BMC Roadmachine TWO

The BMC Roadmachine TWO may be part of BMC's endurance line-up, but it's very much in line with what many brands would consider a race bike. With a stiff frame and fork combination, a reactive feeling and geometry that allows an aggressive position the Roadmachine has plenty of performance for the amateur racer, club rider or weekend warrior. It's black paintjob and angular carbon profiles makes it look the business too.

Say endurance bike, and thoughts of upright ride positions, slow handling and soft, comfortable frames come to mind, but BMC's take is slightly different.

The Roadmachine has a firm ride, even with BMC's Tuned Compliance Concept (TCC) in the frame design, which makes it feel very much like a full-on race bike. Stamp on the pedals and everything feels tight all along the bottom part of the frame and right the way up to the front, where the tapered head tube and stiff fork deal with the handling and braking loads.

The whole thing has a feeling of directness, a no-nonsense delivery of the power, and while I wouldn't say it oversteps the comfort mark, it sails pretty close to the wind when compared to many other bikes of this ilk.

I like that though. I enjoy a ride quality that transmits loads of information up from the tarmac in minute detail, and the Roadmachine Two certainly does that.

It's an involving ride between rider and bike, and with so much feedback you can really push this thing through the bends wet or dry, as you can feel everything that is going on.

That doesn't mean that you can't go long on it. I did plenty of long-distance rides on the BMC without feeling beaten up, and if you did want to increase comfort, you can swap the 28mm tyres for up to 33mm offerings and run them at lower pressures.

It feels fast too. The BMC is one of those bikes that urges you to keep getting out of the saddle for a little dig on the pedals. At 8.36kg it's not the lightest road bike to pass through road.cc Towers, but that doesn't hamper it on the climbs or when sprinting. A lighter wheelset than the DT Swiss E 1800 Splines found here would help, mind.

Having a head tube angle that's slightly slacker than that of a peloton-ready race machine just reins the speed in a touch. It's quick enough you can chuck it through a string of technical corners on a descent without it feeling out of its depth, yet neutral enough to not feel like a challenge if you're not the most positive of descenders.

On the whole, it's a well-balanced bike, and ideal for those who want to ride fast without the challenges of twitchy handling.

Frame and fork

BMC uses its TCC technology throughout its lineup, with each range getting a slightly different variation.

The Roadmachine features TCC Endurance, which adds compliance to the seatstays, seatpost and fork. It seems to do the trick, and as I've said in the previous section the ride isn't harsh. It's firm, but without that high frequency road buzz coming through.

While all of the tube profiles are very angular the frame itself still follows a similar theme to most, with everything being overbuilt where it is likely to see high loads, such as in the front end and the lower half of the frame. Meanwhile the other parts – like the top tube, seat tube and most prominently the seatstays – are slender to provide comfort.

It's a clean-looking frameset with the hoses running through the fork leg and down tube. The latter takes any cables too, though the wireless electronic groupset here obviously doesn't have them.

BMC hasn't gone as discreet as some though, and the cables/hoses run outside the head tube rather than inside from the stem.

The seatpost uses a D-shaped profile and is held in place by an internal clamp, the better to keep things smooth. I'm not saying it's an aero bike per se, but the Roadmachine certainly has some windcheating tweaks in its design.

There are six sizes in the lineup, starting with a 47cm with a 522mm effective top tube length, and running all the way up to the 61cm with a top tube of 583mm.

For my height I sit somewhere in the middle of the range, spanning both the 56cm (https://road.cc/content/review/bmc-roadmachine-amp-one-299309 which I rode here in AMP ONE ebike guise) and the 54cm frame we have here.

The test bike has a top tube of 546mm, a head tube of 156mm, and a seat tube length of 500mm. Stack and reach come out as 562mm and 386mm respectively.

As for angles the seat tube sits at 74.2° for a forward, aggressive position for getting the power out, while the head angle is a little more relaxed at 72°.

BMC has given the fork a road-bike-typical rake of 45mm, while the wheelbase on this 54 comes in a smidge under a metre at 997mm.

Finishing kit

The TWO is fitted with a SRAM Force eTap groupset which, in my eyes at least, is an excellent setup. It's simple to use with just a single button on each shifter; one moves the chain up the 12-speed cassette, and the other drops it back down. To shift from one chainring to the other, you press both buttons together.

The best things for me though are the gear ratios, with the TWO getting 46/33t chainrings mated to a 10-36t cassette. These give you the best of both worlds; a bunch of low climbing gears, yet lots of top-end speed from the 10t sprocket and 46t chainring too.

With the biggest chainring being smaller than you'll find on Shimano or Campagnolo's road groupsets, I tended to find myself staying on it for the majority of my time. That makes it feel much more efficient too, like using 1x system, especially if you like to spin a high cadence.

The only downside really are the large jumps they leave between the bigger sprockets, as they can interrupt a smooth cadence. If you're like me and only use those gears for climbing, though, it's not really a big issue.

SRAM's braking is impressively powerful and easy to modulate, so it was no surprise to get that from the BMC's 160mm setup front and rear. This bike stops impressively well, and if you manage to lock up the wheels then you're doing it wrong.

The handlebar and stem are both BMC branded and look good. As we see on pretty much every road bike these days, the handlebar has a shallow drop.

Sitting above that D-shaped BMC carbon seatpost is a Fizik Taiga saddle. It's a comfortable place to be, if not my personal favourite. I prefer a few more curves.

The wheels are DT Swiss E 1800s with 32mm-deep aluminium alloy rims and DT Swiss' 370 Spline hubs.

I've ridden these wheels on loads of bikes over the years, and they are decent performers. They're stiff and very reliable, and the weight isn't too bad for the build either. Should we be seeing them on a £5,700 bike though? I'm not so sure...

The tyres are Rubinos from Vittoria in a 28mm width. Like the wheels they are decent all-rounders, and offer plenty of grip plus good durability and rolling resistance. They don't excel in any one discipline, but they are tough enough that you can ride them through the summer or winter without switching. They're fit and forget.

Value

As mentioned, the Roadmachine Two will set you back £5,700. The Handsling A1R0evo – which we tested in its £5,400 Shimano Ultegra Di2 guise – is a bit more racy from a geometry point of view, but with a great ride quality it's a bike you can ride quickly over a long distance, like the BMC.

With a SRAM Force build it costs £5,499.99, and that includes a set of deep-section carbon wheels.

Merida offers an Endurance model of its Scultura race bike (I previously reviewed the 7000-E), which offers performance with a slightly more relaxed riding position and greater comfort. It also has capacity for 35mm tyres, though if you want to run full mudguards that's restricted to 32mm.

The Scultura Endurance 9000 model comes with an Ultegra Di2 groupset and you get a set of Reynolds carbon wheels too, all for £5,200.

The Defy is Giant's endurance/race bike and I was impressed overall with the Advanced Pro 3 when I rode it... well, I was apart from the tyres.

The Advanced Pro 1 has an Ultegra Di2 groupset and Giant's carbon wheels for £5,599.

Overall

While it struggles a bit on price, I really like the Roadmachine a lot for the way it behaves and its ride quality. I love the fact that BMC haven't softened it – it's still 'on it' when you want to get the power down, yet you don't need to be a seasoned pro to live with the handling or position.

I'll always put fun and performance over comfort when it comes to road bikes, but if you want a bike that'll insulate you from the roughness of the UK road network above anything else, you'll probably want to look elsewhere. This is a stiff bike, and the ride quality reflects that.

Verdict

Great fun and won't let you down for performance, but it might be too firm for some