Orbea Orca M11i LTD

Orbea has significantly changed its Orca, making it somehow more the same

- Sam Challis

The killer whale – or, to give it its Latin name, orcinus orca – is sleek, fast and aggressive. It’s understandable why Spanish bike brand Orbea might look to one of the ocean’s great hunters when naming its top-end race bike. Except that it didn’t.

‘The Orca has nothing to do with whales,’ says Aitor Otxoa, marketing manager at Orbea. ‘It stands for ORbea CArbon, because it was our first carbon bike. That the flair, craftsmanship and technical process of our frame evokes the power, speed and beauty of the predator is quite accidental,’ he adds wryly. ‘But we aren’t that unnecessarily romantic here at Orbea.’

The name may be more prosaic than we’d like, but the Orca is still the jewel in Orbea’s crown. The monocoque frame goes back to 2003, which means this latest iteration has almost 15 years of refinement informing its design.

With that in mind, I was understably excited to throw a leg over the new Orca to discover what new attributes the Spanish company had added. But, it has to be said, for a long while nothing jumped out at me.

On most of the bikes I ride, an outstanding trait becomes apparent almost immediately. Perhaps it’s a unique look, exceptional handling or mind-boggling acceleration. With the Orca I didn’t get any of that. On my first few rides I knew there was something special about the bike, yet I just couldn’t quite place what it was.

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