I have done pretty much the full works on my old Boardman, an older model with Sora 9 speed. When things wore out I replaced the drivetrain with the most recent Tiagra 10 speed, worn out stock wheels replaced with custom hand-built wheels using Tiagra hubs and lightweight Kinlin alloy rims, tubeless winter tyres and narrower handlebars. It now also has mudguards and panniers because I have a nice carbon bike for the summer but the upgrades still make the bike feel much more modern and nicer.
Ryet 3D printed saddle, TPU tubes, Cinturato Velo tires, Ultegra level Shimano brake calipers. Maybe lace up a cheap set of Velocity rims if the rims suck, not sure if they do or not.
@@matt_acton-varian Yeah a nice flexy set of Kinlins on this would be super nice. That's why I picked Velocities to flex a bit and un harsh this Alu frame some.
They just proved that body drag is the number one thing you can improve on a bike. As Eddie Merckx once said, you don’t need upgrades, you just need to ride up grades.
im kinda suprised they did a usefull test for once, the sponsors wont be happy all the kit, bikes and tech pales in comparison to body position its not even remotely close
@@MrChippinator sadly the basic consumer doesnt know and it pisses me off seeing the cycling industrie pushing crap down theire throats while all those nice old handcrafted bikes gets neglected or land on the landfill while all they needed in most cases is a bit of oil and grease - and for race bikes maybe a new set of wheels
@@bergbilch Nice handcrafted race bikes sadly tend to be collectors items, and they still sell for nosebleed prices. I have a couple of nice custom bikes, but I'd love a rosso corsa DeRosa with Campag 10 Ergo. That sort of thing still costs an arm and a leg 'cos other nostalgic fools have the same idea. I have a similar lust for a classic red and white Richard Sachs, R. Brian Baylis, or one of the disco paint-job Zunows. Why yes, I do have a small fetish for fine steel rigs with pretty lugs. Guilty as charged.
In Alex's defense, I did a Greek Cycle Tour riding a Boardman that the tour provided. On the last day, I got a flat. Like Alex, when trying to change the tubes, I broke a tire lever and ultimately pinched/punctured both spares since seating the tires was so hard. This despite having successfully fixed at least 150 flat tires in my lifetime (before going tubeless in 2014). The tour operator concurred that putting on tires on the Boardmans is ridiculously hard. It seems like the wheelsets on those Boardmans have slightly oversized rims (albeit with a relief channel) that make getting tires on them very difficult.
@@user-er8fs7pz5o Makes sense. Wheels and tires are both made to the same standards for size, _but_ that doesn't mean there isn't a bit of variation... and sometimes you get unlucky and it's the wheel on the larger end of the scale + the tire on the tighter end of the scale. (Or the other way around and your tire doesn't want to stay on the rim, had a couple of those so far too.)
The cheaper bike didn't look bad - just plain. It was a functional bike doing bike stuff. It wasn't the bike equivalent of the moronic Cybertrucks that are going around.
@@ebikescrapper3925 no dude they are. They create vortices which help the air stay attached to the tire-wheel interface. Especially if you have 3 of them.
Especially if you consider that it would have been even faster with just the tire upgrade. But I guess this way they couldn't have made the conclusion mostly on the fact that aero bar are not uci legal, instead of focusing on the fact that paying 9000£ more might have been only 10s quicker ...
It would be good to see a systematic comparison with different upgrades done one at a time and compared: inner tubes alone, tyres alone, wheels alone, groupset. It could give a pecking order of which upgrades give most bang for buck. Most of us who have been riding a long time can make educated guesses but actual data would be good, and it would make a good upgrade guide.
Kudos guys and the wider GCN Team. This is the content we like. Displaying that if you want to get into the sport as a newbie then don't go out and purchase a top end bike, purchase a budget bike and invest in reasonable upgrades. More content like this please.
@@gcntech Sort of - but I am mostly a fan of great bang for buck mid range stuff. I ride a mid-range steel bike and it is quite lovely. I’ll take the 6k I didn’t spend on it and instead have a nice holiday.
@@Kendoji1 Having the money left over to take your bike to nice places is probably a better idea than having to always ride the same roads 'cos the holiday is no longer in the budget.
That is one nice aluminum frame with external cables an threaded bottom bracket. Looks stiff, too. Worthy enough to build it with good parts and wheels.
@@gcntech From a racing performance point of view one has to go with carbon frames, there is no denying it. But aluminum frames are more robust against abuse and mishaps, they are often less expensive, they can be recycled. This particular Boardman frame has also a no nonsense vibe with it's threaded bb and fully external cables (I hate semi-internal cables coming out at the bb, so stupid).
@gcntech I love my dolan gxa alloy gravel bike. Also bought an alloy merida reacto road bike a few years ago just because I love upgrading bikes as much as I do riding them and to see how good I could make it, with carbon wheels, race tyres decent tubes etc it was just as quick as my 7.1kg focus cayo apart from the steep hills.
I'm surprised they didn't slam the stem on the Boardman as a improvement, especially since the stem on the Orbea was slammed. That modification would have cost 0£.
