BMC Timemachine TM02 - Long term project

[SkippiTT]

Hello all,

I've been lurking here for a long time, but finally signed up!
After quitting with rowing I picked up cycling/triathlon as my new sport. Promising myself that when I got under an hour for a 40k TT I could go saving for a nice bike. (un)Fortunately for me, my first ever 40k I went under. So the year after I could buy a nice bike.

Bought a BMC TM02, because of it looks and it seemed it would fit me.
Of course as a triathlete you have to put all sorts of crap on your bike, so i did..

Weighing in probably at around 11-12kg/24-26lbs.

After that year I decided i would only go for timetrials and road racing (because swimming sucked to hard, cycling was more fun too!)
And after coming across this site i decided I would try to get the weight of my bike down as much as possible. Ditched the Tririg brake, because it would only slow me down instead of really braking..
Some upgrades until now:
3T Brake levers
Speedplays instead of heavy (450gr per pair) old school Shimano Look-compatible pedals
Zipp Service Course stem
Replaced bartape with griptape
Planet-X QR skewers
Removed stickers from the wheels (20gr!)
Removed all the bottles and cages.

So at the ending of last season it sort of looked like this: (excuse the bloke on top of it, it was the best picture I've got of the bike..) Bike weighing in at 8930grams.


After last season I decided I want to change the paint and that I want to go all in on the WW'ism..
So got rid of almost all the paint, losing me some 132grams of weight. Already figured out the new paint scheme for it. But since I'm a student who also has to work I'm a bit restrained on time, so will probably be some time before that's finished..
For now it looks like this:


In the process of stripping the complete bike, i also weighed all the components and all the little parts that go on it, to get a good idea where to save what kind of weights..

In the meantime I build a replica of my Adamo saddle. Dropping the weight from 381,5gr to 92,6gr. It was my first try at a saddle, so already figured out some points of improvement. Ride quality is quite ok, but only got 20km on it before my roadbike broke down on me..



Next goal will be designing my own (timetrial)saddle, which I'll try to be doing in the coming weeks. Already got all the ideas and thinks I want and need for it, only have to draw it on the computer and 3D-print it for a first mold.

First goal for the complete bike will be getting it below 6.8kg/15lbs. Should be easily possible.
Ultimate goal will be getting it under 6kg or 13lbs. Which, according to my excelsheet, should be "easily" doable!
Weight isn't everything for a TT-bike though, so all components will be selected not only for weight, but also for stiffness (where necessary) and looks (yes, they're that important for this bike! )
Since I like to build stuff, I'll try to building and tuning as many parts myself. Already got ideas on how for example I want to build an aerobar, brake levers, shifter (yes, it'll become 1x10), saddle, chainguide and more!

To give an idea of what it will look like eventually: the paintscheme and rest of the looks will be inspired by this car. So expect a long, low, fast looking bike!

[plpete]

This is cool! Look forward to seeing the progress on this build. The FLO wheels are probably quite aero but also quite heavy! I'm sure you could loose a big chunk of weight there. Good luck!

[ultyguy]

Welcome and sweet ride and modding, look forward to seeing it!

[mihai]

beautiful!

[record]

McLaren F1 GTR with Gulf livery...

I can't wait to see the final result.

[HillRPete]

Cool project.
You have probably already seen the Gulf Oil Racing themed Baum Corretto, for inspiration?
http://www.flickr.com/photos/baumcycles/5156041489

[SkippiTT]

Yes i've come across the Baum Gulf bike when looking around for inspiration. Went through a couple of versions before settling on this one.

I found a blue color paint, which hopefully will be exactly what I'm looking for. Capturing the same glimmer as can be seen in some of the shots of the Mclaren. Should be a real eyecatching color when lit by the sun!
The orange stripe will run over the top part of the toptube, and the seatpost, but not on the back of the post. Still undecided on the bars, have some ideas for it, but that will also depend on how the bars will look like eventually..

As can be seen, shoes + helmet will get the same color treatment. On the other side of the helmet will be the other logo of our club, which is a "running" fox. Perhaps I will also get a black/white or custom skinsuit later on.


Also want a logo on the headtube, but think that a standard Gulf-logo would be boring. So thought of a logo which incorporates the name of the bike "Timemachine" and the colors of the Gulf-logo. It's an hourglass (time), build out of two cogs (machine). Perhaps a little bit to cheeky?


Any tips or ideas on how to improve on the designs are more than welcome!

[campbellrae]

This looks very promising! Subscribed

[nathanong87]

wow. such gulf. amazing machine.

[SkippiTT]

So, finally I've gathered almost all of the paint(supplies) I need. The only things left is some masking tape, 2K clear and the stencils for the logo's, hopefully will get all these this or next week.

But I've already started painting.
Some pictures:
The grey primer covering everything that will be black:


First couple of layers of black:


Covering up all the black:


And some pictures with the white primer that goes underneath all the brighter colours:



The black-white border isn't the sharpest, but that will change after I've done all the orange and blue. Then I'll do one last coat of black, with the better masking tape (used plain electrical tape for now).
Tomorrow I'll try to do the orange. The day after that I'll do the blue. One layer of black after that, and then all the logos with stencils, and some stickers for the front logo and two name stickers. And when everything is done a couple of layers of gloss clearcoat.
Am really excited on how it will all turn out when it's done!

[SkippiTT]

And a picture of the fork, before painting the white primer.

[BennyPropel]

*subscribed*

[mile2424]

As a huge fan of custom painted bikes and even more so when they have awesome motorsport liveries, I can't wait to see how this turns out! I have also been entertaining doing a Gulf theme for my next project.

A few years ago I had toyed around with doing a Gulf Speed Concept back in the day....but went with the Martini Shiv instead......



and I saw someone post this over on the Slowtwitch forum...



Keep posting detailed pics of the process. Looking good so far!

[nathanong87]

wow. Such gulf. Amazing machine.

[mnmasotto]

Will look very nice when finished. Keep up the good work.