BMC Two-Stroke Hardtail – Not (Just) For Racing

Today, BMC launches its new hardtail, the BMC Two-Stroke. It’s a 100mm forked hardtail designed for going fast, fast, fast, but it’s not for racing. Or rather, it’s not really designed for XCO, UCI World Cup cross country racing. BMC acknowledges that the best bike these days for top end XC racing is a short travel, full suspension bike like its Four-Stroke. But there are still a load of riders out there who want a fast, light, nippy bike for those evening thrashes, Sunday morning training rides and for the odd bit of local racing. That’s the kind of rider that the BMC Two-Stroke is aimed at.

With design cues ‘taken from the Eurofighter’ the new BMC Two-Stroke carbon frame is a hair (37g) over 1000g, in medium, with paint on. It wanted the bike to be stiff foremost, rather than chasing a sub-kilo frame weight. It features a sleek and low frame design – with full internal routing and a very low, bespoke stem that has anti-rotation features to stop the fork crown clouting the downtube. Unlike the top end Four-Stroke, the BMC Two-Stroke hardtail doesn’t have an integrated dropper post, instead using a D-shaped seatpost that is designed to flex for comfort. There is an adaptor that will allow a 27.2mm dropper to be run.

Angles on the BMC Two-Stroke with a 100mm fork are very contemporary for such a racy bike, with a 67° head angle and 75° seat angle. Reach on a medium is 445mm and bikes will a ‘short’ 65mm stem. The chainstays are a short 425mm with room for tyres up to ’58mm’ which is two point 28 something in inches, so we still have no idea what tyres will actually fit. One the carbon frames (there are alloy ones too) there is full internal cable routing to stop clatter – although if you fit a dropper, there isn’t an internal channel for that, so you’re on your own in rattle-town there unless you have a clever fix.

So, let’s look at the range. And one thing that’s immediately obvious is that the prices are actually not stratospheric. The spec has been kept sensible, with SRAM GX Eagle and a SID Select specced on the very top bike. And the entry level alloy bike comes in at a neat €1200. (UK prices to follow…)

BMC Two-Stroke 01

This is the top machine, with Rockshox SID Select, SRAM GX Eagle and DT Swiss XR1700 wheels.

Two-Stroke 02

Two Stroke 03

Two Stroke 04

Confusing naming eh? Anyway, as mentioned, there are also two alloy versions too, named the BMC Two-Stroke AL One and the BMC Two-Stroke AL Two…

Two Stroke AL 01

Two Stroke AL 02

It’s quite a week for hardtails, with the new Yeti ARC launching earlier this week, which seems aimed at a similar, if slightly less racy market. We can see these being pretty popular among riders after a fast ‘mountain bike’ though the lack of a dropper on ALL models is a little baffling.

BMC is imported to the UK by ZyroFisher.