Apologies for blaspheming, but Halfords

[Bobzilla]

What bike for £1k or less? Standard prices. My employer runs a cycle to work scheme and its with Halfords, and only up to £1k. Scheme means I basically pay 68.5%, but spread over 12 months. I have been pointed towards the Boardman Team FS, but there have been a few queries about that on the website reviews. I am a fairly stout person (15st currently, hoping to drop to 13 or so). I might try and take a look on the weekend, and I have until the end of September to decide.

Ta.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

hmm ... the Halfords site didn't give too much info, so I went to Boardman's page on the Team FS.

Forks are ok ... for normal riding. They're quite good actually, but will come with the default medium springs, which aren't really suited to your weight.
I'm not a fan of SRAM, so I won't give my opinion on the X-7 shifters.
The Avid brakes generally get good reviews, so I wouldn't worry too much about those.

Reviews mention that the suspension design makes the front of the seatstays fairly wide, so you may need to adapt to that to avoid brushing them with your calves.
Perhaps you should try one first, and then decide.

 

[BertR00t]

I have a mate who bought the FS Pro on a deal who is about 15 stone and 6' 4" and its a nice ride but has Revelations on which make a world of difference.

 

[cyfa2809]

There have been some problems with the boardman frames snapping at the chain stay (along with the banshee's). Mainly (but not wholly) due to people abusing them. What sort of riding will you be doing?

 

[FSR-Si]

I picked up my Team FS 6 weeks ago and love it! before that i had the HT Pro for 2yrs and loved that too The HT Pro was a dream to ride it was fast, nimble, and very stiff, In the 2yrs i owned it i covered 3400 miles on it and the only faults that ever happened were the dreaded BB30 bottom bracket failing 3 times but i put that down to piss poor design of the BB, Everything else was absolutely faultless and after the 2yrs i sold it on for £400.
I managed to get hold of one of the last Team FS 16" framed bikes in the country thanks to my local halfords (Leigh Lancs) they sourced the bike from the oswestry branch had it couriered over to there branch and built up for me within 3 days, The bike itself is excelent but as said above the seat stays are a little wide at the top so it does suffer from ankle rub, also the seat is damn uncomfy. The bolts on the rear stays needed loctiting on as they worked lose and the gear hanger needed realigning as it wouldnt shift properly. The bike ride itself is fantastic, Ive done all day 70 mile treks on it without coming back aching, Ive also done Lee Quarry trail centre where it handled everything faultlessly, In the 6 weeks ive owned it i have covered 530 miles and ive been very pleased with it.

By the way i'm 5' 8" and 14.5 stone so i'm no lightweight myself, i pumped the forks and shock up to 150lb and it never bottoms out and just rides wonderfully.

Cheers Simon

In action at Lee Quarry

 

[cyfa2809]

Im sorry, i had the older model in mind. I dont know of any problems with the newer graphite models which are by and large very nice.
As above though, loctite the pivot bolts as i saw one the other day that was missing the seatstay/chainstay pivot bolt. The kit was £170, and then there is the matter of sourcing.

 

[brocklanders023]

I was told that Halfords can get you any bike you want, even if it's not one of their brands so it might be worth asking.

 

[cyfa2809]

I was told that Halfords can get you any bike you want, even if it's not one of their brands so it might be worth asking.

Its true, but depends on who you go to aka who can be bothered to get you one. Im sure somewhere i have seen a big list of brands they can get stuff from though but cant quite place where.

 

[gradeAfailure]

Forks are ok ... for normal riding. They're quite good actually, but will come with the default medium springs, which aren't really suited to your weight.

Forks will be air-sprung, not coil.

 

[Raging_Bulls]

Forks will be air-sprung, not coil.

My bad.

I saw "turnkey damper" and thought they were similar to my Tora TK, which uses a spring and the Turnkey damper. If it's air, it can indeed be adjusted to suit the OP's weight.
That does make a difference in the overall quality of the bike.