The European peloton nicknamed Chris Boardman "The Professor" in the early '90s, due to his intense focus on all of the small details associated with bicycle equipment and training. This meticulous personality trait paid off for the British cyclist, as he went on to claim a gold medal in the Individual Pursuit of the '92 Games after a highly structured preparation regimen. And while Boardman was, and still is, somewhat obsessed with aerodynamic research and development, he's equally concerned with building the stiffest and lightest bicycles possible. Enter the Elite 9. 8 Superlight Racing (SLR) Di2 Road Bike Frame, which is the new, feathery, and Di2-compatible flagship design sitting at the top spot in Boardman's Elite race collection. The main emphasis was placed on developing stiff, stable, and lightweight tube shapes. In other words, Boardman built this climber's frame to ascend with the best lightweight bikes on the market, yet it also borrows many of the same aerodynamic technologies employed in his AiR frames. Similar to the AiR 9. 8, every tube on the SLR was meticulously examined and tested to be the most efficient and lightweight as possible. Using the latest Finite Element Analysis (FEA), Boardman was able to test many different combinations of fiber types, fiber directions, resins, and tube shapes to ultimately come up with the SLR frame design. With the main load path in any bicycle running from the head tube, down the down tube, and then through the bottom bracket and drive-side chainstay, Boardman zeroed in on these critical areas to add material where it's needed and remove it where it's not. The oversized nature of the down tube keeps the steering sharp, with the oversized bottom bracket handling pedaling forces. The material selected for the SLR's frame is an ultralight, high modulus unidirectional carbon fiber, constructed with a full monocoque design. Similarly, the fork was built out of the same predictable, race-tested, and ultralight c...
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