Review from CycloSprint

Where can you test a climbing bike? In the mountains of course. Climbing for Life on the Col du Galibier was the perfect opportunity to give the brand new Boardman SLR 9.4 the tracks. On the mythical mountain we slalomed our way up between the 2500 other participants in the charity event. And a little later we flew back down ...

The Boardman may be a lightweight climbing bike, yet it is equipped with an old-fashioned double crankset rather than a compact. When the road is very steep up, surely you dream of a slightly lower gear. In contrast, the SLR is not only light, but it's also super stiff. It's like there is no shred of power lost in the deflection of the frame. This helps the morale of course. The only parts that would dare to bend, are the tubular wheels of the own CBoardman label. They weigh a mere 1150 grams too. If you're also using this bike for a quick criterium, then you might want some more solid wheels.

The SLR 9.4 is driven by the SRAM Red groupset, and helps - together with the frame, BB30 bottom bracket and internal cables, Ritchey WCS parts and wheels - to keep the weight below the UCI limit. 6.4 kg is the weight for a complete bike. The flagship SLR 9.8, drops another 200 grams, but that bike costs 5800 euros instead of the 4000 euros of the already outstanding 9.4 model. A attentive cycling enthusiast who thinks he has already seen this bike in the pro peloton, is right. UnitedHealthcare, including Charly Wegelius, rides the Boardman.

Anyone who thinks that Chris Boardman has completely denied his time trialing past and is only building light climbing bikes, is wrong. Apart from the SLR climbing bike, there's also an aerodynamic line-up, the AiR, which competes with the Specialized Venge, Foil Scott and Cervélo. And of course there is also a full line of time trial bikes, as one would expect from a former world hour record holder and time trial world champion. Until now, Boardman sold only within the United Kingdom but also overseas customers can now order all bike types from the Wiggle.com shop. This famous internet seller is responsible for sales and service of the brand. Personal experience taught us that they are very helpful when handling warranty issues and answer their emails quickly. We can't report anything bad about their shipments either.

In conclusion...

Anyway, after we'd climbed the Galibier and Télégraphe we were gloating at our climbing time. It was much better than expected! Was it that super-light bike or just the extra motivation because of the sparkling new material? That, we leave in the middle. The fact is that the bike climbs like a rocket and finds its way down as if on rails: exactly what we expect from a bike with which we want to conquer the mountains. That's what we drank to in the evening in Valloire when we were having an after party with the ten brave asthma and cystic fibrosis patients.

Rating: N/A