The all new BMC SLR01 retains a familiar look but is completely re-engineered - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The new Team Machine builds on the success of the old model but keeps the same geometry - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The cantilevered rear end with short seat stays and braced top tube/seat tube junction - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The seat tube is 27.2mm wide when viewed from the side, but flattened at the rear to dissipate the stress from flexing - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
BMC's aluminium seat clamp is only 17g - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
BMC's bike range is clearly separated by genre, with the SLR01 heading the Altitude Series for those who like to soar - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The head tube is actually wider at the top where it joins the top tube then tapers for the upper headset bearing - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
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 - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
One of the test SLR01 forks with yellow graphics - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The new fork design has a more continuous carbon layup between tapered steerer and smoother fork crown - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The top tube flares out towards the head tube for extra stiffness - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Very neat cable routing for the rear brake - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The seat tube has a boxy profile and flares to almost the full width of the substantial BB86 - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Large BB shell, giant down tube, wide seat tube, chunky chain stays - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Drive side view of the bottom bracket area, plus Shimano Dura Ace 9000 52/36 chainrings - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Cutaway sample of the BB shell, showing the frint mech cable routing (left) and internal strengthening rib (top middle) - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
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 - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The hollow carbon dropouts only weigh 29g together - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The sandwich design rear mech hanger only adds another 11g - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The seat stays have a triangular shape and are very slim to help compliance - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Cross section of a pair of seat stays - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The SLR01 was UCI certified before carrying Cadel Evans to third in the Giro d'Italia and Tejay van Garderen to the win in California - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
A redesigned front mech clamp uses the minimum amount of material - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
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 - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Cross section of a pair of chain stays showing how their asymmetric shapes differ to cope with power inputs - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The cable guide cover is a scant 7g - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Our 56cm test bike with team paint finish, Dura-Ace C24 clinchers with Continental GP4000 tyres, 3T Ergosum carbon bar and ARX-Team stem, a bottle cage, a pair of Time Xpresso 6 pedals and Garmin mount still weighed a UCI-bothering 6.61kg - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
BMC owner Andy Rihs has installed a permanent BMC test centre at his 5 star hotel, La Coquillade, in Provence - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
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.
The seat tube has a boxy profile and flares to almost the full width of the substantial bb86: the seat tube has a boxy profile and flares to almost the full width of the substantial bb86 - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
The boxy seat and down tubes flare to the full width of the BB86 bottom bracket
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, carbon 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 at above right for a detailed look at the bike.
The all new bmc slr01 retains a familiar look but is completely re-engineered: the all new bmc slr01 retains a familiar look but is completely re-engineered - Robin Wilmott/Future Publishing
Robin Wilmott is a freelance writer and bike tester. He began road cycling in 1988 and, with mountain bikes in their infancy, mixed experimental off-road adventures with club time trials and road races. Cyclocross soon became a winter staple and has remained Robin's favourite form of competition. Robin has always loved the technical aspect of building and maintaining bikes, and several years working in a bike shop only amplified that. Robin was a technical writer for BikeRadar for nearly a decade, and has tested hundreds of bikes and products for the site. He has also written extensively for Cycling Plus, Velonews and Cyclingnews.
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