Orbea joins the wheel market with Oquo road and gravel wheels

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As I’m sure you’re aware, the Tour de France kicks off this year with a grand départ in the Basque city of Bilbao.

Not far along the coast in Bilbao, where the peloton will roll out on stage 1, lies Mallabia, the home of Orbea. And with the Tour starting in their home region, they’ve timed it perfectly to announce their entry into the road wheel market.

If you have a keen eye and hanker for mountain biking, you may already know Orbea’s in-house wheel brand, Oquo. For the past year, the company’s range of mountain bikes has slowly been shipping stock with Oquo wheels.

Joining that mountain bike lineup for 2024 is a range of road and endurance/gravel wheels.

Three options fall into their Road Performance line, suitable for those that demand something that is pure tarmac oriented, stiff, lightweight, and with three depth options. The final two offerings, in their Road Comfort RC line, cater to those looking for the sport’s gravel/endurance side.

Also read: A performance road bike tire with no rubber? Schwalbe’s Aerothan tire weighs just 165 grams | Eurobike day 2 randoms

With so many wheel brands out there already, why would Orbea enter what seems a crowded space?

For starters, the pandemic saw not just the cycling world but industries on a global scale struggle with supply chain issues. Since those problems are behind us now, we’ve seen many brands rethinking their supply chain and manufacturing structures. And Orbea is among these.

It’s also a move for the cooperative bike brand to expand to look to the future. They aim to move with the times with plans to become a more significant player in the market. To do this, they need to offer bikes and components that go up against the best and pitch them at a highly competitive price.

The journey to this point so far has been a three-year project, one that started mid-pandemic. A brave or foolish move, depending on how you look at it. And they’re not going at it half-heartedly.

Unlike many wheel brands, Orbea hasn’t opened one of the many Asian manufacture’s catalogs, chosen a few rims and asked for their Oquo brand to be stuck on the side. Instead, Oquo engineers have designed rims around what they feel the customers need now. Then they’ve been working with top suppliers to finish the build, Sapim for the spokes, and Zipp for their reliable hubs.

The aim for 2024 and beyond is to have the full Orbea range of bikes coming with the Oquo wheels and also start supplying as an aftermarket product. The sums lean somewhere in the half a million unit area, not an insignificant number.

To accomplish this, they’ve built a wheel assembly and testing plant close to the Orbea HQ, with plans to double the size and machinery in a year. It’s a considerable investment for a cooperative, but as I was told, “We’re the masters of our own destiny.”

The road performance line will come available in three tiers: LTD, Team, and Pro. The LTD and Team both share the same rims. Available in 35 mm and 45 mm depths. The LTD adds an extra 57 mm rim to the range. Internal rim widths for the Road Performance line are 21 mm with a “mini-hook” rim design. Officially catering to 700×25-32mm tires, but on the down-low could stretch to 35 mm.

The mini-hook, we were told, straddles the ground between clincher and hookless, allowing for not just a wider choice of tire and ease of installation (we’re told) but also allowing for higher pressure (if that’s your thing). Up to 95psi/6.5 BAR for tubeless, and 116psi/8 BAR if you run tubes.

The LTD wheelsets are built using Sapim CX-Ray TCS, Sapim Alloy nipples, and Zipp Cognition VS2 hubs. Claimed weight for the 35 mm wheels is 1,360 g; 45 mm at 1,465 g; and the 57 mm depth at 1,520 g. Prices are € 1,999 / $ 2,299 / £ 1,999 a pair.

The mid-range Team wheels use Sapim Sprint Oxi for the 35 mm option and the 45 mm depth rims Sapim CX-Sprint. Both are built onto the Zipp ZR1 hub. Claimed weight is 1,465g for the 35 mm and 1,495g for the 45 mm. Again, just like the LTD wheelset, no matter what rim depth you opt for the price is consistent at €1,399 / $1,699. / £1,399.

The entry-level Pro model swaps out the carbon rim for alloy and drops the internal rim width down to 19 mm. Built with Sapim CX-Sprint spokes, Sapim anodized black brass nipples, and Zipp ZR1 hubs. Retailing at €599 / $799 / £599.00.

All of the RP wheels are 24 front and rear spoke count, and 12 thru-axle, and come available with either HG or XDR freehubs, with no N3W option at the time of launch.

If gravel or endurance is your thing, Oquo hasn’t forgotten you. However, the range is less extensive, with just a Team and a Pro option. The rim width is obviously wider to cater to gravel tires with an internal width of 25 mm, 700 x 32-50c tires should be compatible. The Mini-hook design is again in use.

The oddly named RC25Team uses a 30 mm deep carbon rim with a 24 front, 28 rear spoke count, Sapim CX-Sprint and Zipp ZR1 hubs. Weight is 1,390 g a pair, and retail cost is €1,299 / $1,599 / £1,299.

The RC25Pro use an alloy 25 mm-deep rim matched to Zipp ZR1 hubs, Sapim Sprint Oxi 2-1,7-2 TCS, and a spoke count of 28/28. The retail price is €599 / $799 / £599.00.

Unlike the RP line the Road Control range come available with either HG, XDR or N3W freehubs.

A crash replacement program is in place, too, called “keep on rolling”. This will offer owners replacement wheels at a subsidized price. Also, in the near future, just like many of the Orbea bikes range, the wheels will be included in their MyO customization paint program, allowing you to match the wheels to the color of your bike.

If you’ve clicked on this article hoping for a conclusive review, I’m sorry, but I will disappoint you. Though Orbea kindly invited me for two days of testing with the new wheels, I will withhold a conclusive review. Why? Wheels are a product that need to be tested with equipment I’m already familiar with and on roads I know well. Everything was unfamiliar for the launch in Spain: the bike, the roads, tires and wheels. Far too many variables to get an accurate idea of how they perform, but fear not, Oquo do have a set with my name heading my way soon. So stay tuned.

Saying all this, though, my first impressions were of a wheelset that should appeal to a large market.

The wheels don’t come across as anything groundbreaking, but I’ll doff my cap to Oquo at, well, not trying to reinvent the wheel but to bring a competitive product using quality parts to market at a fair price. Everything about them, from the build quality, performance, price point and the unfussiness of the range, shouts that Orbea and Oquo are taking the wheel market seriously and not as a secondary business. The lineup is healthy and certainly feels as if there should be the right product for most riders’ desired use.

One last thing that I commend Orbea and Oquo on is the sheer undertaking they have taken on, especially for a cooperative. Seeing a new facility built and invested in the region is nice. They could have easily outsourced all the testing and building but have put down some serious money to bring it to the company’s town and create new jobs.

Stay tuned for an in-depth wheel test.