New Shimano Ultegra definitely not spotted on BMC website, nope

Blobby un-groupset teases component nerds everywhere

Published: June 1, 2017 at 7:00 pm

BMC’s fancy new Teammachine launched this week and naturally it’s also gone live on BMC’s website. Several models have the major groupset components blacked out, and it doesn’t take exceptional powers of deduction to work out that this act of MS Paint censorship is almost certainly hiding a new Shimano Ultegra groupset.

UPDATE: It’s official, Ultegra R8000 is here. Read our article Shimano Ultegra R8000 and Ultegra Di2 R8070: all you need to know to find out more.

In fact, BMC actually gives full specs for the new bikes, and the SLR01 Disc, SLR01 Disc Two, SLR02 Disc One, SLR01 Three and SLR02 One all list Shimano Ultegra in their specs, including Ultegra Di2.

The Teammachine SLR02 Disc One sports a disc version of the mystery groupset

Courtesy

There could be an alternative explanation for this, however. It may be that BMC is catastrophically bad at graphic design and its art person decided to render the components from memory using only the fattest of brush tools.

The SLR02 One is similarly kitted out

Courtesy

Or perhaps these are real images of the next generation of Ultegra, henceforth to be known as ‘the blobby groupset’. It would certainly be a departure for the brand, one that prides itself on the cleanest, most mechanically elegant designs.

Shimano’s UK distributor Madison has understandably declined to comment, but we at BikeRadar are immensely excited about a possible new groupset, blobby or otherwise.

Matthew Loveridge

Senior Writer

Matthew Loveridge (formerly Allen) is an experienced mechanic and an expert on bike tech who appreciates practical, beautifully-engineered things. Originally a roadie, he likes bikes and kit of every stripe, and he's tested a huge variety of both over the years for BikeRadar, Cycling Plus and others. For a long time Matthew's heart belonged to the Scott Addict, but he's currently enjoying Specialized's sublime Roubaix Expert and having a torrid affair with a Giant Trance e-MTB. At 174cm tall and 53kg, he looks like he should be better at cycling than he actually is, and he's ok with that.