BOARDMAN MTR 8.8
£1,350 The longer-travel Boardman relishes the rough
Built to be an all-round UK trail bike, the MTR rolls on 29in wheels, pumps out 145mm of rear-wheel travel and features up-to-date geometry.
THE FRAME
The chassis is built from triple-butted 6061 aluminium tubes with an anodised finish. Cables run externally under the down tube. Unfortunately, there’s no chainstay protection, and the rear hub is held in place by a 5mm Boost QR skewer, not the 12mm Boost through-axle of the other bikes. Suspension-wise, Boardman use a proven four-bar Horst-link set-up to deliver 145mm of frame travel.
While the 66-degree head angle and 455mm reach are the sort of figures we’d expect on a bike with this amount of travel, the 75.5-degree effective seat tube angle isn’t the most progressive. However, it gives an effective top tube of 615mm, which is pretty comfortable for pedalling. The seat tube length is moderate, at 430mm, so you can fit a reasonably long dropper post. A decent 33mm BB drop helps keep the bike’s centre of gravity close to the ground.
THE KIT
For £1,350, the MTR 8.8 has some respectable parts. The 150mm-travel RockShox Recon Silver RL fork is a good choice for the price point, featuring externally adjustable low-speed compression and rebound damping. Out back, the RockShox Deluxe Select+ shock is another strong option, with its DebonAir+ spring and low-speed rebound and compression adjustment. You get 1x11 Shimano Deore gearing, with a wide-range 11-51t cassette. Boardman’s website says the MTR 8.8 uses Shimano MT200 brakes, but our test bike arrived with Tektro M275 stoppers. Own-brand wheels with a 30mm internal rim width are shod with 2.3in Maxxis Minion DHF and DHR II tyres. The cockpit is all Boardman’s own kit, except for the 125mm-travel Satori dropper post.
THE RIDE
Even though the Boardman has 145mm of travel, it climbs capably and doesn’t eat into its travel when you’re pushing hard on the pedals standing up. On seated ascents, the geometry positions you relatively centrally on the bike, so we didn’t need to shift our weight around much in order to maintain grip or keep the front wheel tracking where we wanted it to go. Traction is plentiful when climbing, and