This article was produced in collaboration with BMC, and was published in issue 138 of Rouleur
BMC do things a little differently to most bike brands. When announcing the new Teammachine SLR 01, the product marketing manager Pierre-Henri Medas made it clear that the fifth generation of the brand’s most popular bike model is not the lightest nor stiffest bike on the market.
“Don’t get us wrong, we work hard every day to make the best bike – the lightest, the stiffest, the most aerodynamic, the most capable. We can pick one of these battles and claim we have the best bike and try to convince you all, like we can brainwash you,” Medas claimed matter-of-factly, but with a wry smile.
The Swiss brand has optimised the weight and the stiffness of the new Team-machine SLR 01 but within their own strict parameters – BMC refused to jeopardize the feel of the bike, what the brand calls ‘BMC Ride Feel’. The sensations a rider feels when riding a specific bike might seem indeterminate, intangible and subjective. But they are something BMC takes very seriously, as not only a bike brand for a UCI ProTeam in the form of Tudor Procycling, but also one of the most popular commercial companies worldwide.
BMC understands that although performance is essential – and BMC bikes are high performing – so too is producing bikes that consistently and reliably feel comfortable, nimble, stable, light, agile, trustworthy, all the things that make a bike fun to ride. People want to ride bikes that make them feel good. For the majority of people, that’s the whole point of getting out the door and onto the roads.
The bike industry is often a paradoxical world: brands want to shout about their latest technological advancements, but also want to preserve the mystery and are legitimately concerned about maintaining competitive advantage. It is no different at BMC – on the new bike’s weight, stiffness and design, Medas said, “We have a BMC recipe here that we keep secret.”
But there is an aspect of the brand that is transparent, it’s a company full of passionate people who want to engineer bikes that people want to ride.
“We will tell you a story that is our story,” said Medas. “This bike is the fruit of BMC people, of BMC employees. This bike is unique because we are a unique set of people.”
For Medas, the Teammachine SLR 01 is a labour of love. He continued: “This model has a long legacy within the BMC range of road racing.”
The BMC Teammachine SLR 01 is a serious, performance-orientated bike, with a rich set of palmarès in its 14 years of being raced at the highest level, rightfully sitting in the esteemed company of the Pinarello Dogma F and the Colnago VRs as a Tour de France winning bike – the very first iteration of the Teammachine SLR 01 was used by Cadel Evans when he became the first Australian to win the Grande Boucle in 2011.
“We did a limited edition after this victory, where we made 141 bikes limited because Cadel’s bib number was 141,” said Medas, clearly proud to be part of a company that achieved such a feat. Five years later, the SLR 01 hit another high point when Greg Van Avermaet rode the second generation of the bike to Olympic gold in the road race at the 2016 Games in Rio.
The new bike is the fifth generation of the model. While the Teammachine R 01 will remain the Tudor Pro Cycling Team’s ultimate race bike due to its superior aerodynamics, Medas and the BMC engineering team believe the SLR 01 provides the best combination of light weight, stiffness and comfort for the recreational cyclist and this is not just their opinion – it’s the most popular bike on their roster, so the riding public seem to agree.
The key change from the previous model of the SLR 01 is the 16 per cent weight reduction – a saving of 222g on the fork, frame and seatpost in size 54. Medas said they achieved this with a “reduced frontal area, optimised tube profiles, re-engineered fork”. BMC announced that the claimed weight for a size 54cm Teammachine SLR 01 frameset is 1,173g (frame 700g, fork 339g and seatpost 134g), depending on the paint scheme. With all the accessories this results in a 6.6kg bike (without pedals) for a 54 frame.
Medas was upfront about what makes a climbing bike – its weight: “From the fourth generation to the new bike, we went 16 per cent lighter. That’s an amazing diet,” he joked.
Slimming down a bike is a challenge, but one that seemed to genuinely enthuse the BMC staff: “Let’s call it three areas of attack, where we can work on the way,” said Medas. “The first one is the materials. The second one is shaping the dimensions of a frame. And then people often overlook the cosmetic aspect, but, of course, paint has a weight as well, and especially if we are down to a frame weight of 700g. So, 60g of paint, that matters.”
On the materials that BMC have used, Stefan Christ, the head of research and development, elaborated: “Carbon fibre is basically a string like a rope. It can only take load under tension. So, it’s meaningless to have fibres in there that are not under tension. And the art of reducing weight is actually to take away all the fibres that have no function, that are not under tension.”
As the Teammachine SLR 01 is the brand’s premium climbing bike, the weight is understandably one of the most important metrics to improve for Christ, Medas and the rest of the team. However, they did not want to lose any stiffness in the pursuit of weight-saving – when the bike was launched in June in Andermatt, high in the Swiss Alps, BMC declared: “The latest Teammachine SLR 01 represents progress in its purest form: delivering the same explosive stiffness and acceleration as its predecessor, now in a frameset that is 16 per cent lighter.”
