Chris Boardman, the Individual Pursuit gold medalist at the '92 games and three-time hour record holder was, and still is, somewhat obsessed with aerodynamic research and development. At the same time, he's equally concerned with building the stiffest and lightest bicycles possible. His latest creation, 9. 8 Superlight Racing (SLR), is the new, feathery, 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 downtube 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 carbon fiber. The SLR's mold incorporates a PF30 bottom bracket and oversized box section chainstays, which, with a steep taper design at the dropouts, maximizes power transfer and strength at the rear junction. Along these lines, the full carbon fork was built with a 1-1/2 to 1-1/8in tapered st...
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