Boardman Pro FS Mountain Bike Review

Bike with Excellent Spec

Most mountain bike riders, when they buy new mtb they usually spend some extra money and upgrade the bike based on the comfort and riding style. Some time the question arises whether it is a worthy upgrade? Indeed it depends on what kind of ride you do. Boardman Pro FS is a trail bike with top notch specs, on which no extra money need be spent for any upgrades at the time of purchase. It is not a specially designed bike but is combined with excellent specs, which adds great value for your money. If you choose to do trail riding with technical drops and rock garden travel, then Boardman Pro FS mountain bike would definitely be a good choice under low budget full suspension mountain bike range. This commuter bike is exclusively available from Halfords and they are the sole distributors for Boardman bikes.

This full suspension bike will do the job of trail centre ride with better rear shocks and front fork. This mountain bike costs around £1,300 and with its quality kit you would normally pay double the price to get the same kit on a different trial bike. It is impressive to see Boardman Pro FS having excellent specs with a low price tag. Performance wise this bike is simply an honest machine that delivers better and fluid tracking on the trails. It is a very competitive low cost trail bike that gives perfect balance between weight and performance.

Well arranged Frame design

The frame is made with fully butted Aluminium tubing and fixed with 120mm RockShox Reba Race fork suspension. The rear suspension is incorporated with a 4 bar linkage system and the frame is built to give the maximum stiffness and strength while riding aggressively on trail. The linkage plates are firmly fixed with double bolt trace for great stiffness. We cannot say that the frame has an advanced design, but built quality can be seen with impressive details.

This butted frame is fully finished with white paint and looks classy along with smooth welding points. Everything is well arranged in this frame like the front cable mech, rocker pivot mounts, seat slot and bottle mount. These valuable kits put together to give good finish. For firm chain clearance, this trail bike is well arranged with asymmetric chain-stay.

Modest Suspension

You can positively handle this bike through downhill or muddy wood with rear suspension Rockshox Monarch 3.3, which is much better than Rockshox Ario 2.1 rear shock. It is a reliable bike in terms of rear shock and both the rear and front suspensions offer external floodgate, motion control damping and lockouts that are well suited for its budget. Although the exact weight of the bike is not revealed, it is not heavily built for downhill sort of riders. Rather, this full suspension mountain bike maintains good balance between downhill and much better uphill.

When compared with other models of trail bike, this Boardman bike is light in weight that performs well for both ups as well as the downs. It is directly compared with any £2000 worth of trail bike and spec wise Boardman Pro FS cannot be beaten. This Pro FS is available in 120mm of front fork under small, medium and large frame size options.

Riding performance

Full performance starts from the rear suspension with each stroke that easily translates to more energetic acceleration with quick climbing ability. Initially the rear suspension along with linkage design shows some stiffness while climbing and it is liable to pedalling squat with inactive feel. This initial stiffness is to avoid pedal bob but the rear end quickly picks up and absorbs all drops, making your rock garden ride plush in a controlled manner.

The rear shock is even blessed with floodgate compression along with full lockout facilities. You can further stiffen the ride and it is all up to your riding style. This mountain bike gives precision in steering with 20mm Maxle lite screw through axle. The front fork gives controlled damping and if required you can put a pair of tidy Maxxis high roller tyres for downhill ride. Don’t push the bike too hard because it is only designed to be a commuter bike with XC style.

Full width riser bar and steady head tube angle gives stable trail performance under 5 inch travel. The low weight bike means great agility on technical sections but the low height BB shell makes the big ring grind on the floor. It happens only when you ride on curved rocks but you can put black-spire big ring protector bash-guard to protect the ring.

Valuable Kit

The valuable kit of this trail bike not only been compares with the high range trail bike, but also performs like one. The initial attention would fall on its remarkable kit with good chassis, which gives pleasure in riding. For £1300 you get a pack of white paint butted frame fixed with 4 bar linkage system that drives the RockShox Monarch 3.3 rear suspension accompanied by 120mm travel of RockShox Reba Race fork.

This trail bike gives accurate riding pleasure with stopping power, which is flawlessly delivered by Avid carbon hydraulic disc brakes and drive-train kit SRAM X0/X9 with 27 speed. Ritchey lightweight rim and Truvativ Style chain-set further enrich the rear end.

This Boardman full suspension bike comes with Conti speed king tyres that look slim and fast, but slightly hairy trip through the corners, which is not confident inspiring. This slim tyre is enough for mud-plugging but you can also replace it with much better bigger tyres like Maxxis Ignitor. In fact it is the only upgrade that this mountain bike requires if you want better protection and more lift on the UK trails and rest of the kit is good.

Our analysis

Boardman Pro FS would be a good bargain from Halfords in case you expect your trial bike to perform like an average trail riding and cross country stuff. You need not spend more than £1500 for getting any full suspension trail bike, rather, you can go for a £1300 good spec Pro FS. But keep in mind that riding a mountain bike for full on downhill and better drop off with plush riding requires additional built quality. In that case, you can try Specialized Stumpjumper FSR comp that would cost you an extra £400. Boardman Pro FS is available in the 16″, 18″, 20″ frame size under small, medium and large category.