Outdoors: First Impressions

I’ve been pretty open about my preference for riding indoors vs. outdoors. I can count on one hand the number of times I’ve ridden a bike outdoors in the past 12 months. But, come on…look at this bike! It begs to go fast outdoors! And it won me over. I elected to get the outdoor testing out of the way first and took it outside for a first ride.

Important context here is that I’ve raced on Zwift over 300 times in the past year! And I’m stronger than I’ve ever been in my life right now. So I was bringing tons of fitness and strength into a very unfamiliar situation. And I’m older and wiser now ;) so instead of charging full speed up a mountain, I decided to sight-see around Philadelphia first.

DAY ONE (link): My first ride was an easy spin around the Philly suburbs with no real effort save for a big 3min+ chasing a Strava KOM. I was having fun and felt confident on this new machine. But I didn’t want to make a judgment on the bike just yet. I was just trying to get familiar.

DAY TWO (link): I left Philly with my wife and kids for a weekend on our family farm in Central Pennsylvania. I had made a few small adjustments to the bike fit based on the first ride, and planned a route that would give me about 3 hours of ride time and a few good climbs. I was eager to see what the bike could do. I planned for a big 5min interval, then a 10min, then sprints.

When I hit the 5min interval I was comfortable and ready to rock. The experience felt amazing. It was one of those rare moments in sport when it all just seems easy and controlled. As though I were holding back. And yet, I had my 5th highest 5min power average of all-time. Surely the bike had something to do with facilitating this experience! I soldiered on.

Next up was a climb that would give me a good opportunity to test 10min power. Compared to the first 5min effort, this one felt more like work (in a good way). The ‘magic’ of the first effort had worn off and I was in a familiar place now; purposefully strong. And when I reached the top, I didn’t need to check the power profile to know I had done well. I felt enabled as an athlete, not held back in anyway by fitness or equipment. And as it turns out, it was the best 10min power average of my life! Oh, BMC Timemachine…you’re doing VERY well.

FIRST OUTDOOR SPRINT: But who cares about 10min power outdoors up a mountain? I certainly don’t. This bike is all about sprinting, right?!

I rested on the downhill off the mountain which was through a state park on smooth tar and gentle rollers down (reminded me of coming off Titan’s Grove, actually. lol). Nearing the bottom, I opened up into a couple trial sprints. Just to get comfortable with it.

Then the road straightened out, cut down through a corn field, and I was rolling along quickly, still on a slight down grade at the base of the mountain. I saw a short incline up ahead and knew that it would be perfect to sprint into it.

Right as it approached I kicked…really hard. I hit it just right. Pulled the bike in towards me and smashed down hard, trying to break it in half. Just like on Zwift. I felt the rear wheel slip and jump a bit. I tried to adjust and keep it attached to the road. Sometimes 5 seconds can seem like an eternity and a lot can happen. Sometimes I’m aware of every single pedal stroke. That was this time.

And I’ll admit…it was glorious.

Indoors: First Impressions

Though I had lots of fun outdoors, like the true indoor specialist that I am, I was undistracted rolling through the beautiful Central PA countryside. The whole time I was trying to get a feel for what I was most excited about with the BMC… how rigid would the frame be on my Saris H3 against the torsional force of my sprint?

Why am I so focused on torsional stiffness? Well…for an eSports sprinter, I think it’s the most important consideration for frame choice. Sprinting indoors is more like a heavy squat in the gym than it is a sprint on the road. There’s little finesse involved. I like to imagine myself lifting a car up by the bumper (you should try it and then sprint like that). And really, I just try to break the bike in half! And I do it by putting as much force as possible into a movement that twists the frame side-to-side.

Now, there’s some debate around the performance merits related to the stiffness of a frame. And I will not profess to be an expert in the physics here. But I AM concerned for my safety. And I want to be inspired by the feeling of sprinting on something solid!

In my experience the degree to which it is possible to bend a bike side-to-side on the trainer is uncomfortably and frighteningly surprising. I just don’t want that. So when I read that the BMC Timemachine had comparable bottom bracket stiffness to the brand’s flagship all-rounder Teammachine frame, and that the Timemachine’s torsional rigidity was even higher…I was really looking forward to feeling the effects.

And what I found was exactly what I was hoping for. The rear half of the bike - the seat tube, the bottom bracket, the stays - anchored into my Saris H3 by way of a strong thru axle, felt like a single, powerful, integrated system. Whereas other frames have felt noticeably detached, moving independently of the trainer, the BMC and the H3 felt connected as one. It was as though I wasn’t trying to bend the frame…rather, I was trying to bend the H3 (which is bolted to the floor and has 200lbs of weight rested on it’s legs and generally just does not bend).

But there was a problem.

That gorgeous front end on the bike with it’s cockpit completely free of cables, required some proprietary engineering and created a related feature of having lots of flexibility in the bars and stem. On the road, I might appreciate the added comfort that that flexibility brings. For eSports, the cockpit flexibility is a non-starter.

The juxtaposition of simultaneously stomping on what felt like a steel beam while pulling on a bungee cord was…weird. And although I didn’t have any concern at all that the frame would crack, I was very concerned that I would snap the bars in half. In fact, I don’t think I’d have any trouble doing that at all.

So, swapping out to a stiffer stem and bar is essential to make this bike work as an indoor machine. And since it’s all proprietary engineering, that swap isn’t the most straightforward process. But it’s solvable none-the-less.

And then, as the saying goes… you’re off to the races. I had intended to test at least two bikes before deciding on the right one for me. But you know what? My data says that the BMC is going to work very, very well. And I LOVE it. So I'm gonna keep it. I don’t have an expectation that I'm buying more watts with this bike. It’s not like I’m improving my CdA here. Or that I’m going to go faster because of the gear. But I’m a firm believer in the need to make constant, iterative changes towards the process of improvement. And I feel like I’ve added a sophisticated, capable machine to my world. I’m going to master this new tool now, and when I do, my expectation is that then I will be stronger. Look out, Watopia!