Orbea bikes

[Bigtallfatbloke]

Hello racing types...can i just pop in here and bend your ears a bit?...

...erm...are these orbea bikes any good??
http://www.epic-cycles.co.uk/orbea.htm

as good, less good, better than say a bianchi c2c 928 veloce say??

They look great, but I need to ride it as well as pose on it....for around £1400 what road/race bike would you buy??

..apologies for nob question...but...well I qualify as a nob

Thanks for any help

 

[Aperitif]

My father in law bought one last year - an Orbea Orca. Says it is the best bike he has ridden - he is historically a Colnago man. He even rides it with a compact chainset - which he finds a bit of a fiddle compared to his usual triple but regarding the ride and comfort - 'perfect'! I like the style of the Orca too...
My 'commuter' is a Veneto - which was 'swallowed up' by Orbea back then. My bike is Altec 2 alu and seems ok, if a bit 'pingy' - but that's more due to the lumps and bumps in the roads. I weigh 101kg -and am a little bit shorter than you BigTallBloke
Father in Law is 74 by the way -so the style really grabbed at his wallet! He loves his bike - as driven by these blokes.

 

[Tetedelacourse]

Funnily enough (well not really) I had a similar conversation about 2 days ago with my LBS owner about the merits of Orbea vs others in the price bracket. They shift a lot of them, relatively speaking, compared with their other stock. Which is odd given that they stock other bikes with better groupsets/ componentry for a similar price. We agreed (he told me and I nodded my head knowledgably) that the reason is probably that Orbea frames are fantastic, a dream to ride, not to mention look the biz.

My advice would be test ride what you can afford then choose what feels best to you. Personally, I'd probably go for a Planet X or a Wilier, but

NOT FOR COMMUTING ON!

Happy shopping!

ps I think MichaelM on this forum has recently bought one. You could PM him for some detailed feedback.

 

[fossyant]

Get an Orca with Record - just need about £4k.....

 

[wafflycat]

Orbea make some good bikes. I wouldn't say no to one if someone was offering to buy me one

But a cautionary note: Last year of the offspring doing time trials, we ordered an Orbea Ora frameset from a dealer. Got a delivery date. It passed... it passed... to cut a long story short, the date we were given by the dealer was based on the delivery date given by the importer. On contacting Orbea direct in Spain, it would seem that all of the previous information we'd been given bore absolutely no realtion to reality. And certainly we weren't being told porkies by the dealer. The experience put me off going for an Orbea - even though they do make nice bikes.

 

[Keith Oates]

I have not ridden an Orbea but agee that look fantastic. I said this in my LBS in Manila and one of the guys in the shop is an ex-pro who now does mechanics duty on the Philippine professional circuit. He doesn't rate them and says that, in is opinion, the frame tubes are too thin.

Aperitif, I don't know your father in law but to say that anything is better than Colnago is sacrilege !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

 

[TVC]

I own an Orbea and love it. The good thing with them is that you can set your own spec and they build it for you.


http://www.orbea.com/en-gb/productos/bicicletas/Pages/bicicletas.aspx
(pick services, made to order)

I chose the frame, paint job, group set, wheels & tyres etc. The bike shop (Skinnywheels RIP) measured me up, we decided on a relaxed riding position and an order was e-mailed off. 10 weeks later (yes Waffly makes a fair point, they are after all from the Basque region) I got the bike I really wanted, outspecing the SCR1 for the same price.

 

[Bigtallfatbloke]

thanks...I really like the idea of 'designing/compiling' my own bike from the parts they have...thing is I have no idea which bits work best with each other ...anyway this is the bike that caught my eye:


It's stunning...and now I am totally torn between this and the bianch 928 veloce in celeste carbon.

I am starting to thnk that if the dealer can measure me properly I would likely end up with the Orbea because then I wont have to worry about a standard bianchi bike not fitting or something...hmmm...sweet dreams are made of this...

 

[Sh4rkyBloke]

<80s>
... who am I to disagree?

You travel the world and the seven seas,
everbody's looking for something...

</80s>

 

[yenrod]

I have not ridden an Orbea but agee that look fantastic. I said this in my LBS in Manila and one of the guys in the shop is an ex-pro who now does mechanics duty on the Philippine professional circuit. He doesn't rate them and says that, in is opinion, the frame tubes are too thin.

Aperitif, I don't know your father in law but to say that anything is better than Colnago is sacrilege !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Colnago's are just fancy paint scheme frames with lousy angles Keith - you've seriously gone down in my estimation, man !

 

[chester3]

Speaking from personal experience I would think twice about a Bianchi. Admittedly Celeste is a lovely colour, very distinctive, but otherwise not for me. Don't know anything about Orbea except having seen one or two.

Bianchi also measure their frames differently too I think. To the toptube centre rather than the top of the seattube? So be careful with sizes.