Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105 Hydro Bike

The updated Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105 is an endurance-based bike with sporty aspirations, providing both a comfortable and performance-orientated ride for a decent price. It's a solid all-round road bike with a good level of kit and a very pleasing aesthetic in this striking blue finish.

> Buy now: Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105 for £2,499.99 from Orro

For more tarmac-friendly bike choices, check out our guide to the best road bikes.

Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105: Ride

Most of us who like the idea of a full race bike don't need one, but we still want something that puts us in a position where we can get the power out, get a bit aero, and basically feel efficient. That's something that this Gold Evo does.

It feels like everything a race bike should, but towards the end of a lengthy ride on the Orro you start to notice you don't feel fatigue in the usual places... My neck and shoulders would be a little looser, and my usual lower back pain hadn't started to rear its head.

The Gold achieves this by still providing a steepish seat angle for good power transfer while the front end is a little more relaxed than a full race bike. It's a little bit taller too, but all this is very subtle, and it certainly doesn't shout to other riders that you're admitting your racing days are over (or in fact have never begun).

This means the handling never gets near the realms of twitchy, but thanks to a short wheelbase the Gold still feels responsive in the corners, and Orro has made sure that the frame and fork give great feedback to your contact points, which increases your confidence and control.

This all adds up to a bike that is great for riding at speed, whether tucked in the bunch on your group ride or when taking in a route that requires some high-speed descending.

The Gold feels planted to the road surface thanks to a complete lack of road buzz from the frame, which also means it's unlikely to feel unsettled on broken road surfaces. Obviously, it's a stiff road bike so it's not going to give a velvety smooth ride, but I didn't feel like my wrists and rear end were taking a kicking when riding on my local back lanes.

With a wide bottom bracket shell, chunky profiling for the lower half of the frame and a compact rear triangle, the Gold doesn't suffer from flex when cranking hard on the pedals – ideal for those steep out-of-the-saddle climbs or hard accelerations from a rolling or standing start.

The trade-off with high levels of stiffness can mean poor comfort, but Orro has managed to achieve a great balance between the two.

Purely from a riding point of view the Gold Evo ticks all of the boxes required for a fast, comfortable and stiff road bike that's very easy to ride.

Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105: Frame & Fork

This time last year I reviewed the latest version of Orro's range-topping Gold STC model and was very impressed indeed. STC stands for Spread Tow Carbon which is made by Sigmatex, and arranges the carbon fibres in wide tapes that are woven together. It's a method used to reduce weight and increase stiffness, and from my reviewing of both the Gold STC and Venturi STC I can say it brings an excellent ride quality.

This cheaper Evo model uses a combination of four different carbon fibre grades, including Toray's T800 and T700, plus others from Mitsubishi. If you are lucky enough to ride both the STC and Evo together you'll notice that the latter isn't quite as smooth in feel, but as I've said above, it's still a very comfortable bike, especially against much of the opposition.

This is helped by the fact that Orro designs its own moulds and custom specs the carbon fibre composite layup to balance stiffness and flex for comfort.

The Evo follows the same styling as the STC, which gives it a smooth look while also taking some aero cues from the Venturi, Orro's aero road bike. The seatpost clamp is completely internal, and the low seatstays are said to improve aerodynamics.

Each tube flows smoothly into the next and all hoses and cables have been banished to the inside of the frame from the head tube back. I personally think it's a good-looking bike, helped by the fact that this black/blue paintjob looks striking in the sun. If you want something even brighter then you can go for the red.

The bottom bracket uses a press-fit design which, as the name suggests, means the bearing cups are pressed into the frame rather than sitting externally like threaded versions. This means that the BB shell can be wider while maintaining the same overall width between the cranks (Q-factor) as it is with the external setup.

A wider BB shell allows for a wider down tube and seat tube where they join, as well as larger chainstays, all of which can increase stiffness without affecting things like tyre clearance. In the case of the Gold Evo, that's up to 30mm.

Alongside the aesthetics of the frame and fork, the Evo also uses the geometry of the STC model which is, as I mentioned above, a kind of sporty endurance.

Five sizes are available, with the XS having a 500mm top tube and the XL 588mm. This medium sits bang in the middle with a 541mm top tube, 162mm head tube and 510mm seat tube.

The head angle is 72.2 degrees while the seat angle is 74, all of which give stack and reach figures of 570mm and 377mm respectively.

The wheelbase on the medium is just 992mm in length, with 410mm chainstays.

Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105: Finishing kit

As it stands there is just one model in the line-up, this Shimano 105-equipped bike. It's the latest 12-speed mechanical version which I reviewed separately a few months back. Essentially, it's a great groupset that balances brilliant shifting along with powerful braking, at a decent price point.

This latest version has had a few tweaks over the 11-speed. Not just the extra gear on the cassette, but the ergonomics of the brake levers and subtle changes to the front and rear mechs. Basically, it has taken all of the performance of the 11-speed version and enhanced or refined it.

Orro has specced an 11-34T cassette and a 50/34T chainset, giving a good spread of gears for a variety of topography. The 1:1 gearing will help on the climbs, for sure.

For the cockpit Orro has gone for Vision components. The TriMax Aero is an alloy handlebar with wing-shaped aero flat sections either side of the clamping area. It's a comfortable bar to use, especially the wing-shaped section as I tend to ride on the tops a fair bit.

Like most bars these days the drop isn't extreme at all, so they are easy to use without needing the flexibility of a yoga teacher.

The stem is the SMR Alloy Integrated which is designed to run the cables and hoses from the handlebar into the frame via the head tube.

The seatpost is carbon fibre and frame specific. It comes with an easy-to-use saddle clamping mechanism which allowed me to tweak the Selle San Marco seat. I tend to get on with the majority of saddles, and that was the case here, though I prefer something with a bit more shape from a side profile.

The wheels are also from Vision, its Team 30s, which are solid all-rounders with a tiny bit of an aero advantage. I've used them on many bikes over the years and always found them to be durable and to offer a decent ride quality.

Lateral stiffness is good, too. In fact, the only thing that goes against them is their weight. At close to 2kg they are always going to have an impact on performance, especially acceleration and climbing, so this is definitely somewhere I'd be making an upgrade to get the most out of the Gold Evo.

It's the same with the tyres: Continental's Grand Sport Race (28mm) is a good training tyre with a decent balance of durability, grip and rolling resistance, especially for the price, but the Evo does deserve better on those warm, sunny summer days.

Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105: Value

So, a few components that could do with upgrading, but they do keep the Gold well priced on the whole.

This build is £2,499.99, which is a couple of hundred quid cheaper than the similarly specced Defy Advanced 2 from Giant, a bike range that John described as being 'the type specimen for the genre' when he reviewed the Advanced 1 model back in 2023.

Canyon's take on the endurance road bike, the aptly named Endurace, is cheaper than the Gold Evo for a similar build. The 105-equipped CF 7 is priced at £2,349 although if ordering from Canyon you need to add on £18.99 for the delivery box and £49.99 for the delivery, bringing the total to £2,417.98. Orro doesn't charge for shipping, so the overall total isn't that different.

I reviewed the top-end Endurace CFR Di2 last year, and I have to say I wasn't overly enamoured with the way it rode.

Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105: Conclusion

Overall, the Gold Evo is a great all-round road bike in terms of the ride quality, geometry and finish, and it holds up well on price, too. If you want a fast road bike with fun and easy-to-live-with handling characteristics then it's definitely one to consider.

> Buy now: Orro 2025 Gold Evo 105 for £2,499.99 from Orro

Verdict

Fast road bike with balanced steering and comfortable geometry