My Orbea Occam Carbon Review - 1st FS ride!

[Dean407]

This will be the most useless review you ever read. Sorry. I just rode for the 4th time ever on an Orbea Occam Carbon. I think it's this one:

http://www.orbea-usa.com/fly.aspx?la...xid=70&pid=408

Here is my pic today:

http://picasaweb.google.com/lh/photo...eat=directlink

My first two times were on an Orbea alloy 29er. Then I got my own bike- Specialized Hardrock I now refer to as "The Pogo Stick".

Buddy is a sales distributor for Orbea and has had the demo van for the Central Florida area.

This was my 1st full suspension ride.

We rode the 49th St Nayl's Trail: http://omba.org/index.php/Trail-Maps.html

This was an awesome "swoopy" trail with a few steep drops, some roots here and there, but overall, lots of quick nice paths. Did just under 22 miles.

I noticed the difference in rear suspension RIGHT AWAY.

Night and Day - HT vs FS

The gear allowed me to have more fun with less effort required- and my ass didn't kill me at the end of the ride.

I'm 195lbs and we set it up pretty good initially. It was SO nice not to have to raise my butt over roots, etc!

Overall control was fantastic. The brakes were great.

The bike allowed a newbie like me to push limits safely and comfortably.

If anyone has Orbea questions feel free to post and I'll forward them to my buddy.

I'll get to ride it again- or pick from other bikes in the coming few weeks.

Told you the review would be useless. Sorry.

[2dirtywheels]

Ironically Dan, I am in the market for a new ride and as a Orbea Orca owner, I am giving the people who have given me a sweeeeeetttt ride for the road a shot at owning my MTB time as well. Really like the looks of the OCCAM and beleive it or not your little post has some important info that is good to know. Expecially if your a first time FS rider. You would tend to notice things a little more closely. So now down to some ???'s. I am really interested to know if there is a lot of pedal induced bob in and out of the saddle? I am also wondering if your weight is on the front of the bike for a more front planted feel, or if you sit more to the rear, for a quicker front response? Personnally like the light front for obsticle clearing. I do some racing through out the year endurance and crit in sport catagory if your friend needs a little dialogue. I currently still ride a ageing NRS Team, 2001. I would really be interested in talking with your buddy about the specifics on the ride. My personnal address is as follows [email protected]. If you have him drop me a line, I will forward him my Digits for a phone consult. Again thanks for your input.

[Dean407]

I'm not Dan, but Dean- that's OK. ;-)

Funny you ask about bottoming out!

Mind you, I started out on a 29er hard tail. So, going to a 26 FS - YES I did notice bottoming out. In fact, since it was a demo bike the pedals were adjusted on the looser side of things. Once I hit something that caused my right foot to come out of the pedal.

It was a little weird, but I got used to it. Meaning, it wasn't a problem. However, YES- I noticed that after the first couple miles and mentioned it to my buddy who said- yeah...that makes sense...the suspension is going down. I did notice that on my hard tail- Hardrock as well though. So, it's also going from 29 to 26.

Most of the time I am rear weight bias for the trails around here.

My friend who distributes Orbea to retailers I *think* owns an Orca road bike as well. He rides the following MTB:

http://www.orbea-usa.com/fly.aspx?la...xid=70&pid=155

My friend has been riding and has raced for the past 15yrs. He doesn't race anymore, but I am not sure what you mean by a dialogue?

Keep in mind, I don't believe he can sell the bikes directly to end users, but instead can only refer you to a LBS in your area that carries the Orbea brand.

However, I will forward him your post.

[The Beater]

You will love the bike 2dirty, It is light fast and looks great. Back in the day they would have been brutal with the pedal bob however with the propedal there is no bob when climbing.