Boardman Bikes unveiled 25 models across road, urban, cross and mountain bike platforms that will make up the Performance Series range for the next two years. The bikes range from the £429.99 Hybrid Comp to the £1,799.99 Shimano Ultegra 11-speed equipped Boardman Road Pro Carbon SLR road bike with integrated cables.
Much of the range is cycle to work scheme-friendly and comes in under the £1,000 mark. This includes the Road Team Carbon, a full carbon road bike for £999.99, and the well-specced £999.99 Team FS 650B mountain bike with a RockShox Sektor fork, Monarch rear shock, SRAM X7 gearing and Avid Elixir 1 brakes.
The Team FS 650B' bigger brother, the MTB Pro FS 650b, boasts even better specs for its £1,599.99 price tag, including a X9 triple-butted frame, kitted with a RockShox Revelation RL 130mm travel fork, Monarch RT 130mm travel rear shock and Avid Elixir 7 hydraulic brakes.
Aficionados of 29ers need not worry either: there are two bikes with the larger wheel size in the range too, including the £999.99 MTB Pro 29er. Cyclo-crossers also have two models to choose from the CX Comp (£599.99) and CX Team (£899.99).
The £999.99 Boardman MTB Pro 29er: Shimano Deore braking and shifting, Mavic XM319 wheels
All change in the Boardman bike range
Boardman bikes thrive on their rep for high specs at a keen price – just look at the Pro FS 650b boasting SRAM X9 shifting, Elixir 7 hydraulic discs, thru-axle hubs and Mavic XM319 wheels for £1,599.99. But Andy Smallwood, Boardman's Operations Director was at pains to stress many frames have been completely redesigned.
Some aspects of the range have received a lot of treatment. Others – cross bikes for example - not so much.
Mountain bikes appear to be where the big redevelopment focus lay. The introduction of 29ers must surely have been the biggest project – and one that Chris Boardman admitted started when he went for a ride with top British mountain biker Kenta Gallagher a couple of years back. After one ride he recognised the need to get in on the action.
"[The mountain bikes have been] completely overhauled for 2014 – everything's changed here," said Smallwood.
"All our MTBs have new geometry. They're longer in the top tube, shorter in the stem, have wider bars and slacker head angles. The chain stays are shorter too, so it's much more contemporary design."
Polished aluminium welds around the seat post cluster
The aluminium alloy frames have been given a smooth weld treatment around the seat post cluster and head tube, though the process – which is finished by hand and therefore pricey – didn't extend to the bottom bracket area. It's a shame, because the extra finishing touch does look good. The treatment extends to the cross and hybrid and aluminium road frames too.
On the Performance Series' road models, change is more subtle. Smallwood said the Team Carbon and Pro Carbon was a "brand new frame platform," but the biggest change over previous models appears to have been to slacken the geometry slightly - hardly groundbreaking. Interestingly, however, the fork's had mudguard eyelets drilled in, which should boost the bikes' appeal as a do-it-all road platform.
The CX Comp is an entry level 'cross bike
Other than the addition of a new, cheaper cyclocross model – the CX Comp, which Smallwood says will open up the versatility of cross bikes to a broader market – nothing much has changed here. The frame on the CX Team is 7005 triple-butted alloy and has similar component specs to the previous model.
Smallwood said the cyclocross bikes have shown the most vigorous sales growth, suggesting the answer to why few changes have been made was because it was already selling just fine.
Check out BikeRadar’s gallery from the launch for more details of the models and pricing.
The Boardman Performance Series range is exclusively for sale at Halfords in the UK.
Boardman's Elite Series bikes will be launched on 7 November.