Chrispianlee – I’m not sure your’s is a 2017, my new one is the same colour, but the reach doesn’t seem any longer (hard to tell without back to backing them tbf) and my tyre still touches.

How much of a gap do you have on yours? The large one in the store when I took the first one back had a good cm gap at full compression, but I’ve not seen another medium in the wild, and my 3 have all butted straight up to the seat tube.

What’s your plan now prawny? Didn’t the shop bother checking the frame before you collected it?

It doesn’t look that way. The mechanic doesn’t work Saturdays, so I dropped the bike off and picked it up from a young lad that didn’t really know anything about it.

I’ve emailed Mike back to let him know and see what he comes up with, in an ideal world I’d get a bike back that is right, or one of the new new ones when they’re ready (I’ve just checked the linkages on the factory jackson story, mine is just a new paint job, same old frame). I’ve asked about getting my money back, which I don’t really want to do, but cycle republic in town have got some Boardman FS Team and Pro in stock. So there’s always that option if it comes to it.

Prawny – Is yours the same colour as mine? They informed me its the new 2017 frame and as I havent seen it elsewhere, or online. I assume thats the case as its different to the 2015/2016 colours. The length is only 1cm apparently, so minimal. I didnt measure the gap, I just let all the air out the shock and checked the tyre wouldnt touch the frame. Yeh its only the mediums that had the problem apparently. Thats ridiculous that they have replaced your frame twice and the tyre still touches!I would demand it gets rectified asap or you want a refund. Good luck and let me know how you get on.

Yep same colour, I had an email yesterday from Lisa (Mike is away) apologising again. She said the 2017 frames won’t be ready until April, a frame that comes out in April ’17 would be more likely an 2018MY bike though so they probably werent wrong saying this colour is a 2017 bike.

They’ve given me the option of a refund if I want, but then what would I get instead, I can’t really afford to add more to it, so the only option would be a Boardman FS Team, which I’m less keen on. I’m really not sure what to do, I might just see if I can hang on until April, I’d hardly ride my MTB at all between now and March anyway.

My mate who works at Halfords bought a boardman fs team. He got rid of it within weeks because the back end was so flexy. He used to call it the bendy boardman. It may not be the best bike for you if you ride hard enough to bottom out the bossnut.

I Reckon you will prob be waiting longer than April for 2018 frames. If they cant get you a 2017 frame with the problem rectified, I would get a refund. Go Outdoors told me the problem has been rectified on the 2017 frames, which is what I have; with the problem sorted. If not, get a Whyte 901 hardtail 2016 or a Large Giant Trance which are going for £999 at Winstanley Bikes and Triton Cycles.

I’d ask for a refund, I just don’t think i trust them to get it right. You should seriously consider the Marin Hawk Hill for £1200.

http://www.marinbikes.com/gb/bikes/description/2017-hawk-hill-multitrac

You get stealth dropper post routing, 27mm inner width rims, wide range 1 X drivetrain

If I were in the market for a budget full suss, thats where my money would go

chrispianlee, I got a replacement “2017” frame with the same colours as yours and it had the same issue. Apparently the 2017 frame is the exact same frame as it has always been just with a different paint job and by the sounds of it, some of them having the issue fixed. How much clearance do you have now with the shock fully compressed?

The marin is nice but it’s 30% more expensive so it’s not doable.

Choices seem to be a. Wait b. Decent hardtail (901 or similar) c. Sack it go back to my old mtb and treat myself to a new commuter with hydro discs.

I’m flitting between a and c currently, think I’m too old and tired for another hardtail, even a nice one.

I’m old and very happy with my hardtail. Just need a frame with a bit of”give” in it and plus size tyres. Or a fatty?

It wouldn’t cost me a huge amount more for a Sonder Transmitter…

Definitely go for the refund, how about using the components of your old bike on a new frame?

Get the refund. You never know what you’ll spot between now and the middle of next year, and you need the money in your pocket ready to go.

get the refund.. i’ve been curious about this bike but after reading this thread theres a not a chance i’d go near one, or a ‘new’ model. ever. i certainly wouldnt have ended up with stockholm syndrome like the OP or put up with this amount of messing around.

its simply not true there aren’t more options. there are loads of options around 1K. (vitus for example..)

tbh. i’ve had two marin hawk hills in the past (HT ones) and they were both great bikes at the time.

what about the secondhand market? you can get some amazing deals if you shop around.. when going SH just keep some money spare to cover tyres/grips/chain/cassette etc

The marin is nice but it’s 30% more expensive so it’s not doable.

