PRESS RELEASE: BMC
Born to surpass the demands of the world’s top XC athletes, the new Fourstroke 01 delivers the ultimate performance on the most demanding courses. Every element of its structure is crafted to optimize speed, save seconds, and keep riders ahead of the pack — the ultimate Cross Country race machine.
The holistic approach to look at the bike as an entire system culminated in the development of BMC’s fastest and most intuitive XC race bike ever. The all-new Race Application Dropper Seatpost (RAD) ensures that its fast and smooth adjustments maximize power and control whatever the gradient for a dynamic ride. The integrated dropper seatpost puts riders in the optimum position, whether attacking on the climbs or charging the descents.
The revised Big Wheel Concept Race (BWC) geometry has evolved to embody the progressive riding style the XC athletes display on technical World Cup tracks. The wide- open head angle, long front-end, short chainstays, and innovative stem design allows riders to master all the technical challenges of today’s XC courses. When pedaling a low overall system weight plus a stiff bottom bracket and rear stay area allow for explosive accelerations.
The first integrated XC dropper seatpost
RAD (Race Application Dropper) is the world’s first integrated and most radical XC dropper post. A genius engineering solution conceptualized in the Impec Lab and driven by athletes’ need for modern XC descending performance packed into a lightweight system. RAD‘s intuitive two-position adjustment delivers the optimized riding position to handle the rigors of varying terrain.
With an overall weight of only 345g, RAD shaves off more than 100g over a conventional dropper post design. This makes RAD one of the lightest dropper seatposts on the market. Peter Stämpfli, MTB Engineer at BMC Switzerland, explains: “Integrated design provides the freedom to move away from the round seatpost shape to address the limits of conventional seatpost design. Contrary to a conventional round post, RAD is designed with an elliptic shape which makes it more stress resistant. The shape reduces weight while improving strength for reduced flex and uncompromised functionality under load. RAD features varying wall thicknesses to achieve the perfect balance of dealing with rider induced forces and keeping the weight at a minimum. RAD not only provides weight advantages, it also offers a clean visual appeal and exemplifies ultimate frame and component integration.”
Saddle height adjustments are performed similarly to conventional systems, and do not require cutting the seatpost. Ninety millimeters of seat height range offer the perfect fit for every rider. RAD operates at low air pressures thanks to its oversized air chamber. This reduces force on the air seals for less maintenance. RAD is completely mechanical and has no hydraulic parts for super easy services. With 80mm of drop on all sizes, RAD delivers the optimum saddle height for every section of the race course.
Big Wheel Concept Race Geometry—a new approach
The multifaceted approach of BMC’s engineers position the rider for traction and control, creating the perfect cockpit for a bike that’s fast, fearless and nimble.
BWC Race is designed to attack the fastest and steepest XC courses with its 67.5 ̊ head angle and a long front-end. The 100mm-travel fork and 44mm offset delivers precise steering on switchbacks and technical sections. Climbing remains the essence of XC racing; and the Fourstroke 01 is updated with 429mm short chainstays to help the rider deliver power efficiently and while maintaining traction on technical sections. The steep 75.5 ̊ seat angle puts the rider in a more central position on the bike to attack steep sections with ideal weight distribution.
Built for efficiency
The Fourstroke 01 is designed for unparalleled power transfer with a redesigned chassis that excels in torsional and bottom bracket stiffness. The refined APS (Advanced Pivot System) suspension tuned for modern XC racing delivers pedaling efficiency, traction, and control on demanding cross-country terrain. APS relies on two very short links moving in a concentric motion to create a rear wheel axle path that promotes a perfect balance, fully active braking performance, no pedal kickback, and small-bump sensitivity.
Every gram counts
The Fourstroke 01 has been revised from the ground up with incredible attention to detail. Fewer parts extend reliability and durability of the system and reduce overall weight, allowing for the addition of a dropper seatpost and still achieve an extremely competitive system weight of 2575g (including RAD seatpost and hardware). The optimized suspension hardware reduces the number of parts for improved reliability and saves 51g compared to the previous Fourstroke 01. Integrated headset cups show 20g less on the scale then external cups. The super-light thru-axle developed in the Impec Lab saves additional 9g and the all-new carbon upper link provides the stiffest connection between front triangle and swingarm for uncompromised suspension performance and weights 40g less than an alloy one.
Details make the difference
The integrated and lightweight fork stopper utilizes a straight downtube for front-end stiffness, while optimized cable routing and frame protection enhance the Fourstroke’s clean lines. The lower link mud protector delivers durability of the bearings. Protectors on the chainstay and a nice little chainguard make the bike race proof. The internal cable routing is completely guided inside the front triangle, lower link, and swingarm for quick and convenient cable maintenance.
