In my previous thread we discussed how much aero bike you can get for £1000, and the basic gist was frame doesn’t matter much at all, albeit wheels can. The majority of gains is as we knew down to position (incl TT) and clothing.

Last year’s models are being discounted and found this 8.7 kg BMC for cheap in Germany, and wonder if it’s a good buy or if there are any other contenders at a similar price – seems like a great deal to me and for max aero you could get a set of deep section carbon wheels to go with it. Also looked at the Giant Propel Adv 2 disc but it comes in at > £1600 and the Cannondale CAAD12 disc at £1500.

Pros
Threaded BB
Thru-axles
105 disc groupset (- the crank which is 150g heavier)
Aero-ish features
Carbon fork
Strong Shimano WH-RS170 wheels
28 mm tire clearance
Upgradable to stealth stem cable routing
Reasonable stiffness to compliance ratio for everyday riding?

Cons
Heavy Shimano WH-RS170 wheels 2.1kg
No mudguard mounts (rare so hardly a con)
Not super light, but doesn’t matter to me as there aren’t any hills here.

If possible, try and swing a leg over it. There’s nothing more annoying than getting a bike with a great spec that you just don’t fit, or which is too twitchy (or not twitchy enough).

Other than that it looks nice.

My commuter bike has mudguard mounts, but I took the guards off as they just make the bike too slow for words. I’d rather get wet on the few occasions I get caught out, than have every commute be several minutes slower.

Rack mount is useful though.

£1500 for a Caad12 isn’t a particularly good deal if it’s 105 – I paid £1200 for mine a couple of years ago – and that was with a £100 supplement as I used bike to work / it was a sale bike.

That BMC sounds like a pretty cheap deal and I think the Time Machine is meant to be a decent bike. 2.1kg wheels are pretty heavy – for a few hundred ££ you could drop 400-500grams off those pretty easily.

You’re still £200 more expensive than the sram rival Planet X Pro carbon though – which is £200 less you have for upgrading the wheels. I’m not sure what the frame weight is for the BMC – is their aluminium as light as Cannondale’s aluminium?

That 8.7Kg weight sounds suspect to me for a bike with 2.1Kg wheels, but if it’s 105 7000 group including hydraulic discs, not bad spec for £1100 in this day and age.

That PX Pro Carbon Evo Disc Rival for £900 is hard to beat though.

A commute being minutes slower due to mudguards? 🤔

(posting as if there’s even a chance this is the last thread there’ll be on this).

Heavy wheels are kind of a pro – cheap way to lose a chunk of weight (for me).

I realise that’s irrelevant to you, only interested in the aero benefits for your commute (I’d love someone to calculate the time you’ll save 🤣).

This is thread 3, right? Shall we have a sweepstake? I say 7 threads and something completely different bought from a mates mate or gumtree…

This is thread 3, right? Shall we have a sweepstake? I say 7 threads and something completely different bought from a mates mate or gumtree…

Reminds me of one of those house buying programs. The couple have looked at 90 houses but not found the right one, the experts help find the perfect house but they still don’t end up buying it and the program ends with them still looking for their next house. They may as well just move into a care home and cut out the next 40 years of indecision over which house is right for them.

Planet X EC-130E Disc SRAM Rival 22 Aero ends up costing about the same in euros, but prefer the look of the BMC and the Shimano 105 to Sram rival groupset. I believe the planet x is over a kg lighter, perhaps 7.5kg if that matters to you.

Re:time saving, if you can save 30 watts using aero wheels and as a rule of thumb 5 watts savings = 0.5 sec/km faster, then on a fast 10 km ride you could save around 30 seconds?

Ordered the BMC in 60 cm!

Hope you can return it so you can keep asking people what bike you should get 🙂

21 day return policy..

I predict 3 weeks of buyers remorse, some homemade drillium mods, a spurious “why won’t they warranty it for this” thread, followed by it sitting in the classifieds for months at a “bargain” £1099.

Joking aside, nice bike, I’d been looking at them but kinda decided my CAAD4 will do another summer and I’ll wait until CAAD13’s drop in price.

My prediction is 6 more threads asking why its no faster than his mountain bikes with slicks and how to make it lighter/faster.

Wish I could save 30 watts with my aero wheels, I’d give up training. Anyway that’s a completely different discussion so will shut up now…..

Actually there’s a new thread looming about Chinese carbon wheels.. but maybe I should try it as-is first ;p

I did get some tighter winter clothing.

Wish I could save 30 watts with my aero wheels, I’d give up training. Anyway that’s a completely different discussion so will shut up now…..

Turns out, you can! All you have to donis ride a lot faster. Turns out that at the manufacrurers favourite speed of 40km/h it is about 30W between some horrible looking OEM wheels and three and a half grands worth of 808’s.

But at a mere mortal 25km/h its only 13W. Although I think the argument goes that over a constant distance the slow rider does save more (time or energy i dont know) because theyre riding for longer.

http://www.wired.com/2016/06/expensive-bicycle-wheels-worth-money-lets-check-physics

Turns out, you can! All you have to donis ride a lot faster. Turns out that at the manufacrurers favourite speed of 40km/h it is about 30W between some horrible looking OEM wheels and three and a half grands worth of 808’s.

Bet that 82mm $300 Chinese wheelsets give you 95% of the savings, whether you want to ride 82 mm wheels is another question. The major caveat seems to be hubs that implode

Can you really find a €300 wheelset?

12W then 😉

Ive had various cheap hubs over the last few years without any major problems. Most problems ive had have been with supposedly mid range formula hubs! Id probably want to stick with at least a known quantity though.

Wheels are always worth more than the sum of their parts due to the time it takes to build them. So makes sense to spend a little more to make them last. Otherwise youre shelling out £50 for spokes and labour plus a new hub or rim to replace whatever just failed and only saved you £20 last time.

As I have £1200 65mm wheels, £2000 55mm wheels, £650 40mm wheels and also “Aero” 30mm wheels and a power meter, believe me, I’ve done just about every experiment possible to see the power / speed differences.
Non scientific, and a case study of only my experience (same wheels, tyres, small day, small loop, very little difference). I do plan on doing the same experiment again up a 30 min climb when the weather improves. It was single figure differences. (As a crit racer I’m not the slowest person out there)

Seems to confirm what I said, what matters is the “size of the hole” and not much else, at least if not climbing.

I’m riding at 35 kph now, so aim to just go faster 40+ kph. My rides are short (less than 30 min) and intense (for me), will get a used crank arm powermeter too.