Christ expanded on this: “Stiffness has always been something we never compromise on. At BMC, we want to make bikes with a power transfer that everyone can feel. And the nice thing about that is whether you are a professional rider or you are a recreational rider, if you hop on a BMC and you start your first pedal strokes, you immediately feel it goes forward.”
Achieving the same stiffness but on a lighter frame provided Christ and his team plenty of headaches: “We knew from the beginning that we’re not going to compromise stiffness, so yes, it is a light bike, but it still has a great power transfer. To be very honest, it was not easy. Many of the super-light bikes compromise stiffness, something we didn’t want to do from the get-go.”
BMC used Finite Element Analysis (FEA) to measure the stiffness of three different aspects of the bike: “We measure the rear triangle stiffness. That mostly indicates the power transfer. Then on the front triangle stiffness that is more for handling. The overall stiffness is a kind of the mix of these two stiffnesses,” said Christ.
The SLR 01 has not only kept the same stiffness as the fourth generation, but also the current Teammachine R 01, although BMC do not disclose their stiffness metrics: “We have achieved the same stiffness we used to have or we have today on the Teammachine R 01. It is the same stiffness that BMC provides the public as the Tudor Procycling Team; it’s the same bikes. The stiffness is as high as possible.”
As always, the recreational rider was in the minds of Christ and the BMC staff when they were making the bike: “We kept stiffness as high as possible because we didn’t want to discourage some riders.”
By this Christ meant the commercial market and the recreational rider. The stiffness is focused towards the bike’s climbing ability, but this hasn’t detracted from BMC’s ambitions to make sure the bike is fast over flat terrain, with aspects of the frame taken from the Teammachine R, such as some aerodynamic gains from the design of new fork and frontal area achieved through Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) simulations, wind tunnel hours and velodrome testing. BMC claims that the aerodynamics of the bike and rider together has resulted in a 2.2 per cent faster bike compared to the fourth generation.
Another key change from the previous generation of the Teammachine SLR 01 is an increased tyre clearance from 30mm to 32 mm tyres, BMC confirmed that the bike has been optimised for 26mm. It’s an interesting decision given the current trend of the bikes opting for wider tyres, where 28–30mm is now common. However, despite this decision to optimise at a skinnier tyre than expected, BMC claimed the comfort of the Teammachine SLR 01 is at the top of the agenda: “It’s designed to feel like a true extension of the rider, providing confidence in every descent and responsiveness in every turn.”
The comfort of a bike can be altered by changing numerous aspects of the set-up. Following feedback from riders, BMC have increased the seat tube angle of the SLR to make it a bit slacker. To maintain the bike-fit needs, they will be offering three different seat post offset positions: 10 mm and 25 mm. Another position at 0 mm is said to be coming soon.
In terms of the look of the frame, the geometry has remained the same between the fourth and fifth generations but there are some clear visual differences between tube shapes, profiles and connections.
The paint jobs, with their aforementioned weight-saving, offer a unique style. The colorways are new and striking with the design subtly displaying the
BMC logo – a change from the older paint jobs. At the highest spec, the frames are available in black and red for the bikes fitted with SRAM and navy and white for Shimano.
Like with all bikes, the look is fundamental – the aesthetics are important. People want to ride fast bikes that look good. This is certainly what Medas believes: “We can talk a bit about tube shapes. When you get closer to the bike, you see that it is beautiful. The tube shapes – you’ve probably noted that everything in the new SLR tubes have rounder cross sections. These transitions are way smoother than on the bike we had before.”
The Teammachine SLR 01 is a sleek, stylish bike and – as promised – is the fruit of the labour from the unique people at BMC like Medas and Christ.
BMC takes great pride in its Swissness. The Teammachine SLR 01 feels as efficient as the country’s rail system, as elegant as Zurich’s architecture and as charming as the country’s Alpine meadows. The brand’s unabbreviated name ‘Bicycle Manufacturing Company’ is a frank and understated description. The company manufactures bicycles that you will want to ride, like the Teammachine SLR 01. The staff are testament to this – Medas said as much: “We love this bike, it’s part of our story.”
Medas himself is French, he was drawn to Switzerland to become a part of the project. David Heine, head of marketing, from Germany, is in the country for the same reason. The staff come from all over the place, brought together by a passion. In an industry which holds onto its secrets, from the outside, BMC is open and warm. At the headquarters in Grenchen, they have a group of colleagues who enjoy spending time with one another. The engineers obviously live and breathe bike manufacturing, but they also want to ride themselves. Most of them cycle to work, and some do so together. They make and ride bikes that people want to ride. Bikes that feel good.
