Bicycles

Pro Bike: Hernandez Gutierrez's Orbea Orca Team Euskaltel-Euskadi

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Parent Category: Bicycles

Category: Orbea

Published on Sunday, 02 May 2010 08:22

Written by Luca Salvatelli

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Team Euskaltel-Euskadi has always supplied the Spanish Orbea bikes, with their high-end product Orbea Orca. Deeply revised last year, the frame than its predecessor, saw his weight decreased to a limit of 875 grams, while its rigidity is increased by 20%. The fork is part of the design of the chassis, always straight carbon monocoque fork has to improve frontal and lateral stiffness, weighs approximately 345 grams. Available sizes (48, 51, 54, 57 and 60) are made individually, each size has a specific project and was not achieved simply by shortening and lengthening the various tubes of the same frame, so each frame, a different measure, has the same stiffness/weight, which is not the traditional system implementation. The frame, fork and full range of steering, it weighs 1290 grams. The frame is characterized by the particular form of tubes, special section and heavier as the bottom bracket with standard BB30, the tube vertical, horizontal and oblique. Each point of the tube is sized according to their workloads, to have this special section. Plenty of corners are reinforced main frame, as are the generous size of the rear tubes, especially near the junction with the main triangle of the frame. The bike team, then, are assembled with Shimano Dura Ace Di2, consisting of controls, brakes, front and rear derailleur, sprocket, chain and crankset. Shimano Dura Ace are always the pedals and wheels, which obviously vary in the individual models according to the characteristics of the path. The tubolars are Vittoria Corsa Evo CX common. The seatpost is custom Orbea, while the stem is an FSA OS 99 CIS, aluminum-coated carbon. The handlebar pattern is always FSA Energy Ergo New aluminum. Saddles are Selle Italia, Gutierrez use an SLR Gel Flow Team Edition, another component widely used by the pros, but every athlete chooses its model. A bike is well crafted and cared for, not light, because of the Dura Ace Di2, but near the regulatory limit and not in line with those presented by the best competitors.