I'm sure I need a CX bike

[Don1]

I see in my local Halfords that they are selling a Boardman CX for £600. Disk brakes, normal gear blah blah blah - without going to eBay or the stolen Gumtree, are there any better deals out there at all?

Cheers!

[bakerstreet]

The CX Team is probably the best value CX bike out there. With British Cycling discount, it comes in at £810 and that has discs and SRAM Apex. You can hunt the net, but the rest will all be £1k with 105 or more likely Tiagra. The Planet X is also worth a shout. Carbon frame, discs and 105 bits.

I've just bought some MTB shoes and pedals and I'm hoping to push the go button on the CX team tonight. Mrs BakerStreet gets NHS discount too, so thats another 7.5% off

I'm buying it for my commute as some of the lanes aren't really useable on my road bike any more.

[neenaw]

The CX team is a great bike.
Take a look on the Halfords website and look in the Boardman clearance section, they've still got a few of the 2013 model CX bikes going cheap. You can also get the BC discount on these which makes it a pretty cheap bike!

[TheLemming]

neenaw said:

The CX team is a great bike.
Take a look on the Halfords website and look in the Boardman clearance section, they've still got a few of the 2013 model CX bikes going cheap. You can also get the BC discount on these which makes it a pretty cheap bike!

I seem to spend half my time on here shouting about how much of a bargain these are.
Here goes.

I love mine. Bought it as a winter road bike I could also use offroad etc (plus I didn't have a cx).

Upsides
Brakes - discs beat the hell out of rim brakes or cantis and work very well in the wet. The chicken levers I love too - so much I'm putting them on my other winter bike too.
Price - Nothing comes close to the spec for the money. You can get a barely used 2013 model on eBay for 5-600 or a new 2014 for £729 at the moment (10% british cycling, 10% current offer on online orders)
Versatility - on road tyres its a road bike, on cross tyres its great offroad.
Gears - This thing will go up the side of a wall... The rear mech is a sram wifli good for up to 32 teeth. With a 34 little cog up front it climbs like nothing else. 50/11 on the other hand is plenty for hitting 35+
Overall - the sum is greater than the parts, the high bb clearance, excellent brakes, far bars, massive gear spread combine to make the one bike I want to ride almost any time.

Downsides
Factory wheels are heavy - 2.2kg wheel set.
Brakes need setting up right and adjusting every 100-150 miles or less. Its easy once you get the hang of it but annoying. The price you pay for cable discs.
Limited bar space - due to the chicken levers, just use a bar extender.

Mines now been a little upgraded because I want it to be just right its pretty much all I'm riding at the moment- kinesis wheels, ritchey wcs post, fizik saddle, bb7r brakes, to peak bar extender and an ahead mount for the garmin. They fix damn near every niggle with the bike - and shave about a kg off the weight.
Tempted by some lower ratio chainrings for offroad duty.

Basically get one :-)

[Gizmoish]

What he said. The £600 black model is the Comp, I have the £900 chrome Team but paid £630 for it, there's a post somewhere explaining how.

Worth saying... While the CX is unstoppable by mud, rocks, grassy fields etc off road, that's on the flat and flattish. 34x32 bottom gear is very low on-road, but off-road it simply won't get you up some hills. It's a CX bike... You're supposed to dismount and run when it gets steep.

So, ask yourself how far off-road you go. Canal towpaths, bridle ways, etc? You'll be fine. Slippery, muddy steep climbs? That's not what it's designed for.

[GG89]

Gizmoish said:

It's a CX bike... You're supposed to dismount and run when it gets steep.

Huh?

[Gizmoish]

GG89 said:

Gizmoish said:

It's a CX bike... You're supposed to dismount and run when it gets steep.

Huh?

A typical photo of a cyclocross race:



It's a race. Running up is faster than crawling in a low gear.

[Steve vRS]

That's what I decided too and so will be getting one of these in march on the Cycle to Work scheme

http://www.giant-bicycles.com/en-gb/bikes/model/20...

Not as cheap as the Boardman granted but it was my choice as the geometry is almost the same as my road bike and the components were good. Probably too good to get covered in mud!

I will use mine for winter and night rides as well as rough stuff. Can't wait

Steve

[Barchettaman]

That Boardman is outstanding value.

Apparently the Apex groupset responds very well to a cable/housing upgrade, so much so that it doesn't go out of whack at all.

