Trail Testing: BMC Teamelite 01

Hardtails are getting softer, and thats the solid truth with the new BMC Teamelite 01.  The Teamelite 01 made its debut a couple months ago showing off a new Micro Travel Technology or MTT, changing the way that we will look at hardtails.  The MTT is a 15-millimeter damper built into the frame where the seatstay meets the seat-tube, and gives the ride a ton of compliance and might even make the bike a little more capable.

This MTT has inspired plenty of ambition from test riders to see just how much this design can handle.  So far we have tested this bike over an array of terrain and raced the fabled Leadville 100 a couple weeks ago.

Aside from the MTT, the new Teamelite 01 has a 12×142 thru axle, post mount rear brake (140 ready, 160 maximum), and internal cable routing through the downtube keeping everything slick.  Our test bike has an XX1 build kit, DT Swiss XR 1501 wheels, XTR Race brakes, and a Fox 32 Float Kashima 100-millimter fork with remote lockout.  We haven’t swapped much out on the bike during testing, with the exception of Red Monkey grips, upgrading the tires to WTB Nine Line’s, and swapping to a Fabric saddle.

So far we have really noticed how much the MTT has improved the ride quality.  The bumps feel smaller and the bike feels solid on technical terrain.  Though its a little too soon to draw any serious conclusions, we can tell that BMC did their homework on this one.  Keep an eye out for our December issue for the full review and our final conclusions.