Orbea makes Oiz lighter, stronger, still 29″ and still a little bit different

Orbea’s Oiz has held a place in the Basque brand’s line since 2005. In that time, the platform’s introduced a few new innovations, survived a few changes in wheel size and won a whole bunch of races. For the latest Oiz, Orbea’s focusing on some pretty significant refinements of the platform. There’s no major overhaul, and no 32″ wheels in sight, but a huge amount of work went into elevating this Oiz in the highly competitive world of XC race bikes.

Oiz is not moving to 32

Let’s get this out there right away. Orbea’s not moving the Oiz to 32″ wheels, yet. But, with the new wheel size looming on the horizon, Orbea’s also not sitting still and waiting for the change. When inevitably asked about the big wheel question, the response was measured.

“Like making a cake, you need the ingredients, or components, and time,” was the response from the development team. And they didn’t feel like 32″ components are good enough yet and didn’t want to rush into the new platform. Instead, they’re putting in the work to make the 29″ platform better.

2027 Orbea Oiz: What’s new

So, what is changing with the Oiz? There are a lot of the usual talking points, but with some twists. The frame is lighter and stiffer, remaining one of the lightest out there. Orbea’s sticking with its “regressive” suspension kinematics designed for cross country racing. There’s some slight geo changes, but nothing wild. And some welcome changes to standards around the BB and brakes.

Oiz: Stiffer in the right places, light but not too light

The new Oiz is, like all cross country bikes, a balancing act between stiffness, weight. The bones, though, are a 120mm rear-travel carbon fibre frame. Orbea says it’s optimised around a 120mm fork, though 130mm forks are an option.

To maximise stiffness while reducing weight, Orbea targeted specific parts of the frame. Moving from a carbon suspension linkage to a forged aluminium one, for instance, improved stiffness while cutting 30 per cent of that components weight. A new seat stay bridge improved rear end alignment under load. Even how the BB area was assembled was improved. All of these, Orbea argues, help keep the shock in line which has a knock-on benefit of making the suspension work better.

The main change is, visually, the change in tube shapes around the upper shock linkage on the Oiz. Like several brands, the shock now runs nearly in…