Gear News

Boardman Bikes launches All Season Road bikes with steel frame, wide tyres, disc brakes and mudguards

Is this the ultimate winter bike?

Has Boardman Bikes just launched the perfect year-round road bike? With a steel frame, disc brakes and pre-installed mudguards, the British firm’s All Season Road range looks to fit the bill. We gave you a sneak peek at the bikes at the Cycle Show and now they are available to buy.

“Having struggled through the depressing rain and darkness of many British winters; training and commuting in all weathers, the Boardman team knows a thing or two about what makes a great winter bike,” says Boardman. “The ASR range is a product of all those soggy miles worth of knowledge. We set out to design the perfect bike for riding in all weathers, and we believe that’s what we’ve achieved.”

Having teased the bikes at the Cycle Show, Boardman has released the All Season Road range (Pic: Boardman Bikes)

There are two bikes in the range, both featuring steel frames and sporting paintjobs with reflective detailing. While the £849.99 Boardman ASR 8.8 is made from chromoly, the £1,299.99 ASR 8.9 gets an upgraded Reynolds 725 tubeset. Both machines share the same carbon fork and geometry.

– Seven things that make the perfect winter bikes –

Speaking of which, Boardman’s ASR bikes will be available in four sizes, from small to extra-large. Using the medium as an example, you’ll find a 565mm toptube, 160mm headtube, 572mm stack and 397mm reach. Boardman describes it as an ‘endurance geometry’, but it’s still fairly aggressive compared to some endurance bikes out there.

The ASR 8.8 is based around a Shimano Sora groupset with TRP Spyre mechanical disc brakes, along with tubeless-ready Boardman-branded wheels, 28mm Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ tyres and, of course, mudguards (we’d like to see mudflaps, but let’s not be picky at this point). Finishing kit includes an alloy cockpit and seatpost, and Prologo Kappa saddle.

The bikes are designed for year-round use, with mudguards, disc brakes and 28mm tyres (Pic: Boardman Bikes)

Boardman says the more expensive ASR 8.9 is ‘designed to make winter out on the bike as enjoyable as the summer’, so as well as that Reynolds 725 frame, you get a Shimano 105 groupset with Shimano RS505 hydraulic disc brakes. The saddle also gets upgraded to a Prologo Nago Evo, but otherwise the spec sheet is the same, with tubeless-ready Boardman Road Five wheels, Vittoria Rubino Pro G+ 28mm tyres, alloy finishing kit and mudguards.

The ASR 8.9 costs £1,299.99 and has a Shimano 105 groupset with hydro discs (Pic: Boardman Bikes)

The £849.99 ASR 8.8 gets Shimano Sora components and mechanical disc brakes (Pic: Boardman Bikes)

Steel-framed bikes with mudguards, disc brakes and 28mm tyres are never going to match the featherweight machines of summer and that’s the case here, with claimed weights of 11kg and 10.9kg for the ASR 8.8 and 8.9 respectively. The key point, however, is that these are bikes designed to offer year-round dependability, whatever the conditions, and regardless of whether you’re on the winter commute to work or Sunday club run. Given the range of weather we’ve been battling recently, that can be no bad thing.

The Boardman URB 9.4 is described as ‘the ultimate in urban bikes’

Alongside these ASR bikes, Boardman has also released the flat-bar URB (Urban) range. “Minimal decals and carefully sculpted tube shapes create a sophisticated urban look which is equally at home on the road, in the park or outside the café,” says Boardman. “With hydraulic disc brakes throughout the range, simple low maintenance 1x and hub-geared drivetrains, and rack and mudguard mounts on every bike, there’s nothing the city can throw at you which a URB bike can’t handle.”

You’ll find three bikes in the line-up: the £699.99 URB 8.8, the £849.99 URB 8.9 and the £1,999.99 URB 9.4. The latter is described as ‘the ultimate in urban bikes’, with a Shimano Alfine Di2 beltdrive transmission and Shimano Metrea hydraulic disc brakes.

Website: Boardman Bikes