Orbea’s new Orca is all about lightness
Words Charlotte Head Photography Tapestry
In recent years there have arguably been two main trends in road bike design. First is the hunt for the perfect all-rounder – a bike that balances aerodynamics, stiffness and weight in the hopes of creating the consummate road racing machine. Second is the focus on all-out aero, where slipperiness takes priority over everything else. The Orbea Orca, however, is bucking both these trends.
The Orca is every climber’s dream, with a claimed weight of just 6.7kg for a size 53cm, and it favours lightness above all else. It’s a bold move, but Orbea is convinced there is a strong market for it among both pros and enthusiasts alike.
Cutting it fine
Lightness being the aim of the game, it’s unsurprising that Orbea has seemingly gone to extreme lengths to trim any excess fat from the Orca. The new frame is said to comprise 90 fewer pieces than the outgoing model, laser cut to allow the complicated design. Orbea says there’s a minuscule 5mm overlap between each carbon swatch, while the amount of epoxy has been reduced to a minimum too.
‘We’ve also focussed on the paint and hardware,’ says Orbea’s road product manager, Joseba Arizaga. ‘The clear coating is just 15g total for a 53cm frame. The lighter the colour, the more layers are needed, which adds around 15-20g for each coat.’
The frame’s hardware has been sculpted down to a claimed total of 20g, helped by the inclusion of a stainless-steel seatpost wedge.
‘It requires a really low torque and allowed us to reduce the internal parts to a minimum to shave off a few grams.’
As for the frame shape itself, the top tube has been squashed, a move made possible by the relaxing of a UCI ruling that previously saw the restriction on top tube thinness capped at 25mm.
‘The main function of this area is to provide torsional stiffness. In that sense, the width is the only important thing, so we were able to make it shallower to save weight without compromising on performance,’ says Arizaga.
Different from the rest
Not content to shirk the norm in category alone, Orbea says it aimed to do something different when it came to aesthetics as well.
‘We wanted to hark back to the “timeless” designs of previous years,’ says Arizaga. ‘A lot of aero designs go out of fashion so quickly as technology develops, and we wanted to create a bike that would stand the test of time.’
The Orca OMX forg
