New Orbea owner...

[robertmw]

After a bit of research, I have ordered a nice shiny new Orbea Aqua T105. The reviews I read were very good, so decided to go ahead. I went to a local dealer to have a look and it seemed to be love at first sight.
Anyone out there got any views/reviews or experience of Orbea in general or the Aqua T105 specifically?
I've just got back into riding after a long lay off and decided it was time to pension off my old MBK Emmelle team and upgrade to some new technology which, hopefully, will help upgrade these old legs.

 

[Angliru]

Well I've been an Orbea rider since around 2005, riding the same Zonal Vitesse for that time period. Zonal is the type of Columbia aluminum tubing and Vitesse I guess is the model (label on the top tube). It has served me quite well. Lightweight for an aluminum frame from that period (2.2 lbs for the frame alone). I'd ridden all Cannondales before and it doesn't punish me as much as the Cannondales but it isn't as responsive. I'd noticed that the front end wasn't as stiff as the Cannondales and I could detect bit of flex there in comparison. The bottom bracket is stiff enough that it seems little of the meager efforts in power that I put forth are wasted. I've won my share of sprints on this bike so I can't complain about it in that department.

Overall I couldn't be happier with my purchase and I still look at it and say to myself, "That's a one good looking bike!" and get multiple compliments on it to this day. Mine is glossy black with silver Orbea on the downtube. Orbea at that time painted all their logo's on their frames compared to the stickers that most other manufacturers use. The down and top tubes are diamond shaped and the Orbea logo on the down tube is mirrored so there is like a reflection of the logo that to me adds to the bikes beauty. Mine has old Ultegra 9 speed components with a black FSA Energy crank in place of the original Ultegra one and Mavic Ksyrium Elite wheelset in black. I'd post a picture if I had one.

Orbea has proud and long history in the sport and many decades of experience in crafting quality bikes so I think you won't be disappointed.

I must say though that I was under the illusion that I would be able to suddenly climb like Iban Mayo once the roads turned upward and unfortunately that didn't happen. I've been meaning to drop the Orbea people a line about that but just haven't gotten around to it.