nicer but dont stress about the decision too much. You cant make a bad choice, so go on, buy one :p

edit: for what it's worth, i would choose the PlanetX, based purely on looks
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Yah, comming from MTB !

I started riding to college on an MTB, then when i started work, i bought a new MTB and used that for years, then i had an accident (i was knocked down by a car) so I then didnt have a bike for many years, last year i bought a brand new MTB (see sig) so started riding again (Cross Country) but still use a car to work. Now I want to do some Road enduarance, sprinting etc (dam Olympics,TDF and Le Vuelta) got me hooked on road racing

as ive never ridden a road bike before, i dont really know what is best for me, although I did have a racer (Vintage style) for a short while untill i tried to change gear and the chain caught up in the wheel and flew me off down the road.
 
Just get whatever one fits best really. You won't be able to try a Planet X though will you?

If you get a Boardman make sure it's been set up properly and adjust the saddle height following online guides and check all the bolts etc.

Getting carbon for £1k is mad outside of the big brands really, Felt for instance are at £1500 for Sram apex and £1650 for 105 on a carbon frame. The Z6 comes in a little cheaper at £1275 but with 10 speed tiagra. I wish the F75 model was £1k as it would sell all day on the C2W scheme but it's at £1175. Unless you found somewhere who would do a C2W scheme on a reduced price but I doubt it being a new model.

http://www.saddleback.co.uk/Felt-F75-2013

Basically I'd go sit on bikes and see what you like. With the Felt bikes I was talking about the F range has a more aggressive geometry than the Z range. The Z bikes sit 2cm taller on the head tube, have 1 degree slacker head tube angle and a slacker seat tube angle making for a less twitchy ride and they come with an adjustable stem which can have the position of the bars set quite high. With Specialized they do the allez and the secteur with the different geometries too, I think at least?
 
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