The new Orro Pyro Evo gran fondo bike has just arrived here at road.cc for testing and it's a really interesting model. Let's take a quick look before Stu comes in to collect it for review.
We've covered Sussex-based Orro loads over its relatively short history, recently telling you about the completely redesigned Gold STC gran fondo bike, for example.
Find out about the new version of the Orro Gold STC
The carbon-fibre Pyro is the other gran fondo bike in the range and, like the Gold STC, it has just been updated.
The Pyro and the Gold STC are designed for long rides, both with a performance edge. There are a lot of endurance bikes out there these days, but the Orro team feels that its bikes have a real focus on fast riding.
Check out the geometry of the Pyro Evo, for example. We have it in a medium size with a 540mm effective top tube, a 155mm head tube, a 559mm stack and a 380mm reach. The head angle is 73° and the seat angle is 74°.
To put that into plain English, it means your ride position is going to be a little more relaxed than on a traditional race bike but not nearly as upright as you get on many endurance bikes. It splits the difference between those two extremes.
The Pyro Evo is available with disc brakes only (there's no rim brake option any more) and it now uses 12mm thru axles front and rear, which is the way the market has been moving.
It's a small point in the overall scheme of things but Orro provides a removable switch lever for tightening and removing the axles. It's essentially a hex key with a neat lever body. You can either take it out and store it in your pocket, or leave it attached to one of the axles. It won't fall out (we used one recently on Orro's Venturi aero road bike; it's perfectly secure).
The Pyro Evo comes with a threaded bottom bracket, a full-carbon Pyro Evo Superlight 3.0 fork and 28mm-wide tyres fitted as standard. Orro was one of the first brands to get on board with wider tyres for performance-driven road bikes with 28mm having become far more accepted over the past couple of years.
The Pyro Evo is available in two standard builds (although you could always get one built up with different components; Orro builds up its bikes in the UK so its a straightforward process). The one we have here is the more expensive of the two, coming in at £1,899.99. This one is equipped with a full Shimano 105 groupset, including hydraulic disc brakes. You might well know that 105 is Shimano's third tier offering for the road, giving you fabulous value for money.
The chainset is a compact (with 50-tooth and 34-tooth chainrings) with an 11-30-tooth cassette.
The wheels are Fulcrum R900 DBs and the 28mm tyres I mentioned previously are Continental's Ultra Sports.
Nearly everything else is tried and tested kit from well known brands. The handlebar and stem are both Deda Zero1, for example, while the saddle is a Prologo Kappa RS. It's just the alloy seatpost that's Orro's own.
The Pyro Evo is slightly lighter than previously, our complete bike coming in at 9.08kg.
The other build is similar in many ways but you get an FSA chainset, handlebar and stem and cable-operated TRP Spyre disc brakes. This model is £1,499.99.
Whichever option you go for you can choose either a black/red or an ice blue finish. Rather than an afterthought, Orro spends a lot of time working on its paintwork and results speak for themselves. Both versions look great with tiny flecks within the finish catching the light.
Stu will be whisking the Orro Pyro Evo away for testing soon so expect a complete review on road.cc soon.
In the meantime, head over to www.orrobikes.com for more details.
Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. We send him off around the world to get all the news from launches and shows too. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now pushing 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.