Field Test: Allied Cycle Works BC40 - The Fun Race Bike

Not only does Allied cook up and paint the carbon frame themselves, but they machine all of the aluminum components like the suspension linkage as well. It's light, too, as you'd expect for a bike meant for some serious cross-country-ing; the frame is said to weigh just 1,950-grams. The checklist includes cables inside the frame (including the optional shock lock-out), a threaded bottom bracket, a replaceable rear brake mount and, notable on a bike intended for long, difficult races, room for a large bottle on the downtube and a smaller one on the seat tube.




The bike sounds unapologetically focused on racing and efficiency, with Allied saying that the frame employs a "second-to-none pedaling platform," and naming events like the lung-deflating Leadville 100 and the Marathon Nationals that are said to suit the BC40's personality. The suspension layout is similar to what we see many weight-conscious designs using: a relatively simple single-pivot system with an aluminum rocker for lateral rigidity and to achieve the desired kinematics, and the all-important flex-pivot at the dropout to save weight. Sealed bearings and pivot bolts are heavy compared to bendy pieces of carbon fiber, and some brands claim to save up to 200-grams by using a flex-pivot, so it's no surprise to see it on another speedy bike.

Given that many BC40s are likely to wind up at cross-country races of some kind on the weekends, while others could see rowdier terrain than they bargained for, Allied couldn't go too slack or too aggressive with the handling. They settled on a 66.5-degree front-end that makes a lot of sense, as well as a 76-degree seat angle and 435mm-chainstays on all four sizes. Our medium gets a 445mm reach, and it tops out at 501mm for an extra-large.

All of the above adds up to a respectable 24.9 lb / 11.2 kg after we installed the Specialized Ground Control tires that we put on all six of our test bikes.






Trailforks Regions Where We Tested

Growing up in British Columbia, I had never visited a real trail center in Canada before and wasn't sure what to expect from the Sentiers du Moulins trail system. The builders have done an impressive job putting together over 60km of singletrack, much of it crossing over rolling rock faces lined with endless green moss. Slab City is where we spent much of our time, an essentially all-granite trail that drops 200m off the back of Mont Tourbillon.

If you're looking for berms instead of rock, you'll find plenty of them linking up countless fun-sized jumps and a few sneaky lines, all of which deposit you conveniently at the restaurant for some post-ride poutine with triple the cheese combined with an ice-cold energy drink.

Sentiers du Moulin mountain biking trails


Climbing

It's cliche, I know, but the amount of travel a bike has doesn't define how it'll perform on the trail, and riding all of these bikes back-to-back only underlined that fact yet again. Allied's BC40 is a full-beans cross-country bike, no doubt about it, but it does that job very differently than the Lapierre XRM or BMC Fourstroke LT, two others I spent a load of time on in Quebec. Both of those have that traditional firm-off-the-top rear-suspension that sometimes had me double-checking to make sure I hadn't accidentally locked them out, whereas the Allied felt almost under-sprung in comparison. It wasn't - we checked many times - and both Matt and I were sitting at 25-percent sag; the Efficiency Test also proved that the BC40 is just as speedy on those loose and marbley gravel road climbs that some of us face getting to the goods.

This Field Test has already seen us spend too many words talking about that fine balancing act combining forgiveness, traction, and efficiency, but those are the most relevant talking points for these types of bikes. And the differences between the Allied, BMC, and Lapierre, all machines made to do the same thing, are stark. While the stopwatch showed it wasn't any slower, there's no doubt that the active suspension helped my cause when the roots were slimy; Mont Saint Anne can be a very slippery place after a summer rainfall, but the BC40 had the most poise when I needed to tip-toe my way through an ice rink of roots and rocks.

Where'd the BC40 lose ground compared to the others? It did require more steering input and brain output whenever the switchbacks got really tight. You know when the singletrack somehow doubles back on you in about two square feet? That's when the Lapierre and BMC both have front-ends that don't need to be told what to do, while the Allied requires a bit firmer hand and, regardless of the approach, less speed. There were a handful of corners where I needed to pivot the front-end over a few inches to get back on the right line, but I'd come through the same corner thirty minutes later on the Lapierre and consistently carry more momentum and not have to correct, and it was the same story on the BMC.

If your trails (or races) are full of non-stop tight switchbacks and little to no elevation changes, there are better options than the Allied. It's efficient, sure, and you can spec a remote lock-out if you'd like, but it's the riders and racers who routinely have to get up slippery, nasty, technical climbs where traction actually makes a difference who'll benefit most from the BC40.




Descending

The BC40 reminded me a bit of Specialized's Epic EVO, one of my favorite bikes of all time, in how it felt so composed and stuck to the ground around whatever corner I wanted to goon my way through. While some of the other bikes had me keeping an eye out for anything that might upset them, however small, the Allied's calmness let me process things farther down the trail and relax more. That's probably why there were a handful of lines that I only ever took while aboard the BC40, especially following the afternoon thunderstorms that dropped more rain in thirty minutes than I thought possible.

With no shortage of green rocks and shiny roots on Mont Saint Anne's hillside, that rain made for some tricky riding on some trails. The BC40 eats that stuff up, though, and was easily the most stable and predictable of the bunch. So while I would take the safe low line, otherwise known as the boring line, on the other bikes, I'd always default to the more committed high lines when riding the Allied, wet roots at a 30-degree angle be dammed. It's not close to being a trail bike by any stretch of my imagination, of course, but it's certainly a cross-country bike that'll let some riders attack - or just finally enjoy - the descents instead of just getting to the bottom so they can attack the climb.

Not interested in downhill PRs? It took me years to realize that instead of taking crazy chances while trying to catch fitter racers on the descent, I could relax a bit while recovering more and still make up time before the next climb had me on the ground cramping. In other words, go the same speed but recover more and sooner, which sounds like smart racing to me.

Obviously, the BC40's biggest strength is its rear-suspension which packs a lot of performance into just 120mm of travel. It manages to be efficient when you're on the gas, supple at the top of the stroke and around the sag point, and it also has more than enough support and bottom-out resistance for whatever you're doing that you probably shouldn't be doing. That's a wide performance and set-up window, especially as many bikes in this category seem to be making sacrifices in one or more areas to benefit another.




I stumbled onto one trail in particular, a bit steeper than the others and still a bit soft and smooth from being freshly dug into the hillside, that the BC40 absolutely devoured. Fast, soft corners faded down into steeper soft sections, and the obvious approach was always to take a bit too much speed into everything. I had a near-death experience on each of the other bikes that were probably all 100-percent my fault, but I rode the same trail about ten times aboard the BC40 while going at least ten-percent quicker and didn't even cry out in fear once. Better yet, it didn't feel like I was going any faster, which is always a good sign.

So, who's the BC40 for? As capable and fun as I made it sound above, it's still a proper cross-country bike fully deserving of an expensive race entry fee, number plate, and your tightest speed suit. It's just that it also deserves some baggy shorts and questionable line choices during your days off.

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