Weighing in at 7.07kg (15.6lb) for a 57cm bike (complete with pedals, and a bit of road grime) the SLC01 is a true lightweight and it's landed – gently – here at road.cc towers for us to have a play with. It's a thoroughbred too, having worn the colours of Astana and Phonak, and more recently the wildcard BMC team. So, what technology has the Swiss outfit been cramming into its race frame?
SLC01 image gallery...
The frame is carbon, naturally, but more so than most. in fact, the only part of the entire frame that's made of metal is the bottom bracket thread. All the other frame parts – even the dropouts – are full carbon. That's not particularly noticeable at first glance; what is is the unusual seat tube/top tube junction. It's reminiscent of GT's triple triangle – albeit with more flowing lines – and BMC call it the Integrated Skeleton Concept, or ISC.
According to their website, ISC "permits good force distribution near the nodal points by using carefully selected reinforcing elements. Each tube transition can be perfectly adapted to the flow of forces". We're not entirely sure what this means, over and above the fact that they've designed the frame to cope well with, erm, being ridden. One thing the design does mean is that you need to be careful when tightening your seatbolts, as the full carbon clamp doesn't deal very well with being overtightened... and if you crack it there you won't get a warranty replacement, neither.
The Carbon in the frame is all unidirectional layers – there's no vanity weave on top – and makes use of Easton's Carbon Nano Tube technology. You can head to http://tinyurl.com/bbrxn4 for the science bit, but essentially the Carbon nanotubes are added to the resin between the fibres to strengthen the matrix: the nanotubes are, according to Easton, 17 times stronger than the fibres themselves.
Our bike is built up with ten speed Record and Easton components, including the feathery EC90 fork, wheelset (1170g a pair stated weight), seatpost and bars. Sensibly BMC have specced the Aluminium EA90 stem though. Don't get me started on the EC90 stem...
More pics of the SLC01 here...
More from BMC at www.extrauk.co.uk/product/list/BMC/Framesets/
But it does alert you to incompetent and dgaf drivers giving you 2-3 seconds to escape being a KSI.
Quite so, which is why our village 20mph zone covers the whole residential extent. Of course, enforcement is another thing..
£4.
No, that's very doubtful while proper testing would be fully destructive.
In that £1000 exactly scenario, beginners should probably be made aware that pedals will be extra.
What's wrong with dropping down on to the Millenium Bridge, or the swing bridge, then the brief, but satisfying climb back up the hill? #training....
The relatives might of course disagree, but in general I'd countenance a relatively light sentence* if only we could fix it so that those who...
Id forgotten that I got a second hand set of project two's for my getting to work bike over twenty years back.
My bet is that all these tires popping off are from people with bad pressure gauges or they're simply just putting too much air in on purpose. ...
David9694 - you were right! These new autonomous vehicles really are conspiring to run out of control!...