Can we make a £500 Boardman as fast as a £10,000 superbike?

Bikes can be seriously expensive. Even many lower-end models are firmly in the four-digit range, while top specs can far surpass five digits - not the kind of money that can easily be reasoned away to a sceptical spouse.

Of course, top-end bikes aren’t expensive for the sake of it as they arrive with the shiniest, newest and best tech currently available, all of which is designed to make the bike as fast as possible. Lower-end models forego top-tier components for something more budget-friendly, but how much of a difference do these compromises actually make and how hard would it be to transform a budget road bike into a sleek superbike?

It’s a question that has been nagging away at GCN’s Alex Paton and Ollie Bridgewood so they decided to find out by transforming a £450 Boardman bike before putting it to the test against an Orbea Orca. Okay, it’s a slightly unfair test as the Orbea would clearly win, but could we at least close the gap to ensure it wouldn’t triumph at a canter?

Watch the video at the top of the page for the results or read on for an overview of the upgrades they made.

Read more: 10 best low-budget bike brands

Boardman 8.6 SLR

The bike in question has already become a star on the GCN channel having featured in other videos.

It only cost Alex and Ollie £450 but was reduced down from £650, and you get a lot of bang for your buck. This includes an aluminium frame, carbon forks, Shimano Claris 8-speed gearing, rim brakes, and it weighs 10.4kg. It doesn’t sound that impressive on paper, but it’s an impressive build for the price.

To upgrade the bike, we provided a small budget of £200, but how far would that stretch?

Change 1: Pirelli tyres, £51 each

There are many upgrades you can make to a bike to make it faster but one of the best and most effective is a tyre upgrade.

New tyres are so important that Alex and Ollie blew half their budget on new rubber, but it was worth it as the Pirelli P Zero Race TLR SL replacements they bought are some of the best in the business. They’ve been used by many WorldTour teams for a number of years now, only being overtaken recently by the P Zero Race TLR RS model as Pirelli’s fastest tyre - unfortunately, they come with a slightly higher price tag to match their performance, so were out of reach on this occasion.

Change 2: Latex inner tubes, £7 each

The new tyres opened up the possibility for tubeless tyres but that wouldn’t be possible with the wheels on the bike. There were still gains to be made, though, so Alex and Ollie upgraded from regular butyl inner tubes to latex tubes. These offer lower rolling resistance, albeit only a relatively small amount, but every little bit would help in the Boardman’s quest to overcome its more expensive rival.

Read more: Butyl vs latex vs TPU: what are the best inner tubes for cycling?

Change 3: Clip-on aero bars, £60

Money was quickly running out leaving one of two potential scenarios. Alex and Ollie could opt for multiple small changes or a sole large one, and they opted for the latter in the form of clip-on aero bars.

Despite all the money that is funnelled into bikes, the rider remains the largest source of drag and reducing a rider’s wind-facing profile is one of the easiest ways to gain speed.

The solution was the aero bars which, after a little shopping around, only cost £60. That emptied the remaining coffers though, completing the new-look Boardman.

© GCN

The budget Boardman 8.6 SLR complete with £200 modifications

Orbea Orca

The bike at the other end of the scale, going head-to-head with the Boardman is a top spec superbike – this Orbea Orca. Here it’s in full Tour de France race level spec and would set you back around £10,000. It features a full carbon fibre frame, Shimano Dura Ace 12-speed electronic shifting, hydraulic disc brakes and rolls on carbon fibre wheels. It’s also super light at just 6.7kg, which actually makes it UCI illegal. It should be more than a match for the Boardman, even with the upgrades.

© GCN

The Orbea Orca, fully specced out in Tour de France-ready components

The test

To find out how much difference the changes would make, Ollie took the Boardman out for a spin on a local loop both before and after the changes. He then replicated the ride on the Orbea at the same 200-watt power output.

The loop he selected mixed flat power sections with uphill drags and downhill fliers so the bike would be put to the full test, but would their changes make the Boardman faster and, more importantly, could it match the pace of the Orbea?

Find out in the video at the top of the page.

Explore more tech features on the GCN website.