Road Bikes

Boardman’s SLR chassis is split into two camps. This top-end 9-series bike uses the C10 carbon frame and fork, which at 900g (frame) and 350g (fork) is super-svelte. The more affordable 8-series uses Boardman’s cheaper C7 blend and has the same great looks but carries more weight.

That you can get what is a properly high-end chassis with a sub-kilo frame, with a fork this light too, is impressive stuff, and makes the SLR 9.2 the lightest of the bikes I had on test, which also included the Planet X Pro Carbon Ultegra, Sensa Giulia G3 Evo Ultegra and Tifosi Scalare Disc 105.

The champion by the smallest of margins is the Boardman SLR 9.2 Disc. The frameset is the star here - with top-grade construction and a pro-level lightness in its chassis not to mention the further weight-saving carbon seatpost. Add in Shimano Ultegra and some excellent (and light) wheels shod with truly great tyres, and you've got a contender for the best-value performance bike of 2021.

4.5/5 Stars

Read the full review here Boardman SLR 9.2 Disc Carbon Cycling Plus

Mat tested the previous version of this bike back in 2018 and was very impressed, and now I've ridden the 2021 version I can see why. It's brilliant!

At the heart lie Boardman's C7 frame and fork, which use the same aerodynamic design and geometry as the rest of the SLR range, albeit here with a different grade of carbon fiber.

The Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon remains a top-level contender for bikes around the £1,000 mark, especially with its new upgraded groupset. The frameset is high upgradable too, pleasingly aero and also very versatile.

Fast and fun thanks to a great frameset and impressive spec list – especially for the money!

Read the full review here Boardman SLR 8.9 Carbon Road.cc

The last Boardman bike I rode, a slick matt silver Team Carbon Fi, has been superseded by the women’s SLR range, first launched in 2019. The SLR has always set its goals on being “light, stiff, and comfortable” – a difficult trio to get right. However, like the Team Carbon before it, the SLR does manage to tick these boxes very well. Though ownership has passed on, Boardman is famous for having constructed its own wind tunnel at the Boardman Performance Centre. This frame has been aero optimised, and there are clear nods to drag reduction – such as the squarer, deeper tubing, dropped seat stays and hidden Seatpost clamp.

The SLR 8.9 certainly offers a streamlined feel, which is accentuated by a stiff bottom bracket. Certainly, when riding it I found that pushing through the pedals the transmission felt very efficient and the SLR 8.9 is responsive when going along a straight flat section of road.

While the dynamics of the bike aren’t quite in time trial territory you could get away with using the SLR 8.9 on your local 10-mile event, especially on a sporting course where dips and dives in the road can make a road bike a more natural choice.

The set-up was designed following extensive testing and research done at the former Boardman Performance centre. The bike was constructed using data from fittings by lead bike fit specialist, Bianca Broadbent. Designers used the numbers from hundreds of bike fits to finesse the geometry and the contact points. I note that the headset angle of the 2021 SLR is slightly shallower compared with the Team Carbon, and a steeper seat angle on the smaller sizes. These adjustments give rise to a shorter reach to the handlebars, and therefore a more upright position, meaning less strain in the lower back area when doing long rides such as cyclosportives. That said, with a stack and reach of 520mm/376mm on the size small, this is still a relatively racey geometry. It’s not a million miles off the 517mm/383mm of the pro-ready Specialized Tarmac SL7 in a comparable size 52, as an example. I didn’t feel overly stretched out at all on this frame, and there was plenty of compliance built-in. I can see it being a happy companion for a long sportive.

Clearance has been an area of focus with the SLR 8.9. With wider tyres increasing in popularity, the brand has ensured this model can accommodate 28mm tyres, and the decreased head angle mentioned above allows decent toe clearance when the SLR 8.9 is fitted with mudguards.

The cables are neatly tucked away, diving into the frame at the downtube. However, they’re not tidied into the handlebar itself as per some very high end, integrated bikes – this might look a little bit messier, but it does make maintenance considerably easier.

The two-piece bar and stem are also easier to work with and make adjusting these components much more user friendly, too. Featuring a standard diameter 27.2mm seatpost also makes replacement easy should you choose to make a swap at a later date.

Read the full Cycling Weekly review here -  Boardman SLR 8.9 Women's / Cycling Weekly

The SLR includes some good quality components for its price point, notably having a full carbon fibre frame and forks with the Shimano 105 groupset. It has a neat finish with internally routed cables and cool paintwork if looking stylish is your thing. Finally, the frame is specially designed to be versatile enough to ride the SLR 8.9 in different settings while providing comfort. 

Pulling the Boardman out of its box, I couldn’t help but tap the top tube to check the frame wasn’t carbon. Although it’s alloy, the well-smoothed welds at the top tube, head tube and seatstay junctions have the look of a carbon frame.

That’s given the lie by the fishtails around the bottom bracket welds, but it’s still impressive in a lower priced frame, where large lumps of excess metal are more the norm where the tubes meet.

It’s part of a package that looks and rides well above its entry-level pricetag and includes a slender all-carbon fork and dropped seatstays for a modern looking frameset.

Boardman has redesigned its alloy SLR frameset for 2021, swapping from rim brakes to the disc brakes that are now rapidly becoming the norm for most road bikes, from race-proven thoroughbreds and increasingly down to lower priced machines.

The Boardman SLR 8.8's well thought-out spec leads to a ride that surpasses its budget pricetag - 4.5/5

Read the full review here Boardman SLR 8.8 Disc Cyclist Magazine

Hooning around trail centres or local field paths, tyres weighed down by mud, clogging the front mech and what remaining clearance there is between tyres and frame is all well and good, but it’s at the extreme of what gravel/adventure bikes are capable of, or designed for.

The Boardman ADV 9.0 strikes a very respectable balance between expectation and reality, being suited not only to an awful lot of road riding, but also to an equal amount of time spent exploring the nation’s bridleways and fire roads, preferably as far away from any other human as possible…

British brand’s newest all-roader is high on versatility and fairly easy on the pocket / 4.5/5

Read the full review here Boardman ADV 9.0 Cyclist Magazine