Comments on: 2011 BMC Impec

By: Sd

Sd — Sun, 31 Jul 2011 10:39:11 +0000

Bunch of no nothing cynics above

By: Johann Rissik

Johann Rissik — Mon, 30 Aug 2010 08:54:45 +0000

How impersonal, built by a robot to “…rule out human error…”
Thanks, but I’d rather stick with a handmade steel frame, where, if you look carefully at the welds, you can see when/where the welder smiled and where he farted. It’s gotta have some character.

By: Mick

Mick — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 23:21:05 +0000

Aesthetics aside, for BMC to explore new manufacturing techniques will be valuable for the industry as a whole. Any new technique or manufacturing technology must start somewhere… I see some very interesting ideas in their manufacturing of this frame. Ideas that will probably trickle down into the industry (and benefit us all) over the next number of years.
In the 2 decades in the business, I’ve seen all materials fail…carbon may be more prone to fail (in this day & age) due to the propencity of many manufacturers to push the envelope of the material (light weight).
The consumer & manufacturers are often not on the same page regarding what many top end (race) framesets are now about… intended to be cutting edge/lightweight designs, at the expense of lifespan & or durability… not legacy framesets (to be passed on to the grandkids) .

By: Andrew

Andrew — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 19:32:03 +0000

Russ: a carbon bike that weighed as much as the lightest steel frame would be nigh indestructible. But it wouldn’t sell, because people in this market buy weight, not reliability.

In the aerospace industry, carbon has no greater failure rate than aluminium. You hear anecdotes because people think it’s novel. Don’t blame the material, blame the design.

By: Torben Finn Laursen

Torben Finn Laursen — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 17:51:17 +0000

I consider the Impec as the first step for whole new generation of carbonfiber frames. In the future we will see other brands use a similar technology. This is the future for carbonfiber production. Looking forward to try it for a spin at Demoday in Germany next week.

By: James T

James T — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 12:26:49 +0000

Champs, Monk, and Russ, it sounds like none of you would agree, but I like the aesthetics of this bike better than any BMC road bike I have seen in the past. I have never been a fan of BMC bikes (speaking purely from a visual standpoint), but this one sort of appeals to me for some reason.

By: Russ

Russ — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 10:06:40 +0000

Looks an awful lot like an old welded steel frame with big tubes and pretty colours.

I’m not sure about carbon as a bike manufacturing product – ever seen the tail plane of an airbus shear off out of nowhere – thats what carbon does, and those things have a lot more maintenance and safety testing than my bike.

Thinking of Technology on bikes – I saw a really old bike the other day – so old it had rod linkages for the breaks (no cables back then)… guess where the rear brake was. Under the bottom bracket.

There are no new ideas. Just old ones revisited in a different way.

By: Monk

Monk — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 02:17:11 +0000

Design wise this frame is definitely a step back from their previous range, which I thought was beautiful. Did the whole design team die in a plane crash and replaced by sketch monkeys?

By: Champs

Champs — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 18:41:14 +0000

They can talk up the technical merits of the frame all they want. For the money they surely want, this thing should be beautiful, too.