Swiss, Premium, Performance Cycling
Intricate Swiss engineering is a given when you’re talking about BMC Switzerland. This premium approach to bikes goes back to 1994, when we began in Grenchen, Switzerland, where we’re still housed today. With just 120 employees and three global offices, you could be surprised at the extent of our innovation. Our in-house Impec Lab is the beating heart of our research and development thanks to some of the brightest minds in the industry keeping us at the cutting edge of design. After extensive development, our collection naturally becomes the choice of the world’s top athletes, who go on to win such races as the Tour de France, Team Time Trials, World Championships of various disciplines, and numerous Ironman Championships. The sport of cycling is evolving at a breakneck speed – and we at the front of the bunch, pushing the pace..
BMC is Swiss, Very Swiss.
But what does that mean?
The Swiss know their mountains. This small central European country owes a lot to its topography. A romantic explanation for its evolution, these very mountains influenced the birth of its independence and shaped the lifestyle of its people and culture, creating a highly diverse yet very diplomatic landscape. Peaks and valleys are virtually unavoidable, but for a bicycle manufacturer like BMC they provide the canvas for our dreams. We don’t see those rocky summits as insurmountable but as mere obstacles, and we’re on a perpetual hunt for the best ways to overcome them – with pride, precision, and quality engineering.
A Perfectly Timed Fit
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Premium
A high value or a value in excess of that normally or usually expected. This is exactly what BMC strives to deliver – an enrichment of your ride. It’s an ambition that goes some way to explaining why we invest so heavily in research and development. .
Led by Innovation and Quality
To achieve the ultimate value in terms of quality, design, specifications and production quality, we like to keep a lot of what we do absolute top secret. The entire production process–from the inception of a new bike, through to its design, prototyping, testing, iterating and all the way to the final product–happens in our Impec Advanced R&D lab in Grenchen, Switzerland. This commitment to controlling the process ensures that just like our bikes, we have a competitive, high-performance edge over our competition.
Portal to the future
Designed by Bike Geeks, Built by Machines, Pushed to the limits by the World’s Fastest Athletes
The devil hides himself in the details; for an athlete at the very pinnacle of his sport, there are very few things that can impact their performance. Technology, in terms of equipment, is undoubtedly the biggest differentiating factor and greater than the margins of physiological improvement. At BMC, we have been listening to and observing riders for years – whether professional or recreational. Cadel Evans, Taylor Phinney, Thor Hushovd, Ralf Näf, Julien Absalon, Corrine Abraham - we have used the world’s top athletes over the years to test our bikes. They are an intrinsic step in the research, development and production process, riding our prototypes and giving us feedback as we go along.
HISTORY
BMC Switzerland began life as the Bike Manufacturing Company in 1986. By 1994, the BMC brand was born. A few years later, our dynamic approach to bicycle design truly began to take shape with the injection of Andy Rihs’ vision in 1998 and the subsequent move into the pro peloton with Phonak Cycling Team. Since then, our bikes have become a fixture on the global scene and we’ve branched into further disciplines, taking accolades wherever possible.
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1986
The roots of BMC are laid by its founders. The Bike Manufacturing Company first licensed RALEIGH bikes.
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1994
The BMC brand is officially born.
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1998
Andy Rihs becomes shareholder.
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2000
Andy Rihs, chairman of the the Phonak Group and former owner of the international Phonak Cycling Team takes over the company.
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2002
BMC develops the Teammachine and the Phonak Cycling Team race on BMC bikes.
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2003
BMC goes global with international exports.
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2004
Tour de France – BMC enters the spotlight. The Timemachine TT01 and award-winning Promachine SLC01 are launched.
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2005
BMC celebrates a stage victory at the Tour de France.
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2007
The launch of the Fourstroke series sets BMC’s MTB standard.
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2008
The Racemaster SLX01 and the Trailfox TF01 mark two brand new products in the road and mtb segments.
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2010
BMC opens the Impec Lab, the brand’s unique production facility in Switzerland.
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2011
Cadel Evans wins the Tour de France, the toughest and most important race in the world of cycling, on a BMC.
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2012
Philippe Gilbert wins the UCI Men’s Elite Road Race World Championship.
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2013
The new Teammachine SLR01 raises the bar of performance.
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2014
A big year for BMC’s mountain bikes: Julien Absalon becomes World XCO MTB Champion, European MTB Champion, UCI MTB World Cup Winner and French MTB National Champion.
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2015
BMC Racing Team wins the UCI Team Time Trial World Championships for a second year running and three stages of the Tour de France
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2016
Greg van Avermaet wins the Rio Olympic Road Race on a Teammachine SLR01 The Roadmachine is launched, rapidly developing into a signature bike for BMC Switzerland and ushering in a new standard of integration and design.
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2017
Greg van Avermaet wins Paris Roubaix The Teammachine SLR Disc sets a new benchmark for performance disc brake road bikes
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2018
Andy Rihs passes away.