Pinch flatting not one but two inner tubes, blimey that's surely a record. Presumably Alex did put some air into the new tubes? Surely he didn't pinch them putting on the tyres using a tyre lever? Piece de la resistance, the second tube letting go on camera, pure gold 😂😂😂
So again this all comes to the question of what we want vs what we really need. Taking Boardman without the upgrades, it is just about 2% slower than Orbea. If this was a 16 km loop, then on a 100 km ride the Boardman would be about 4 minutes slower than Orbea. Of course, reality is more complex, but I guess this gives a rough comparison. If someone is racing, this 4 minutes is a world. But for me, this is definitely not worth spending 10,000 pounds on Obrea.
Best and logical comment. If your aim is to get fitter, any sub 1,000 quid bike can do it and you will stay healthy and fitter around the block every week.
Take on account that if you race you don`t want to be on the front unless escape window opens. I remember when I used to race back in the 90`s. Never me or anyone I knew of tried bashing rig for eventual loss unless mechanical. Ask pros and they`ll tells you the same. Simply speaking... At 2k level bikes become very good and would advise strongly to spend money into coach and training sessions instead.
Takeaway you can save even more by buying only 1/2 clip on aero bar extension and use the monobar. 2nd take away don't let your friend maintaine your bike. Do it yourself. Looking at you olli :D Seriously, great video. Thanks. Was looking for a break down of the individual adjustments, like only new tires, only aero bars, only waxed chain and the sum afterwards. But I think you already have those in older videos anyway.
31 secs over 16km... expected a lot more tbh. Fun vid though gents. Idea for a vid..... Use this orbea and lap time as a baseline. Swap out one component for a budget component and ride the course. Replace the original part. swap out a different component, rinse and repeat. The aim being to find out the percentage difference each conponent makes. Tyres, wheels, handlebar, seat post, groupset, ospw etc
Sorry for catching out the accent. I think one major takeaway is that 200w is below the threshold for a superbike’s real superiority. All the numbers that the frame, wheel, tire and groupset companies quote tend to be savings at 40kph. That’s not going to happen at 200w except downhill. Which leaves a question for the rest of us - the ones with less than superior VO2 max scores - if your FTP is under 200w, would you be wasting that lovely Orbea’s capabilities?
"Wasting" is a big word but yes, it would be underutilized by someone who is not at a pretty high level of fitness Does this mean that you shouldn't get one if you like it and can afford it? Absolutely not, it will still **feel** better than a 500 pound bike, maybe not 20 times better, but still better Obviously the reasonable choice is to go for something in the mid range, probably less than half the Orbea price, it will be pretty much the same thing but cheaper and top end components are more delicate/expensive/take longer to replace/wear quicker if you don't really know how to take care of them and you don't have the bike skills to ride a bike that can outpace your capabilities
The frame is worth the money, for the difference in comfort, no matter your FTP, but a 105 Di2 groupset would be more than enough for a fraction of the price.
that's the regular orbea orca not the aero version. completely irrelevant point as this is a climbing bike not optimised for 40kph+ airflow or whatever rubbish speeds the marketing dept decides they excel at
They race on lugged steel square taper fixed gear bikes in Japanese Keirin. Pretty sure most Orbea riders aren't dropping the 200 RPM sprints you need to be successful there. No one needs an Orbea unless they want to go faster, if you don't really want to go faster just get a steel bike it rides better.
If only Cuthbert was giving us useful tips each week like "make sure you use a torque wrench". Mind you last time he said that he'd just sheared a bolt, then kept going on the rest without a torque wrench....
I get the tri-bars for the wind resistance reduction in the test. But at least in the conditions I ride in, they are useless. The Boardman seems like a good bike overall.
I have a broadband slr 8.9 the wheels and tyre were awful but soon as I changed those out the bike has been brilliant for me, will be doing my first 100mile ride this weekend. Also changed the pedals for 105, I plan to change the crank to 105 and brakes so it's 100% 105.
I picked up the boardman 8.9 carbon last year for under £1k. It felt like shit, but a change of wheels to some reasonable campagnolo scirocco, with conti gp5000 28m tyres and some tubilito tubes and it now feels amazing.
You're quite right Ollie, the Orbea with tri=bars would be quicker. Why not do the same test without the tri-bars. Then you have a comparison for those who do want to (UCI) race on a budjet. Riding with tri-bars is an aquired skill which won't be much use in narrow twisty lanes. Have you ever tried Spinnaci bars (also UCI banned)? They would give some of the aero benefit without bending your back so far.
In a weirdly similar coincidence, I've just last week bought a second hand Boardman Team Carbon for 200 quid, and immediately upgraded with tri bars, P-Zero TT tyres and TPU innertubes for an up coming Triathlon. Thankfully the upgrades went a bit more smoothly, I felt for both of your there 😅
The takeaway is aerodynamics (rider position) and rolling resistance (tires/tubes/wax) is more important than overall weight.....on that course anyway. Would have been interesting to see the difference with just the changes to the rolling resistance.
I'm pretty sure this video was recommended in a comment at some point. Very good subject as people often want to take up road cycling but don't want to get into it for to much cash. With this, they can spend £400 on some good wheels, £70 on tyres and get an enormous improvement. Then change out the groupset, saddle, perhaps pedals. An ally frame can literally take you up to an amateur race with some upgrades over time.
