Orbea Bikes

Basque Country brand Orbea has always done things its own way. There’s an authenticity and warmth about the company that stems from the place, the people, and their enduring love for cycling. That same wellspring of passion is the reason for the popularity of Orbea bikes in the US and, for our part, the roads of Arizona and the Southwest, too.

For those unfamiliar with the region, the Basque Country in northern Spain is a glorious land of rugged mountains, full-bodied coffee, world-class food and wildly welcoming people - fast friends, fierce huggers and even fiercer proponents of cycling. Gratifyingly, Orbea still designs, paints and assembles its bikes there.

Orbea first emerged in 1840 as a family-owned business, made guns (it was a wild time), then turned all of that tube-shaping know-how towards the manufacture of bicycles in 1885 and exclusively toward making bikes from 1931. It has been a cooperative since 1969 and part of the Mondragon Cooperative Group since 1971, the universal watchword for fair pay, respect, freedom and employee satisfaction. We mention this only because the Mondragon's astounding reach informs every bicycle Orbea produces, from the summit-slaying Orca to the fat tires of the Rise and the agile performance of the Terra on the trail. Being part of a larger organization gives Orbea access to facilities larger companies can only dream of. The company's designers and engineers can access state-of-the-art wind tunnels and the finest minds in myriad fields of science and technology with dizzying ease. And the results show on the road like nothing you've ever ridden.