Rappstar wrote:
gary p wrote:
And yet, in the "aero bike test" thread and subsequent follow up threads, almost nobody seems interested in seeing how the Orbea stacks up, aero-wise, against the other superbikes. [shrug]
One of the UK magazines - Pro Cycling maybe - that does a bunch of "aero tests" uses the Orbea as their "control" bike. I have plenty of issues - some quite substantial - with their "testing methodology," but at least according to their testing, it tests quite fast as compared with how it does compared to known extremely fast bikes.
I want to say that I've seen some wind tunnel data thrown around as well that was pretty favorable. I'd bet that, especially if you keep the bike clean (as it has no real storage options) and put fast brakes on it, no reason it shouldn't be a very fast bike.
It does have a Draft-Box-like appendage, and bosses on the top tube for a bento, so, while not as nifty as some of the latest offerings, it's not completely without storage options. I think that if you stayed with something low profile, a bento might not even add anything to the frontal area, given the sloping top tube, and how far back the bosses are. As for brakes, the top three specs come with TriRig Omegas standard.
I don't know if its a great bike, but its at least pretty damn good. Poor Orbea just can't seem to get anything more than token consideration from the triathon market here in the US, though. See the recent "tri-bike brand" poll for evidence of that.
"They're made of latex, not nitroglycerin"