My upgrades (for me personally) would be to exercise regularly over a period of 365 days, while loosing some 12 to 15 kg... could probably done with less than 200 quid!
I got a 2015 Fuji Roubaix 1.1 from Facebook Marketplace for U$386. It has a mix of Ultegra and 105, Aluminum frame, really aero carbon frame (since it wasn’t UCI legal) and I upgraded the wheels to some 60mm Elite tubeless for another 350, and fitted Vittoria TLR 25 mm tires running at 60psi. For less than 900, it rides really nice and It is as good to ride as my much more expensive SuperSix.
Boardman makes excellent bikes I love my slr I changed the tyres to faster rolling race tyres and it is every bit as fast as my bianchi which was 3 times the price.
I purchased a 2022 Giant TCR Advanced disc pro 2 and had a puncture in the 25 mil tires within 2 weeks, center of the tread and unsafe to patch. Switched from the 25mil tires to a set of 30 mil GP 5000's and got a much more comfortable ride for $200.
Not only are tribars not allowed in any kind of non-time-trial-race, even most group rides will not accept them. Sorry, this is not an "upgrade", but just a feature for riding alone. Then, 200W is not really an area where anything but weight on the uphill and rolling resistance really comes into place as long as you get your position at least similar. However, I agree: tires and tubes make the most significant difference and the greatest bang for your bucks. If you have cheap wheels, getting on the tyre sometimes is a big hassle, and that makes installing latex inner tubes difficult. You should never put them on using a tire lever.
everything is about $$$ on this channel, yet I bet a large proportion of the audience ride mid-level bikes and the bike is not even close to limit the riders.
It would have been embarrassing but a set of carbon 50s on the board man, removing the front and rear reflectors would have made both bikes equal at the start. Lots of us upgrade a wheels a 1kg saving, 10% aero saving would have hilighyed just how poor the orbea is in the aero department. Just like when GCN did the old versus new test in the wind tunnel and johns bike was much closer than GCN and pinarello would have likes.
Will have to try latex or TPU tubes then. I use butyl with tyre liners for extra protection on a vittoria 28C Rubino Pros. Tyres is one of those upgrades that can make you faster by the way.
Haha, I won a race yesterday on a 1980s steel road bike against modern bikes. Obviously it was in my age category, but my bike would be 500 quid ish on ebay . Last new parts were Conti 5000s a couple of years ago. I'd upgrade the 12yr old Mavic Cosmic wheels if I could afford it. Shame I can't get 30mm tyres into the forks. Cheap bikes can be fast. Choose well and you get a quick bike. Mine is so good because it was built for racing and the only downside is it's not aerodynamic in anyway. If your cheap bike is aggressive and stiff it'll go quick, if your 10k bike is a bit stodgy despite being light and aero it's going to fail as a weapon. My carbon bike is very aerodynamic but isn't as quick as it looks..... There's lots of bling out there, most will be nice to ride but getting a bike with the edge is not obvious. Good vid guys.
@@ballisticviii Possibly, but the rims were HED Belgium with 21 internal width. Tires Conti GP5000 tubed, clincher. I ended up with TPU. I am a huge fan od latex though. Cheers
I have similar Boardman SLR wheels, now off the Boardman, but on another bike. They really need you to get the tyre bead into the trench and work from opposite the valve to the valve. Even with a decent tyre hooking tool, doing it any other way is painful. I replaced them with second hand Fast Forward carbon rims, a worthy upgrade.
pretty sure that Boardman used to sponsor triathlete legends alistair & johnny brownlee and of course Chris was the greatest time trialist of all time - in my opinion; so it stands to reason that the boardman can be improved by such a huge margin
The bike is just a generic bike with a logo slapped on it. That's the thing about budget bikes. Bike companies can only make very distinctive feels and features on expensive bikes, because they are using fewer interchangeable 13 in a dozen parts.
Use £200 to make the Boardman faster than the Orbea? Easy... just as long is I can spend the 200 quid on the Orbea. Fill the frame and tires with water, and that's it. Probably will leave enough money for a nice pint after the race. (or 20)
"Good cos I've been waiting ages in this car park" ........"heheheh, right, well, anyway" We were all thinking the same thing Ollie. Content suggestion, Al goes on a Cytech course, learns about changing tyres and torque settings and then has to look after his own bikes for 6 months without them falling apart.
This is the problem with tubeless ready tyres. The bead makes them a PITA to fit with inner tubes. So easy to pinch them. I’ll stick with cheaper (and lighter) non-tubeless ready tyres.
At $450 pounds where i live you can buy a trek domane al2 rim which is pretty similar in specs but id prefer seeing trek and not "boardman" everytime i hop on my bike, i would have put on tyres and tubes and maybe upgraded brake pads
If it were me, I’d buy tires, tubes, and Ali express carbon aero road handlebars. Then slam the stem, heat shrink the exposed cables together, remove the reflectors from the spokes, and wax the chain. You’d get very close to the Orbea without resorting to the clip-on TT bars.
invested in Some Pirelli Yellow TPU tubes and almost a year later and within two weeks of each other both got punctures. Coincidence? I am not so sure. Both had completely lost their elasticity and turned brownish. Whenever the bike was not in use I would reduce the tire pressure to about 10Psi, so I don't think we can blame constant pressure. I am back to Butyl with some sealant and will not bother with TPU again. Just not worth it for 1 year and probably only about 500kms of use. I do the other 6000kms in the year on the indoor trainer.
