A couple of weeks ago I took delivery of my 2012 race bike from my sponsor shop Sugar Cycles: a 2012 BMC Speedfox SF29.
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BMC is new to the 29er market, and my sponsor Sugar Cycles
is one of three dealers in TX (none in LA BTW) so we wanted to get the word
out. They have this bike in two component levels, the X.0 shown here and then
an SLX equipped version. They also have a great hardtail, the Teamelite TE29 in
both versions as well. One of my teammates is riding the TE29, says it is a
great riding frame, handles well and manuals easily with short stays. BMC has
more information on their website about the SF29 and the TE29. I'll be up in a couple of weeks with the bike, if
you'd like to check it out I'll probably be riding Ruston Friday and Saturday
24th & 25th. If you're interested in a BMC you can get in touch with my
boys at Sugar Cycles and
they can definitely hook you up.
Now a little more about the bike. The drivetrain is all
stock, X.0 2x10. Brakes are the new model Elixir 7. The fork and shock are Fox,
with 100mm travel both ends and a 15mm thru-axle up front which I'm very
excited to try out. I changed the wheels out, it comes stock with Easton EA70
XCT, which are very nice wheels but I am a big fan of Stan's and I saved a bit
of weight as well. The tires were spec, I just moved them over; they mounted up
tubeless on the Crests with ZERO effort, one handed with the hand pump and
showed no sealant seepage through the sidewalls. The Easton EC70 carbon
seatpost is stock, I added the EA70 stem (will be upgraded once I get the fit
dialed) and the EC70 XC Wide carbon bars. I also chose to go back with Ergon
grips, these have made a great difference for my riding comfort especially
having a nagging old wrist injury. A nice Fizik saddle was mounted up out of
the box, but I changed it to my tried and true Specialized Phenom.
It's been raining a lot around here the last couple of weeks
so I hadn't gotten to ride the bike at all. This weekend we were up in Ruston
First impressions are really positive, I really liked the
bike but I'll try to stay away from all the "new bike" hype and
superlatives and stick with some real observations. First, of course the full
suspension is so much smoother than hardtail. I felt like I had it pretty
dialed right out of the gate so I was happy. I set it up to be a bit firm in
the full open position, about halfway between 0 and the recommended mark on the
built-in sag-o-tron meter. I felt like it was soft at first, but of course it
felt soft coming off a hardtail. I switched back and forth between open and
ProPedal a few times, and once I kinda got used to the squish I decided I liked
it open. With as firm as I've got the shock it gets REALLY firm in the ProPedal
and I think open is better for trail riding. ProPedal will be for hammering and
really smooth climbs. I was able to detect some bob while pedaling seated in
the open position, but it didn't seam like much. I'll have to play with the
settings a little to see if I can tune it out. The fork is 100mm and I've been
riding rigid or 80mm for the last 3 years, I think I appreciated the extra 20mm
up front almost as much as I did the rear suspension. Overall they combined for
a really smooth ride, and I was able to ride some sections at Ruston
I've had a 100mmx100mm full squish 29er before so I kinda
knew what to expect there, but overall I was very impressed with the
suspension. I think I was most impressed with the handling of the bike. The
bike has a 70° head angle, wheelbase is very close to my hardtail, chainstays
are 5mm longer. Based on these numbers and the ht having a 71° head angle, I
expected the BMC to handle a little slower. I was pleasantly surprised to find
the opposite. I think it handles with about the same quickness, but it's
better. I sometimes feel like in tight corners the ht wants to tuck the front
end a little, while the BMC was very solid. I think this is owed to the 15mm
thru axle fork and tapered head tube. The front end is very stiff and the bike
goes precisely where you point it. I was able to really whip it through some
sections pretty hard, where on the ht I would feel sometimes like I was getting
"behind" the bike. It seems to handle a lot like my Monocog which has
a 72° head angle and a rigid steel fork which makes it similarly stiff and
precise. Combined with the suspension I was able to really push through the
rough corners. Another impressive trait was how easy it was to get the front
end to come up, for example to manual the rollers. This probably has something
to do with the shorter top tube and my cockpit setup as the chainstays are a
bit longer than my ht as I said.
The bike has 180mm rotors and I was really happy with the
brakes, very quiet (new Avid HS1 rotors) and strong. I may go to 160mm rotors
though as I can lose 90g (0.2lbs), and 160s have always been plenty even in Colorado
This was my first ride on 10spd gear (X0), it seemed a bit
more finicky than 9spd but very smooth when it was working well. I think the
cable might have been stretching and maybe even slipping at the rear der. No
unwanted ghost shifting from suspension action or frame flex though. I never
had to get out of the 36t ring up front, of course with the 36t out back I
could get the same ratio as 32x32 on the 9spd.
This was also my first ride on the Rocket Ron front tire, I
was pretty impressed and it might have contributed to my liking the handling so
much.
I still haven't gotten to weigh the bike, but I'm estimating
it weighs a lb. or so more than my ht. Could I feel it? I don't know. Certainly
not in general, on the climbs I really can't say as there was so much new going
on. I think any weight penalty will be offset by the bike's willingness to roll
over things so easily by the rear suspension. On really smooth climbs is the
only place where I think it might be a penalty overall.
I'll have to get some more time on it and try a few things,
but like I said, so far, so very good. I had my GPS on and was able to compare
some previous segments on Strava to this weekend. Most segments I'd gone faster
during races, but times from this weekend when I was "just riding"
took the next top spots. There was one section though where I set 3 new best
times, all this weekend, all better than any previous race effort (and another
time from this weekend matched my previous best race effort). That is a pretty
good indicator for me. I'm really looking forward to racing this bike this
year, and especially doing the Ouachita Challenge on it. I think it will make a
huge difference in a long race like that in reducing overall fatigue and
keeping me feeling fresher.
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