Sizing and Models
The new Fourstroke is available in the following models: Fourstroke 01 ONE, Fourstroke 01 TWO, Fourstroke 01 THREE and Fourstroke 01 Module and available in sizes S, M, L and XL across the entire range.
Find out more about the new Fourstroke 01 on BMC's website.
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86 Comments
it's the BMC FourStroke 01 one, 01 two, 01 Three
02 one, 02 two, 03 three
etc., etc., etc.. It looks easy on paper but trying to talk with a customer and it's like all mixed up.
"I want an 03 two, but what's the difference between the 02 three? wait...you want one 01 two to? no that's too many two's...Just get me an 01 three in a 21 size. Wait is the 02 one cheaper than an 01 two, three 2 oh won to, too with you
I remember going from a 140 stem to a 120 stem in my XC bike in the 90’s. My XC buddies told me I won’t be able to climb with that short of a stem. It climbed just fine and descended better. Same thing happened 5 years ago when I put a 90mm stem on my XC bike before a Hundo race.
I just cleaned the steepest, most rutted climb I know with a 35mm stem on my Ripmo. The new geometry is legit. A 50-60 mm stem would put me in an XC fit position on that bike due to the long reach. We’ve been moving to longer reach and shorter stems ever since Gary Fisher came out with Genesis geometry in the 90’s, it’s just been a slow process.
You wouldn't want to ride DH geometry on a trail bike, why would you want trail bike geometry on an XC bike? The whole long low and slack trend is to make bikes more fun and stable on the downhills, but it makes them climb like crap. Yes, XC bikes are slacker and longer than they used to be, but no serious XC racer is going to want a trail bike on an XC course.
You can find youtube videos of Nino or Julian on trail bikes, and they can pretty much dictate what bike geometry they want, so why do they keep going back to the same general XC geometry? Do you really think they are that dumb? Nino has no problem piloting an enduro rig:
www.youtube.com/watch?v=UgQbIB_98NM
As far as what Nino rides, the Scott Spark had one of the slackest HAs when it came out last year. 5 years ago anything less than 70 degrees was said it couldn’t climb well.
Also, yes he rides Scott trail bikes, and since they just released their first bike this past month with this more progressive geometry, I doubt he has spent any time on it as he would be training on his equipment he wins on a regular basis. I’m sure he will get some time on it in the off season. But if I were him, I’d be reluctant to change anything bike fit that has worked for so long. It just takes a long while to adapt to a new fit: which is why things are slow to change in XC, few racers want to try something new and jack their current setup.
If you took an XC bike with an 100mm stem and made the top tube long enough that it required a 50mm stem you would have a huge wheelbase that wouldn't be able to navigate tight turns worth a shit, and you wouldn't be able to weight the front wheels. Long steep and slack is for stability at high speeds and letting you keep your weight over the rear, which hurts climbing. Comparing trail bike geometry is about the same as saying world cup skiers should be using DH skis in the slalom because they are more stable. If you want a bike that pedals like shit uphill but descends fast, they have a race format for you already, its called enduro.
When the right XC bike takes on the newer geometry, which this BMC has started to, I’ll trade in my Scalpel. But for now, I mostly ride my enduro bike because it climbs so well, although the heavy tires are slower.
m.youtube.com/watch?v=Udf-5Xh3UsY
I'm rolling my eyes as we speak.
The Intense Sniper XC has the reach I’m looking for. The BMC has the seat angle I’m looking for. The question becomes what company will be the first to combine the geometry that I’m looking for in my next XC rig. Fortunately, I’m in no rush. And, yes a slammed forward sadddle in the Intense would get me close to what I’m looking for.
www.bmc-switzerland.com/us-en/experience/the-feedzone/seventh_place_for_titouan_carod_at_the_mtb_world_championships
You mean with narrow bars, long stem, and no dropper?
2575g doesn’t seem that light to me for an XC frame, even with a (semi) dropper post ...
Or are these people still scratching their heads what the third bolt is for?
Specialized had a old Command post that was three stage. I got fairly good at only going down 50% on rough, rolling, trails.
As others have said, it's hard to run short droppers on the XC race bike if you've got used to more drop on a trail/AM bike. How anyone does any kind of off-road riding without a dropper these days blows my mind. I'd rather race a hardtail with a dropper than an FS without and I f**king hate hardtails. I watch Nino in amazement!
That seems strange.
Nice looking bike though, no stupid long negative rise stem too!
The oval shape makes sense theoretically though I'm curious whether it won't be to hard to produce (within those tolerances) and whether it would jam when subjected to twisting forces (like when you push the saddle sideways with your thigh).
Ideally though, as long as they make the width over 32mm or so it should be possible to make some adaptor so that people can install their existing round dropper in such a frame. Next step, companies like Cane Creek and Superstarcomponents produce their "steeperizer" adaptors so that people can install their old small diameter droppers and steepen the seat angle.
It's plenty of fun
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