I recently tried to fit some latex tubes and GP5000 to my £800 road bike (first proper road bike) and kept punctured about 3 tubes before I finally managed to get them both on!! Glad I'm not the only one 😅😉. Love the content as per guys 🎉
I’ve only been riding on Conti GP5000 for almost two years now and I’ve had to change the tires out 3 times. Can confirm each time is a mega pain the a$$. Other brands I’ve used are crazy easy compared to Contis. I have to sweet talk the contis and promise to take them both out to dinner during the whole install haha.
Just spend half the amount on some sand and gravel, fill the Orbea frame with it, spend the remaining 100 quid on a few pints ans you watch hillarity ensue.
What upgrades would you make to a £450 bike? 🚀
Conti GP5000 (not TLR) with TPU tubes and a narrower handlebar with an aero shape.
I have done pretty much the full works on my old Boardman, an older model with Sora 9 speed. When things wore out I replaced the drivetrain with the most recent Tiagra 10 speed, worn out stock wheels replaced with custom hand-built wheels using Tiagra hubs and lightweight Kinlin alloy rims, tubeless winter tyres and narrower handlebars. It now also has mudguards and panniers because I have a nice carbon bike for the summer but the upgrades still make the bike feel much more modern and nicer.
Ryet 3D printed saddle, TPU tubes, Cinturato Velo tires, Ultegra level Shimano brake calipers. Maybe lace up a cheap set of Velocity rims if the rims suck, not sure if they do or not.
@@matt_acton-varian Yeah a nice flexy set of Kinlins on this would be super nice. That's why I picked Velocities to flex a bit and un harsh this Alu frame some.
Same as you expect i would get Chinese tt bar+ chinese tt helmet. That combination cost the same as your used tt bars.
You could get a dura ace crank on the Boardman in the $200 budget, so long as it was already in your parts bin.
I came here for precisely this comment,
They need to break out the perfectly unscratched Dura Ace 7700 track crank from the parts bin again.
Shots fired! 😂
😂😂😂😂😂
With the dura ace crank probs would have been sub 20 mins
They just proved that body drag is the number one thing you can improve on a bike. As Eddie Merckx once said, you don’t need upgrades, you just need to ride up grades.
im kinda suprised they did a usefull test for once, the sponsors wont be happy
all the kit, bikes and tech pales in comparison to body position
its not even remotely close
@@bergbilch I think we’ve all known this for a long time now. There’s no need to buy a new bike before you work on fundamentals.
@@MrChippinator sadly the basic consumer doesnt know and it pisses me off seeing the cycling industrie pushing crap down theire throats while all those nice old handcrafted bikes gets neglected or land on the landfill while all they needed in most cases is a bit of oil and grease - and for race bikes maybe a new set of wheels
@@bergbilch yep but that’s like anything else. You realize pretty quick that a lot of people are stupid
@@bergbilch Nice handcrafted race bikes sadly tend to be collectors items, and they still sell for nosebleed prices. I have a couple of nice custom bikes, but I'd love a rosso corsa DeRosa with Campag 10 Ergo. That sort of thing still costs an arm and a leg 'cos other nostalgic fools have the same idea. I have a similar lust for a classic red and white Richard Sachs, R. Brian Baylis, or one of the disco paint-job Zunows. Why yes, I do have a small fetish for fine steel rigs with pretty lugs. Guilty as charged.
Alex should check out a recent GCN video on how to change a tyre.
😂
😂😂😂
He should check his own videos :D
In Alex's defense, I did a Greek Cycle Tour riding a Boardman that the tour provided. On the last day, I got a flat. Like Alex, when trying to change the tubes, I broke a tire lever and ultimately pinched/punctured both spares since seating the tires was so hard. This despite having successfully fixed at least 150 flat tires in my lifetime (before going tubeless in 2014). The tour operator concurred that putting on tires on the Boardmans is ridiculously hard. It seems like the wheelsets on those Boardmans have slightly oversized rims (albeit with a relief channel) that make getting tires on them very difficult.
@@user-er8fs7pz5o Makes sense. Wheels and tires are both made to the same standards for size, _but_ that doesn't mean there isn't a bit of variation... and sometimes you get unlucky and it's the wheel on the larger end of the scale + the tire on the tighter end of the scale.
(Or the other way around and your tire doesn't want to stay on the rim, had a couple of those so far too.)
Concur with other comments: the amount of restraint Alex showed not adding some Dura Ace cranks was insane!
He's got so many lying around right 😉
Takeaway is don't buy 10 grand bike..
.
I'm trying to figure out what they have against old Nissans... The GT-R isn't that slow.
I would say more overpriced. The cheap bike looks cheap and ugly. A 10k bike or even 3k bike looks alot nicer.
2k usd giant tcr is so enough
@godlikecat
I've seen a preowned CAAD 12 with Ultegra for $1,000. I think that is a lot of bike for the price point.
The cheaper bike didn't look bad - just plain. It was a functional bike doing bike stuff. It wasn't the bike equivalent of the moronic Cybertrucks that are going around.
