Boardman fork snapped what should I do?

[Randommoose]

I'm just starting to look at what I might need to buy and am trying to find the right spec.

So far I have:
Tapered steerer
Carbon
Disc

How do I find out size (bike is Boardman Hybrid Pro medium)? Are there any other things I need to be aware of? I've tried looking on here to find out brands to look at but really don't know what is good/medium/rubbish. The link I had earlier would be great but they only have one 'Road-Trekking' fork (I think this is what I need?) and it is not tapered.

Can anyone link me to a resource that describes or compares different fork brands? I'll keep searching too, just a bit confused atm.

Thanks,
Moose

 

[Andrew_P]

I'm just starting to look at what I might need to buy and am trying to find the right spec.

So far I have:
Tapered steerer
Carbon
Disc

How do I find out size (bike is Boardman Hybrid Pro medium)? Are there any other things I need to be aware of? I've tried looking on here to find out brands to look at but really don't know what is good/medium/rubbish. The link I had earlier would be great but they only have one 'Road-Trekking' fork (I think this is what I need?) and it is not tapered.

Can anyone link me to a resource that describes or compares different fork brands? I'll keep searching too, just a bit confused atm.

Thanks,
Moose

I emailed Chris Boardman via Bike Radar when I had a problem and he replied and then got the CEO to deal with it. This might be different now Halfords own the brand sold in their shops but worth a try.

Just checked my emails and the CEO has moved to Ribble and Chris Boardman has not logged in to his Bike Radar Account since 2012. If you still want to try the Bike Radar account let me know and I will PM his user name.

Personally I would pursue it beyond the Customer Service people.

 

[PaulSB]

I’ve watched this thread with interest and fall in to “put it down to experience and move on” camp. Which I know is not very helpful but is the way I would go. Some companies have a strong ethos and value customer goodwill, it seems Boardman/Halfords don’t. After taking out profit margin and VAT the replacement forks would cost Boardman no more than £35-40** and would have bought a lot of goodwill - instead they have a lot of poor publicity.

** based on Tangoup51’s value of £80.

My advice would be to take what you can from the situation. Go to your LBS, fully explain your situation as you have here and ask for help. I would let the LBS supply and fit the forks. There’s a decent chance the LBS will seize the opportunity to build a relationship with a new customer and you can do the same. Big positives in that.

 

[Illaveago]

Well Boredman/Halfords have certainly gone the right way to win over new customers. The treatment that you have received has put them on my never go near list if I was to buy a new or second hand bike.

 

[roadrash]

a question for anyone now rubbishing boardman bikes.. in @Randommoose own words, the bike is a few years old and on the second owner, where would you draw the line for any financial intervention from boardman bikes, 3rd owner, 4th maybe , a few years old? and yes I too would expect them to be interested in seeing the snapped fork, but that's all

 

[Johnno260]

a question for anyone now rubbishing boardman bikes.. in @Randommoose own words, the bike is a few years old and on the second owner, where would you draw the line for any financial intervention from boardman bikes, 3rd owner, 4th maybe , a few years old? and yes I too would expect them to be interested in seeing the snapped fork, but that's all

In my opinion 2yrs is quite soon to see a failure like this if they have proof of purchase and the bike appears to be in good condition I would hope Boardman bikes would want to help.

A line needs to be drawn sure, but that is a serious failure and could've caused serious injury.

I owned a Boardman Hybrid comp pro and while is was an ok bike it did have it's issues, but again Halfords sorted me out when I had issues as I was the original owner.

My Merida while again is probably seen as an "entry level" bike is far superior in quality.

 

[amasidlover]

I had a Mio Link fail after 10 months and another after 13 months in both cases Mio offered to replace FOC straight away even though the latters was almost a year after the original warranty had expired (new one still working fine after another year thankfully). Apple replaced my Macbook Pro motherboard 5 years(!) after purchase when it failed.

Brompton are replacing Bottom Brackets on 3 year old bikes including second hand owners.

Thankfully I haven't had any major issues with structural bike components but I'd expect any company aside from non-EU stuff bought off ebay to replace anything that failed with a _reasonable_ timeframe free of charge. I certainly don't think 3 years is reasonable for a fork - if it is should I be replacing the forks on my 3.5 year old Whyte just in case??

I certainly wouldn't buy a Boardman new or second hand after reading this.

 

[roadrash]

A line needs to be drawn sure, but that is a serious failure and could've caused serious injury.

