The Orbea story — the past, present, and cycling into the future with a legendary Basque bike brand

A lot of bike brands have interesting histories, but few truly represent the story of their region quite like Orbea. In fact, looking at Orbea’s current cutting-edge products – like the Orca, Orca Aero or Ordu – it takes a leap of imagination to understand that the company actually started life in 1840 making guns.

Still proudly headquartered in its home Basque Country, Orbea’s earliest manufacturing was of shotguns, for hunting in the surrounding hills. However, following the end of the First World War – and the naïve belief that would be the war to end all wars – Orbea’s focus turned to bicycles. 

Two-wheeled production started in 1931 but Spanish life was to be upended in 1936 by the country’s Civil War. After that, Spain’s economy fell into a depression. However, in 1969, Orbea became an employee-owned cooperative – a decision that proved to be ahead of its time.

The result of Orbea’s restructured governance mirrored Spain’s own rejuvenation. Through the end of the 20th Century, the brand’s standing rose and by the turn of the millennium it had become one of the world’s leading race bike manufacturers, achieving victories in the most prestigious greatest sporting events, such as the Tour de France, the Vuelta a Espana and the Olympic Games.

Orbea today

Despite outsourcing manufacturing to China and dabbling in other outdoor pursuits, in 2015 Orbea refocused its entire operation around bikes and brought back the bulk of its production – not least, painting and assembly – to Mallabia in Basque Country. It currently employs more than 1,000 people globally.

But as we mentioned earlier, Orbea doesn’t just give people a job. As part of the Mondragon group – a federation of worker cooperatives based in the Basque Country – Orbea’s staff also have the option to become part owners of the business and share in not only its profits but also its corporate direction. 

This means, as a company, Orbea is highly socially conscious and contributes to a range of worthy causes, even beyond its home region. For example, in the UK, Orbea collaborates as a partner with Trash Free Trails. Equally impressive, benefits from Orbea’s patents – such as its mountain bike internal rear shock lockout routing, iLine – are used for social projects in attempts to create a better, more sustainable and fairer world.

Your tomorrow

So Orbea’s history is long and fascinating, and its business practices are perfectly in step with the ethically-conscious standards of today. But when it actually comes to those patents, research and advanced production techniques, this is a brand very much looking towards shaping what we should expect to see on the bikes of tomorrow. 

We’ll look at three models from Orbea’s road-bike line-up in a moment, all of them informed by Orbea’s commitment to research and development via ‘OOLAB’, the Orbea Optimisation Lab. OOLAB works closely with industry partners such as Shimano to collaborate on innovations in areas like e-biking. Add in the experience gained from supplying bikes to professional riders, such as the legendary Lotto cycling team, and it’s clear that Orbea could have no better way to develop its products.

But what about your own future riding? Orbea has that covered, too. With its MyO personalisation options – where you can specify all sorts of details from stem length to frame design with almost endless colour and style combinations – your Orbea will be exactly the bike you want to ride forever. And with Orbea’s lifetime warranty on frames and rigid forks, you’ll be able to do just that without worry.

So which Orbea model should you choose? Let’s examine three of your options.

Orbea’s bikes

Orbea Orca M35i – £4,199

We’ll look at some of Orbea’s ultimate bike packages in a moment, but let’s start at a sweet spot where performance, spec and price merge to perfection. 

In the case of the Orbea Orca M35I, riders get all the benefits of Orbea’s carbon fiibre monocoque Orca frame – a fine example of modern bicycle design and engineering – and augment it with a fantastic Shimano 105 groupset, including Di2 gearing and hydraulic disc brakes. Finished with Orbea’s own in-house Oquo RP35 TEAM Carbon wheels and Vittoria Corsa N.Ext G2.0 tyres, and you’ve got a bike fit for a pro but – with the option of MYO customisation – entirely made for you.

Orbea Orca Aero M10iLTD – £10,999

What if you want to up the ante a bit (or make that: ‘up the ante a lot’)? If the standard Orca frame is a masterpiece, the Orca Aero is a full gallery of exquisite drag-reduction details and carbon monocoque frame brilliance.

Scientifically proven to save you 15W of effort at 40kph, and 28W of effort at 50kph, the Orca Aero doesn’t do this at the expense of comfort: in fact, when we tested it last year, we said: “The Orbea Orca Aero is basically time trial bike fast but with the versatility and easy-to-live-with riding position of a road race bike.”

Leaving nothing on the table, this M10iLTD version comes complete with Shimano Dura-Ace technology throughout, including Di2 gears and hydraulic disc brakes, as well as Oquo Road Performance RP57LTD wheels and Vittoria Corsa Pro G2.0 TLR tyres. 

Orbea Ordu M10iLTD – £11,999

As used by the Lotto pro team for time trials during the Tour de France, where all that matters is all-out speed, the Orbea Ordu M10iLTD is a carbon monocoque time trial and triathlon bike that has been designed to offer the ultimate mixture of ergonomic adjustability and comfort, lightweight construction, and aerodynamic improvements. In fact, it is proven to be 41 seconds faster over 180km when riding at an average of 43kph.

Again, as with the Orca Aero version, this M10iLTD is kitted out with industry-leading components: Shimano Dura-Ace throughout and Oquo Road Performance RP57LTD wheels.

And this is just a taste of what Orbea has to offer. To find out more about Orbea’s range, visit: www.orbea.com/gb-en/.