Orro Gold STC Ultegra Di2
£4,899.99 British-designed and built super-endurance bike
Orro, based in the shadow of the legendary Ditchling Beacon in England’s South Downs, have been designing and building their own bikes for a decade. The Gold was one of their original models, now redesigned as a lightweight, high-performance endurance bike with the latest in integration and aerodynamics included in the sub-830g frame.
01 Custom tweaks
Orro’s bikes are hand assembled in the UK, which means your Orro dealer has much more freedom in the build and you can tune gearing to your preference or have your favourite saddle or tyres fitted from new. You can even choose to upgrade to high-quality Ceramic Speed bearings in the bottom bracket (£240) and headset (£210), reducing weight while increasing durability.
02 A good spread
The new aero-optimised frame uses Orro’s advanced STC (spread-tow carbon) lay-up, which means the individual tows (threads) of carbon fibre are very flat, wide and even. It has chequered looks when used and is much better at impact resistance, plus is lighter and stronger than conventional carbon fibre. It does, however, (usually) cost a little more. With the Orro Gold STC, a custom blend of Toray T700, T800 and T1000 carbon types have been used to balance comfort and strength with low weight.
03 Wind cheaters
At the front of the bike, Orro have designed the frame to work with FSA’s ACR system that routes cables and hoses through the compatible stem and down into the head-tube. It creates a slick, clean look and improves aerodynamics. The slender main tubes flow into an aero-shaped seat-tube and carbon aero seatpost. Slim dropped seatstays and oversized chainstays combine to provide stiffness under pedalling yet compliance at the saddle. The frame is optimised for 30mm-wide tyres but can be run with larger 32mm.
04 Group it
The full Ultegra 12-speed Di2 groupset with 52/36 chainset and 11-30 cassette put it at the highperformance end of endurance bikes. Finally, Vision’s slick tubelesscompatible SC40 aero carbon wheels are shod with Continental’s brilliant GP5000 tyres.
05 Details, details
Details include CNC-machined disc mounts for accurate set-up, and replaceable alloy inserts on the dropouts, not to mention a clever hidden seat clamp. You can choose from several colourways too. Warren Rossiter
Bike as shown: Weight 7.3kg (M) Frame STC carbon Fork STC carbon Gears Shimano Ultegra Di2 12-speed (11-30, 52/36) Brakes Shimano Ultegra hydraulic disc Wheels Vision SC40 carbon Finishing kit Vision SMR integrated alloy stem, Vision Metron 4D carbon bar, Orro Carbon seatpost, Selle San Marco Aspide saddle, Continental GP5000 30mm tyres
“One of Orro’s original models, the Gold is now redesigned as a lightweight, high-performance endurance bike”