Bill’s BMC Kaius

In this week’s Bike of the Week we are featuring Bill's BMC Kaius. Bill is a long-term and highly valued Signature Cycles client who has trusted us with the maintenance of his Specialized Tarmac SL4. He loves that bike and has done everything possible to keep it fresh and up to date, but finding parts to keep his 11-speed Campagnolo group alive has become harder and harder.

Bill is an experienced rider who has been part of the local cycling community for over 20 years. He has great knowledge on posture and pedaling technique but he wanted to aim for an updated fitting and a new bike as well. After our recent adventures into gravel, Bill felt inspired to investigate a gravel bike; however, he wanted to invest into a bike that, with a wheel swap, he could use as a road bike on spirited rides such as our local Wednesday Night Ride (WNR). After looking at all the options available, the BMC Kaius met all his requirements.

The Kaius is a bike that was designed to race rather than adventure on gravel. As such, the geometry is similar to the Swiss brand’s SLR01 road race bike – but it has a larger tire clearance and can fit up to 700x45c rubber. The frame is built with a carbon layup that ensures the perfect balance of stiffness, light weight, and compliance for optimal traction on loose surfaces, front-end stability, and unmatched climbing prowess. With the addition of an integrated carbon cockpit, the bike looks clean and aggressive. In order to fulfill Bill's wish of riding gravel and road, we opted for the SRAM Force XPLR 2x group: that way Bill could have a big chainring along with a small ring that would provide him with 24 gear options to cover both terrains.

For gravel duties he has a DT Swiss carbon wheelset with Pirelli Cinturato Gravel H 700x40c tyres. These are designed to roll fast on the hardest surfaces, so will work well on tarmac too if Bill doesn’t have time to switch over to his road wheels for the Wednesday night ride.

The Kaius’s paint job features a clear matte finish over the carbon with a metallic orange into blue gloss fade on fork. It looks gorgeous in the flesh.

Overall this is a super clean, ultra elegant and highly versatile bike that we are confident will last Bill for many years and will serve him well on many terrains. Congratulations Bill!