Ethan Wood is off to a strong start in 2026. After a UCI Junior series win in Puerto Rico, the junior men’s cross country national champion landed another couple wins at the Langford Canada Cup season opener. He did all of that on this decked-out Orbea Oiz.
Bike Check: Ethan Wood’s junior national champs Orbea Oiz
After earning the junior men’s XCO national title last summer in Langford, Wood was back at Jordie Lunn Bike Park in full maple leaf kit. Jersey and bike. The custom-painted red-and-white Oiz from Basque brand Orbea looks similar to another national champions Oiz in colour, but this one’s set up with Wood’s selection of parts.
Wood is running SRAM’s XX SL Eagle T-Type wireless drivetrain. That includes a Quarq powermeter integrated into the system.
Wood also has a tiny chain catcher set up for the Oiz. Dropping chains is pretty uncomon these days, especially with the T-Type systems. But when safe takes so little extra weight, why not. Saturday’s weather for the XCO was much nicer than Friday’s muddy mess of a short track race, but there was still enough moisture in the ground to fling up some dirt onto Wood’s Oiz.
Orbea’s own OQUO brand supplies MP30 LTD carbon fibre wheels, using an OQUO hub with DT Swiss internals, are wrapped win Schwalbe Rick XC tires, front and rear. The 2.4″ tires are Schwalbe’s Pro/TLR/Speed compound for Wood.
Also note the crazy hollow pulley wheels from that XX SL derailleur. Oof.
Wood is running RockShox’s electronic Flight Attendant system, both on the SidLuxe Ultimate shock and SID Ultimate fork. That system is designed to automatically adjust how firm your suspension is according to the terrain your on. Locked out for pavement and sprinting all the way to wide open for descents.
Still a junior, Ethan Wood is definitely too young to have raced NIMBY 50. The iconic Pemberton, B.C. XC marathon last ran in 2019. But Wood is from Pemberton, and couple probably cover that course faster than most of the podium finishers over the 10 years that event ran.
The system can include a remote to override Flight Attendant’s choices when you need to. Wood isn’t running that right now but is considering adding it. Without it, Wood has one of the cleaner cockpits, with just the dropper post lever for a Fox Transfer SL and cable houses running into the Oiz’s head tube below that one-piece bar-stem combo.
The Flight Attendant dongle sits at the top of that SID Ultimate. At the bottom, four…
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