Orbea

Orca Dama Bronze/Shimano Ultegra Complete Road Bike - 2013

Whether you're a committed racer or a Gran Fondo enthusiast, you can appreciate perfection. And when it comes to proprietary technological advancements that make life in the saddle easier, we can't remember the last time that we saw a bike like the Orbea Orca Dama BLT. From head to toe, the Orca Dama is loaded with features that reduce drag, weight, and friction. The icing on the cake is Orbea's obsession of making the Orca Dama the ultimate in anatomic frame design. If you're a woman, and you ride bikes, it simply doesn't get much better than this.

The Orbea Orca Dama BLT features a full Orbea Monocoque Bronze carbon fiber (OMB) construction. The Bronze carbon is a higher-density carbon than Orbea's Gold series(less than 2g/cm cubed), but it offers an excellent laminate and aggressive vibration absorption. And while OMB is Orbea's entry carbon, it far exceeds the weight to stiffness ratios of many upper-echelon carbon fibers. Orbea has also integrated its SSN technology into the Dama BLT. This system both maximizes frame rigidity and equalizes it across any body morphology. In layman's terms, Orbea has introduced a variant tube thickness for every frame size. This means that regardless of stature, you're guaranteed a consistent, balanced ride.

Orbea has also made massive strides in providing the ultimate in anatomic fit. After studying the physiology of the sexes, Orbea pinpointed the dimensional differences and how to compensate for them in frame geometry. The Dama is tailored for women from the ground up. The tube dimensions have been reduced, the head tube lengthened, and the top tube placed in the perfect proportional position. Even further, Orbea extends the Dama philosophy to component selection. The idea isn't to make a women's bike, it's to produce a ride quality that's consistently superior, regardless of sex.

So far, we've focused on the Orca Dama's ride quality in respect to materials, but Orbea's attention to aerodynamics is just as impressive. Orbea refers to its aero technology as the Aerodynamic Investigation Zone or AIZonE. Through tunnel testing in San Diego, Orbea found that minimizing the open spaces between moving parts of the bike and structural elements of the frame can reduce overall drag by around 14%. Put into practice, the frame's fork legs, seat stays, and brake stays have been obsessively narrowed so that the frontal point of reference is razor thin. Without going into the physics equations, drag has been minimized and you're going to be moving faster with less effort having to be exerted.

Extending the stacking advantages, the Orca Dama uses Orbea's patented DCR system. This exclusive technology reevaluates the dogma of bicycle cable routing, and improves it through common sense -- 'what's the shortest point from A to B?' The answer is simple. Avoid odd angles and run the cable internally from the side of the tubing. This reduces the necessity for constant maintenance, and it enhances the response time and accuracy of both shifting and braking.

On top of a brilliant frame, you get a loaded component package that features the smooth-as-butter Ultegra 6700 component group with a compact crankset. Ultegra is renowned for its versatility, competitive weight, and overall rigidity. Simply put, Ultegra works, and it's widely considered as the best-bang-for-your-buck in cycling componentry. For a stiff cockpit, you get the Orbea Alu Pro handlebars, Alu Pro stem, and an integrated 1-1/8 x 1-1/2in headset. The complete bike also includes a proprietary carbon fiber seatpost attached to a Selle Italia X1 Lady saddle. To round off the package, we're offering a Mavic Aksium wheelset with a 12-25 Ultegra cassette.

The Orbea Orca Dama BLT is available in four sizes from 47cm to 53cm and in the colors Carbon/purple and White/carbon/silver.