Hi.

Say you ride trails and like the look of the new Orbea Occam. How do you decide between the carbon or the alloy. In their marketing stuff they say they won’t publish weight as it’s more about how the bike feels!

£4,399 for the Carbon M10

£2,899 for the alloy H10

Same components. Is a carbon frame really worth £1500 more than an alloy frame?

No. Not in my opinion. Not that I wouldn’t ever buy carbon, but the huge premium just isn’t worth it. £1,500 for a few grams of weight which you won’t really notice and a stiffer frame, which won’t benefit you unless you are an MTBing god (you might very well be). Get the alloy and spend a bit on skills courses and MTB holiday’s.

Get the alloy and spend a bit on skills courses and MTB holiday’s.

And upgrade the wheels to carbon rims

Think the sweet spot is the M30/H10 for an extra £500 which is a lot you get a carbon from and very similar components.

Worth remembering that you can change certain parts of the spec on these bikes.

If you go onto Mtb Monster for example they allow you to change the spec on all models so you could take a look at the M30 and just upgrade what you want which might make it a bit cheaper.

Having said that the Alu frames look very impressive, barely a weld in sight so you could just pretend it’s carbon 🙂

Really worth noting that isn’t true at all, the M10 and H10 have pretty much nothing in common spec wise, certainly not ‘the same’.

Factory level suspension, inc piggy back shock, Raceface carbon bar, full 12spd XT inc brakes, an actual DT star ratchet hub, top spec rims… you can’t even get the H10 near that WITH all available upgrades.

Both are sick bikes, as mentioned above the M30 is closer to the H10 spec which is a £400 premium for the carbon frame

But it’s still worth looking at the lower spec models and seeing if the upgrades available get you anywhere near an acceptable spec level but for less money, especially considering he’s asking about a £1500 premium for the frame alone being worth it.

Might not be of interest, but might be helpful seeing as not all sites stocking the bike give you the option to change spec so he may not be aware.

I´ve only ridden the Carbon one and have ordered it already. (Due 2nd December!) I went for the M10, the M-Team doesn´t add anything for me. 36´s, XTR brakes and OC Dropper were the only changes I made, plus a gold / black colour scheme which is love/hate! For me that´s the sweet spot, it´s got nothing on it that we will need to change.

For hire bikes i´m ordering the H10 with 36´s. That is for the XT drivetrain plus the DT Swiss wheels we have found really (really!) reliable. That works great for me and the aluminium frame is much better for hire bikes.

That works great for me and the aluminium frame is much better for hire bikes

Why is that as we are led to believe carbon is stronger and lighter? Do your clients crash a lot