I am slowly building up a CX bike with Rival, but am using mini-V brakes as all my wheelsets are rim braked. My alu road bike is now defunct, it is giving its drivetrain to the CX and will be sold as a frameset.

The CX will be 6 in 1: road bike, commuter, CX bike, winter trainer, tourer and occasional TT/tri bike.

They really are that versatile.

[TheLemming]

I've fallen into the same trap with mine as snares owners of cars that are "nearly perfect" and then spend what they paid on it again in search of marginal modifications.

According to my sums it would have been enough to just go get a boardman elite 9.0 with full sram force 22.... Ah well, still love it :-)

The jagwire cables are next on the list courtesy of a warranty repair (new fork going on when it shows up due to excessive cable rub).
So I'll take the opportunity to use better cabling.

Actually I think that's about it...

[anonymous-user]

Don1 said:

I see in my local Halfords that they are selling a Boardman CX for £600. Disk brakes, normal gear blah blah blah - without going to eBay or the stolen Gumtree, are there any better deals out there at all?

Cheers!

Yep check out Bike Radar for something like a used Kinesis Crosslight. Better bikes all round

...or just buy mine *ahem

[gazza285]

yonex said:

Yep check out Bike Radar for something like a used Kinesis Crosslight. Better bikes all round

...or just buy mine *ahem

I'd go for a Kinesis as well, because mine is fantastic.

[Don1]

yonex said:

Yep check out Bike Radar for something like a used Kinesis Crosslight. Better bikes all round

...or just buy mine *ahem

I'm 6ft 3 - if your frame size fits there, then we should have a chat if the bike has disks...

What do people think of the Saracen Hack? My LBS guy was very down on the Boardman due to the cost of replacing the mech if there is a breakage. As in £120/shifter.

[bakerstreet]

Don1 said:

I'm 6ft 3 - if your frame size fits there, then we should have a chat if the bike has disks...

What do people think of the Saracen Hack? My LBS guy was very down on the Boardman due to the cost of replacing the mech if there is a breakage. As in £120/shifter.

Other bikes that run 105 will be £120 per shifter (RHS) and even the new 10 speed Tiagra won't be far off that.

Just been lookng at Kinesis and their disc braked bike with 105 was £1300, so I'd expect it to be better than the Boardman

[anonymous-user]

bakerstreet said:

Other bikes that run 105 will be £120 per shifter (RHS) and even the new 10 speed Tiagra won't be far off that.

Just been lookng at Kinesis and their disc braked bike with 105 was £1300, so I'd expect it to be better than the Boardman

Yes but you'll end up swapping the OE Boardman wheels, upgrading the BB5's and probably the seatpost after you have 'saved' money with one. Just saying

[Barchettaman]

If you snap off the derailleur hanger, irrevocably bend the rear mech, or trash the RH STI unit, the replacement costs are equivalent across brands.

Unless it's a Cervelo with an integrated hanger, in which case you're looking at a much bigger bill, or a very posh singlespeed.

[bakerstreet]

yonex said:

Yes but you'll end up swapping the OE Boardman wheels, upgrading the BB5's and probably the seatpost after you have 'saved' money with one. Just saying

I won't bother upgrading the Boardman for a while. I've run the standard seat post on my Giant since I bought it and I've never felt the need to change it.

I spent some money on nice wheels for my road bike, but I think I'd try a frame swap out (Chinese Carbon jobby) on my Boardman if I do decide to follow the upgrade path.

[Don1]

Well, I've made my choice.


Just waiting for delivery.

[yellowjack]

bakerstreet said:

Other bikes that run 105 will be £120 per shifter (RHS) and even the new 10 speed Tiagra won't be far off that...

£120 PER SHIFTER????

I run an Ultegra groupset, and the ratchet wheel inside the rear shifter was knackered. I paid £200 for BOTH shifters, fitted, at WyndyMilla. I was watching several sets and single shifters on ebay, and there was very little difference in the price I would have paid on the bay, certainly not enough of a saving to justify going along that route (no warranty off most ebay sellers!) and most of the ebay lots had been 'unsympathetically' removed from bikes, by cutting off the cables, so cables would have been an extra cost. Buying from WyndyMilla was certainly cheaper than any of the usual online bike bits suspects, and the shifters were supplied with all new cables which I needed anyway.

[Fluffsri]

Don1 said:

Well, I've made my choice.


Just waiting for delivery.

That's a nice looking bike. A lot of the 2014 cx bikes are black and it's bloody boring.