Born for the demands of the world’s top cross country athletes, the new BMC Fourstroke 01 is designed to deliver the ultimate performance on the most demanding courses. The 100mm travel race bike gets a new integrated dropper post, new progressive geometry and some pretty good looks. 

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If you've kept an eye on your cross-country bikes you'll be aware that BMC have always been a little more progressive than the average with 'micro travel technology' on the rear of their race hardtails and previous incarnations of the integrated dropper post on trail bikes. Their racer Julian Absalon was one of the first riders to race XC with a dropper post and Di2, back when that was a new thing.

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BMC say they looked at the bike as an entire system and has culminated in the development of BMC’s fastest and most intuitive XC race bike ever. The all-new Race Application Dropper Seatpost (RAD) is, BMC claim, the first integrated XC dropper post. Which might be true depending on the definition you give to XC. It's not the first integrated dropper, there are ones in place from Eightpins on some Lightvilles and BMC themselves have the Trailsync dropper post on their Speedfox trail bike. 

The dropper is oval in shape which they say allows for a 30% stronger structure with less weight (345g). The post is completely mechanical, runs at 29 psi and is limited to either up or down in the 80mm of travel but there is a limit to the maximum and minimum saddle heights which might be a problem for some. 

With regards to geometry BMC have created the Big Wheel Concept (BWC) race geometry. This is designed to attack the fastest and steepest XC courses with its 67.5 ̊ head angle and a long front-end, the reach on the medium bike is 445mm. BMC say the 100mm-travel fork and 44mm offset deliver precise steering on switchbacks and technical sections. Climbing remains the essence of XC racing, and the Fourstroke 01 is updated with a steeper 75.5 ̊ seat angle which puts the rider in a more central position on the bike to attack steep sections with ideal weight distribution. The chainstays are still a little short at 429mm but BMC say this will help the rider deliver power efficiently and while maintaining traction on technical sections. 

The Fourstroke 01 has been revised from the ground up reducing overall weight whilst allowing for the addition of a dropper seatpost. They achieve a frame weight of 2575g (including RAD seatpost and hardware). New suspension hardware reduces the number of parts for improved reliability and saves 51g compared to the previous Fourstroke 01. Integrated headset cups show 20g less on the scale then external cups. The super-light thru-axle developed in the Impec Lab saves additional 9g and the all-new carbon upper link provides the stiffest connection between front triangle and swingarm for uncompromised suspension performance and weighs 40g less than an alloy one.

BMC has also added the following features to the updates frame; integrated, lightweight fork stopper utilizes a straight downtube for front-end stiffness, while optimised cable routing and frame protection for either electronic or regular gears. There is a lower link mud protector helping durability of the bearings and there are protectors on the chainstay and a small chainguard make the bike race proof.

The new Fourstroke is available in the following models: Fourstroke 01 ONE, Fourstroke 01 TWO, Fourstroke 01 THREE and Fourstroke 01 Module and available in sizes S, M, L and XL across the entire range.

• www.bmc-switzerland.com

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