This week I have been riding the C.Boardman Team Carbon road bike. At £1,299 it provides an excellent quality road bike for a very affordable price. There aren’t many full carbon fibre road bikes with Shimano 105 at this price range; it will make it a popular choice for a keen sportive rider or someone who wants a good road bike without breaking the bank.
I was riding the XL Team Carbon I picked up from local Halfords.
During his career Chris Boardman built up a reputation for attention to detail and optimising any potential gains. His road bike series are not aimed so much at the highest level, but offering the most popular range of road bikes for good value. You get the feeling that a lot of attention and thought has gone into the design and build of the bikes. They also must have reasonable economies of scale to be selling for such a competitive price.
The ride is very good with basically a race geometry. Weighing at just over 8.2 kgs, it is relatively light and this makes for good acceleration up around corners and on hills. The full carbon frame, fork and rear stay dropout give a good combination of stiffness whilst absorbing some of the roughness of the roads.
It handles very well around corners; you feel very much in control and the dual pivot brakes are reassuringly responsive and strong. The geometry of the frame also made it very rigid, there was no sign of wobble even at high speeds.
For such a sporty bike, I was a little surprised to find a compact chainring size of 34 / 50 (FSA Gossamer Pro)
However, for tough sportive challenges, I guess you will never regret having a 34. It’s also nice to have a 10 speed on this price.
Coolness Factor
For a bike in this price range, you want to like the way it looks, and in this regard, the current edition doesn’t disappoint. The Matt Black finish is highlighted with white and a dash of yellow. There is a smooth finish to the the monocoque frame and you get the feeling of a bike which is the complete ticket.
Mostly this year I’ve been riding a Trek Madone 6.9 You realise the difference between a top of the range road bike (£5000) area and a bike like the Team Carbon is not very big. I did notice a little more weight on the hills, but the handling and performance difference was not too significant. However at four times the price, it’s not fair to start making too many comparisons.
What the Chris Boardman range does do is provide great competition to Trek bikes at a lower price range.
Bikes Under £1,300
The mouth watering package for £1,300 is highly like to persuade the buyer looking for a sub £1,000 bike to try and stretch his budget. If you seek to upgrade a cheaper bike later, you will regret not borrowing the extra £300.
Nice Touch
On all my road bikes, I’ve always had to resort to sellotape to prevent gear cables from rubbing paint off bike. This nice touch of offering cables to go through headset is really good. I feel a little embarrassed to have sellotape on my Trek Madone now!
Specifications for Boardman Team Carbon
- Approximate Weight (KG): 8.25
- Brake Type: Dual Pivot Caliper Brake
- Chainset: FSA Gossamer Pro BB30 compact crank
- Forks: Full Carbon
- Frame Colour: Carbon matt
- Frame-: T700 Carbon Fibre with tapered steerer, internal rear brake cable and BB30 bottom bracket
- Brakes: Shimano 105 Dual pivot
- Front Mech / Gears: 10 spd. Shimano 105
- Gear Shifters: Shimano 105
- Handle Bars: Boardman alloy anatomic
- Headset: FSA Orbit 1.1/8 – 1.5 Aheadset
- Number of Gears: 20
- Saddle: Fizik Arione
- Seatpost: Carbon Boardman 350mm x 31.6mm black
- Stem: Boardman black alloy 31.8mm
- Tyre size: 23c
- Tyres: Continental Ultrasport 700×23 black
Pictures of Team Carbon
XL gave 44cm handlebars
A little bit of bling the FSA Compact chainring.
Mavic Aksium wheelset, great value and look good. This bike has great colour combination silver, matt black of bike and dash of yellow.
Shimano 105 20 speed groupset. A real bargain to find on a £1,300 bike!
STI Levers, easy changing.
- C.Boardman Road Bikes at Halfords
- Chris Boardman Bikes at Cycling Reviews
- Team Carbon at Boardman Bikes
There’s nothing wrong in having a preference for Italy or Derby! I agree about chainring, I’d prefer a silver 105.
hi, I know its a question of personal taste but that Gossamer chainset is decidedly horrible (even for the money). The rest of the bike however looks very nice indeed. So, for me it would have to go on day one to be replaced with a 105 or better. However, having said all that I probably wouldn’t go near a Boardman bike as I am snob and if doesn’t say Italian or made in Derby on the badge I won’t sit on it
Matt
Samuel good to hear. It’s great to really enjoy your bike.
I have the 2010 version which is a carbon fiber bike at £999 and I totally love it it is my first road bike and may be over the top but after a thousand kilometer on it I am totally in love with it!