It would be odd to release a new version of something that’s the same as – or worse than – the outgoing version. It’s why bands face that ‘difficult second album’ syndrome; we all want the latest thing to be the best ever.
It’s human nature. It’s why the search term ‘Best curry house’ ranks so highly on Google – we’re always looking for an even better lamb pasanda (which I was once kindly informed by a waiter was ‘a lady curry’.)
So bless BMC, which provides a raft of sink-your-teeth-into stats that back up claims that latest bike Y is better than previous bike X. So without further ado, those numbers…
This is the second iteration of the Roadmachine and apparently it is 25% more vertically compliant at the rear, 15% more compliant at the front, 20% stiffer torsionally, 5% stiffer at the bottom bracket and the frame is 25g lighter with 3mm more tyre clearance.
It is better. But it is not, says BMC, a gravel bike. Nor is it an all-road bike. No, the Roadmachine is a ‘pure endurance bike’. Got it?
Image 2 of 16
Change for the better
I only had a short time on the original Roadmachine (it was deputy editor Stu who tested it in issue 55), but that was long enough for me to know it was one stiff bike, much like most BMCs I’ve ridden.
Yet with road-going race bikes such as the Teammachine and Timemachine, it’s easy to see why BMC engineers push the stiffness envelope, but with the Roadmachine, an ostensibly multi-surface (but not gravel) mile-muncher, it seemed odd.
The bike should surely be comfort-centric, and be at least as compliant as the bike it replaced, the Granfondo, which was ridden by some of the BMC Racing Team at various Classics some years back.
The original Roadmachine was also very aggressive in its geometry, which does seem at odds with today’s longer, slacker endurance bikes. It did, however, lead the way in combining aero tube shapes in a not-really-aero-specific bike, having a fully integrated front end, weighing a scant 920g for the frame and having those now-omnipresent dropped seatstays.
Thus in looks alone this latest Roadmachine casts a near identikit shadow to its forebear, but a series of subtle yet significant changes make this a different beast.
As regurgitated above from the marketing hype, the whole bike has been made much more compliant. To do this BMC has tinkered with the great mystery that is carbon layup, but moreover has changed several key measurements.
‘There’s more room for seatpost flex because the top tube slopes more, so there is around 10mm more seatpost sticking out of the frame,’ says BMC’s Stefano Gennaioli. ‘The seatstays join the frame 20mm lower down, so overall the rear end has more ability to flex vertically.’
There is also room for 33mm tyres, which should you so wish would aid comfort further (the bike comes with 28mm tyres), and up front a fork redesign has helped smooth things out a touch too, says Gennaioli, referencing fork legs that are noticeably more stiletto-like than before.
The result, I think, is less striking than the numbers might have you believe, yet the bike still sits firmly – or rather, quite softly – in the smooth, comfy category. It’s still a way off from being top of the class, but these things are a balancing act and BMC’s high-wire show goes down rather well.
Image 3 of 16
Punch, flop, stabilise
There is an element of aggressiveness that has been removed from the Roadmachine, where a like-for-like 56cm gets a 12mm higher stack and 3mm shorter reach than the bike from 2016. But it seems to have lost little, if any, punch.
Considering the wheels are relatively bog-standard alloy clinchers from DT Swiss – solid and reliable but not exactly a feathery coup at a claimed 1,812g – and the tyres are Vittoria’s hardier Rubino Pros, weighing 335g, the Roadmachine didn’t half pick up well. Like near-aero-wheel well.
I’d say it’s a combination of the overall weight – a fraction over 8kg is reasonable for a bike of this type – and the stiffness of the areas responsible for efficient power transfer. That is, despite an increase in vertical compliance the Roadmachine maintains pedalling stiffness in the crucial areas of the head tube, down tube, bottom bracket and chainstays.
Regardless, it remains that the bike consistently impressed on every ride with just how quickly it got out of the blocks and accelerated thereafter. Going back to other bikes only highlighted this fact: the Roadmachine is rapid.
On that note, though, swapping between bikes also highlighted that the Roadmachine is a quite stately affair in the handling department. The geometry is such that the bike comes close to wheel flop in certain situations, wheel flop being when a turn of the bar at low speeds presents a feeling of the front wheel wanting to ‘tuck under’ the frame, as opposed to the frame wanting to follow the path of the wheel.
This was no great problem at higher speeds, and descending was always stable and assured, but it was noticeable at slow speeds and is just part and parcel of relatively slow handling.
However, as it is with the wheels, perhaps this is all for the best. Which is to say, the wheels are heavy, but they feel incredibly robust and only add to the feeling that you can take the Roadmachine over pretty much any surface. You could opt for a lighter set, but that might diminish the bike’s turbo-charged-plough character.
