- The new Orbea road flagship is focused on weight, offering the best climbing performance possible: instant acceleration, agile handling, vibration damping, and excellent power transfer.
- The 7th generation of the Orca creates its own path, proposing a lightweight bike focused on climbers with performance design and 13 different models which are personalizable through MyO.
The new Orca isn’t just light. It is 6.7kg of climbing technology designed to change how you reach the top. The feeling of a bike this light and efficient is unbeatable, and this instant acceleration, vibration absorption and responsive handling come from a frame which knows where it needs to be light and where it needs to be stiff. High-performance and timeless, with all the customisation options of MyO: never has so little looked and felt so good.
This is a bike for people who love climbing and want the best bike for the climbs. It is also for people who seek the feeling of easy acceleration, agility and responsiveness that only a truly lightweight bike offers.
13 models & available in 5 great colour options – see the full range & pre-order your bike
- Ivory White-Burgundy -Vulcano
- Vulcano-Black Black
- Slate Blue-Halo Silver
- Orange Cloud – Stone Blue
- Tanzanite – Carbon Raw
- Plus custom design your own Orca with Orbea MyO
● Pure Light
Orbea has reduced the weight by taking care of all the details. The lighter the frame gets, the more complicated it becomes to remove more weight without compromising anything. Orca’s journey to lightness was about obsessing over the details. All this work has resulted in a 750g OMX frame in size 53 and a 360g fork. The OMR frame weighs in at 1030g while the fork tips the scales at 410g.
● Remove Overlaps
A carbon frame is made up of pieces of carbon, precisely cut and laid out in a pattern before being sealed in epoxy. There can be no gaps in the carbon pieces, meaning that each one has to overlap slightly. By using fewer, larger pieces there are fewer overlaps, saving grams. Of course this adds work, meaning the layup process has to be more precise and time-consuming, but this way the OMX carbon uses 90 fewer carbon pieces.
● Focus on Shapes
The epoxy needed to hold the carbon pieces together needs to be tightly controlled too. Excess epoxy can gather on sharp edges or corners. By carefully designing the frame to prevent excess epoxy gathering Orbea removes unnecessary material and saves grams.
See The Full Range & Pre Order Your Orca
● Full Control
Working with OQUO wheels and their in-house OC Components from the start allows Orbea to design the complete bike, balancing weight and saving grams. OQUO wheels are light, high performance wheels and the RP35-LTD wheelset is only 1380g. The RP10 stem is also one of the lightest on the market while the new HP11 handlebar is 190g. For those who prefer to mount an integrated Vision Metron 5D or Deda Alanera handlebar, Orbea has an adapter to fit these items.
● Painting and Hardware
Painting and hardware are also key. Orbea frames are painted at Basque Country HQ. That allows Orbea to tightly control the process, and reduce weight even further. The brand claims that paint weighs around 15g and the frame hardware around 20g.
● Stiffness to weight
Orbea explains that it is possible to make very light bikes; however, if you lose efficiency due to a lack of rigidity, then it makes no sense. When they designed Orca, they started with a target rigidity to ensure that even the strongest climbers could be sure of efficient power transmission. Then they designed Orca to be as light as possible without compromising that number. A key feature was the Powerspine frame design. Here the lower spine of the frame handles the large majority of torsional and lateral loads. The headtube, downtube and chainstays resist twisting and transmit power to the rear wheel and add steering accuracy. This design allows Orbea to save weight elsewhere on the frame without compromising stiffness.
● Ride Feel
The feeling of a lightweight bike is unbeatable – that mix of instant response and agility. On the climbs the new Orca is claimed to be undeniably fast but the lack of weight can also be felt in the nimble handling and feeling of acceleration as you push on the pedals.
A big part of this agility is Orca’s geometry, which is largely unchanged. Shorter chainstays and, consequently, shorter wheelbase is the only modification on the geometry in order to give the bike that responsiveness and agility climbers demand from their bikes. The rounder frame sections help reduce vibrations, saving energy on longer rides. The wider clearance allows for tires up to 32mm- maximizing traction and compliance and, as modern road riders are discovering, reducing rolling resistance too. Last, but not least, is the MyO program, which allows riders to tune their ergonomics to get the perfect fit.
● Aerodynamics
Even if the aero features are not key on this bike, Orbea is not forgetting about the marginal gains you can get. Orbea states that whenever aerodynamics don’t compromise weight or feel, they choose the most aero solution. One example of this is the ICR cable routing which is carefully considered to reduce drag. The new seat clamp mechanism, which isn’t just simple and efficient, but carefully designed to reduce the surface area and improve aerodynamics. And even though the fork is designed to minimise weight, the shape helps to reduce drag at the same time. Riders also have options to prioritise aerodynamics via the MyO program, which allows them to adapt ergonomics or choose more aerodynamic wheels and handlebars.
