https://velonews.competitor.com/2010/...hment/dsc_0121

While they look nice and similar to every other high end bike has anyone heard of said bike before?

Seeing more aero roadbikes out there. Never seen a Boardman. I can't really add to your description.

i've heard good things about them here and well priced.

i heard that Boardman bikes are actually Axman in Taiwan.

I was just checking out Axman and one of their road bikes looks just like a Specialized Tarmac.

Boardmans are common in the UK where the brand is based (Cf. Chris Boardman). They are generally well regarded for their price/feature ratio but are treated with suspicion by many 'serious' cyclists as they are available exclusively from Halfords, a chain that is primarily car based and which has a reputation for incompetent mechanics and sales people who don't know how to set up a bike. With proper wrenching they are comparable to any of the countless other new road brands.

I've heard good thing about their road bikes and they're mountain bikes get awards for being well priced. These award come from british cycling magazing so I would imagne they have a vested interest in supporting a british cyclist. Nothing with that if you also consider a cycling magazine's views are based on advertising revenue.

Having said that, I've met a bunch of riders with various Boardman bikes and they all said "the bike was very good", and some of them said ".. but you have to go thru the assembly process again like you would with a BD bike" because they're sold from 'a funny place'.

I have a preference to not have someone's name on my bike, but I do like they're mainly black with a dash of yellow... very appealing. If they got rid of the name (not happening) and sold them at proper LBSs, I'd be more likely to buy one.

I do like the fact that United Health uses Chris King R45 hubs with Sapim spokes.

On another note - given that more and more it is becoming difficult to tell the generic carbon frames from the name brand carbon frames, and how easy it is for some company to just slap their name on a generic frame (see Ritte frames), it does make me wonder whether this lack of character in the frames themselves, and in ability to determine the difference in the frames from a consumer standpoint, is going to bring trouble down the road. At some point, a consumer can save ton of money buying a generic frame, and get for the most part, a commensurate frame for 1/2 the cost.

At least with steel, there were steel tube variations and builder differences. You could decipher value, and would be willing to pay for this value. However, can this continue to hold up in the carbon fiber market, where everyone knows that a few big manufacturers (Giant, Merida, Kinesis) make the majority of the frames for the name brands.

A few companies I think see this, and are doing something about it. BMC comes to mind the most, as they have completely automated carbon fiber frame construction, and no other bikes look like BMC.

Time and Look, being made in France still, I think can sell value, because they can differentiate themselves from the generics.

I think most all of the Look frames are now made in northern Africa. A long time ago (early '90s) they were making at least some of them in Salt Lake City. I was having problems with some pedal cleats back then and my shop pointed me to the factory that happened to be in town. That was back in the carbon tube/aluminum lug era.