it MIGHT have to do with wheel swaps and brake width. Not sure how easy the brakes are to adjust, but if they are tricky, that might make it hard to get wheels from neutral support.

I can see that being an issue for this bike and for the new Trek Madone, which also has integrated brakes.

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"Non est ad astra mollis e terris via." - Seneca | rappstar.com | FB - Rappstar Racing | IG - @jordanrapp

And I thought you meant the Impec

Seems reasonable.

Although, if you were BMC, putting money into such a new design, wouldn't you design some sort of cam arm for the rear brake to keep the pads far from the rim while giving the same short pull? Or something to eliminate the fear of rear wheel changes?

Seems crazy to create such a bike only to not have it be practical for your pros. Jens seemed to be using his madone 7 primarily at the end of the seasonal maybe trek figured something out.

Standard barrel adjuster on the front brake, and a nifty inline QR at the headtube for the rear brake, which can be set to some intermediate positions.

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Carl Matson

Yeah, their Impec was sure a flop. The BMC riders had a choice of any bike frame in the line, and most everyone skipped the Impec and went back to the SLR01.

Very cool Carl! Thanks for the response!

Possible. Don't you ride a Shiv? Same issue. I got SRAM S80 and 23cm tires on mine. Replacing the rear wheel is a total bitch! No way to do it quickly. Brakes don't open, and they are just in the right place down there to push against the pulley when attempting to remove the wheel. I got used to it. But the day I got my bike I was all WTF and cursing at the damn thing. :)

The lesson of the above being...don't mount tires wider than your rims for bikes with hard to adjust (or open) brakes ;-)

Of course, from an aerodynamics standpoint, it's a crime to do so anyway on ANY aero bike...

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http://bikeblather.blogspot.com/

There were some in use at the tour and worlds.. But pro cyclist are an interesting bunch. They like it light and familiar. Many guys are un-willing to change mid season. Also look at Garmin. There was a lot of talk that ALL of them would be on the S5, by the end of the season almost all of them were on the R5.

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Heath Dotson
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Hey Guys,

Maybe I can shed some light on this.

The BMC Racing Team is an amazing resource to have for R&D. They have had a huge impact on every model we've released since their inception. They really do ride the same stock stuff we put to market. This being said, there needs to be a team standard for efficiency's sake. With a number of guys out in the field, the mechanics can only have so many different spare bikes in varying sizes and parts. Also, the SLR is still the lightest bike (now 6.5% lighter for 2013) we make, as well as the most balanced regarding efficiency and compliance. It really is the ideal bike for longer road races. On top of this, the team guys are very partial to riding what they are familiar with and trust (just try getting Cadel off of his SLR and see how that goes). If you were given a totally brand new bike with a different geo, or a different model/brand of shoes halfway through your race season would you feel comfortable? At this point, it's not about the bike, it's about not changing what works.

So. The team had been on the SLR01 for the majority of the season when the TMR01 was released. During the development of a new model, a few team guys will ride it as you may have seen in the Dauphine the TDF and other races, but as described above, the whole team won't just simply switch to a new bike. However, the official introduction of the TMR01 to the team right before the TDF was the one of the rare times the team actually had riders, these incredible creatures of extreme habit, asking to change bikes from the SLR01 to the TMR01. That was pretty cool. Given this response, I'd wager you'll see the TMR01 having a big role with the team for 2013.

Regarding wheel swaps and the brakes. This is not an issue on the TMR01. V-brakes have a slightly larger distance to travel to hit the rim than standard road caliper brakes. This extra few mms means that brake adjustment should not be necessary when swapping wheels, provided you are installing a wheel with the same rim width. Keep in mind that the team uses the stock TM01 for all TTs so wheel swaps with an integrated v-brake are a reality for them.

For those of you going back and forth between training wheels and race wheels, the TMR01 comes stock built with inline barrel adjusters and a spring tensioner screw found on most standard v-brakes and canti brakes. This helps greatly with fine tuning of the brakes.

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http://www.bmc-switzerland.com | http://www.bmcracingteam.com | http://www.uplacebmctriathlon.com/

Thanks for chiming in! Makes perfect sense.