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TECH NEWS
2024 Boardman ADV 9.6 carbon "The premium sector is the fastest-growing part of the cycling market": Halfords to double the amount of bikes in its range priced over £1,000
Halfords has announced plans to expand its "premium" bike range significantly, aiming to more than double its high-end offerings. The expansion will include the Carrera, Boardman and Voodoo brands, with top-end models priced at £3,800, featuring components such as Shimano GRX Di2 and Zipp 303 S carbon wheels.
Recently Halfords, the UK’s largest cycling retailer, reported a decline in profits due to a significant drop in bike sales compared to pre-COVID levels in its preliminary financial results for the year to March 2024. In response, the company believes that expanding its "premium" bike range is the way forward, with plans to more than double its high-end bike offerings in the coming months.
"The premium sector is the fastest-growing part of the cycling market - and one previously underrepresented at Halfords", the brand stated.
When Halfords say "premium" it is referring to bikes that cost over £1,000, and the most expensive will still 'only' cost £3,800. While £1,000 is at the lower end or perhaps even less than you would pay for the least expensive entry-level model with numerous other bike brands, Halfords is of course known for offering a wide range of adults and children's bikes, primarily focused on affordable and mid-range models, and it goes without saying that £1,000 is still a lot of money to spend on a bike for the vast majority of Halfords' customers.
> The rising price of entry-level road bikes
The planned expansion will roll out over the coming months and will cover the Carrera, Boardman and Voodoo brands. Boardman, formerly an independent brand, has now been fully acquired by Halfords, and is positioned as its performance brand offering road, hybrid, mountain, gravel and e-bikes, claiming to offer high-quality performance at an accessible price point. Voodoo represents Halfords' mountain and adventure bike range.
The number of mechanical bikes priced at £1,000 or above is set to increase from 20 to 32 models - a 60% increase - and the range of e-bikes priced at £1,500 or more, will expand from five to 20 models, a 300% increase.
Bikes in the new ranges are priced up to £3,800, but the retailer claims it still offers "incredible value" compared to similarly-specced models.
Acknowledging that these prices are higher than those typically associated with the brand, Katie Begley, Head of Cycling at Halfords, comments, "While to some it may seem counterintuitive to call bikes approaching £4,000 good value, this is a sector where bikes can often hit the five-figure mark and as such, our new range offers incredible value for the price."
Leading the Boardman ADV 9 Series Carbon Range, designed for both on and off-road riding, is the ADV 9.6, priced at £3,800 and equipped with a full carbon frame and forks, a Shimano GRX Di2 groupset, and Zipp 303 S Carbon wheels. The groupset and wheels alone are priced at £2,060 and £1,090, respectively.
Also launching is the Boardman TRVL gravel range, featuring the flagship TRVL 9.2 which is priced at £2,100. This model features a 6061 butted alloy frame, 40mm Rockshox Rudy XPLR suspension and SRAM Apex gears and brakes.
"The move is aimed at bringing better value to the premium bikes sector and making the potentially daunting high-end cycling market more accessible for those getting serious about their cycling", says Halfords.
In recent years, customers have been easily able to spend over £10,000 on a premium road bike, and this isn't the first time we've seen high-end bikes come down to a more affordable price range with brands like Van Rysel and Cube shaking up the market.
Cube’s new Attain C:62 is under £3,000 with a full Shimano Ultegra Di2 groupset and carbon finishing kit. Considering the price of an Ultegra Di2 groupset alone was £2,399 when we reviewed it, you're getting a helluva lot for the extra few hundred pounds.
We are told there are plans to expand Halfords "premium" offerings even further in early 2025. For more information go to halfords.com
Emily is our track and road racing specialist, having represented Great Britain at the World and European Track Championships. With a National Title up her sleeve, Emily has just completed her Master’s in Sports Psychology at Loughborough University where she raced for Elite Development Team, Loughborough Lightning.
Emily is our go-to for all things training and when not riding or racing bikes, you can find her online shopping or booking flights…the rest of the office is now considering painting their nails to see if that’s the secret to going fast…
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23 comments
Welcome to the age of consumer populism, where greedy, ignorant consumers purchase complex bikes from businesses like Halfords and Evans or some price-shaggers in the North, then act surprised when they receive very poor or non-existent after sale care, especially when it comes to mechanical aspects of more comples bikes.
Branches with inexperienced poorly paid and overworked techs are the norm, so is lack of tooling required to serice modern bikes like e.g. Bosh or Di2 diagnostic kits, specific sockets and many other tools. It's a cynical, calculated business model designed to shift the hassle and responsibility elswhere and essentially force their customers to harras their local shops and independent mechanic with any mechanical/warranty issues.
