today we're gonna have a first look at BMC's brand new Alpenchallenge AMP e-bike road bike
My name is Cruise, and I make videos about cycling
let's get started with today's bike review
we will start with a bike review
and then go for a test ride
I'm in Italy for BMC's test ride event
and we have beautiful weather
the Alpenchallenge is traditionally BMC's bike commuter line and it's evolved now
into their new amp series here we've got their electric powered bikes these are
powered by a Shimano battery and motor so we can see here we've got our battery
located right here this is in the centre of the bike to maintain the center of
gravity we've also got the engine down here as well and these bikes are
generally pretty Shema no doubt we've got the Shimano crank and we've also got
a Shimano Integra rear derailleur as well so let's actually start with the
front of the bike for anyone who is new to the Shimano ebike eco system we've
got a menu here so we've got some different modes currently this is in
boost mode and you can switch between these modes by the levers over here on
the left side so if we click here it'll go down to an easier mode and if we
click up here it'll go to a more supportive mode so right now we're in
trail mode if we go down we go to eco mode if we go down it's off so off is of
course the lowest setting if we go up Eco mode is a little bit of
support trail is a bit more support and then boost is super support so I'll go
over these in our test ride let's turn it off for right now so we can save some
energy we're fully charged at this moment and also at the front we've got a
beautiful sleek Aero stem here so this is bmc's ICS stem system another cool
thing about the BMC stems is we've got this integrated stem cover plate here so
you can put different adapters here like your Garmin mount or your GoPro mount or
a light whatever you want and this is a super sleek setup you can see all the
cables are hidden and they go into the stem itself so there's really no
external cables out here other than the little bit that you see here and this
bike is just blacked out stealth black color with a nice white BMC logo we've
got a sleek front profile as well sleek front fork and for the wheel entire
setup we got some DT Swiss semi deep-dish spline
wheels as well as the stock tires on here our 30 C Victoria Corsa tyres so
also checking out the top tube here you can see it's a pretty slim design back
here over by the seat post and it gradually gets more thick as you get up
to the front so a nice thick profile here we've got the logo as well ALP and
challenge amp amp is the electric power series for BMC for the saddle we've got
a physique and our a saddle so a lot of BMC bikes so we've got this is the
stopper for the seat post adjuster so I just adjusted the seat post of my height
we got to put that down cover the adjuster for people who don't know PMC's
seat post for some of their models are adjusted here sometimes they're adjusted
down on the bottom but we can't do that with this model because of the battery
another interesting thing on the back here which is different than the other
Alpen challenge bikes is this is the micro travel system so this is on their
top-of-the-line mountain bikes and it gives a little bit more of a comfort
feel and also helps get more traction on the bike for me I'll be test riding a
size M today I'm actually 183 centimeters in height so I'm kind of in
between m and L I'm generally more comfortable in an L but I like to size
down to a medium bike when I can and also on a medium bike I can also share
it with my wife she's on the bottom spectrum of the medium and I'm on the
top spectrum of the medium so one more last look at the full bike itself beauty
here and I've been getting a lot of comments lately on my channel I do a lot
of commuting videos where I did my commuting I actually live in Japan and a
lot of people in the comments are always telling me I should get an e bike for my
commuting and this seems to be a pretty awesome choice for that we've got the
drop bars so we can get down get a little bit more Aero and I'm really
excited to see how this feels I've been testing out some of the different ebikes
since I've been here I tested out one of the Alpen challenges with the flat bar
with the motor and I also tested out one of their mountain bike ebikes as well so
it's really awesome I hadn't had any experience with a bikes until now and
today all of a sudden I'm getting all this experience with ebikes anyway I'm
talking too much let's go get out and do the test ride of the bike I'm going out
to test ride it right now I'm very excited
Oh in a pill and not Sweeting you will enjoy yeah it's heavy right do you know
how much this is how much weight this is 14 or so it sounds a butter right right
right I'm gonna test it out here we go guys let's go test this guy out
so apparently about 14 kilograms or so maybe a little bit more it feels pretty
heavy but supposedly you don't really feel it while you're ride that's been
the case with the other ebikes I've been trying oh so again we're in Italy whose
beautiful area for all the test rides really gorgeous background area and it's
starting to get later in the day have been test riding bikes all day so if
you're interested in seeing some of the other demo videos check out the playlist
I'll link it up in the top section of the video so right now the support is
often I'm going downhill I can definitely tell the bike is really heavy
compared to a normal bike but it doesn't really feel I don't feel too
disadvantaged or anything like that last of the rear shifters also electronic
that's really nice some of the other key bikes that I've been doing weren't
electric shifters in the back so this is the first one I'm trying that has a
combination of electric shifting and the electric support so we've actually we're
still going flattened I'm feeling really comfortable in the off so like if I ran
out of battery and I needed to ride this in a flat section I think I'd feel
pretty comfortable with this but the place where you really start to notice
these e-bikes and the disadvantage if you have the engine off is when you go
uphill so that's what we're going to start doing right now oh yeah this thing
is I'm really feeling this so I'm gonna turn the first level on let's go to eco
mode and I think I'm in a pretty heavy gear so let's shift down a little bit so
once I shift down into the lower gear and I'm just spinning pretty comfortably
