INSIDE MANUFACTURING
An impec-cable bike frame:
Handmade by
macHine
Long on technology
firsts, this optimized
and automated
manufacturing
process produces
nothing short of the
���perfect��� bike frame.
By GinGer Gardiner
32
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B
ased in Grenchen, Switzerland,
home to world-class watchmakers Rolex and Breitling, Bicycle
Manufacturing Co. (BMC) has
likewise become an icon of Swiss
engineering, precision and style. BMC���s
racing team, led by Cadel Evans ��� the
2009 world champion and 2011 Tour de
France winner on a BMC bike ��� is a
Who���s Who of the sport, including Thor
Hushovd, George Hincapie, Philippe Gilbert, Tejay van Garderen and Taylor Phinney. ���We simply want to build the fastest
and best bikes in the world,��� says BMC
owner Andy Rihs. ���And, to ensure we are
living up to this goal, we work with the
best riders in the world.���
high-performance composites
Now BMC leads cycling with its production of a 100 percent carbon ���ber
frame with a uniquely high level of automation and process control: the impec.
Short for ���impeccable,��� the frame is the
result of Rihs��� conviction that the industry practice of building frames in Asia using hand-layed prepreg permits neither
full exploitation of carbon ���ber���s bene���ts nor suf���cient process control and
precision. BMC spent more than ���40 million ($51.8 million USD) and four years
developing the materials, robotic processes and entirely new factory that was
necessary to back the claim made on one
of its factory billboards, ���We built a Swiss
factory to produce the perfect carbon bike.���