Two-year project culminates with podiums in Italy, California
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The all new BMC SLR01 retains a familiar look but is completely re-engineered(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Cutaway sample of the BB shell, showing the frint mech cable routing (left) and internal strengthening rib (top middle)(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The large chain stays meeting the far slimmer seat stays, and showing the neat rear mech cable routing, which exits behind the BB and runs below the chain stay to a stop, before kinking upwards and through the stay to exit above the dropout for a uniform curve or short electrical routing(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The hollow carbon dropouts only weigh 29g together(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The sandwich design rear mech hanger only adds another 11g(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The seat stays have a triangular shape and are very slim to help compliance(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Cross section of a pair of seat stays(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The SLR01 was UCI certified before carrying Cadel Evans to 3rd in the Giro d'Italia and Tejay Van Garderen to the win in California(Image credit: BikeRadar)
A redesigned front mech clamp uses the minimum amount of material(Image credit: BikeRadar)
View beneath the bottom bracket, showing the asymmetric chain stays, very wide BB86 shell, large down tube and clip on access cover for the cable guide(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Cross section of a pair of chain stays showing how their asymmetric shapes differ to cope with power inputs(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The cable guide cover is a scant 7g(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Our 56cm test bike with team paint finish, Dura Ace C24 clinchers with Continental GP4000 tyres, aluminium bar and stem, a bottle cage, a pair of Time Xpresso 6 pedals and Garmin mount still weighed a UCI-bothering 6.61kg(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Drive side view of the bottom bracket area, plus Shimano Dura Ace 9000 52/36 chainrings(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Large BB shell, giant down tube, wide seat tube, chunky chain stays(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The new Team Machine builds on the success of the old model but keeps the same geometry(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The cantilevered rear end with short seat stays and braced top tube/seat tube junction(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The seat tube is 27.2mm wide when viewed from the side, but flattened at the rear to dissipate the stress from flexing(Image credit: BikeRadar)
BMC's aluminium seat clamp is only 17g(Image credit: BikeRadar)
BMC's bike range is clearly separated by genre, with the SLR01 heading the Altitude Series for those who like to soar(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The head tube is actually wider at the top where it joins the top tube then tapers for the upper headset bearing(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The Dti universal cable routing is now all internal on the SLR01, with cables entering the front of the head tube and the down tube behind the head tube(Image credit: BikeRadar)
One of the test SLR01 forks with yellow graphics(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The new fork design has a more continuous carbon layup between tapered steerer and smoother fork crown(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The top tube flares out towards the head tube for extra stiffness(Image credit: BikeRadar)
Very neat cable routing for the rear brake(Image credit: BikeRadar)
The seat tube has a boxy profile and flares to almost the full width of the substantial BB86(Image credit: BikeRadar)
BMC owner Andy Rihs has installed a permanent BMC test centre at his 5 star hotel, La Coquillade, in Provence(Image credit: BikeRadar)
At first look you’d be forgiven for thinking that BMC’s all new Team Machine SLR01 is very familiar. Firstly, it deliberately bears a family resemblance to the outgoing SLR01. But also, the sharp-eyed may have spotted it charging to a maiden win at the Amgen Tour of California under Tejay van Garderen, and underneath Cadel Evans en route to third overall at the Giro d’Italia.
But skin-deep similarities are just that, because the new SLR01 is the culmination of a two-year development project aimed at created an ultralight all-round road frameset. 'Lighter, stiffer, more comfortable with peerless performance' is surely the aim of most bike companies, but these aims aren’t always complementary, so BMC developed their new bike-specific ACE Technology software system, which they claim to be unique in the industry, to refine the design process.
A collaboration with ETH University in Switzerland, ACE Technology software is able to work with hundreds of parameters, including frame tube shapes, material used, carbon layup, ergonomic dimensions and geometry. BMC say that the software worked through 34,000 different design iterations through the year or so it took to arrive at the final SLR01 form. The result seems to be a greatest hits compilation of BMC’s successful features, a few that have been proven elsewhere, and some further refinements and innovations, that together could be very special.
We will be riding the new bike soon and will report back on its characteristics, but one design criteria we can judge now is weight. A 54cm painted (not bare carbon) frame, including seat clamp, bottle cage bolts and mech hangers weighs just 790g, and a complete frameset including fork, headset, seat post and all the hardware mentioned above is still only 1,380g. To back this up, our 56cm test machine, which is painted in team colours, with Shimano Dura-Ace 11-speed, Shimano C24 clinchers with Continental GP4000 tyres, aluminium bar and stem, Arione saddle, bottle cage, pedals and Garmin mount still only weighed 6.61kg/14.57lbs, which is below the UCI’s 6.8kg minimum limit. In the Giro, the team had to bolt stainless steel weights to the frame beneath the bottle cages in either 50, 100 or 250g weights, depending on the wheels Cadel chose each day, just to meet the weight limit. This is on top of the usual fare of SRM chainset, two bottle cages, pedals and Di2 transmission.
We’ll be heading off in to the Provence countryside in the morning to see just what the new SLR01 has to offer, and will report back with our views and more. In the meantime, check out the photo gallery here a detailed look at the bike.
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