I’ve been tempted into giving road riding a go by the Scott frame thread….you lot have a lot to answer for 😀

I’m torn between buying a second Hand 2012 Boardman Comp that looks to be in very good condition with probably less than 100 miles on it for £500 or whether to stretch my budget and go for the Scott CR1 pro frame (£500 on its own) and build it up, but end up with a better bike?

Is the Boardman worth the £500 and would I be wasting my money on the Scott as I’m a complete beginner to Road biking?

Either really, 500 quid or nearly three times that.

Out of interest do those Scotts have replaceable hangers, mates didn’t and a slight snag at the start of a ride and the bike was ****ered. Still you’ll have a full warranty even buying that cheap

Boardman for me. If you want to upgrade later, you won’t lose much on it.

@bash

always buy complete – you get much better value as the bike company is buying 1000’s of groupsets, wheels and finishing kits at heavily discounted “OE” pricing

when you buy a frameset and then try to put together a “custom build” you will always pay more, even when buying discounted parts off on-line resellers like CRC, Wiggle, Merlin, etc. and then having someone put it all together for you

we are soon to move into 2014 model year, if you can wait a month or two, you will soon start seeing heavy discounting on 2013 road models to clear, with full warranty and backup (free 1st service, etc.) from local and national dealers selling quality brands

when you buy a frameset and then try to put together a “custom build” you will always pay more, even when buying discounted parts off on-line resellers like CRC, Wiggle, Merlin, etc. and then having someone put it all together for you

While that may be true most of the time, it wasn’t when I built my Cinelli 4 years ago. 50% of the price of the frame and finishing kit, 35% off the groupset, 40% off the wheels, 50% off the tyres plus a £100 or so at the LBS for other bits a bobs. I spent around £1300, the equivalent Ultegra ( I went for Athena) bike at rrp was £2200. Even discounted the cheapest I saw it was about £1500. You just need to be patient and shop around a lot.

Just built up a bike with all brand new parts consisting of Ribble carbon frameset, full ultegra groupset and ultegra tubeless wheels.

Final cost was £900 so can be done if you shop around.

Just built up a bike with all brand new parts consisting of Ribble carbon frameset, full ultegra groupset and ultegra tubeless wheels.

Where did you get the full ultegra groupset and wheels from that left you enough change from £900 for a frame and all the finishing kit required. Bearing in mind a ribble frame is around £300.

To the OP, buy both, swap all the kit from the boardman onto the scott frame. Not sure of the spec of the boardman but you may need a compatible chainset and seatpost

To the OP, buy both, swap all the kit from the boardman onto the scott frame.

+1

Buy the Boardman, ride it for a bit. If you like road riding, transplant the kit to the Scott. If not, put the Scott on eBay starting at the price you paid or offer it on here once they’ve sold out.

Should all fit if the Boardman has a Shimano chainset. Front mech is the only bit I’m unsure of.

always buy complete – you get much better value as the bike company is buying 1000’s of groupsets, wheels and finishing kits at heavily discounted “OE” pricing

I dont agree with this, if you use the internet retailers to get massive discounts off parts as abnd when they have sales, you’ll save a fortune. When you buy a complete bike, you are paying for every little piece of the supply chain adding on their 10% from importer to distributor, retail outlet etc etc… my road bike would retail around £3000 and I paid almost £1000 less than that.

I’d get the Boardman, I had a 2008 boardman road team and it was a great bike. unless you have another £1500 to spend on the Scott to do the frame justice. You just couldnt buy it and stick Tiagra and RS10 wheels on it. A few people who bought the discount scotts from Westbrook have said they are very stiff and that from people who regularly ride high end carbon road frames.

Where did you get the full ultegra groupset and wheels from that left you enough change from £900 for a frame and all the finishing kit required. Bearing in mind a ribble frame is around £300.

Bought a brand new Giant TCR which had an ultegra groupset for £650. Then bought the Ultegra wheels (£235) and Ribble Frameset (£363 I think). Total outlay of around £1250.

I sold the wheels from the Giant and the Giant frame for a total of £400 which meant a cost of £850 but also bought some better tyres and had to mess around with cables/front mech mount which took it up to nearer £900.

Bought a brand new Giant TCR which had an ultegra groupset for £650

Now that is a good deal.

Buy the Boardman. If you really enjoy road riding then as with MTB, work out what you’d like and plan a self build. Take your time collecting the parts and spreading the cost while still having a great bike to ride.

If you bought the Scott would you end up wanting to upgrade at some point anyway?

My first road bike was a Spesh Allez from eBay. A year or so later I started collecting parts and ended up with a lovely lovely bike that 5 years later still puts a big smile on my face. Not really that comparable, but a similar bike that I was considering off the peg was about 50% more expensive.

Edit: Further to the above, with 2014 releases approaching you’ll likely start seeing deals on parts too, not just whole bikes.