I wish I had a heart rate monitor to track this but right now I'm not
breaking a sweat and I'm going about 20k an hour so yeah I'm just flying up this
hill I'm not sure if you can tell how steep this is but this is definitely at
least a five six percent gradient and we're just cruising up here so I'm
rotating maybe about 90 cadence and I don't really feel anything like it's
just really comfortable so let's go up another mode
we're on trail mode I'm at the same cadence so I didn't really notice the
difference in support if I increase the cadence oh yeah there we go
up to 23 K now that's crazy you got a red light here Oh green lucky us so
let's actually go right here so we can go down this hill and go uphill again so
when you go downhill it actually coasts even if I pedal the
engine doesn't activate it's just coasting
lots of speed bumps here in Italy
and again of course there's no disadvantage going downhill with these
things so the heavy weight actually helps you go downhill if you get more
momentum you get more speed going downhill so there's really no
disadvantage once you got your motor going because the motor helps you go
uphill you don't need it on the downhill supposedly if you manage your power so
when you don't need it you should put this in Eco mode maintain your battery
as much as you can don't waste it and supposedly this thing will last like
a good four or five hours maybe longer depending on how conservative you are
with saving your energy there's a tractor here
so we're in Eco mode right now
it's shift up so I've noticed when I put this in a heavier gear I don't get as
much support but if I go to a lower gear and I up my cadence I definitely get a
lot more support so maybe there's something to that
with ebikes it's also good for you because you should be riding with a
higher cadence so you're riding in a way that's better for your knee it's better
for your body better if you're training and you also get some more support that
way check that out that's the beautiful area we're riding in right now so this
is getting pretty steep we're an eco mode right now let's boost it up trail
mode we're we're at 23 now we're going twenty five point five
K&R and let's boost it up to boost pick up the cadence a bit and there we go
twenty six uphill can't complain with that yeah that boost mode is insane but
if you stay in the boost mode the whole time it's just gonna drain the battery
so we're flat right now let's drop back down Eco mode yeah this thing's really
comfortable and even though I'm pretty tall I'm feeling really comfortable on
the M size here get in the drops getting in the drops so
way different feeling that the one with the drop bars that I tested earlier
let's go over this way this Way's really scenic
unfortunately I don't think I have too much more time to test this guy out at
the end of the day we got to start returning the bikes back I'm pretty
surprised with how rough some of these roads are hearing aid oh you like ding
but that's a good test with these bikes that you got the wider tire so you get a
bit more support then you would if you'd be commuting on like a road bike so this
is nice because it's got the feel have a road bike the handlebars of a road bike
but you got a lot more comfort with the wider tire clearance and you get the
support so you're not as tired on your commute I've been mentioning that I
commute like about 200 kilometers every week which isn't a lot but combining
that with regular riding regular training and the full workload and
editing YouTube videos I get pretty tired some days and some days I wish I
had an e-bike to support me on my commute let's go up here usually when
you climb you can find some good sites lots of little cafes like that in Italy
here
so starting to struggle a bit on this climb let's go up from eco mode
trail mode bah there you go that's nice and easy yeah look at that just coasting
up this super steep hill and we're still only untrammeled we got boost mode let's
activate that oh my goodness we just jumped up from 23 K an hour to 25 K an
hour and it got easier that's insane
so overall impressions today was my first day again riding ebikes testing
out a bikes and I gotta say I went in with some pretty high expectations and
these have beaten my expectations it's way more comfortable than I expected now
here we go we're going up some switchbacks and yeah holy crap what
we're just flying up these switchbacks I might honestly have to get one of these
for like my wife and then we can go on some really good training rides
long-distance adventure rides together and then we can just really enjoy it
because I train a bit more seriously than she does and sometimes I push the
pace a bit too hard to the point where it's not fun for her and with a bike
like this she can easily keep up with me if not past me and drop me on these
types of climbs like I'd have to be pushing over 400 watts to
go the pace I'm going right now and I'm only putting in like maybe a
hundred watts right now this is absolutely insane feel like I'm on like
a motorcycle just flying up this mountain so what do you guys think what
do you guys think of the look of this bike ebike with rode to drop handlebars
are there any other better options out there if you have a chance to check out
some new bikes from BMC highly recommend to go check it out unfortunately we
don't have many options in Japan right now because Japan's really strict about
their regulations with a bike assistance but if you're in a country in like
Europe or America there's tons of options to go test out and experience a
bikes anyway guys I think I'm going to end today's video here but before we do
that let's turn around and take a look at this beautiful view normally you have
to work really hard to get a beautiful view like this but honestly I didn't
work at all and I'm gonna go back to our event eat some delicious food that I did
not earn today but it's all good
check that out all right guys it's been good hope you guys enjoyed this review
of the BMC Alpen challenge amp sport road if you like these kinds of videos
be sure to give this video a thumbs up if you want to see more videos like it
be sure to subscribe also be sure to check out some of the other videos from
my trip here in Italy with all the new models from BMC we'll be doing a couple
bike reviews and bike test rides like this video right now that's it for today
guys as always thanks for watching we'll see you guys next time here on to well
cruise ciao
you