We take a look at the new BMC Teammachine
Michelle Arthurs-brennan took the new design for a week-long spin
All of BMC’S bikes are ‘machines’. Timemachine, Roadmachine, Teammachine. The latter is the road race bike (road racing is a team sport, after all), and a decade after its inception, it’s had a facelift for 2021.
The new, disc-brake only Teammachine SLR01 is reportedly now six per cent faster (more aero), nine per cent lighter – and a jaw-dropping 20 per cent stiffer. It’s also, according to BMC, more compliant. This third stat – 20 per cent stiffer – surprised me. I’ve always considered the SLR01 an extremely stiff bike.
Twenty per cent is a lot. So, what’s been done, and why? And, since I’ve had the bike on test for a week, how has it performed over the first 320km?
More aero
To make the bike more aero, BMC fed its in-house ACE+ software a selection of tube shapes, before validating decisions via further Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) testing. The down tube surface area has been increased, with a Kammtail profile chiming in. This works alongside the ‘Aerocore’ bottle cage design, which also formed part of the previous iteration, but continues to be pretty stand-out in the way it smooths out the cage to frame interface.
The fork profile has been reshaped, taking cues from the Timemachine – with a stealth dropout design and integrated thru-axle nut. There’s space for tyres up to 30mm, too. The D-shaped seatpost remains, as does the cable-free ICS Carbon integrated cockpit. On the lower end models, there’s the ICS2 – a tidy aero stem with separate bar.
Swapping wheels in and out using the new dropout design was easy, and when the bike arrived in pieces at my door, I was impressed by the simplicity of the braze-on rear mech attachment. Of course, the rider makes up the vast majority of drag – and the BMC, as ever, aims to put you in an aggressive position. My size 47 came with a stack/reach of 506/367.
Lighter
The BMC Teammachine SLR01 is a reported nine per cent lighter. A size 54 in the top-end model carries a claimed weight of 6.5kg, though my 47 tipped the Cycling Weekly scales at 6.61kg. There is an increase when you hit the ‘SLR’ (as opposed to SLR01) models – these start at a claimed 7.7kg for a 54.
The weight savings on the previous iteration come from shaving off 10g at the seatpost, 50g at the fork and 100g at the cockpit. The paint is lighter, too.
I’ve been testing the top end, Teammachine SLR01 with SRAM Red etap – and there is no denying its low weight feels immense on the climbs. The lightweight carbon combined with stiffness does create an oddly ‘tinny’ ride quality, as opposed to the plush speed you might get from something with a little more cushioning.
“Its low weight feels immense on the climbs”
Stiffer – and more compliant
BMC says that the bike is 20 per cent stiffer, but also more compliant. This sounds like an oxymoronic phrase, but it’s not as silly as a first glance might suggest. When I asked BMC for more detail, the brand said the bike had 20 per cent more lateral stiffness, and
“less than five per cent” more vertical stiffness. More lateral stiffness at key areas makes for better handling.
In this case, an even wider bottom bracket shell (the BB itself is PF86) makes for increased torsional stiffness while a combination of the head tube, fork, steerer and ICS handlebar creates more stiffness at the front end. Comfort, BMC says, comes from fine-tuning the carbon layup, and allowing more flex at the seatpost.
The handling on the previous iteration of the BMC SLR01 was impeccable, and that’s not changed. On smooth tarmac, it absolutely excelled, eating up the miles with quick-footed acceleration on the punchier, short climbs. However, when hitting broken sections of road, I could feel every bump throwing me around on the road. The brand said that the “strive for more stiffness” came from requests from its pro riders. It also added that many pros on the NTT Pro Cycling team were riding a 47, like me, so we can’t put the feeling down to my riding a smaller frame.
A wider tyre could help to even out some of the buzz. When asked, BMC’S head of development Stefan Christ said: “Here, the roads are super good and a 25mm tyre – measuring 27mm – is ideal. Going for a wider tyre does increase frontal area, therefore drag. But [tyre preference] is something that will be country specific. I would assume, in a country like the UK, a 28 that measures 30 is perfect.”