After 11 highly successful years, the curtain is drawn on the BMC Racing Team era. BMC Switzerland prepares itself eagerly for a new adventure with Team Dimension Data for Qhubeka Rohan Dennis wins the Individual Time Trial at the UCI Road World Championships on board his BMC Timemachine
Andy Rihs, November 1942 > April 2018
REMEMBERING ANDY
BMC will keep Andy in everlasting memory and forever be grateful for his friendship and support.
When Andy Rihs took over BMC Switzerland in 2000, the brand underwent a monumental shift. He spearheaded the movement towards precision engineering, building our carbon production facility from scratch to produce his ideal of the ‘Porsche of race bikes.’ No other cycling manufacturer has so many tools at its disposal under one roof, and it’s largely thanks to that one man.
Since his passing in 2018, the absence in the cycling industry has been felt acutely. Andy Rihs was not only a part-owner and main sponsor of BMC and BMC Racing Team, but also a friend, an exemplary visionary and an avid sports fan.
Going forward, his legacy will be upheld by BMC Switzerland.
About BMC
Brand Story
In the world of premium bike brands, we have spent decades building our sport and pushing technologies to the limits.
The earliest days of BMC saw fast and monumental innovation across the bicycle industry. The late 80’s and early 90’s defined the ambitions of our sport, and BMC was perfectly positioned to make the fastest of those ambitions real.
In the decades since, we’ve led the refinement of many of these advancements, as well as entirely new innovations, all with a common theme of creating speed. This singular focus on speed has led us to become the brand we are today: fast, unrelenting, and iconic.
The BMC team is now over 150 people, and hundreds more supported athletes. We are still based where we began, in Grenchen, Switzerland, though we’ve since added our Impec Lab, and there’s now an Olympic velodrome next door. We’ve won races and titles, defined new categories, and grown into the technological and engineering powerhouse that we always aspired towards. We’re never done, and never satisfied; we will always continue to refine and reassess.
The expertise of our team is what makes this all possible and lays the foundation for our future. We’ll continue to create speed at every opportunity, and as in years past, we can’t wait to show you some of the ideas we’re working on right now.
History
1986 – Bicycle Manufacturing Company’s first licensed RALEIGH bikes.
1994 – The BMC brand is born.
2000 – Andy Rihs chairman of the Phonak Group and the Phonak Cycling Team takes over the company.
2002 - BMC develops the Teammachine for the Phonak Cycling Team to race on.
2003 – BMC goes global, with international exports.
2004 – BMC enters the Tour de France spotlight. The Timemachine TT01 and award-winning Promachine SLC01 are launched.
2005 – BMC celebrates a Tour de France stage win.
2007 – The Fourstroke series is launched, setting BMC’s MTB standard.
2010 – The BMC Impec lab opens. Our Swiss research facility allows our engineering team to innovate & refine new ideas at an unmatched pace.
2011 – Cadel Evans wins the Tour de France, on a BMC, riding for the BMC Racing Team.
2012 – Philippe Gilbert wins the UCI Men’s Elite Road Race World Championship, also on a BMC.
2013 – The new Teammachine SLR01 sets a new performance standard.
2014 – Julien Absalon becomes World XCO MTB Champion, European MTB Champion, UCI MTB World Cup Winner and French MTB National Champion, all on a BMC.
2015 – The BMC Racing Team wins 3 stages of the Tour de France and the UCI Team Time Trial World Championships for a second year running.
2016 – Greg van Avermaet wins the Rio Olympic Road Race on a Teammachine SLR01. The Roadmachine is launched ushering in a new standard of integration and design.
2017 – Greg van Avermaet wins Paris Roubaix, the launch of the Teammachine SLR Disc sets a new benchmark for performance disc brake road bikes.
2018 – Andy Rihs passes away, and after 11 highly successful years, the curtains are drawn on the BMC Racing Team era.
2019 – The URS is launched, disrupting the gravel discipline and reimagining what is possible.
2020 – The Teammachine SLR is revolutionized, raising the performance bar further. Jordan Sarrou wins the UCI MTB XC World Championships on the Fourstroke 01.
2021 – BMC welcomes a new World Tour road team, AG2R Citroen, and women’s cycling icon, Pauline Ferrand Prevot. The team wins a stage in every grand tour, and the Fourstroke wins gold in Tokyo.
Remembering Andy
When Andy Rihs took over BMC Switzerland in 2000, the brand underwent a monumental shift. He spearheaded the movement towards precision engineering, building our carbon production facility from scratch to produce his ideal of the ‘Porsche of race bikes.’ No other cycling manufacturer has that many in-house tools at its disposal and it’s largely thanks to that one man.
Since his passing in 2018, the absence in the cycling industry has been felt acutely. Andy Rihs was not only part-owner and main sponsor of BMC and the BMC Racing Team, but also a friend, an exemplary visionary, and an avid sports fan.
And the legacy lives on.
Our mission remains the same; to design, engineer and create the world's most technologically advanced and iconic bikes.
