Orbea Occam 27.5 and 29er first ride
Orbea Occam 27.5 rear quarter (click to enlarge).
Update: June 29, 2016
Now that this bike is available in the US, we wanted to update this story to refresh folks on the glorious bikes Orbea introduced last year. Learning key lessons from their very capable 160mm travel Orbea Rallon, the Occam inherits the slack head angle and steep seat angles optimized for today’s riding styles. Optimized for dropper posts, these bikes climb well with the seat forward during climbing but out of the way during descending.
One of the real revelations about this bike is how light and stiff it is. One year later, when all the competition has released their entries in this arena, no one is able to touch the sub-25 lb weight of the top-shelf Occam. It’s light and it rides extremely well with no compromises in components and tire choice.
Rocks were plentiful in the Pyrenees.
July 6, 2015
What is it?
We traveled to Spain to check out what Orbea has been up as they launched three bikes in their growing mountain bike line. The biggest news of the lot is the new Occam trail bike. Now in its third generation, Orbea has matured from a popular road bike, TDF player to a legitimate mountain bike manufacturer. Learning from the very capable Rallon introduced in 2013, Orbea delved deep into modern mountain bike geometries. The Rallon was the most enduro of many All Mountain bikes, perhaps too rowdy for some as it demanded to be ridden hard all the time. Orbea merged some of that knowledge with their sculpted carbon wizardry and created the Occam.
Orbea understood that trail bikes are at a crossroads right now with some riders wanting to carve berms and catch air on big descents while others want to go far and fast on big, epic rides. To this end, they created two Occams, a 27.5 wheeled bike with 140mm of travel and a 29er with 120mm of travel. The 27.5 version has slacker geometry and beefier spec for more aggressive terrain the the 29er version.
The rear triangle is sculpted and shaped to form a very light structure (click to enlarge).
2016 Orbea Occam Highlights
- Top end 27.5 bike is under 24 lbs.
- Available in AM 27.5 wheels with 140mm travel and TR 29er model with 120mm of travel
- Carbon model has a UFO flexion rear triangle to allow rear suspension movement
- Alloy model has a concentric pivot for suspension movement
- Boost 12x148mm rear axle for shorter chainstays
- Internal cable routing
- Enduro sealed bearings
- Removable high direct front derailleur mount to allow clean 1x or 2x options
- Modified (2-bolt) ISCG 05 mount with frame protector on carbon models
- Fits most 2.4-inch tires
- Waterbottle mount in front triangle
The frame is incredibly light and stiff with with internal cable routing (click to enlarge).
Our favorite of the the two versions is the Occam AM which gets the smaller 27.5 wheels and 140mm travel front and rear with a slacker head angle. It is lively, capable and playful in aggressive terrain. The 34 mm stanchions on the Fox fork and beefy Maxxis tires gave this bike a large sweet spot when it came to descending.
We weighed the top-tier Occam AM in size medium, and found it to tip the scales at just 10.97kg / 23.79lb without pedals. A sub-24 lb bike with a dropper post and aggressive tires was a delight indeed as it could climb the big mountains of the Pyrenees.
Product Manager Xabier Narbaiza weighs the Occam (click to enlarge).
With Boost hubs, the rear chainstays are short at 435mm while still allowing large 2.4 tires on wide rims. The front fork will be a 110mm boost spacing as well. The buyer will have the option of running a 1x or 2x setup on the bike as both sets of chainrings will come on the top spec of the Occam.
Continue to page 2 for ride impressions »
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