Ok, so decided on the bike. Next choice I have is whether I buy 2017 model – boost front and rear – or buy 2016 non boost and save myself around £1300?

Buying boost I’m kind of future proofing myself if I want to change frames at a later date – or am I buying into all the marketing hype?

For £1300 difference the future would have to be very different to make it worthwhile

My opinion – there’s no real perceptible gain in stiffness and any new frame with boost spacing could be made to fit with adapters (by the time you come to change)

I vote for hype

No doubt by the time I come to change a new standard will be out and everything we now own will be old hat

Boost will be superseded at some point and 142 rear will be serviceable for longer than you keep the bike for.

Resale may be better in the future with boost but then second hand mountain bike parts are so low anyway it’s not a good reason (unless you plan on making a change in only a couple of years). And £1,300 is a lot of money.

Is there anything else different on the 2017? If not then I’d go non boost. There are still major manufacturers that haven’t totally switched to boost so, unless you are planning on keeping it and constantly upgrading it forever, I think you’ll be ok for a few years yet.

Only way I would spend £1300 more for boost is if the geometry/shock/fork/wheels were also notably better.

If not then £1300 buys you some very nice boost wheels for your next bike. Put the £1300 in an ISA and don’t touch it and use for for the next one in a couple of years when things have moved on again.

The 2017 model is pretty much the same as 2016 and I’ll be keeping whatever I buy for 3 or 4 years. By the time I come to sell the frame it’ll probably be looking a little worse for wear and not worth an awful lot – however, at least if I did go for the boost version I’d only be looking to buy another frame rather than whole bike.
£1300 is a lot of dough to save though

I’d love to see if anyone, especially average joe, can actually tell if a bike has boost or not in a blind test.

I suspect not.

I’d love to see if anyone, especially average joe, can actually tell if a bike has boost or not in a blind test.

Of course not. Realistically who is going to notice it when riding?

£1300 difference?
And the only difference is boost?
No-brainer.

I think you might want to if you were interested in the extra tyre clearance that (I assume) you would get. That might let you run fatter tyres on the Boost bike.

For example, if I was buying a rigid hardtail today I would go for whatever let me run the fattest possible tyres (but for £1300 difference, this isn’t a hardtail I’m guessing).

My new bike is boost front and back. Can’t say I see any noticable difference in axle stiffness

Also I’ve been running 15mm up front for a few years now and can’t say that 20mm before was any better or worse. It’s all hype. #marginalgains

I reckon you’re right Larry. It’s just a lot of money to spend which ever one I go for – want to be sure I make the right choice.

I run Boost on a B+ hardtail. I was looking to replace my full sus a wee while ago and ended up with Boost on that too, but it wasn’t on my list of requirements.

If youre looking at booat for wider rims/ bigger tyres check what the max tyre clearencw is on the 2016 model. If its enough get some bling brakes and carbon Wheels for the older model.
What bike you thinking

I have a 142 rear, even with that hub width I find that my heels rub on the rear stays. Of course, that’s purely down to the way I ride but and you are probably different, I wouldn’t want wider stays though and I imagine that Boost would create wider stays…?

£1300 difference? I think you know the answer!
That’s basically another bikes worth of saving.
15mm x 100m front and 12 x 142 rear will be around for a while yet.

Bike I’m looking at is a Banshee Rune. Gonna go for the 2016 model I reckon. It’s an ex-demo but in VERY good condition, will be sold as a new bike

Thanks all for your input

Spend the £1300 on some skills training and a riding holiday.

if I did go for the boost version I’d only be looking to buy another frame rather than whole bike.

Do you really think boost is the last change they are going to make ? Face it, whatever frame you buy now will be obsolete in a couple of years anyway.

if I did go for the boost version I’d only be looking to buy another frame rather than whole bike

You wouldn’t need a whole new bike, just some adaptors or at worst a new rear hub.

Do you really think boost is the last change they are going to make ? Face it, whatever frame you buy now will be obsolete in a couple of years anyway.

Or find a brand/manufacturer who has built in adaptability.

Couple of examples:

The DMR Swopouts used on my Bolt frame (also Kinesis and some other brands use them). With different dropouts you can fit 135 QR, singlespeed, 12×135, 12×142. I imagine they could easily get some made up with an extra 3mm clearance each side for boost.

Or Surly with there ‘Gnotboost’ rear spacing. Will fit 135, 142 and 148 spacings.

At least some brands are working around the standards and giving comsumers options.

Ah, so it’s an ex demo will be part of the reason for the reduction. Don’t banshee do replaceable dropouts for different wheel sizes?

The boost drop outs are new for 2017 and aren’t compatible with last years frames.

Save your money and go play in the alpes.

+1 for save your £££ and spend it on a day with Jedi and a week or two somewhere sunny.

Or another way of thinking about it, would I go into work for 3 weeks and have a slightly wider hub, or take 3 weeks unpaid leave and ride a bike with a narrower hub every day.

what is boost?

Oh, ex demo, so there’s your money difference then… boost a red herring.

Boost is 6mm

6mm what?

I went boost and it was something I was pretty keen on for the new bike – but this is mainly as I am a big chap and had issues with wheel flex on my previous 29er full sus, so anything to help stiffness in that regard was high on my agenda.

But for £1300… I don’t think I would have been all that bothered 😉

As above, I have a Boost equipped bike….and cannot tell any difference whatsoever to my non boost one. Save the £1300!

Go for the cheaper bike and spend some money upgrading the wheels and other bits. A higher spec 142 will be better than a lower spec boost (in my opinion)

Does the demo come with the normal warranties?

As part of my ongoing attempt to kill MTB marketing claims, I did some quick calculations to see how much Boost front hubs improved stiffness over conventional 15mm.

With a number of reasonable simplifying assumptions, the additional spoke base width made a 5% increase to the spoke component of lateral wheel stiffness. With modern wide stiff rims, spoke stiffness is only a proportion oif whole stiffness. Then if we consider the imapact of tyre flexibilty…

The conculsion is my favourite phrase, ‘two tenths of **** all’!

The only reason for Bosot is to ‘future proof’. But as many people point out, standards are changing so quickly, the future is not very far away.

£1300 could buy you a very good set of very stiff wheels.

But why is stiff good anyway!