3:30 Ollie walking in and out of the shot and constantly interrupting was hilarious LMAO
Ollie’s Wahoo interruption got me belly laughing 😂 😂
That's what we like to hear 🙌
The budget bike had reflectors mounted in the spokes and the Orbea not... Has anyone looked at the watt difference of wheel reflectors vs. none?
Yes, there is noticeably less reflecting light on key areas from the Orbea.
It’s the tri-bars
Its like a partial disc wheel. Much faster!
Reflector's are not aero, one cyclists safety item is another cyclists burden.
@@ebikescrapper3925 no dude they are. They create vortices which help the air stay attached to the tire-wheel interface. Especially if you have 3 of them.
The difference between budget and high end is way less than I expected.
Especially if you consider that it would have been even faster with just the tire upgrade.
But I guess this way they couldn't have made the conclusion mostly on the fact that aero bar are not uci legal, instead of focusing on the fact that paying 9000£ more might have been only 10s quicker ...
It's called the law of diminishing returns. The first 100 spent on an upgrade get you way more than the last 100.
@@timshel1429 They actually managed to upgrade the tires, just not the tubes (latex)
Until you go up steep hills….
@@jiggamanjnu1on1pedal harder
It would be good to see a systematic comparison with different upgrades done one at a time and compared: inner tubes alone, tyres alone, wheels alone, groupset. It could give a pecking order of which upgrades give most bang for buck. Most of us who have been riding a long time can make educated guesses but actual data would be good, and it would make a good upgrade guide.
I agree, the tubes would make no practical difference. Tyres really help. Certainly 2nd hand wheels
Kudos guys and the wider GCN Team. This is the content we like. Displaying that if you want to get into the sport as a newbie then don't go out and purchase a top end bike, purchase a budget bike and invest in reasonable upgrades. More content like this please.
Thanks Tony! You really don't need all the gear, it's all about the engine at the end of the day 😉
Or just buy a used rim brake 7kg bike for peanuts!
So many good reasons to not bother buying a super expensive bike.
Are you a big fan of upgrading your bikes? 🔨
@@gcntech Sort of - but I am mostly a fan of great bang for buck mid range stuff. I ride a mid-range steel bike and it is quite lovely. I’ll take the 6k I didn’t spend on it and instead have a nice holiday.
@@Kendoji1 Having the money left over to take your bike to nice places is probably a better idea than having to always ride the same roads 'cos the holiday is no longer in the budget.
That is one nice aluminum frame with external cables an threaded bottom bracket. Looks stiff, too. Worthy enough to build it with good parts and wheels.
Do you think that aluminium frames are underrated? 👀
@@gcntech Please stop with these questions that you pose only to get the comments-section going. It's so fake.
@@gcntech From a racing performance point of view one has to go with carbon frames, there is no denying it.
But aluminum frames are more robust against abuse and mishaps, they are often less expensive, they can be recycled.
This particular Boardman frame has also a no nonsense vibe with it's threaded bb and fully external cables (I hate semi-internal cables coming out at the bb, so stupid).
@gcntech I love my dolan gxa alloy gravel bike. Also bought an alloy merida reacto road bike a few years ago just because I love upgrading bikes as much as I do riding them and to see how good I could make it, with carbon wheels, race tyres decent tubes etc it was just as quick as my 7.1kg focus cayo apart from the steep hills.
@@Penalist Do you find AI generated questions annoying then? Should be do a video on them?
Alex and Ollie remind me of an older and younger brother working on a project together.
Hahahah that's the sort of energy we love to see 🙌 These two are like kids when they get to tinker with bikes 🤣
I'm surprised they didn't slam the stem on the Boardman as a improvement, especially since the stem on the Orbea was slammed. That modification would have cost 0£.
Easiest way would be be pay a Pro the money to ride the Boardman.
Pro? A half decent amateur on a decade old aluminum bike would slaughter me. That's okay, I'm still having fun.
Pinch flatting not one but two inner tubes, blimey that's surely a record. Presumably Alex did put some air into the new tubes? Surely he didn't pinch them putting on the tyres using a tyre lever?
Piece de la resistance, the second tube letting go on camera, pure gold 😂😂😂
That’s latex for you. Happened to me more than once.
@WarHammerWH should have went tubulitos
@@anthonykidd6595 yep, that’s what I’m using now.
So again this all comes to the question of what we want vs what we really need. Taking Boardman without the upgrades, it is just about 2% slower than Orbea. If this was a 16 km loop, then on a 100 km ride the Boardman would be about 4 minutes slower than Orbea. Of course, reality is more complex, but I guess this gives a rough comparison. If someone is racing, this 4 minutes is a world. But for me, this is definitely not worth spending 10,000 pounds on Obrea.
Best and logical comment. If your aim is to get fitter, any sub 1,000 quid bike can do it and you will stay healthy and fitter around the block every week.
Take on account that if you race you don`t want to be on the front unless escape window opens. I remember when I used to race back in the 90`s. Never me or anyone I knew of tried bashing rig for eventual loss unless mechanical. Ask pros and they`ll tells you the same. Simply speaking... At 2k level bikes become very good and would advise strongly to spend money into coach and training sessions instead.
