Boardman Mountain Bike Sport 2010 in Halfords

Air_Bass

Hi,
I am a total newbie to mountain-biking and am looking to get a decent beginner bike just for light off-road /trails and occasional road use.
I've narrowed it down to either :
Specialized Hardrock pro (€800) or else TREK 4500 disk (€750'ish)
I did however notice this Boardman Mountain Bike Sport 2010 on Halfords website.
http://www.halfords.ie/webapp/wcs/stores/servlet/product_storeId_11101_catalogId_15551_productId_561395_langId_-1_categoryId_212589

Seems to have very similar spec to other bikes I've looked at and over €100 less on price.
Does anyone else have one of these, or know if these are a good bike ?
Cheers.

C3PO

Boardmans are good bikes but due to the Halfords connection they have a slight "image" problem! Personally, assuming I had it, I'd spend the extra €100 on the Specialized Hardrock!

papac

If you (or someone you know) has an Axa insurance policy you can get 15% of all bikes at Halfords.
http://www.axaplus.ie/halfords_index.htm

That makes the Boardman a serious bargain.(Or you could upgrade to the next Boardman for around the same money.(much better value imo.)

Boardman bikes are generally accepted to be good quality and great value.Halfords staff can vary from good to really sh1te so beware.

endurodave

I would opt for a bike that you would buy from your local bike shop as the staff in halfords are hopeless so for the extra 100 euro you pay in the local bike shop you will get well trained professional service and after care.

Edit:
Having personal experience with both trek and spesh i would highly recommend either.

papac

endurodave wrote: »

I would opt for a bike that you would buy from your local bike shop as the staff in halfords are hopeless so for the extra 100 euro you pay in the local bike shop you will get well trained professional service and after care

In my experience you are as likely to meet an incompetent in your LBS as you are in Halfords.

Fi H

I got a cube analogue from cycle superstore & love it...slightly cheaper than both of those bikes!

funkyjebus

Boardmans are a great bike and fantastic value, id buy it, but dont expect any service from halfords and I'd go over the bike myself once i got it home.

mike12

No bad experience with my Boardman from Halfords a lot of good staff there might be a few bad ones which is what everyone remembers plus for the amount of bikes they must sell in a year the % of bad reports are prob not that high.
Mike

aksaxovtr

im a cycle mechainc in one of halfords' stores, yes some staff are a bit thick here and there like anywhere you go, but only trained personell like myself are permitted to work on the premium bikes like boardman, gt, carrera etc.........and the % of complaints that we get compared to the amount of bikes we sell is minimal. Im a bike head meself obviously and would defo recfomend the boardman bikes......really good frames,loads of carbon bits and top quality components. I own a mtb pro and cant say a bad word about it!!!!!! serious piece of kit

Air_Bass

Thanks Folks for all the replies and advice - much appreciated.
Still haven't reached a final decision just yet, will do a wee bit more looking. The Boardman Sport still looks like good value though.
Cheers