Orange, a company justly famed for their impressive British-made mountain bikes, have just released an excitingly fresh new carbon fibre road bike, due to hit shops mid-December in very limited numbers.
Designed with their mountain biker following in mind, the first off-road-ish thing you’ll notice is the funky monochrome orange design on the forks and chainstays. We like, a lot! The Carb-O features a full Shimano 105 groupset, Easton wheels and Easton finishing kit, the parts are specially chosen to balance weight, performance, speed and reliability. The bike is designed to be comfy enough for racey all-day sportives, but not as an out and out racing bike.
Orange say, “The front triangle is a true monocoque offering with the unidirectional carbon layup optimised to handle specific directional loads and manipulate them to balance efficiency and comfort. The distinctive monostay is lugged to make the rear of the bike strong and stable at speed, with the longstanding reliability that informs everything we do. Technology shared with the very best but customised for our perfect ride. Racing, training, the local chain gang or an all day mission in the hills, the Carb-O provides the perfect midpoint in the category standoff. The smoothest Orange, our dream come to life.”
Strange as this new road addition may seem coming from this hardcore MTB brand, Orange say it isn’t totally out of the blue. “The Dynamo of 1991 was the original Orange road machine - an aluminium race bike designed well ahead of its time,” they say. “During the next two years the Formula and Ti-di experimented with frame materials and compact geometry, but it was the introduction of the D2 that pushed road design into new territory. Ridden to great success by Jon Clay and Team Orange, racers all over the UK began buying the frame to sticker up as their own. By 1995 it was winning National Premier Road races underneath Tour de France veteran Adrian Timmis. That heritage never went away.”
Want one? The Carb-O will cost £1900 and there will only be 120 bikes available, so get saving fast!
Click here for more details www.orangebikes.co.uk
Posted on Wednesday, 26 October 2011
