BMC has been enjoying partnerships and collaborations with Red Bull Advanced Technologies (RBAT) for some time and has covered some of the collaborations over the past few years, including the "first F5 bike" last year.
We first discovered an early version of this bike this summer at the Critérium du Dauphiné. A few weeks later, I found a version of Ben O'Connor at the Tour de France. It is no exaggeration to say that these were both officially released Teammachine R prototype models
BMC said that the Teammachine R is an optimal bre brand of aerodynamics and power transmission, and that the Teammachine R has the most effective power transfer and innovative aero features never seen before on a competitive bike. That said.
The prototype bike found at Dauphin featured a huge "create speed" down-tube logo. BMC argues that this mission is at the heart of its philosophy when it comes to innovation and "breaking boundaries."
The Swiss brand claims its goal was to create a race bike that combines weight, aerodynamics and power transmission together in "one bike that dominates them all".
The claimed weight of the frame of size 54 is 910 grams. The fork weighs 345 grams. The overall weight of the 54cm bike is quoted as 7kg, but the build kit for this figure is currently unknown.
Elsewhere there are integrated bottle cages that the brand claims make the bike really fast with the bottle attached. Currently, it does not include a specific number.
The frame also features a stealth dropout that helps keep the airflow tidy, BMC says.
The prototype bike fork leg caught our eye in the summer for its extremely wide design. The Teammachine R press release extends this concept. The design of the wide front end fork was named Halo fork by BMC. The brand says that it produces a significant amount of turbulent air when the front wheels rotate. BMC has increased the spacing of the forks so that the air can "shutter" away from the frame thus reducing the aero stall. Obviously, the result is cleaner air that hugs the frame longer and results in significant drag reduction.
The brand also claims that RBAT provided insight into the concept of "driver feel" from its motorsport expertise. It refers to the driver's connection and the feel of the car in top-level motorsport. BMC has tried to apply a "rider feel" to teammate machine R and incorporate the idea that understanding how the bike reacts leads to rider predictability and handling.
Stefan Christ, Head of Research and Development at BMC, said, "The meticulous engineering approach from F1 and the fusion of bicycle knowledge from BMC Impec labs continue to push the boundaries."
Rob Gray, Technical Director at Rbat, said, "The collaboration with BMC has helped us understand a huge amount about bikes." He taught me. For this project, we added CFD simulations for many different conditions than would normally be done. By adding points to analyze, we were able to dive deeper into the areas where performance gains are fundamental. The final result of the Teammachine R is something we are very proud of.”
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