I agree , I would expect them to show an interest in the failed fork, and try to find out how/why it happened, is it likely to happen to others etc, but as second owner and a couple of years old , not knowing the history , I would not expect them to replace it , certainly , try it on but I wouldn't automatically expect it under these circumstances.

Brompton are replacing Bottom Brackets on 3 year old bikes including second hand owners.

yes they are, but hardly the same circumstances if its a known defect.

Has there been a lot of forks snapping on boardman bikes, I don't know

 

[Illaveago]

For them to have shown some concern and perhaps some goodwill in replacing the forks wouldn't have cost them a great deal.
It could be that there are only a few of these breaking but if they are only replacing ones that fail in the warranty period or for the original owners then there could be more which are not being flagged up.
From the interest they have shown I wouldn't touch one with a barge pole.

 

[Ajax Bay]

@Randommoose
I concur with @roadrash "I would expect them to show an interest in the failed fork, and try to find out how/why it happened, is it likely to happen to others etc, but as second owner and a couple of years old , not knowing the history , I would not expect them to replace it , certainly , try it on"
You may to consider changing the thread's title by prefacing it with the word "Boardman" to allow this thread to be found when someone else's fork catastrophically fails, let us pray with similarly minimal effect on the rider.

 

[Andrew_P]

Basing my judgement on @Yellow Saddle interpretation of the fault as I have no knowledge of technical issues suggests to me there is an element of design fault. Had this been someone tearing down a hill and stopping it could have been very nasty. Didn't Kinesis do a recall for their Forks on quite an old version of one their bikes? That seems the right thing to do, if it is proven to be a design fault. If not a fault a replacement set of forks even if billed at cost is also the right thing to do, with a sigh of relief that no one was hurt!

 

[Johnno260]

Basing my judgement on @Yellow Saddle interpretation of the fault as I have no knowledge of technical issues suggests to me there is an element of design fault. Had this been someone tearing down a hill and stopping it could have been very nasty. Didn't Kinesis do a recall for their Forks on quite an old version of one their bikes? That seems the right thing to do, if it is proven to be a design fault. If not a fault a replacement set of forks even if billed at cost is also the right thing to do, with a sigh of relief that no one was hurt!

exactly the bad press from an injury and if it turns out to be a design flaw will be catastrophic.

 

[Randommoose]

I’ve watched this thread with interest and fall in to “put it down to experience and move on” camp [...] Some companies have a strong ethos and value customer goodwill, it seems Boardman/Halfords don’t [...] instead they have a lot of poor publicity.

Go to your LBS, [...] Big positives in that.

Yes, I'm surprised at the lack of customer service/goodwill so far. I already have a good relationship with my LBS so will use them.

I would expect them to show an interest in the failed fork, and try to find out how/why it happened, is it likely to happen to others etc, but as second owner and a couple of years old , not knowing the history , I would not expect them to replace it , certainly , try it on but I wouldn't automatically expect it under these circumstances

Exactly what I expected - even if they don't want to spend money on replacing I'd expect some interest as you say so they can work out what the fault is.

You may to consider changing the thread's title by prefacing it with the word "Boardman" to allow this thread to be found when someone else's fork catastrophically fails, let us pray with similarly minimal effect on the rider.

Have done, thanks.

Basing my judgement on @Yellow Saddle interpretation of the fault as I have no knowledge of technical issues suggests to me there is an element of design fault. Had this been someone tearing down a hill and stopping it could have been very nasty. Didn't Kinesis do a recall for their Forks on quite an old version of one their bikes? That seems the right thing to do, if it is proven to be a design fault. If not a fault a replacement set of forks even if billed at cost is also the right thing to do, with a sigh of relief that no one was hurt!

I agree with you. It seems dangerous to me. They didn't even offer for me to buy new forks from them, just said I "may" be able to replace them and suggested I asked Halfords if it is possible. They were explicit I would need to pay for forks and fitting.

 

[Illaveago]

Yes, I'm surprised at the lack of customer service/goodwill so far. I already have a good relationship with my LBS so will use them.



Exactly what I expected - even if they don't want to spend money on replacing I'd expect some interest as you say so they can work out what the fault is.


Have done, thanks.


I agree with you. It seems dangerous to me. They didn't even offer for me to buy new forks from them, just said I "may" be able to replace them and suggested I asked Halfords if it is possible. They were explicit I would need to pay for forks and fitting.

Did you tell them where they could stick them?

 

[vickster]

I don’t know if you’re a twitter user?

https://mobile.twitter.com/boardmanbikes?lang=en