Boardman bikes are always lovely value, with spec levels that can make rivals look ordinary by comparison. That is because they are sold solely through UK motoring and leisure chain Halfords, which relieves the pressure of dealer margins and means extra money in the budget for, say, a groupset tier higher.
Overview
Sprinting from the lights, braking for the next set, cornering and weaving around the traffic, then it is out in to the lanes pushing hard up the climbs and descending quick down the other side. The new efficient and controlled Hybrid Team takes it all in its stride.
Frame: Smoothly finished, lightweight with clearances for mudguards. The all carbon tapered fork with lots of room under its crown is a high point, and the chainstay disc mount is a pleasant touch.
Handling: It feels better when you are putting the power down than pootling, and as a quick fitness bicycle that'll also go off-road it takes the fight to the new breed of recreational cyclo-cross bikes.
Equipment: Excellent brakes, first rate gearing and bonuses such as lock-on grips. Bar ends and wider range Apex would make it even better.
Wheels: Rims are lovely and strong, if wide, shod with tyres that roll well but could be sturdier. With narrower rims, tougher tyres and Marin's security skewers, this package would be unbeatable.
The Boardman's carbon fork is unusual in that it's a carbon steerer in lieu of an aluminium, which saves weight. It's bags of room over its 28mm tyres, or you could fit cyclo-cross tyres (more on that later).
But there is more to making a lovely bicycle than throwing money at it. It still has to be designed properly. This is. It could have a slightly wider gear range but otherwise it is uncompromised. Ride to work with mudguards and rack. Do intervals on it in the lanes. Modify the tyres and turn up at a cyclo-cross race. Or use it for hammering around on.
The fork is tapered, as of coursework is the head tube it sits in, with the lower headset race being bigger than the top. Tapered head tubes are becoming more common, stiffening the steering response & adding durability to the more heavily loaded lower bearings. Here it is not critical but it looks nice, & in the event you choose to fit 'cross tyres & go pinging around your local bridleways you might be glad of the reinforcement.
The remainder of the frame is so smooth & organic it looks as much like carbon fibre as hydroformed aluminium. The practical fittings are here , with separate eyelets for rack & mudguard at the dropout & a set of rack eyelets on the wishbone seatstay. The chainstays are not long though, so you'll need to make use of smaller panniers for heel clearance.
In an ideal world you'd need a 35mm tyre or a 15mm rim so that the tyre was less stretched & would feel more supple over bumps. On the and side, in the event you need to fit cyclo-cross tyres or ride without mudguards, fatter tyres will go on this 18mm rim readily. The wheels ought to be strong for pitted streets & off-road excursions.
The back of the bicycle feels rock solid. It is a model on which you can put the hammer down, but sometimes you'll feel the road surface hammering back. The chainstays are shorter than on some of the Boardman's competitors & both chain- & seatstays are beefy. An 18mm-wide wheel rim is also approaching the limit of what is comfortable with a 28mm tyre fitted.
The 10-speed drivetrain is mostly SRAM Apex, with an outboard-bearing compact chainset driving an 11-28T cassette. The bottom gear of 34x28T is not bad, but there is a 48/34T compact chainset. You'd gain a sub-30in bottom gear & you are still not going to spin out that 117in top on tarmac. In the event you plan to go off-road you'd be even happier with a wider gear range.
The Ritchey OCR rims are eyeleted & the spoke holes are offset from the centreline.. that is what OCR means: Off-Centre Rim. Theoretically you receive a stronger wheel because the spokes are less steeply angled, & even if the effect is minimal you don't lose anything by it. We'd have specced different tyres for the every day grind, choosing Continental's similarly priced GatorSkin above the Ultra Race.
What is with all these off-road references? Only this: in plenty of ways the Boardman Hybrid Team feels less like flat-bar road bicycle than flat-bar cyclo-cross bicycle. It is light, pacy & racy but it also has the clearances & capacity for non-technical rough stuff.
Brakes are Avid Juicy three hydraulic discs, which are the kind of stoppers you see on first rate entry-level mountain bikes. In the urban surroundings they give you all the stopping power you need & then some, with first rate modulation. The rear calliper is mounted to the chainstay, which gets it out of the way in the event you fit a rack. Because it is hydraulic than mechanical you won't get water ingress in to the calliper & performance will be unaffected on the road or off.