Second year professional cyclist and Greenville resident Chris Butler is in Spain preparing for the 2011 racing season. As a member of the BMC team, Butler is lucky enough to have at his disposal the new impec model bike. In the recent VeloNews Buyer’s Guide, BMC discloses that the impec is made entirely by robots, eliminating the human element and creating a frame that is defect free. According to VeloNews this fully robotic process will cost BMC 40 million Swiss francs over four years.

Speaking to Butler it seems like that 40 million francs was worth it.

“The impec is the best frame I have ever ridden, developed through the best research and materials available. It’s really responsive to the power the rider puts into the pedals, yet it isn’t uncomfortably stiff.” These are critical features of a bike that will be raced from four to six hours a day.

In 2010 BMC’s team bikes were kitted out with Campagnolo. This year the team is running Shimano, most notably the Dura-Ace Di2 group. A few select riders have been racing the cyclocross World Cup circuit on this electronic group and it appears ready for the rigors of a European campaign. The only deviation from the full Shimano group and returning from 2010 are Speedplay pedals. Rounding out the impec is fast rolling Easton wheels.

“The Di2 has been perfect so far. The greatest perk is being able to shift gears while throwing down a lot of power. In manual, when you are really ‘hitting it,’ sometimes you need to let up to shift…. not the case with the electric because it is flawless even under severe stress.”

As you can see from Butler’s bike measurements he’s embraced the Euro pro fit – small frame and a long stem. Chris, I hope you’re doing core workouts to stay limber!

The 411 on Butler’s BMC impec

50cm frame size (I am about 5’11” with a 75 cm seat height, on most normal bikes I ride a 54cm, it’s just that BMC sizing differs from what other companies label the frame sizes)
172.5mm cranks
130mm stem
42mm width bars