BMC made a splash at the Andorra round of the Mountain Bike World Cup today with a prototype 32-inch cross-country bike on display during course practice. BMC Factory racing rider Titouan Carod piloted the bike for two laps around the course before taking it on a head-turning lap through the pits, allowing all the teams to see BMC’s new creation. We also got a deeper look at the bike within the BMC Racing tent, as well as some insights into the development process from BMC’s public relations manager Jan Ulatowski.
The bike has far more than just big wheels; this was a tech geek's dream, featuring unique components, prototype parts, and strange modifications to make the bike work. However, we will start with the frame details. Built up by BMC’s own in-house Impec Lab, the frame features aluminum head tube and bottom bracket sections with carbon fiber tubes. This approach is quite common for many prototype bikes seen at World Cups (e.g., Specialized and Pivot DH bikes), as it allows for rapid prototyping.
Josh Weinberg
Ulatowski stated that an iteration of the frame would only take two or three days to produce. The head tube and BB were not just bonded but also clamped to the tubes, which is intended to add extra stiffness to the design, or perhaps provide additional strength at the joint, given some high-profile failures of other prototypes of this style.
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