One Year Later: My review of the 2010 Boardman Road Comp fi

It's hard to believe it, but exactly one year ago today I brought home my Boardman Road Comp fi from Halfords (at the time, Halfords was the exclusive retailer of Boardman bikes). It was a 2010 model, purchased at a steep discount, and it was my first road bike, so I will admit I don't have much to compare it to. That said, I thought I'd record how it has served me over the past 2,850 kilometers.

The Boardman in the early days.

Overall, this has been a great entry-level road bike for me. It has survived short rides and long ones; day rides and night; rain, cold, heat, and wind; two clipless moments; and a fair few accidental excursions onto surfaces that cannot by referred to as 'roads'! I'm thrilled with it. But I have had to make a few alterations to make it perfect...

Initial Changes

There were a few things on the bike that we changed almost immediately (and when I say "we", I mean Alberto!):

• Pedals: The bike came with some generic plastic pedals, but we decided to switch them out for some clipless pedals as part of the whole now-you're-a-real-cyclist thing. 
• Saddle: The saddle that came with the bike was absolutely unrideable. Just sitting on the saddle to practice clipping in and out was painful after a few minutes, and after my first 30km ride in Richmond Park, I knew I would need a change. It's not just me--every time I meet a fellow Boardman rider, male or female, we inevitably have a conversation about how awful the saddle was. After much research, I settled on the Selle Italia Lady Gel Flow saddle that I have already reviewed.
• Spacers: Alberto noticed that there were't enough spacers on the steering tube, resulting in the headset being loose. This might have to do with the way the bike was assembled at Halford's, we'll never know. Since spacers are pretty cheap, we just bought a new set and replaced them. It was a shame, because I liked the subtle pattern on the original spacers better than the plain black ones we replaced them with. 

Further Changes

After going on several longer rides, a few more changes became necessary:

• Brake pads: From the beginning, I never felt comfortable braking on this bike. At first, I thought it might be because I wasn't used to drop handlebars. We tried changing the angle of the handlebars so that I could squeeze the brakes better, but this only had a minimal effect. Even in the drops, I couldn't really come to a quick stop. Eventually we decided to buy some brake pads for wet conditions. This made a big difference, but I still can't really do an emergency stop, or stop myself completely on a steep downhill, unless I ride in the drops. As a result, I tend to ride in the drops whenever we're in London traffic or going down even the slightest of hills. Alberto thinks it might be down to my rims, which are pretty thin. I still think it might be because I have small hands! Either way, I've developed a system that works for me. 
• Tires: The original tires were Continental Ultrasport, which were fine for the first 750km; no punctures at all. Then, between 750 and 1000km, I got three or four punctures in short succession (including the puncture from hell, let's not talk about it!). We replaced them with Continental Gatorskins, and I don't want to jinx myself by announcing how many punctures I've had on them so far--let's just say it is less than one.

After a wet ride!

Ultimately, none of the issues I've had with the Boardman have been significant and I've been happy with the solutions that we have devised. The bike was good value for money, so I don't mind having to make a few, relatively inexpensive, changes. I understand that the 2011/2012 model has even better specs (and is a bit pricier to match). It still seems to be a great value, like all Boardman bikes--I predict Boardman will be inching up the market share even more over the next few years. 

PS: In case it isn't obvious, we don't get paid for our reviews and we only review products we have bought ourselves unless otherwise stated!

First Ride of 2012

On Saturday afternoon, we took the Overground out to Richmond Park for our first ride of 2012. It was actually our first 'real' (non-commuting) bike ride in about seven weeks, due to all the craziness of Thailand and Christmas, so we didn't have high expectations for performance!

It was a relatively sunny day, and mild for this time of year (the high was 10 degrees C, or 50 F), and the park was absolutely full of cyclists! Everyone must have resolved to cycle more in 2012. Unfortunately, it was rather full of cars as well, so it wasn't the most relaxing of rides.

The first lap around the park went surprisingly well for me,  I struggled up the one major hill, but it wasn't nearly as bad as I expected. The second time around was more challenging--my legs didn't seem to want to put very much effort in!

Starting to struggle up the hills!

The last segment of each lap is a long, gradual uphill with a steeper kick at the very end. This is always disheartening as you watch your speed decrease. So by the end of the second lap I really didn't feel like going through it all over again. The sun was also starting to dip below the trees so the temperature was dropping. Alberto still wanted to get another lap in, so we reached a compromise -- I cycled the 3 minutes back to the train station and had a nice hot tea while he did a final lap and then came to meet me. I ended up with around 30km for the day, and Alberto more like 40. Our average speed was all right at 23kph (14.3mph), but it's clear that my endurance has suffered over the winter!

This was a nice chance to test some of my new cycling gear -- the Pearl Izumi tights I bought worked well. My bum is a little sore today, but I can hardly blame that on the tights after not having been on the bike in ages. It didn't rain, but my waterproof jacket proved to be the right level of warmth for the day, worn with a short sleeved jersey and arm warmers that I pulled down almost as soon as we climbed our first hill. We also wore our new matching jerseys, Christmas gifts from Alberto's parents, which are from the cycling club in Benasque (Spanish Pyrenees), where Alberto's family holidays. Unfortunately this meant that I was wearing three different shades of pink/purple on my upper body (my new Buff being the third) but hey, what can you do.

