Orbea Occam LT - Dream Build 14

From basically never of hearing or considering an Orbea, I have fully converted to the Spanish brand.

Previously, I was on a SB130 LR (L), and it was a great bike, but almost too much of a bruiser for me. If you have ridden that bike, you know it’s not a chill bike. It performs best when going full throttle, and if it’s not being pushed hard it can feel a little washy with the short rear end, and long front center, ei you have to actively weight the front end, or it will knock you off line. This made for a very demanding (yet extremely fast) ride, but doing 3+hour rides on it was pretty exhausting. And since that’s my typical weekend ride, I knew I would like to switch it up when something ticked all the boxes I was looking for.

What I was looking for was pretty hard to find in the day of long-slack enduro sleds. I wanted: a lighter bike, better pedaling characteristics, slightly longer rear end, 470mm reach, 66hta (any slacker and wheel flops too much imo), bottle cage in the frame, good aesthetics, sub $6,500 pricing.

Then a long came the Occam LT. Originally, I was going to buy the M30 LT, which has the new DPX factory shock, and performance fork, with SLX components for $4600, but the wait time was too long, and I didn’t want to get stuck wishing for a bike as we continue to battle supply chain woes. So when my local dealer told me they would have an M10 LT in stock before the end of the year, I decided to splurge, and when full custom with it… and built a hard-charging, light enough for all day adventure trail eater!

Everything was hand-selected, for good weight/performance ratio and installed by me. Magura MT7 Brakes, Galfer Pads / Rotors, DT Swiss XRC Wheels, Shimano XTR Cassette, XT shifting, SLX crank with XTR chainring. All comes together for a bike that weighs 28lbs with coil, Grip 2 36, and proper 4 pot brakes.

This is the perfect bike, I have been able to put several big days on it already, and it feels amazing! It’s a super light pedaling bike, and keeps me feeling fresh even on 4-hour rides! The geo is contemporary, but not crazy, which really helps with a comfortable body-position, seated, and standing. And when pointed down, it comes alive like nothing I have ridden before! I am not sure if it’s the coil, or what, but it soaks up everything in it’s path and is so incredibly confident that it just begs to go faster and faster!