Are they dispensable quirks or essential performance tools?
WE LINK UP WITH BOARDMAN HQ TO TALK WITH THE TE AM AND FIND OUT HOW THEY DESIGNED AND BUILT OUR BIKE OF THE YEAR 2021
As you’ll have discovered by reading our Bike of the Year 2021 coverage, the Boardman SLR 9.4 AXS Disc is a superbly crafted machine. The all-round performance is stunning, and its component selection and build utilise some of the smartest choices around. It’s taken our ultimate accolade for 2021 by being a bike that balances all aspects incredibly well. It’s comfortable, rapid, smooth and huge fun to ride. And at a more affordable price point of £2700 too.
The twin jewels in its Bike of the Year crown, however, are the frame and forks: the heart of any great bike, and an area in which the Britishbased Boardman team focused on to ensure that the new SLR chassis would blend comfort, aerodynamics and performance capabilities.
The concept
The crew behind the SLR set out with a singular vision for the bike. They quickly defined the key areas in which it had to excel. First up was aerodynamics, an area that the Boardman brand has always held close to its heart, particularly given the key role drag-saving played in founder
Chris Boardman’s illustrious cycling career; one that saw him win Olympic track medals and UCI World Hour Records, not to mention Tour de France prologue successes.
Next up on the Boardman team’s menu was a lightweight chassis – a key element of any wellrounded road bike, of course, but the primary concern was that aero and lightness didn’t come at the expense of ride quality. Because of an overemphasis on aerodynamics, bikes are sometimes heavy and hard riding; or in the pursuit of being as light as possible, bikes overcompensate in stiffness, making for a harsh ride. Alternatively, by chasing a light overall weight, brands can compromise the drivetrain stiffness and the result is a bike that feels sloppy and flexible.
The final concern – and one which we applaud – is its suitability for British riding conditions. Our poor roads and often inclement weather ensured the SLR had generous clearances for wider tyres and proper mudguard fittings.
I sat down (virtually, of course) with Boardman’s product manager Matt Dowler and brand and design manager, James Ryan, to get the lowdown on how the new SLR was conceived.
Our Bike of the Year 2021 is comfortable, rapid, smooth and, above all, huge fun to ride
“It’s designed to deliver speed without any compromises on comfort, cost or usability...” Matt Dowler
CyclingPlus The SLR successfully straddles the space between a race and an endurance bike. Was that the original concept?
Matt Dowler “Very much so – the development brief we worked up with Chris Boardman for the SLR was all about efficiency. That’s subtly different from the focus on pure speed with a race bike, or outright comfort on an endurance bike. Marketing a ‘WorldTour replica bike’ to people riding fast club rides or sportives doesn’t make sense to us, but we all love the thrill of beating a personal best, so the SLR is designed to deliver speed without some of the compromises on comfort, cost or usability that can come with more race focused or endurance bikes. That’s not to say the SLR isn’t fast enough to race on, though, as Paralympian Sarah Storey will be riding hers in the Paralympic Games road race in Tokyo this summer.
“Historically, we used to run two separate SLR platforms – the Endurance and the Race. However, with its ultra-high stiffness, aggressive geometry and low weight, the use case for the SLR Race was narrow. The SLR Endurance had a great geometry for long, fast rides, which we kept, but it wasn’t particularly aerodynamic and lacked tyre clearance. With the new platform, we combined the best features of both older bikes and improved aerodynamic performance and comfort to improve efficiency. Less aero drag equals less effort for the same speed, and greater comfort reduces fatigue over time helping people to ride faster for longer.”
CP You’ve put in plenty of UK-friendly design touches: increased tyre clearance and provision for proper mudguards. Was the SLR always intended as a year-round UK bike?
Dowler “Absolutely. Chris’s most popular social media posts are always about mudguards – it’s fair to say he isn’t a fan of a soggy bottom. Not everyone has the luxury of multiple bikes for different times of the year, so why wouldn’t we put features into the bike that make using it yearround more enjoyable? Clearance for wide tyres and/or mudguards, and consistent disc braking without wearing down expensive rims means using a ‘best’ bike in the winter is a real option now, particularly with the more affordable Rival AXS cassette and chain.”
CP Can you expand upon the development process and what tech was utilised in the SLR’s creation?
James Ryan “We put a lot of time into the development from the original concept designs through to extensive CFD (Computational Fluid Dynamics) modelling and a lot of work into the carbon layup with FEA (Finite Element Analysis). All of this was using the computing power available to us in conjunction with our manufacturing partners.”
Dowler “Once we’ve got through all of this extensive research and development, we needed to prove the CFD results were matched in the wind tunnel and in real-world ride testing. After running the SLR’s initial fork through its paces, we weren’t happy and so we went back to the drawing board. I wouldn’t let it go until I was 100 per cent happy with it. It meant the SLR ended up being six months late and I really thought I might lose my job over that! In my defence, the bike had to be right, and a Bike of the Year award has proven it was a good decision!”
CP When balancing the designs, aero features and weight, was there one of those that had more of an emphasis?
Dowler “We focused on balancing aero performance, frame stiffness and ride quality to create an efficient bike, and the comparatively low weight is almost a by-product of this. The weight savings you can make in a frame and fork give such a tiny performance benefit even on a very steep climb, so it wasn’t really a specific target. However, there’s something special about the way a light bike feels to ride, so we set limits on tube sizing and shape within our CFD
“We focused on balancing aero performance, frame stiffness and ride quality to create an efficient bike” Matt Dowler