sorry to hijack the post but a friend is looking into buying a hybrid bike called a boardman, havnt heard of them myself but wondered if they were any good?

They are quiet good bikes, specs are usually quiet good, unfortunately Halfords have exclusivity to sell them so they are tainted abit as people have bad dealings with halfords,

im guessing your friend is buying second hand? if not by joining the british cycling fed the basic (bronze i think) membership is £18 and entitles you to 10% off anything at halfords, the £18 soon pays for itself.

we've got some sort of salary sacrafice work scheme where they give you the money and you pay it back, he's looking to spend about £400 or so

Yes the decent bikes prob the best that halfords do
Great info Andy cheers is that on anything in halfords for the full year

Ah i see i guess his company do there ride to work thro halfords, as i say nothing at all wrong with Boardman. i actually own one myself, about a year ago i was looking for a low end carbon road bike, generally they start at £1500, boardmans version came in a little cheaper at £1300 the same spec as the £1500 bikes of other brands, with british cycling membership i got another 10% off so i feel i got a bike i wanted at quiet a good price, you can request to have the bike in the box as i did and built it myself so really halfords had nothing to do with it

Yes Davo, some of the staff have actually reminded me that it is available across the store from time to time when just buying bike bits, i don't think they are meant to give it to discounted or on offer stuff but i have always got it as a lot of the workers don't really bother, all i do at check out is mention my membership, flash my card then the member of staff will scan a barcode the have that will deduct 10%.

i have reserverd stuff online but if you do make sure you pay when you collect, web exclusives are another thing i don't think they are meant to discount but if you order for store collect and pay at the counter they will usually scan the barcode if you show your membership card.


sorry for going more off track .........

Careful with bike to work schemes, once you factor in the final purchase price and suchlike, its actually quite easy to beat the price by simply getting last years bike at 20% off....... or offering to pay the shop in cash.

It depends on the scheme as I think the ones I was looking recently we pretty good. On a bike costing £1000 you basically end up paying £680 which is pretty decent as you can still buy last years model even while using your BIke scheme.