Ladies road bike.... Liv Avail vs Boardman

[LewisLondon]

Hi all

Quick question on behalf of my gf. She's looking at upgrading from my hand me down, as it doesn't fully fit. She has a £1,100 cycle to work voucher and is trying to decide between the Ladies Carbon road boardman (£800 with Tiagra), or the Liv Avail 1, which is Alloy but has 105's (like my bike, for any future wheel upgrades)

Has anyone else looked at these two and has any comments?

Thanks

Lewis

 

[Doug.]

Can't help you with your question...........but if I was in the market for a really good cycle at a "give away" price maybe your girl friend could look at the Decathlon B'twin Triban 540 it was highly recommended by "Cycling weekly" a few weeks past.
Price about £650.
Very high spec, Shimano 105 group set etc.
If I didn't have so many cycles I would buy one.
Good luck with whatever your girl friend decides upon.

 

[vickster]

Can't help you with your question...........but if I was in the market for a really good cycle at a "give away" price maybe your girl friend could look at the Decathlon (945 I've forgot the actual model number ) but it was highly recommended by "Cycling weekly" a few weeks past.
Price about £650.
If I didn't have so many cycles I would buy one.

The OP's GF wants to use C2W so it depends which retailers are accessible

@jefmcg has the 2012 Avail and has done 000s upon 000s of miles on it

I'd say his girlfriend should ride a few and decide which she prefers (not easy with Halfords)

Giant make v good bikes, Boardman are good too but you have the Halfords lottery in the mix

 

[Drago]

Ride them and see. On Paper the Boardman has it, but Giant have a solid track record of making bikes at the value end of the range that perform far better than their mere specs would suggest, and how it goes is far more important that how bling it is.

Go cock a leg and see.

 

[jefmcg]

28,000km+ on my Avail. It's ok.

You can test ride from Cycle Republic - there's one in Twickenham, depends where in SW you live.

@vickster is right. At that price point they are all good bikes, it's just picking the one you like. I partially picked mine based on liking the retailer too, so I didn't even look at Halfords - but it was my first road bike and I wanted to be able to trust the advice.

 

[Doug.]

I've edited my original posting.

 

[13 rider]

Stopped to help a lady on a Liv the other day and it looked really good and the lady sang it's praises as she had struggled to find a bike that fitted and said the Liv was spot on for her

 

[Drago]

A lot of ladies swear by the geometry and sizing of Giants WTB mountain bike range, so one would hope they'd have translated that learning into their ladies road machines.

 

[cyberknight]

The OP's GF wants to use C2W so it depends which retailers are accessible

@jefmcg has the 2012 Avail and has done 000s upon 000s of miles on it

I'd say his girlfriend should ride a few and decide which she prefers (not easy with Halfords)

Giant make v good bikes, Boardman are good too but you have the Halfords lottery in the mix

+1
I like my boardman but i have never ridden a giant so i would be biased to the former, if you can try them both for size although you might need to change stem length on any bike to get a perfect fit.

 

[Smithbat]

My daughter has a Liv Alight which I know is a different model than your wife is looking at but she absolutely loves it. She has gone from the odd cycle to school to cycling absolutely everywhere. She says it is incredibly comfortable to ride and fits her to a tee. If it helps, she is 5'8".

 

[k_green]

She's needs to go try them both for size/fit
I have a liv avail and love it. I'm not a girly girl, I didn't go out for a girl's bike, in fact being very tall, I was more than happy with the idea of a unisex/men's bike. However, the liv bike fit so much better with no flipping the stem or whatever. They do seem to have made the necessary minor changes for a woman's road bike.

 

[Elybazza61]

Other half has an Avail and is really pleased with it,didn't even have to change the saddle.

It's a 2015 Avail 3 so has Sora which is ok although a bit clunky;if I get my Helium changed to Dura-Ace I'll be popping the Ultegra on to it which will really make it a cracking bike probably like the 105 equipped one would be.