Orbea house-brand launches new Oquo LTD CS series of wheels

At a recent presentation, Joseba Arizaga discussed how a spoke swap can have a significant effect. The Oquo road product manager is behind new wheels, the Oquo LTD CS range, from the brand connected with Orbea bikes. Take, for example, a hole in a road bike’s carbon fork for a brake hose. It’s not as if an engineer builds the fork and simply drills the necessary opening afterward. The design and layup of such a fork has to account for the hole. It likely needs more reinforcement.

Improvements in the Oquo LTD CS wheels

The new Oquo hoops that use Vonoa aero spokes have numerous differences compared with the steel-spoke Oquo LTD that the company released in 2025. The new wheels have 70 per cent more torsional stiffness, which is the strength that allows for the best power transfer. In short, more torsional stiffness means the wheels spin up faster. A lighter wheel is easier to get moving than a heavier one, especially up climbs. Oquo says there’s a six per cent drop in mass when comparing the steel-spoke LTD wheels with the new carbon-spoke ones.

With aero spokes, you expect aero gains. The LTD CS rims and spokes make for wheels that feature a drag reduction of 2 watts. It’s not a big number, but these are the types of increments you see of late as manufacturers are wringing out improvements on components and bikes that have already been buffeted in wind tunnels. The older LTD sets have 24 spokes per wheel. The LTD CS run 20 per hoop. The lower spoke count is another one of the factors that improves aerodynamics.

Compliance and Oquo LTD CS wheels

While stiffness is a key component of a wheelset, vertical compliance is also important.

“We realized that with the carbon spokes, being that stiff, we started having some issues in terms of the compliance,” Arizaga said. “With super vertical stiffness in wheels, we have seen quite often in the races that some riders have some problems handling or managing those wheels, especially on rougher terrains. So that’s another reason we modified the number of the spokes.

“We modified the layup of the wheels, modified the thickness of the rim walls to provide a more—let’s say—flexible structure that will absorb the vibrations that are coming from the ground better. The big difference between the steel spoke and the carbon spoke is that the carbon spoke is not absorbing the vibrations from the ground at…