OrbeaOrcaAeroM20Team

£3671.99

On flat ground the Orca holds on to speed willingly, its responsive handling makes putting it into sharp corners a thrill

modern aero race bike. The new chassis has been developed to combine light weight and cutting-edge aerodynamics for an all-up weight of 7.8kg for our 57cm test bike. The frame’s shape follows aero bike trends, with a sloping top-tube and oversized down-tube meeting an aero-profiled seat-tube, which closely follows the rear wheel’s radius. The seatstays are minimal and dropped low down, with Kammtailprofile tubes.

The geometry combines parallel 73.2-degree head and seat angles, a short wheelbase of just a metre and short 408mm chainstays that look even shorter thanks to that cutaway aero seat-tube. That adds up to an aggressive racy ride position, but not one that feels as stretched as some aero-shaped road bikes. In fact, the Orca has quite a nimble feel.

On flat ground the Orca holds on to speed willingly, and its responsive handling makes putting it into sharp corners a thrill. The Orca also feels like it was built for climbing more so than an aero bike has any right to. It descends very well too. This is an accomplished bike, it takes the advantages of aero and combines them with an agile race machine, with little of the downsides from aero road bikes of old. Orbea has taken the template of its lightweight Orca and evolved it into a