20% or 1/5th 😉

I bet if you rocked up to a shop in person, cash in hand you could get a hefty amount knocked off one.

for 10% more (99 quid) you can get one of these..

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Giant-Stance-27-5-Mountain-Bike-2017-Full-Suspension-MTB_97646.htm

or for 1079..

http://www.tredz.co.uk/.Kona-Precept-120-Mountain-Bike-2016-Full-Suspension-MTB_82233.htm

I only paid £900 for the Bossnut.

Think I’m going to get the money back and keep an eye on the sales/classifieds.

I’m quite tempted to get a cross bike to be honest even the Bossnut is overkill for my riding 90% of the time, its only the one week a year I go to Scotland that I wanted something a bit more rowdy for.

The boggo Vitus Escarpe looks decent but there’s only one left in my size, and I’m not convinced by the fork, plus it’s an extra £100.

Could always get the Marin, or similar, on 0% finance over 12 months.
So, £900 cash leaves £300 to finance. That’s £25/month over 12 months.

If I was in for a bike around £900, i’d add more and go for the Marin. Great company, the bike is spec’d well & it’s a solid and tested suspension platform, plus the geometry is nice. It reminds me of a modern Specialized Pitch, which as a fantastic bike at the time.

@prawny

I have a medium frame Bossnut where the original rear tyre also rubs (just) against the seat tube when the rear shock is fully compressed. However, the original WTB BeeLine rear tyre is quite big for its size 2.2″ and since that tyre isn’t really capable to cope with the wet and slippery conditions we have here in Sweden, I swapped it to a Schwalbe Nobby Nic 27.5×2.25 and then I got a clearance of about 1/4″ to the seat tube. It’s not much but it probably won´t rub against the seat tube if the shock bottoms out.

I get the impression that you otherwise like the bike and that you want to keep it if possible and this might be a way to go. Probably you could get a “refund” for the BeeLine in order to buy another rear tyre. At least, there wasn’t any problems for me to have my expenses for truing the front wheel covered by GoOutdoor.

Let me just also say that I fully agree that this is a flaw (probably in the design) and the bike should of course have the adequate clearance with the tyre it’s delivered with but this might be a way to go if you, like me, really want to keep the bike.

I have also asked GoOutdoor to send me these “magical” bushings in order to increase clearance but I haven’t got any response on that so far.

Guess I’m one of the lucky ones. I got the large frame although I’m only 5’10 but the medium just felt a bit small and it’s an ideal excuse for not being able to manual worth a damn.

I’ve pinch-flatted tubes and burped a tubeless tyre into submission on the rear, landed in a sublimely ham-fisted fashion on many occasions, clattered through rock-gardens and flown like an eagle (I wish, maybe an asthmatic sparrow with a sore rotator cuff) before landing like a sack of cement and I’ve never even bottomed out the rear suspension.

The back end is a bit flexy (the bike not me!) and somehow I managed to bend a couple of the gears on the cassette, which I straightened out with a hammer and a bit of wood, apart from that its been a mostly trouble free bike and I’m still enjoying it enough to go be looking forward to going out in the wet and cold and dark tonight 🙂

So I’ve collected my third frame and the problem seems to be fixed although I’m not totally convinced. I’ve now been told that the problem was with my rear shock over compressing and not the replacement frame so they have replaced the shock. The new shock now “bottoms out” with about 10% of its travel left, even with all of the air let out. I’m quite new to mountain biking so I have no idea if this is expected but it seems to me they have fixed the problem by limiting the travel of the shock to stop the wheel hitting the frame.It looks like the wheel would still rub if the shock could use all of its travel. I would appreciate it if somebody could let me know if this seems right. I would be able to provide photos if this helps.
Thanks.

If you are not getting the correct amount of travel, then it’s still not right and I would be asking for a refund.

