Beautifully balanced aerodynamic performance
The Orca Aero is Orbea’s dedicated aero road bike. Its initial public outing was at the Tour de France, where it became one of the very first road bikes to take advantage of the UCI’s relaxation of their 3:1 aero profile rule.
Orbea currently have four different variants in their Orca carbon race line-up, with models that range from fast leisure riding, through super responsive and super light bikes, to the new full-on aerodynamic road bike that is the Orca Aero.
If you’re in the market for an aero bike, the Orca Aero demands serious consideration. While - like all aero bikes - it is designed to be fast and slippery through the air and has an up-to-date design with impressive aerodynamic credentials, it is the bike's ability to deliver speed without compromising comfort that sets it apart.
Many inexperienced riders (and plenty of established riders) hunt for the aero numbers in isolation or simply want the look of an aero bike, unaware of the massive impact of, well, small impacts. The continuous buzz and feedback from the road is energy sapping and most often exagerated by aero bikes, whose deeper aero tubing is less adept at absorbing or dissipating the noise, focussing instead on delivering pure speed. That maybe tolerable if you are just riding short crits on perfect tarmac, but for most of us, the comfort delivered by the Orca Aero will keep us fresher and therefore enhance our enjoyment on longer rides on our less than ideal raod surfaces; all while delivering outright and competitive speed.
Orbea reacyed quickly to the UCI's relaxation of their 3:1 tube profile ratios and were able to adopt more aerodynamic profiles whose length to width exceed a 3:1 ratio. The most noticeable aero-specific elemnt of the Orca Aero is the fork. The wider fork delivers decreased turbulence adjacent to the wheel, and ithe ncreased depth of the fork blades deliver a four-watt saving over the standard Orca. The disc brake only frameset also saves a further two-three watts over the use of rim brakes.
The main frameset tubes feature a truncated profile that reduces drag significantly, while remaining stiff, compliant and unaffected by side winds. While the new regulations make it possible to design a frame with even deeper profiles, Orbea pitch the Orca Aero firmly at the practical, real-world of club riding, bunch racing, sportive leisure riding, and mass entry triathlon; so there is a need for the bike to handle and perform like a traditional road bike, without the drawbacks of a deidcated aero time-trial style bike.
All-in, the Orbea Orca Aero delivers a huge average saving of 27 watts over the already aero-tweaked Orca and aside from the purely aerodynamic considerations, it delivers pro-level lateral stiffness for maximum responsiveness. It is after all - a World Tour machine.
Orbea have also managed to deliver a beautifully balanced and smooth ride by building less stiff OMP fibres into key areas for vibration absorption, in addition to the ultra high modulus OMR fibres that are used throughout the main power transfer zones of the frame. This helps to deliver the power transfer to respond to attacks while delivering the comfort to keep you fresh and competitive over longer rides.
A concise range, the Orca Aero Team is available in 4 specification levels, all are disc brake specific for improved tyre clearnace and better aerodynamics : The entry model, the M30 uses Shimano 105 components and Fulcrum Racing 800 wheels for a great balance of performance and value. Ultegra mechanical adorns the M20 Team with Ultegra Di2 on the M20i. The top of the range M21e Team features a Sram Force eTap wireless 12 speed groupset. All 3 higher spec models feature carbon wheels from Vision : M20 and M20i using Trimax 35 TC and the M21e with Vision 40 SC, all are tubeless ready.
Each model is available in 3 stock colours and all are available through the
MyO custom design app is straightforward and offers a huge number of frame colour customisations, and is a joy to use. The app will also give you an indication of lead times (which will likely be a few weeks longer than for standard colours) and once your order is placed and enters Orbea’s painting schedule, we will be able to provide you with more accurate production timings.