Boardman AiR9.8

leejdavies

My Kind of new (about 2 months old) Boardman Air9.8.



I do a mix of Road Racing, Crits, Sportives, Duathlons and triathlons, so this 'aero' delight from Boardman ticked every box.

I love the thing. Ride is excellent, just need to get to a level to represent the bike properly :oops:

Specification
Frameset: Boardman Air9.8 (mechanical)
Groupset: Campagnolo Chorus (Athena Derailleurs) + Rotor Qrings, Speedplay Zeros
Wheels: Farsports U shape 25mm x 50mm (front) 60mm (rear) w/ conti gp400s 25mm (armchair ride)
Training wheels: H Plus Son Archetype w/ conti gp400s 25mm(don't get much use)
Cockpit: 3T ARX stealth stem, Ritchey evocurve bars, Lizard skins tape, Selle Italia SLR GF

No weightweenie, but it does a good enough job on the hills. So comfortable though, mainly thanks to the wheels I think as it's said to be a very stiff frame. The best thing is I'm yet to see another on the road.

Apologies for the rather shoddy photography skills, just a quick snap in the back alleyway at work.

PS If anyone is thinking of buying one you can get in touch to an opinion from me and the internet has virtually nothing but press releases on these things.

shipley

Looks fantastic.

I have one, with more yellow and I love it..I refer to it as my F1 bike. My friends hate it as I am much faster when I take it out than my other bikes.

Some idiot will come along and mention Halfords, but we know the truth !!

dombhoy

Great looking bike looks very fast indeed

ianbar

fast looking bike that...niiiiiiice

southdownswolf

My LBS (Tri Store) has just started stocking these and they look fantastic. I haven't tried one out yet, but may well have too.

rokt

I like that....

Miles253

Best looking Boardmans going! Lovely build too, harsh ride?

bluemoon17

Looks fast that.

leejdavies

Miles253 wrote:

Best looking Boardmans going! Lovely build too, harsh ride?

Miles, absolutely not. Although I have wide rims (25mm external at the brake track) and 25mm tyres. This means I can run lower pressures, usually around 80-85 depending on where I ride and the conditions. It's so comfortable.

And very easy to maintain speed on the flats, especially rewarding for harder efforts. Handles excellently, climbs well although I have an 11-23 cassette which I will swap for an 11-25. 23 makes life unnecessarily hard sometimes. I was slightly worried about crosswinds as I have never ridden deep sections before but apart from being slightly twitchy in stronger winds they feel like the pull forward rather than sway side to side. It's strange to describe, not felt anything like it before.

Got mine from the helpful people at Velosport in putney. The downside of boardman's is that they are hard to actually look at and try. No shop in london or the surrounding areas had one to look at! I hope they don't become too popular, they should they're brilliant and very versatile for multi-displiners or people after a proper 'Aero' road bike.

ic.

Love that. It just looks properly fast. Loved these frames ever since I first saw one.

johnnymcg259

'tis nice!

Sodafarl

Very nice a lovely bike.

kingstonian

leejdavies wrote:

Miles253 wrote:

Best looking Boardmans going! Lovely build too, harsh ride?

Miles, absolutely not. Although I have wide rims (25mm external at the brake track) and 25mm tyres. This means I can run lower pressures, usually around 80-85 depending on where I ride and the conditions. It's so comfortable.

And very easy to maintain speed on the flats, especially rewarding for harder efforts. Handles excellently, climbs well although I have an 11-23 cassette which I will swap for an 11-25. 23 makes life unnecessarily hard sometimes. I was slightly worried about crosswinds as I have never ridden deep sections before but apart from being slightly twitchy in stronger winds they feel like the pull forward rather than sway side to side. It's strange to describe, not felt anything like it before.

Got mine from the helpful people at Velosport in putney. The downside of boardman's is that they are hard to actually look at and try. No shop in london or the surrounding areas had one to look at! I hope they don't become too popular, they should they're brilliant and very versatile for multi-displiners or people after a proper 'Aero' road bike.

Velosport in Putney - good shop, they did my Retul fitting and I have nothing but praise for the quality of service I received.

Miles253

leejdavies wrote:

Miles253 wrote:

Best looking Boardmans going! Lovely build too, harsh ride?

Miles, absolutely not. Although I have wide rims (25mm external at the brake track) and 25mm tyres. This means I can run lower pressures, usually around 80-85 depending on where I ride and the conditions. It's so comfortable.

And very easy to maintain speed on the flats, especially rewarding for harder efforts. Handles excellently, climbs well although I have an 11-23 cassette which I will swap for an 11-25. 23 makes life unnecessarily hard sometimes. I was slightly worried about crosswinds as I have never ridden deep sections before but apart from being slightly twitchy in stronger winds they feel like the pull forward rather than sway side to side. It's strange to describe, not felt anything like it before.

Got mine from the helpful people at Velosport in putney. The downside of boardman's is that they are hard to actually look at and try. No shop in london or the surrounding areas had one to look at! I hope they don't become too popular, they should they're brilliant and very versatile for multi-displiners or people after a proper 'Aero' road bike.

Thats good to hear, as thats a stunner of a ride. Perhaps aero frames are finally balancing out that stiff vs comfort thing. Might look into these (sorry )

leejdavies

Miles253 wrote:

Thats good to hear, as thats a stunner of a ride. Perhaps aero frames are finally balancing out that stiff vs comfort thing. Might look into these (sorry )

I would definitely consider it, there are very few 'aero' frames out there that (in my opinion) look good and are truly 'aero' I think the Ridley Noah Fast is probably one of the best but it costs significantly more than my entire bike did!

I put some aero bars on it and slammed the seat forward for a Triathlon at the weekend and I have a TT bike (basically), if I just got a TT base bar and a Disc cover it wouldn't be too difficult to convert into a near full TT rig. Only beaten by a guy on a Cervelo p5 super bike!

The internal cabling is a faff but this is the first time I've experienced it, but apparently it makes you fast :twisted:

Miles253

Yeah i do like that versatility, perhaps ill see if anyone local stocks them. Do it all bike.

MountainMonster

Those Boardman Air's are awesome looking bikes. A guy in one of the local clubs has a Air/TT bike he is selling in tri mode, and it is absolutely gorgeous. If I had cash I would love to get one!

Enjoy the road.

russyh

leejdavies wrote:

Miles253 wrote:

Thats good to hear, as thats a stunner of a ride. Perhaps aero frames are finally balancing out that stiff vs comfort thing. Might look into these (sorry )

I would definitely consider it, there are very few 'aero' frames out there that (in my opinion) look good and are truly 'aero' I think the Ridley Noah Fast is probably one of the best but it costs significantly more than my entire bike did!

I put some aero bars on it and slammed the seat forward for a Triathlon at the weekend and I have a TT bike (basically), if I just got a TT base bar and a Disc cover it wouldn't be too difficult to convert into a near full TT rig. Only beaten by a guy on a Cervelo p5 super bike!

The internal cabling is a faff but this is the first time I've experienced it, but apparently it makes you fast :twisted:

Not to mention the Noah is rediculously stiff and super uncomfortable. Fast bike, but of your a normal human I found it way to hard hand aggressive. Boardman looks so much more relaxed and smoother than my old Noah

tlw1

I like that, a lot!

kim10

That is a very nice bike, like that a lot. I have got the same wheels (also from Farsports) with 25mm Continental tires and are really impressed how comfortable they are.

fleshtuxedo

Such an impressive bike in the flesh. Great choice.

bernithebiker

Think this is the nicest looking aero bike out there at the mo....