I think the takeaway is that for us simple mortals, a used $1000 - $1500 bike with decent components is all one needs.
Takeaway you can save even more by buying only 1/2 clip on aero bar extension and use the monobar.
2nd take away don't let your friend maintaine your bike. Do it yourself. Looking at you olli :D
Seriously, great video. Thanks. Was looking for a break down of the individual adjustments, like only new tires, only aero bars, only waxed chain and the sum afterwards. But I think you already have those in older videos anyway.
31 secs over 16km... expected a lot more tbh. Fun vid though gents.
Idea for a vid.....
Use this orbea and lap time as a baseline. Swap out one component for a budget component and ride the course. Replace the original part. swap out a different component, rinse and repeat. The aim being to find out the percentage difference each conponent makes. Tyres, wheels, handlebar, seat post, groupset, ospw etc
That could be interesting! 👀 What part do you think would the most bang for buck upgrade?
@gcntech safe to assume tyres will always be the biggest upgrade but beyond that I'd have no idea how they all rank
Alex's superb mechanic skills 🤣🤣🤣
We all have our off days 🤣
Dr Evil Bridgewood with that cackle, Sorry, but your average rider would not invest £££ in tri bars.
But what will everyone think at the coffee shop when I just have some measly drops
Sorry for catching out the accent. I think one major takeaway is that 200w is below the threshold for a superbike’s real superiority. All the numbers that the frame, wheel, tire and groupset companies quote tend to be savings at 40kph. That’s not going to happen at 200w except downhill. Which leaves a question for the rest of us - the ones with less than superior VO2 max scores - if your FTP is under 200w, would you be wasting that lovely Orbea’s capabilities?
"Wasting" is a big word but yes, it would be underutilized by someone who is not at a pretty high level of fitness
Does this mean that you shouldn't get one if you like it and can afford it? Absolutely not, it will still **feel** better than a 500 pound bike, maybe not 20 times better, but still better
Obviously the reasonable choice is to go for something in the mid range, probably less than half the Orbea price, it will be pretty much the same thing but cheaper and top end components are more delicate/expensive/take longer to replace/wear quicker if you don't really know how to take care of them and you don't have the bike skills to ride a bike that can outpace your capabilities
The frame is worth the money, for the difference in comfort, no matter your FTP, but a 105 Di2 groupset would be more than enough for a fraction of the price.
that's the regular orbea orca not the aero version. completely irrelevant point as this is a climbing bike not optimised for 40kph+ airflow or whatever rubbish speeds the marketing dept decides they excel at
They race on lugged steel square taper fixed gear bikes in Japanese Keirin. Pretty sure most Orbea riders aren't dropping the 200 RPM sprints you need to be successful there. No one needs an Orbea unless they want to go faster, if you don't really want to go faster just get a steel bike it rides better.
If only Cuthbert was giving us useful tips each week like "make sure you use a torque wrench". Mind you last time he said that he'd just sheared a bolt, then kept going on the rest without a torque wrench....
I up graded my son's broadman sorry and he loves it
This is the type of comparison I need.
What's really cool about this video is it looks like you two are having a heck of a good time. Well done, lads.
I get the tri-bars for the wind resistance reduction in the test. But at least in the conditions I ride in, they are useless. The Boardman seems like a good bike overall.
Best video the two of you have made to date…..hilarious…..well done…….👍
I have a broadband slr 8.9 the wheels and tyre were awful but soon as I changed those out the bike has been brilliant for me, will be doing my first 100mile ride this weekend. Also changed the pedals for 105, I plan to change the crank to 105 and brakes so it's 100% 105.
Measuring the effect of tri-bars at constant power might be misleading. The tucked posture lowers drag, but it also reduces the rider's power output.
I picked up the boardman 8.9 carbon last year for under £1k. It felt like shit, but a change of wheels to some reasonable campagnolo scirocco, with conti gp5000 28m tyres and some tubilito tubes and it now feels amazing.
You're quite right Ollie, the Orbea with tri=bars would be quicker. Why not do the same test without the tri-bars. Then you have a comparison for those who do want to (UCI) race on a budjet.
Riding with tri-bars is an aquired skill which won't be much use in narrow twisty lanes.
Have you ever tried Spinnaci bars (also UCI banned)? They would give some of the aero benefit without bending your back so far.
Love the banter between the two of you 😁!
The reflectors on the wheels are Very hypnotizing! 😵💫
In a weirdly similar coincidence, I've just last week bought a second hand Boardman Team Carbon for 200 quid, and immediately upgraded with tri bars, P-Zero TT tyres and TPU innertubes for an up coming Triathlon. Thankfully the upgrades went a bit more smoothly, I felt for both of your there 😅
Wow what a coincidence 🤯 We must have spies 🔮
Alex - equally skilled at math, "looking around and finding deals", tightening bolts, and changing tires.
Great video! This is the content I subscribed for! Love this type of content you guys make
The takeaway is aerodynamics (rider position) and rolling resistance (tires/tubes/wax) is more important than overall weight.....on that course anyway.
Would have been interesting to see the difference with just the changes to the rolling resistance.
Why put a TLR tire on a non-tubeless setup? It's almost 100g per tire heavier.
Edit: The thicker sidewalls also increase rolling resistance.
