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Just In: BH G6 8.0

A brand new aero road bike in a Shimano Ultegra build

Look what’s just arrived for review here at road.cc: a new BH G6 aero road bike.

BH haven’t had the biggest UK presence lately so here are three quick facts about the brand to get you started. Use them to fascinate your friends at Christmas parties.

• BH stands for Beistegui Hermanos, which means ‘Beistegui Brothers’. We’ll stick with BH for now.

• The company was set up in 1909 as an arms manufacturer and began making bikes in the 1920s.

• BH bikes have been ridden to victory in seven Vueltas a España. The last time was by Alvaro Pino in 1986.

Bonus fourth fact: the company is based in Vitoria-Gasteiz, which is in northern Spain – or the Basque Country, if you prefer (we won't get into all that right now, if it's all the same with you).

The new G6 takes over from the G5, logically enough, as the aero road bike in the range, sitting alongside the Ultralight which, as the name suggests, is a race bike that's built with weight in mind. The completely new frame is cabon fibre throughout, right down to the front mech mount, BH using a blend of high and low modulus carbon to achieve the ride characteristics they’re after.

Up front, the head tube extends backwards to manage the airflow and BH reckon its cross sectional area has been reduced by 20% compared to the G5 (we'll be removing two or three headset spacers before we ride the bike, don't worry about that).

The down tube is shaped to minimise drag while the seat tube is cutaway to curve around the leading edge of the rear wheel.

That aero profiled seat tube extends much higher than the junction with the top tube and the seatstays so very little of the seat post shows.

The frame features an oversized BB386 Evo bottom bracket. BH was one of the brands, along with FSA and Wilier, that came up with the new (well, newish) standard, in order to create greater torsional stiffness in the frame.

The head tube is tapered, as most are on high-end performance bikes these days, for a little extra front end stiffness. BH have gone right up to 1 1/2in for the lower bearing whereas a lot of brands go to just 1 1/4in.

The fork that slots in there has been redesigned too. It’s full carbon, moulded as a single body. It has been designed specifically to work aerodynamically with the G6 frame and BH say it is their most aero design ever.

Like the G5, the G6 comes in a compact frame geometry with a sloping top tube. We have the medium sized model here with a 55.7cm effective top tube. The seat tube is a massive 64cm, but you need to bear in mind that it’s designed so that there's just a small amount of seat post extending out the top. The head tube is 15cm which is fairly short, but no shorter than BH use on their Ultralight (the geometries of the two bikes are exactly the same, seat tube length apart).

As is increasingly the norm, the cables run internally, the rear mech cable emerging towards the end of the chainstay but not right out the back. The design is suitable for both mechanical and Di2 electronic shifting systems.

Speaking of components, the G6 is available in various builds: Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 (the 8.9, £7,999), Dura-Ace mechanical (the 8.7, £5,999), Ultegra Di2 (the 8.3, £3,999), SRAM Red (the 8.5, £4,999) and Force (the 8.1, £3,499), and this Shimano Ultegra mechanical model, the 8.0, priced at £2,999. 

Of these, the 8.0 and the 8.3 are stocked in the UK. If you want one of the others, your bike dealer can order it from BH and it'll arrive in 7-10 days. They're all available in five different sizes and in both red/black and blue/black.

The chainset isn’t Ultegra, though, it’s a compact FSA SL-K model (50 and 34-tooth chainrings), while those wheels are the Vision Trimax T42s that we reviewed a few months ago. The weight for this complete bike (not including pedals), is 7.33kg (16.1lb). BH give a complete bike weight of 7.3kg so we're inclined to believe their frame weight of just 860-890g for the medium-sized model too.

Right, that’s yer lot for now. We’re going to stick some pedals on it and get the miles in over Christmas. We’ll have our review online in the next few weeks.

For more info go to www.bhbikes.co.uk

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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9 comments

Avatar
phax71 | 11 years ago
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Crikey, is the Graphic Designer colour blind?

Nice enough looking bike (concur with Steerer comments though) but somebody needs firing... or having their felt tips confiscated at the very least ..

That could be made to look quite nice but looks hideous as is ...

Avatar
cllr hodgen | 11 years ago
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"Of these, the 8.0 and the 8.3 are stocked in the UK. If you want one of the others, your bike dealer can order it from BH and it'll arrive in 7-10 days."

Good luck with that! The G5 i ordered was claimed to be delivered in the same time scale as the above quote (luckily i got it in writing) for over 3 months it never arrived and in the end i cancelled it and got my money back after paying a visit to the Ronde Van Vlaanderen to see AG2R's pro team didn't even have their SPONSORED G5's to ride on...!!  13

@PedalpowerDC - The ISP hasn't evolved though has it, it still weighs the same as a club foot as they have a sliding internal seat tube as well as the external ISP tubing... Why not just leave it to cut down with the same style of clamp that Scott use? There's no actual benefit for this other than re-selling the thing to a midget... if you got one delivered in the first place that is ^See above^!

Avatar
pedalpowerDC | 11 years ago
0 likes

Why is that wheel put on backwards?

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pedalpowerDC | 11 years ago
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Another fun fact or factoid (depending on its truth): They were the first company to offer a mass produced ISP bike.

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pjclinch | 11 years ago
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"aero bike" they say...  39

https://encrypted-tbn3.gstatic.com/images?q=tbn:ANd9GcQHuBAAy6rQdNXSyWtv... is what a real aero bike looks like (and does over 80 mph on the flat with no drafting with the right rider!

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russyparkin | 11 years ago
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could knock a kilo off by trimming the steerer tube. bloody hell, i couldnt ride this as i am scared of heights

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ALIHISGREAT | 11 years ago
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do you think they provided enough spacers?!

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Super Domestique | 11 years ago
0 likes

Looks like a Bianchi crashed into a Cube.

Btw, that steerer!

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notfastenough | 11 years ago
0 likes

Subtle, isn't it?!

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