To many in the trade this sounds familiar: "I've just bought this bike from.... Could you have a quick look?" "You are a **** dealer, aren't you?" " Oh, I didn't know you were here (for over ten years)" " The guys from ***** said you can do warranty for me" "I was going to buy from you (after an hour of talking, demonstration and test riding) but the other shop was slightly cheaper".
It's very naive to think that all this hassle brings "extra business" "new customers" etc. for the IBDs. It's just a time consuming PITA which only makes cosumers more comfortable buying elswhere and reinforces the imbalance of the bike retail market.
Didn't Halfords open a range of dedicated and slightly posher cycle stores a few years ago, and then shut them all down. I don't recall the name- Cycle Republic or Cycle <something> anyway...?
Hellfrauds aren't capable of building or supporting "high end" bikes.
I wouldn't trust them to install a bottle cage, let alone assemble and correctly torque carbon parts or inflate hookless wheels.
no, just no. No no no.
I just don't see many people who are the type of person who will spend nearly four grant on a bike also being the type of person who will shop at Halfords.
I dont see why not. Maybe not £4k but 2.5-3. Boardmans and Voodoo's have a good reputation.
Probably going to be one of the cheapest ways to get a groupset for upgraders too. Buy a boardman with say 12sp DI, swap the bits over onto your best bike and have the Boardman for Second best.
I was more on Halfords reputation for poor bike assembly etc, than the quality of the bikes.
If you can afford a £3k bike, you can probably afford to pay a real bike mechanic enough to set it up that they won't turn it down just because it was bought from Halfords.
(Though if your service department is fully loaded, I do think prioritising customers who bought bikes from you is reasonable.)
Weirdly I did know a LBS who at least claimed they wouldn't touch a bike if they hadn't sold it.
I saw a sign in the window of a bike shop a couple of years ago which read, "If you bought your bike on the Internet, send it back to the Internet to get it fixed."
Obviously, it's their choice to run their business how they want, but that strikes me as cutting down on how much work they get. If it was me, I'd inclined to just add a surcharge for bikes they haven't sold.
It's like a plumber only working on their own installations.
Much better to offer a discount for bikes they have sold. Comes to the same thing, but would go over much better with the customers.
No approval implied, and indeed I thought it was a bit daft at the time. I can certainly see the case for prioritising and maybe offering discounts for bikes they've sold themselves but yes, as you say, if times are as difficult for small bikeshops as we're told one would think they can ill afford to turn down work on bikes no matter what their provenance.
What's going on with the brake hosing for these models? Unless I'm reading the pictures wrong, the rear brake hose is exiting the bar tape on the left of the bars, going across the head tube then looping back behind the head tube to enter the downtube on the left? Why would you do that?
For a rear brake hose plumbed into the left shifter and with a hose entry point on top of the down tube, I would do it like that too. You have to consider what the hose does when the handlebars are all the way left or right, there needs to be enough length for that. You also need to make sure there's enough hose length to be able to remove the bars+stem from the fork steerer, especially when the steerer has been left long as it often is with shop bikes.
With these considerations in mind you get cleaner routing when you let the rear hose loop over to the RHS as they have done.
As to what you'll get with bikes on the Halfords shop floor and not in a photo studio, who knows!
Nope, still makes no sense to me. Every bike I've owned or that I've seen with semi-internal routing, like this one, has the cable/hose from the left brifter going across the head tube and into a port on the right hand side of the down tube. Sure, it makes sense to do it the way they have here if the only port is on the left side of the down tube, but why design the frame that way in the first place, why not put the port on the right hand side and avoid the double bend and unsightly extra hose/cable housing?
Maybe it's an open mould frame, so you get whatever you get.
The port is in the middle of the top tube, many frames have this hole as it's also where a Shimano Di2 EW-RS910 junction A could go instead of the stem or bar ends.
Here's a better photo of a new Boardman ADV.
That makes more sense, still makes for a very unsightly front end though in my opinion; I would definitely prefer a separate port on the side of the down tube for the rear brake hose.
Maybe because it's an international frame rather than UK-specific?
I usually don't bother, but if they double the "amount of bikes in their range priced over £1,000...", then sales will plummet as the bicycles will be overpriced. A £1,000 bike will be £2,000 if they double the amount.
I am sure they intend to double number of models or similar.
Amount means quantity which means number, they are doubling the quantity/number of models priced over a grand. It doesn't mean price in this context and couldn't unless it had a qualifying clause, e.g. "Halfords are doubling the amount of money they are asking for bikes priced over £1000". Probably best if you stick to the not bothering policy...
"A collection or mass, typically used for something that cannot be counted"
"A quantity of something, especially the total of a thing or things in number, size, value, or extent." (OED) As in, for example, the total number of models in a range.