Boardman Road Pro Carbon

Tipping the scales at 15.9lbs, equipped with a SRAM Force groupset and finished off with Ritchey's WCS range the Boardman PRO Carbon is a race bike to be reckoned with, regardless of price. This bike uses the same frame that Nicole Cooke raced on to win a gold medal in the Olympic road race and a road world championship.

I think it’s best if I come clean now – I like Halfords and I am proud to have my 5 year service badge. I think it’s wrong to boycott Boardman bikes just because they are only available from Halfords. It’s surprisingly little known that Halfords do not actually own Boardman bikes, just the retail rights. Boardman have their own R&D department and this bike is not the “off the shelf” job from Taiwan that most people think.

The PRO Carbon's frame is a unidirectional T800 carbon monocoque with some great features. Stylistically it is clean with sharp lines blended in nicely into overbuilt sections around the headset and bottom bracket. The frame features a neat approach to cable routing at the headset. Made possible by having a 1.5” lower bearing in the headset, the gear cable feeds through the headtube - an approach also used by Cervelo. This not only keeps the front end neat but eliminates cable rub. The rear brake cable is also internally routed.

The groupset and finishing kit have all the top brand hallmarks of a much more expensive machine. The SRAM Force drivetrain behaved impeccably, shifting is clean with a reassuringly positive feel through the shifters. The bike tested was actually a 2009. For 2010 there are only two notable changes. The bottom bracket gets revamped with a BB30 reducing the Q factor to a slim 143mm and can only improve the already excellent power transfer by further stiffening the business end of the bike.

It’s also out with the Tektro R740 brakes and in with SRAM Force dual pivots. This is a great move as the Tektro offerings have little to no power in the wet as I found out when descending Cheddar Gorge - luckily I had a grass verge run off which was soft enough to break my fall. The fault is more likely to be with the pad compound than the brakes themselves, even so this year's upgrade to SRAM brakes is a welcome one given their reputation as powerful stoppers. The 1.5” lower headset bearing gives a remarkably stiff front end, grab a fistful of front brake and the forks barely deflect. This is reassuring and shows the quality of the E2 design concept which has been well adopted by the Pro Carbon.

Ride quality is excellent. Vibration damping through the back end is good thanks to well designed seat stays and very comfortable Airone copy saddle by Velo. The geometry is definitely race orientated with a 555mm effective top tube length and a 110mm stem this may be a little aggressive for the long audax rider. At 5’10” the 54cm was a great fit and was comfortable for rides over 4 hours. Ritchey WCS seatpost and stem are excellent components, giving no problems throughout testing. Matched with a Ritchey Pro short reach bar, offering several comfortable hand positions, the finishing kit is again one associated with a more expensive bike. The bike tart in me would like to see a matching WCS bar but at this price I am not going to complain.

The down tubes surface area combined with the weight of the bike does mean it has a tendency to be blown about in strong winds. I think of this as a pleasant reminder of how light your bike is rather than an annoyance, but I'm one of those glass half full types and I was testing the bike during a very stormy couple of months.

At speed the handling is great. A large rake on the forks makes the bike most stable in a straight line, this makes cornering at speed with the bike leant over as far as you dare great fun. It really rewards being ridden hard like any race bike should. At slow speeds the handling is a little unresponsive, that larger rake and trail (larger by 5mm and 7mm than a Trek Madone) takes more turning through the bars at slower speeds around town, however the Boardman Pro is not designed as a shopper so it only lets itself down when fighting your way out of town. It goes without saying that at 16lbs this bike loves to climb, rest assured it will only be your lungs holding you back.

The wheelset comprises a Ritchey WCS rim built on to unbranded sealed bearing hubs. The spoke tension slipped pretty quickly resulting in a lost spoke on a ride. I don’t think they are really race ready wheels but good runners none the less, once re tensioned have run straight and true through the nastiest of winter roads. Over 600 miles I have only had the misfortune of one puncture, the Continental Ultra Sport tyres are a great all rounder.

It is worth mentioning that on the wettest of rides the bike floods. I would estimate about 300-500ml of water collects in the BB area. Without a drain hole this leaves the water sloshing around until the next ride where it seems to works its way out somehow. This could have been sorted for 2010 but may see you replacing BB bearings more regularly if you regularly ride in the rain.

Regardless of little niggles with wheels and flooding I have certainly had a great experience riding the Boardman Pro C. It doesn't ride like a £5000 superbike but at £1600 offers unrivaled affordable race winning performance. Put a set of racing wheels on and you will have a real contender against any bike. You could even pay for the wheels from your first year’s race winnings.

Verdict

This is not to be confused with a super bike and it does have its fair share of niggles, however if you are racing on a budget then look no further. This is a super light exceedingly well designed race bike delivered at £1600 with a frame that's already got an illustrious racing pedigree