Showing off our Benasque jerseys on the train home

It will be hard to get longer rides in over the next few weeks, since we only have eight hours of daylight at the moment, but we're looking forward to a 100km Audax on Jan 29th to really whip us into shape!

Sun starting to set as Alberto heads back to the station, 3:00pm.

A Friday night lecture on world travels (on a penny farthing!)

Friday 6:30 pm, somewhere in Farringdon. Lucy and I cycled from work searching for a place called "The Gallery". It was not well signed, but eventually found a bunch of fancy touring and antique bikes (including the very first Moultons) all parked in a narrow alley. It seemed obvious that we had arrived at the right venue. We were attending a talk by Joff, a guy that had cycled round the world on a penny farthing.

Waiting for the talk to begin

The lecture was organised as a fundraising event by Sustrans. Upon arrival we found around 80 people awaiting Joff's talk. Most of them you could tell were cyclists, and it was very pleasant not to feel weird in our bright yellow jackets. Bromptoms were lining up near the walls. Helmets were everywhere. Wine and food were provided for £1 donations, so that was a good start.

This was the first time that we had seen a world traveller in the flesh. We follow loads of round the world travellers on the net, and we've even read some of the books, but seeing one live was a novelty. With Joff was his home-made penny farthing.

The bike, appropriately named "Penny"

I had to have a closer look at the machine. To me, it seemed simple. No chains, no gears. Just a massive wheel with plenty of spokes (which turned out to be regular spokes, but joined together to form a single one), and solid tyres. Also, he fitted a front light to the big wheel's front hub. Not sure how it worked while in motion, but it seemed loose on the hub so as to prevent it from turning. He also managed to carry all his stuff in just two small panniers! We definitely have to travel light on our Camino de Santiago!

The talk itself was inspiring and funny at times. Yet it could have done with a better organisation, especially regarding the pictures. Too much talking and not coordinated pictures. Also, we felt that it lacked a bit of the planning and the "post-journey" emotions when he returned home. We laughed at the first question from the audience: "which fuel did you use!?" Clearly the audience was looking for more practical advice!

All in all, an enjoyable way of spending an evening. And an even better way to find some extra motivation for riding in 2012! It's only January, but the season has officially started for us!

Lucy's Cycling Goals for 2012

Well, having read about Alberto's cycling goals it's safe to say I'm a little overwhelmed! I will not be joining him on all of those rides! However, I do have a few of my own goals for cycling in 2012:

• First and foremost, I want to keep challenging myself and keep having fun! The rest of these goals are just ideas of how I might achieve that. 
• Complete a 300km audax and maybe a 400, depending how the 300 goes. 
• Gain more confidence on the mountain bike and improve my bike handling skills.
• Get better at riding up hills!
• Ride the Camino de Santiago from Bordeaux and swim in the Atlantic at Cape Finisterre.

There are lots of other rides I'd like to complete this year, like the Dunwich Dynamo, some FNRttC's, some weekend mini-tours in the UK, and maybe some other rides overseas, but these are the main goals that I will really have to work hard at if I want to achieve them!

Alberto's New Years resolution (or the rides I want to do!)

Right, so 2012 means new objectives. The first one is to get the PhD out of the way. But that is way too boring and not too exciting at the moment. So instead, these are some of the rides I intend to do in 2012. Bring on the miles!

- Super Randonneur series: a 200, 300, 400 and 600 km cycle ride, all in one go. So far I have decided on two out of four. The 300 will be a return journey from Hull to London. The 400 a gigantic loop around Norwich in the National 400. The 200 does not worry me much as there's plenty all year round, but the 600 will be a big deal and there are not so many close to us, and logistics can be difficult. Any ideas anyone?
- Dunwich Dynamo. We enjoyed it so much last year that we cannot miss it this coming June. The annual 200 km night ride to the Suffolk coast is a must do for every cyclist. We may even try to go camping afterwards, or even attempt to cycle back to the Smoke or to Ipswich. Read our last year's report here.
- Rolling to the Stones (night ride to Stonehenge, from central London): learnt about it on the Bikeshow , it consists of a ride through the night to Stonehenge, on June 20th. You get to the ruins by 4 am, before the sun rises on the longest day of the year. It is one of the very few days that you can actually go in to the ruins.
- Way of Roses (Coast to Coast): a coast to coast ride in the UK, a classic.
- 2 day loop in the Yorkshire Dales
- Southdown way 2 days: this will be one of our preparation rides for our Camino de Santiago in May.
- London to Lille (Paris Roubaix) then down to Paris. This will be as a part of our cycle ride to Paris, something I did a few years ago, but Lucy still has to tick her box.
- Camino de Santiago from Bordeaux
- Northestern coast from Berwick-upon-Tweed
- Long weekend in Scottish Highlands
- Exmouth Exodus: the Western equivalent to the Dunwich Dynamo. Hillier and shorter though.
- Various Friday Night Rides to the Coast (Fnrttc) and Smrttm (Saturday Morning Ride to the Smoke). The Smrttm are new to us, but we will certainly give them a go in 2012.
- Land's End to John O'Groats (LEJOG): before we leave the UK we need to do this classic. It goes from the very southwest of the UK to the northernmost pint in Scotland. A long-ish tour that has been rated amongst the top 10 cycle tours to do in the world by National Geographic.