I'm pretty sure this video was recommended in a comment at some point. Very good subject as people often want to take up road cycling but don't want to get into it for to much cash. With this, they can spend £400 on some good wheels, £70 on tyres and get an enormous improvement. Then change out the groupset, saddle, perhaps pedals. An ally frame can literally take you up to an amateur race with some upgrades over time.
Add some decent side winds and see how aero and hard to handle the large rimmed "superbike" (their word not mine) is.
Surely Alex just needed to watch his own video about fitting difficult tires from about 11 months ago. 😂
Refreshing uprofessional video!
My upgrades (for me personally) would be to exercise regularly over a period of 365 days, while loosing some 12 to 15 kg... could probably done with less than 200 quid!
I got a 2015 Fuji Roubaix 1.1 from Facebook Marketplace for U$386. It has a mix of Ultegra and 105, Aluminum frame, really aero carbon frame (since it wasn’t UCI legal) and I upgraded the wheels to some 60mm Elite tubeless for another 350, and fitted Vittoria TLR 25 mm tires running at 60psi. For less than 900, it rides really nice and It is as good to ride as my much more expensive SuperSix.
I'm a slow cyclist on a very cheap bike with tri-bars. I use the tri-bars only when I have massive headwind and then it helps a lot !
Just started watching and can't wait for Alex to pull his Dura-Ace crankset out of his back pocket. The one he nicked back from that young lad!
Boardman makes excellent bikes I love my slr I changed the tyres to faster rolling race tyres and it is every bit as fast as my bianchi which was 3 times the price.
Right, I’m putting tri-bars on my Brompton tomorrow!
I'm surprised they didn't opt for second hand carbon wheels given the low cost of rim brake carbon wheels nowadays and then some second hand tyres?
In my youth, that "quite a lot" 10,5 kg was an insanely light professional class. 😄
Orbea with Chinese rims is now a 10000 GBP dream bike 😂😂
Orbea wasnt carrying wheel or attached reflectors. The push bar is a huge difference maker... even half of one.
I purchased a 2022 Giant TCR Advanced disc pro 2 and had a puncture in the 25 mil tires within 2 weeks, center of the tread and unsafe to patch. Switched from the 25mil tires to a set of 30 mil GP 5000's and got a much more comfortable ride for $200.
"it weighs 10kg, which is quite a lot." as I look at my vintage carbon steel road bike weighing in at almost 18kg.
Ollie channelling his inner Devvo caught me off guard!
Not only are tribars not allowed in any kind of non-time-trial-race, even most group rides will not accept them. Sorry, this is not an "upgrade", but just a feature for riding alone.
Then, 200W is not really an area where anything but weight on the uphill and rolling resistance really comes into place as long as you get your position at least similar.
However, I agree: tires and tubes make the most significant difference and the greatest bang for your bucks. If you have cheap wheels, getting on the tyre sometimes is a big hassle, and that makes installing latex inner tubes difficult. You should never put them on using a tire lever.
I think you're underestimating the amount of people looking at getting into cycling that will never consider any racing, or joining group rides.
everything is about $$$ on this channel, yet I bet a large proportion of the audience ride mid-level bikes and the bike is not even close to limit the riders.
Lol, maybe remove the reflectors? Just wow on this mechanical debacle.
Aero reflectors!
@@a1white They only cost $400 each! Thanks, man!
Love a Boardman. I have the 8.9 SLR 105 version and honestly so much bang for your buck. Cant wait to see the 8.6 up against the big boys
It would have been embarrassing but a set of carbon 50s on the board man, removing the front and rear reflectors would have made both bikes equal at the start. Lots of us upgrade a wheels a 1kg saving, 10% aero saving would have hilighyed just how poor the orbea is in the aero department. Just like when GCN did the old versus new test in the wind tunnel and johns bike was much closer than GCN and pinarello would have likes.
Great video to see Alex laughing to much in this one with Ollie, great dynamic between both of them!
Will have to try latex or TPU tubes then. I use butyl with tyre liners for extra protection on a vittoria 28C Rubino Pros. Tyres is one of those upgrades that can make you faster by the way.
I feel like putting those reflectors as well. Three on the back wheel.
Aerobars need some blue threadlocker! Always!
no
Depends if they are on a circular profiled drop bar or not.
Haha, I won a race yesterday on a 1980s steel road bike against modern bikes. Obviously it was in my age category, but my bike would be 500 quid ish on ebay .
Last new parts were Conti 5000s a couple of years ago.
I'd upgrade the 12yr old Mavic Cosmic wheels if I could afford it.
Shame I can't get 30mm tyres into the forks.
Cheap bikes can be fast. Choose well and you get a quick bike.
Mine is so good because it was built for racing and the only downside is it's not aerodynamic in anyway.
If your cheap bike is aggressive and stiff it'll go quick, if your 10k bike is a bit stodgy despite being light and aero it's going to fail as a weapon.
My carbon bike is very aerodynamic but isn't as quick as it looks.....
There's lots of bling out there, most will be nice to ride but getting a bike with the edge is not obvious.
Good vid guys.
I also gave up trying to get latex into Conti 5000's.
That Pirelli even was a TLR tyre. They should have used the standard tube type.
