27.5 or 29 for street/road hard tail MTB?

[weareHKR]

Boardman ... no brainer & it's proper cool compared to the Orbea ...

 

[vickster]

Thanks @fossyant I appreciate the input. I remember you helped me with my Lapierre pedal disaster!

I spent last night reading the pros and cons of both. They will both be turned off or "locked out" for road for 99% of the time.

Good points about groupset, I did not realise that so thank you for pointing it out.

The Boardman is £650, the Orbea is being offered at £566 (discounted) does that sway you at all?

If you join British Cycling, you can get 10% off the Boardman via Halfords (you get other important legal type benefits as well as discounts)

https://www.halfords.com/bikes/moun...in-bike-2021---red---s-m-l-frames-365950.html

Halfords own Tredz

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Coupled to the above, the Boardman has far better geometry and it's a 1x too.

Personally I'd never consider a Boardman but of the 2 it's the better all round package

 

[AliShah2020]

Thanks everyone for commenting. Just ordered the Boardman.

@Ffoeg can you please elaborate your comment about geometry. How does the Boardman have better geometry i.e in what sense? To the untrained eye I can't tell the difference. Keen to learn how you can distinguish geometry characteristics and what they mean. Thanks for your input 🙂👍🏼

 

[Deleted member 23692]

Over the last few years MTBs have got longer, lower, and slacker all pretty much powered by the growth of the Enduro riding and the EWS as bikes need to go downhill as well as being able to pedal back up again. Traditional XC bikes had steep head tube angles at around 70 degrees and seat posts were around 74-75 degrees as both promoted good climbing but sacrificed good descending. At the other end of scale DH bikes were around 65ish which makes them stable on the way down. DH seat post angles are somewhat irrelevant as you don't sit down on them and they are buggers to pedal back uphill. Shorter chain stays help them change direction easier. Longer top tubes coupled to shorter stems make the front end longer and more stable on the way down.

Trail/All Mountain/Enduro (and even the new "downcountry") bikes try to be the best of both works with XC seat post angles for ascending, and slacker front ends (and dropper posts) to help them on the way down. Your looking at 75 and 65(ish) degrees respectively, with only really varying amounts of travel dictating usage.

Modern hardtails try to echo the above geometry and are far more capable all rounders than the XC hardtails of a few years ago.

The boardman has longer reach, slacker head angle, shorter chainstays, what looks yo be a shorter stem.. all of which are far more modern thinking that the orbea.

Stick a dropper on the boardman and you'll have a good fun ride

by way of example, this is the same frame...

100mm forks and 70 degree head angle

and 'modernised' with 120mm forks and 66.5 degree head angle..

Apart for head angle, forks and overall length (+30mm) being changed, the rest of the geometry remains unchanged and the bike is just so much more planted changing direction and on the way down, and unchanged on the climb back up.

 

[AliShah2020]

@Ffoeg

Thank you very much for taking the time and thought to write a technical and well explained post. It was a pleasure to read (I read it a few times to digest it as I'm a newbie). That really cleared everything up so succinctly; so much so, that I now cannot look at the Orbea in the same way again!

It was really helpful uploading comparison images. Thank you for doing this. They say a picture speaks a thousand words, and that really summed up the differences in geometry progression.

I dodged a bullet there thanks to you (all)!!! I had the Orbea in my shopping basket for a week and almost ordered it as it seemed to be selling out pretty much everywhere. I noticed the dealers and even the official Orbea website will not tell you the weight of the bike in any of the technical specs listings. I also suspect bike shops purposely upload the full range of Orbea MX bikes and show all sizes SOLD OUT on their website to make you think the bike is so good it's selling like hot cakes when in reality they only have 1-2 dud bikes in stock and can't get rid of them. I say this, as finding an Orbea MX 20, MX 30, MX 40 and MX50 is almost impossible. They are all listed as SOLD OUT and then when I went on eBay I saw a shoot tonnes of Orbea MX bikes on sale with the caption "Like new, only used once" "A month old" "Never ridden" etc! I think that is very telling!

My sons Boardman arrives tomorrow. I am sure that will be the perfect hard tail road bike for him and my Mrs to share. Thank you again.

 

[AliShah2020]

Just an update to say a very big thank you to all.

We have had the bike for almost a month now. Wow. The bike flies on those 29ers. My son is really happy with his present and I'm really happy to have got it.

We will have many adventures and build lots of memories with this bike. We could only afford to get it right once. Thank you for your help.

 

[weareHKR]

Cracking bike...