It depends, is it a 200mm eye to eye shock? They come in 50/51mm and 57mm stroke versions with the same eye to eye length and the difference is a spacer internally to limit the stroke on the 50/51 version..
If a bikes designed for a 50mm stroke shock and a 57mm stroke version is fitted by mistake it’ll probably cause some fouling somewhere, that extra 7mm stroke is multiplied x2 or more in actual wheel travel
It’s not unknown for manufacturers to supply the wrong version I believe..
I have no idea what a Caliber runs though..

Cheers for the replies, I have no idea if it is 200mm eye to eye or how I could tell. The rear shock is a Rock Shox Monarch R, I’ve uploaded some images to show you where the shock “bottoms” out. Just to be clear the tyre is no longer an issue and is not interfering with the shock and It’s the shock itself that is bottoming out. I don’t know much about suspension so don’t know if a shock is suppose to “bottom out” before using all of it’s travel. The way the shop explained it to me is that the previous shock was over compressing and this new shock had a “buffer” to stop it from fully bottoming out.

It should have the size printed on the he shock somewhere. Would be interested if theyve changed it , mine is 190×51, its ptinted on the stanchion (is it a stachion on the back?)

Edit – yours is the same, you can see it in the pic

The stroke is how much it compresses and the eye to eye is the distance between the bolt holes..

That’s a 51mm stroke shock. If it’s 51mm from the red band to the shock outer then you are getting full travel. Looks about right.

You’ll get about 49mm of travel unless you absolutely hammer the shock. The last part of the 51mm has a rubber bottom out bumper that needs to be compressed to get ‘full’ travel, and youll only compress it if you propoerly whack the shock. Its really advisable to not do that though, the bumper will disintegrate over time. FWIW your pic looks about right for compressing the shock without properly bottoming it out.

I wouldn’t personally expect a shock to go past that position. Looks about right to me.

Thanks all for your help I’ve just measured it and it seems to be using roughly 48mm of the shock which seems about right if there’s a few mm for a bumper.

JBridges- Il check my shock tonight to check if it gives 100% or 90% compression

So does this mean that previous comments about the frames being 1:15 faulty are in fact wrong?(From memory caused by the rear shock mounts being welded to far forward). In fact it was the shock all along, or have I missed something?

HI Guys,

I’ve only just been made aware of this feed:

The QC issue is a result of the front shock mount being welded 1 -1.5mm further forward (towards the head tube) than it should, we’ve had around 15 bikes returned from thousands sold. The issue has been rectified at the factory and anything from here on in will not be affected. The fixes I have are: 1.) I have a small number of replacement frames, but some of these were damaged in transit so I’m waiting for some more. 2.) I have offset bushes, these will move the rear shock back to the correct position and is an easy fix.

stores are aware of the issue and will be able to help you.

once again sorry for this, and as i’ve said it really is a small batch issue and the buzz is just that and will not stop you mid ride etc.

Best regards,
Mike

@buckster, I think there is a problem with some of the frames because I have seen some models on the shop floor that haven’t been ridden with the same problem. The way it was explained to me is that my first frame was faulty. The replacement they gave me wasn’t faulty and did improve the problem but it was still catching the frame. I think they then realised that the shock in my case was faulty and was over compressing. The new shock they have fitted has stopped the wheel hitting the frame although it still comes quite close so I’m going to keep an eye on it.

Get a refund….

http://singletrackworld.com/forum/topic/boardman-pro-fs-1200

Sounds more to me that they have been fitting incorrect shocks.

Would be useful for someone still having the problem to let us know what stroke shock they have.

Mine is still knackered but the shock is the same size as jbridges

Yeah as prawny says it’s the same shock I think mine genuinely was faulty.
This looks like the 2017 version of the calibre bossnut if you’re planning on holding out prawny.

Ooh. Gravel bike?

Yeah I think I’m going to hang on for the new one now. Getting a refund will mean more spending and it’s just not feasible at the moment.

Like the new colour.

And the Gravel/CX bike. Hmmmm.

I checked mine and its also 190mm 51. Although mine uses all of the travel. i.e the rubber band is left at the end of the stanchion at full compression/bottoming out. Mine is the same rear shock that was on the faulty frame that i returned, so it was the frame rear shock mount that was welded slightly in the wrong place that was allowing the rear wheel to touch the frame on full compression.