I have latex in non tubeless Conti 5000's, no issues at all. Maybe your rims just don't have enough relief in the center?
@@ballisticviii Possibly, but the rims were HED Belgium with 21 internal width. Tires Conti GP5000 tubed, clincher. I ended up with TPU. I am a huge fan od latex though. Cheers
I have similar Boardman SLR wheels, now off the Boardman, but on another bike. They really need you to get the tyre bead into the trench and work from opposite the valve to the valve. Even with a decent tyre hooking tool, doing it any other way is painful. I replaced them with second hand Fast Forward carbon rims, a worthy upgrade.
"sorry mate, I've forgot my wahoo", so dynamic, no need to cut it
Would have been interesting to see some better shaped and narrower new bars added instead of the clip on bars. £30 would have got a nice set
Felix fails lol!!!! Fun vid thanks.
pretty sure that Boardman used to sponsor triathlete legends alistair & johnny brownlee and of course Chris was the greatest time trialist of all time - in my opinion; so it stands to reason that the boardman can be improved by such a huge margin
The bike is just a generic bike with a logo slapped on it. That's the thing about budget bikes. Bike companies can only make very distinctive feels and features on expensive bikes, because they are using fewer interchangeable 13 in a dozen parts.
Alex and Ollie are the best comedic pair. I’ll also note that Ollie did that fastest time in his third lap
Use £200 to make the Boardman faster than the Orbea? Easy... just as long is I can spend the 200 quid on the Orbea.
Fill the frame and tires with water, and that's it. Probably will leave enough money for a nice pint after the race. (or 20)
"Good cos I've been waiting ages in this car park" ........"heheheh, right, well, anyway"
We were all thinking the same thing Ollie.
Content suggestion, Al goes on a Cytech course, learns about changing tyres and torque settings and then has to look after his own bikes for 6 months without them falling apart.
Pretty sure you can get aero bars from Decathlon for like 35 euro….and someone won the tour divide on them
This is the problem with tubeless ready tyres. The bead makes them a PITA to fit with inner tubes. So easy to pinch them. I’ll stick with cheaper (and lighter) non-tubeless ready tyres.
TL tires are always heavier. Pirelli doesn't have tube type?
I was wondering the same. I think they do. They’d also probably be cheaper and easier to fit
It’s nice to see a pro struggle as well trying to fit inner tubes to a Boardman. It took 3 people 1 inner tube to do my daughter’s 8.6slr.
At $450 pounds where i live you can buy a trek domane al2 rim which is pretty similar in specs but id prefer seeing trek and not "boardman" everytime i hop on my bike, i would have put on tyres and tubes and maybe upgraded brake pads
It's like an expensive watch and a cheap one. The one might do it slige better and fancier than the other but in the end they do the same thing.
Hey didn't Alex do a "No more tire frustration!" video 11 months ago? He seemed pretty frustrated in this video.😄
That segment when Alex is talking about how they've spent with Ollie interrupting is reminiscent of the Chuckle Brothers
If it were me, I’d buy tires, tubes, and Ali express carbon aero road handlebars. Then slam the stem, heat shrink the exposed cables together, remove the reflectors from the spokes, and wax the chain. You’d get very close to the Orbea without resorting to the clip-on TT bars.
9500 bucks more for 37 seconds... not worth it imo for us normal humans who don't do pro racing
Riding with aero bars in a bunch is quite sketchy (and not allowed by many groups)
Tyres, rims and lower spoke count would be biggest improvements aside from tri bars but beyond the arbitrary budget.
Love this video. Fun.
invested in Some Pirelli Yellow TPU tubes and almost a year later and within two weeks of each other both got punctures. Coincidence? I am not so sure. Both had completely lost their elasticity and turned brownish. Whenever the bike was not in use I would reduce the tire pressure to about 10Psi, so I don't think we can blame constant pressure. I am back to Butyl with some sealant and will not bother with TPU again. Just not worth it for 1 year and probably only about 500kms of use. I do the other 6000kms in the year on the indoor trainer.
Put into bikecalculator, 37 second is 7 watt folks.
I put latex inner tubes on my old tarmac SL2 really made the difference
I recently tried to fit some latex tubes and GP5000 to my £800 road bike (first proper road bike) and kept punctured about 3 tubes before I finally managed to get them both on!! Glad I'm not the only one 😅😉. Love the content as per guys 🎉
I’ve only been riding on Conti GP5000 for almost two years now and I’ve had to change the tires out 3 times. Can confirm each time is a mega pain the a$$. Other brands I’ve used are crazy easy compared to Contis. I have to sweet talk the contis and promise to take them both out to dinner during the whole install haha.
Just spend half the amount on some sand and gravel, fill the Orbea frame with it, spend the remaining 100 quid on a few pints ans you watch hillarity ensue.
The money you paid for clip on aero bars is a bit steep tbh, although in the same vein £7 for a latex tube is a bargain.
They got ripped off as usual. Those bars can be found for 15...
@@luukrutten1295 I cannot understand what he's saying at that point lol, what brand are they?
Perfect Saturday video. Had the feel of to fools out playing. 😉
"wild chuck-off turbos", nice way of putting f***-off turbos 😆
Finally, GCN stopped shilling for sponsors.