Gallery: Boardman Elite 2014 range

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The Boardman AiR/TTE is the flagship of the 2014 range and was unveiled last month at the Ironman World Championships in Kona(Image credit: BikeRadar)

This article originally appeared on Bikeradar.

The aero shapes were developed “for real world conditions”, by which Boardman mean riding at more normal speeds of 20-25mph rather than the 30mph-plus that is the industry standard for aero R&D and really only sustainable by the best professionals. The key net result of the lower speeds is that the effective wind yaw angle of any given crosswind is increased. (To understand this, imagine the extreme example of travelling north with a 10mph easterly crosswind – when stationary you feel the wind from the east, at 10mph the wind you feel is from the north-east because your riding speed matches the wind speed and the effective wind yaw angle is halfway between the two. If you were able to pedal at 50mph you would feel the wind almost entirely head-on. Therefore, on average, amateur riders are exposed to higher effective crosswind angles than professionals).

AiR/9.0 – £1,999.99 – Shimano 105, Mavic Aksium, 8.3kg
AiR/9.2 – £2,799.99 – Shimano Ultegra, Mavic Cosmic Elite, 7.8kg
AiR9.2 Di2 – £2,999.99 – Shimano Ultegra Di2, Mavic Aksium, 7.9kg
AiR/9.4 Di2 – £3,999.99 – Shimano Ultegra Di2, Boardman Elite 50mm carbon clincher, 7.7kg
AiR/9.8 – £4,999.99 – SRAM Red 22, Zipp 60 clincher, 7.1kg
AiR/9.8 Di2 – £7,999.99 – Shimano Dura-Ace Di2, Zipp 404 Firecrest CC, 7.1kg
AiR/9.8 frameset – £1,599.99 – 1150g

While it's likely to be outsold by each of the other new bikes, because of its specialist nature and exclusivity, the AiR/TTE is the flagship of the brand's 2014 product onslaught. Time trialling is what Chris Boardman is famous for and, as director of R&D, it remains his passion and speciality. The TTE will be offered with Shimano Di2 shifting with a choice of Dura-Ace or Ultegra builds, or as a frameset.

The TTE is UCI-legal for top-level time trialling. Whereas some rivals (notably Felt's new IA) have ignored the UCI regulations in order to make the fastest possible bike for customers who almost exclusively do not take part in UCI events, and despite sponsoring several triathletes but no professional road team, Boardman Bikes kept the TTE within the boundaries. However, as Smallwood explains, that didn't require any sacrifices to be made: “It wasn't our top priority to make the TTE UCI-legal, the goal was to make the fastest bike. The R&D process brought us to this bike and we weren't faced with having to make a compromise in order to keep it legal. There is a cover for the rear brake and the option to run a steeper seat angle which would make it non-legal.”

Twenty-four per cent – that's the claimed drag reduction achieved by the TTE against its predecessor in a wind tunnel at 20-degree wind yaw angle and it's a big number that would make a great marketing headline. That isn't Boardman's style though, and he goes on to tell us that at 8-degree the saving is 14 per cent and head-on (ie on a still day) there is still a saving of five per cent, which is impressive, as Boardman have been able to make big gains at the high yaw angles while still improving at zero degrees. That's the aero equivalent of being both stiffer and lighter, two goals that are often mutually exclusive.

What's even more impressive is that, during the presentation, Boardman himself pointed out that, because the rider makes up 80 per cent of the total drag, the total system drag reduction is actually four per cent and when you also factor in rolling resistance and other frictional losses that drops to 3.3 per cent. This underlines two things: that the frame is only one of the areas (and probably not the first) that requires your attention when chasing faster times, and that Chris Boardman MBE is a man of science who is happy to make his marketing team wince in the name of accuracy and integrity. Not for nothing is he known as 'The Professor'.

The carbon framed 9.4 gets Shimano’s brand new Ultegra Di2 hydraulic groupset – it’s the first off-the-shelf bike we’ve seen to use it. Andy Smallwood told BikeRadar that, “We had just enough of a heads-up about Shimano’s hydraulic group to ensure that our carbon CXR frame’s cable routing is compatible. We’re sure that there’s a market for hydraulic disc brakes on multi-purpose bikes such as the CXR… and it gives us a head start as we can foresee these brakes spreading into more bike categories.”