The new Orbea Oiz retains its cross country race appeal but bumps up the travel to 120mm front and rear. And is lighter and stiffer, because why not?
Orbea is calling the new Oiz “the fastest XC bike to leave our factory in over 180 years.” Which, if nothing else, is a good way of reminding people that Orbea has been around for a really, really long time.
For fans of unashamed XC race bikes, Orbea is here for you. This new Oiz, despite the increase in travel, is still very much an exercise in appealing the usual stuff that XC racers love to hear about. Namely, low weight and high stiffness.
Orbea even goes as far to purposefully state that this bike is NOT and ‘down-country’ bike. You can almost hear Orbea spit at the ground in disgust at the very thought of such a thing.
Whereas most new mountain bike models in other disciplines, such as Trail Bikes or Enduro Bikes, focus on updated progressive geometry or tuned suspension leverage curves, the Orbea Oiz PR is very much about how much things weigh.
Orbea claims a sub 10kg weight for the new Oiz. And while that is for a Medium size frame model, it does include pedals (not sure which, mind), water bottle (presumably empty) and a computer mount. 9.98kg is the figure being bandied about. Which, if nothing else, is going to make racers feel encouraged as they line up at the starting pistol.
Speaking of water bottles, you can fit two decent sized bottles in any of the frame sizes. Marathon and endurance racers rejoice.
And as for frame weight, which is something that is still very much a concern amongst XC racers, the claimed frame weight is 1,750g.
How has the weight being shaved off an already not-heavy XC bike? Orbea has redesigned the (carbon) linkage, reworked the lamination of the carbon frame and there’s something dubbed SIC System. Which is a headset/stem arrangement that the cables pass through.
Try not to go ‘uh oh’ just yet though (having said that, thru-headset cable arrangements are actually quite liked by a lot of XC racers, believe it or not).
The SIC System results in weight saving by virtue of the ability to run shorter lengths of cabling and brake hosing. Many of you reading this may well be rolling your eyes at this, but plenty of folk will be nodding and mouthing ‘cool!’
Orbea claims that the SIC System also results in quieter cables. SIC is also “optimised to make changing the stem and handlebars just as easy as on a non-integrated cockpit.” We have no explicit details or diagrams of it yet though.
Oh, and there’s a steering limiter called Spin Block in there too.
Continuing the uncompromising efficiency first vibe, Orbea has also slapped a SquidLock three-position suspension compression adjustment remote lever on to the handlebars (Open, FIrm, Lock).
On to suspension and geometry, two things that are always relatively far down XC racers’ concerns.
The 120mm of frame travel is a single pivot with flex stay design. It’s a further refinement of Orbea’s nigh-on 20-year-old UFO design. The pivot placement and the linkage design have both been designed from scratch however to be a 120mm travel system. Orbea is at pains to explain that the new Orbea is not just a previous 100mm array with a new linkage to increase the travel a bit. It’s a ground-up design.
As well as a nominal increase in suspension travel, the lateral stiffness of the rear stays has been upped. They’re 12% stiffer than the previous Oiz apparently. Part of this heightened rigidity is a move to different bearings.
Geometry. 67° head angle. 72.5° seat angle. 432mm chain stay length. 333mm BB height. 472mm reach on a Large. Low slung stack (606mm on a Large).
Join our mailing list to receive Singletrack editorial wisdom directly in your inbox.
Each newsletter is headed up by an exclusive editorial from our team and includes stories and news you don’t want to miss.
You must be logged in to reply to this topic.