Orbea Rallon Test Ride Review | Coler Preserve, Bentonville, AR | Outerbike Bentoville

The Rallon is Orbea's offering to the enduro world, everything about this bike is big, 29" wheels, 150mm of travel rear and 160mm front and 2.5" aggresive tires all around, even the frame looks kinda big in a beefy interesting way when you look at it. The head angle is slack at 65*, the bottom bracket is low and the wheelbase is long at 1217mm. All in all its pretty clear what they had in mind when they desinged this bike. The question is, does it live well as a all around bike or is it an EWS only rig.

For this test ride and our last day in Bentonville, we went to Coler Preserve, what you're seeing is the Hub, a centric spot from where you can ride, off this awesome structure down in to a variety of trails of all styles.

Its crazy to see what they've acheived here with what is not so much elevation. (Link to: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EX3exE1s-7Y). Coler could very well be the topic of a complete video. You can find a few out there, and its worth a watch, as I heard Jordan Byron put it, Coler is a downhill park in all but name. And well, that you have to pedal up.

But, this wouldn't be a good review if all we did was hit smooth jump lines that could be ridden on a hardtail. Thankfully Coler delivers on the variety with lots of techy and rocky riding.

The bike felt very stable at higher speeds, while it was easy to keep a good attack position on it, as soon as things got rockier, the big wheels started to shine, it plowed through most everything effortlessly and i'm sure I could have kept going much faster than you're seeing here had I had a few days to get used to it.

One thing I really value in a bike is how intuitive they are, I personally really like when a bike is easy to ride and I think for most of us mortals it matter, and this one really does that spectacularly.

What kept me away from 29ers in the past is that they were, well, klunky. The industry in general has moved beyond this, but the Rallon does it particularly well in my opinion, if I had to put it into a a few words, I'd say I forget its a 29er, until it actually matters.

I attribute some of the success to how I felt riding this bike, I mentioned intuitiveness a while ago, and I think that ties into this, it just felt confidence inspiring to me, I knew what the bike was going to do with my inputs, and confidence makes a huge difference. If you saw my Mondraker foxy video I mention in it that I had to consciously work to keep weight over the front end which messed with my confidence; while they're both awesome bikes, on this Rallon I'm going to ride better simply because I belive I can ride better through trusting it. A sketchy moment like that could've fazed me if I were riding something I didn't trust.

You obviously can't tell in the video, but that's a sketchy, sideways off camber rock slant with wheel catchers on both sides, the first time down I had to stop and spot the line for a few tries.

One thing that is noteworthy, is that you can customize the paint on your bike to match exactly what you want. There's a ton of options and you wont be stuck with a color combo you dont like. Orbea is the only company that I'm aware of that does this. You can even place your initials (or channel name) on it.

The Rallon ended up being one of the most fun bikes I've demoed. I can't say I'd buy it living in FL because the pedaling isn't spectacular, but if I live in a mountainous area, this bike would definitely be on my shortlist for the future. If you're someone who's ok with not climbing as fast a possible but love to bomb done, this bike is amazing, just as it was inteded to be as an Enduro bike.

Coler Preserve on Trailforks: https://www.trailforks.com/region/coler-preserve-17174/
Orbea Rallon: https://www.orbea.com/us-en/bicycles/mountain/rallon/cat/rallon-m-team-19

Видео Orbea Rallon Test Ride Review | Coler Preserve, Bentonville, AR | Outerbike Bentoville канала BlindstuffMTB