So too engineers could have tweaked the handling to be faster, but in so doing the bike’s incredible stability would likely have suffered, and the result would have been closer to the original, which for me was too stiff and too much like BMC’s racier bikes for it to stand on its own two feet. This Roadmachine really is a proposition in its own right.
I daresay you could even stick in some treaded 33mm tyres and go off in search of proper gravel. But if you do, don’t tell BMC. This is an endurance road bike, remember.
Image 6 of 16
Spec
| Frame | BMC Roadmachine 02 One |
| Groupset | Shimano Ultegra Di2 |
| Brakes | Shimano Ultegra Di2 |
| Chainset | Shimano Ultegra Di2 |
| Cassette | Shimano Ultegra Di2 |
| Bars | BMC RAB 02 |
| Stem | BMC RSM01 |
| Seatpost | Roadmachine D-Shape Carbon |
| Saddle | Fizik Aliante |
| Wheels | DT Swiss E 1800 Spline db 32, Vittoria Rubino Pro 28mm tyres |
| Weight | 8.3kg (56cm) |
| Contact | zyrofisher.co.uk |
• Want more in-depth reviews of the latest bikes and must-have kit? Subscribe to Cyclist magazine today and try 3 issues for JUST £5 (saving 84% on RRP) and get a FREE Ass Saver as a welcome gift.
BMC Roadmachine launch
BMC’s ‘one-bike collection’ gets an overhaul but remains one of the raciest endurance bikes you can buy
Sam Challis, 20th June 2019
Until around three years ago, endurance bikes were considered the ‘soft’ option and bore no resemblance to most brands’ race bike designs.
Then along came BMC’s Roadmachine. It was as slick looking as the brand’s Teammachine race platform, its geometry wasn’t too far removed and it was nearly as aero.
It triggered a rethink in the industry and brands repositioned the key attributes of endurance bikes - as a result, today most brands’ endurance offerings mirror their race bike designs far more closely and endurance bikes are increasing.
While the original Roachmachine set the standard back then, bike development never fails to move forward apace so more recent releases from BMC’s competitors have trumped the features of the first design.
Image 3 of 16
According to Mart Otten, senior product manager at BMC, this coupled with a change in how cyclists ride was the stimulus to refresh the Roadmachine.
‘Road cyclists are riding further, longer, and to higher elevations than ever before. And, many endurance riders are travelling great distances to different regions and countries to participate in epic-size events which entail all-day adventures.
At the same time, those events get more extreme by navigating varying road styles and conditions, longer distances and often more climbing. We wanted to meet those demands with a new design.’
The new Roadmachine has all the hallmarks of an updated design: according to BMC it is lighter, stiffer, comfier and has wider tyre clearances.
The frame is put together using BMC’s ‘Tuned Compliance Concept’, whereby the carbon is laid up to promote compliance but not sacrifice pedalling efficiency. It is the new way of saying ‘laterally stiff, vertically compliant.’
BMC says thanks to the use of some ‘advanced computer modelling’ it has achieved a more effective scheduling of the carbon in the frame’s construction.
Image 2 of 16
Tube shapes have considerably changed in several places, the D-shaped seat post has been slimmed down and the seatstays have been dropped a further 10mm.
This all means bottom bracket stiffness has gone up by 5% and the torsional stiffness of the front end has been improved by 20%.
A new, asymmetric fork is 10% stiffer, yet total front end compliance is up by 25% over the previous generation bike. BMC says these improvements have all occurred in the context of a 25g drop in frame weight.
BMC’s ‘Integrated Cockpit System’ has been a successful inclusion on both its Teammachine and Timemachine Road designs so it has been carried forward on to the new Roadmachine as well.
‘ICS’ offers a variety of stem dimensions while maintaining integrated aero cable routing via cover underneath the stem.
BMC says the feature ‘allows stack and reach adjustability via a dedicated split spacer system for easy fit adjustment without stem removal and hydraulic hose disconnection.’
Image 8 of 16
While the versatility of the new Roadmachine stops short of the requirements necessary for proper gravel riding, BMC suggests the new bike is an ‘all-road’ machine, thanks to its capability to take tyres up to 33c.
‘We wanted to create an endurance bike that is not only good for riding all types of road surfaces, from smooth tarmac to rougher roads or cobbles, but also one that also shines when roads point uphill,’ says Otten.
Time will tell if these claims hold true as Cyclist is due to test the new design in the near future. Check back for our take on BMC’s Roadmachine soon.
