Orbea was founded in 1840 by brothers Juan Manuel, Mateo, and Casimiro Orbea inEibar,Basque Country, Spain. Originally a rifle and gun producer, Orbea exited the gun business and began designing and producing bicycles as Orbea Bicycles in 1930. Orbea began participating in theTour de Franceas early as 1934, with famous SpaniardMariano Cañardoas the face of the Orbearoad cyclingteam.[2]
In 1969, under dire financial circumstances, employees formed a co-operative and purchased Orbea from the Orbea family.[3]The newly formed Orbea cooperative left Eibar the same year to nearby Mallabia, where their first dedicated bicycle factory was built. For the next several decades, the company would focus on producing leisure bikes for consumers in Spain and around Europe.
Orbea would return to competitive road cycling in the 1980s as Gin MG-Orbea and laterSEAT-Orbea, led by Spaniard cyclistsPedro Delgado,Jokin Mújika, andPello Ruiz Cabestany. Participating in both Tour de France andVuelta a España.
Orbea began manufacturingmountain bikesin 1989.
Products
2007 Orbea Ordu carbon fiber time trial bicycle
Orbea designs and manufactures a variety of road, mountain,triathlon, and urban bikes. More famously seen in competitions: the Orca and Avant road bikes, Rallon and Occam Mountain Bikes, and Ordu time trial/triathlon models.
Orbea has sponsored and supplied bikes to teams, including theEuskaltel–Euskadiprofessional team in the Basque area of Spain and the Herring Gas teamin the USA.Samuel Sánchezrode an Orbea Orca Carbon to win theroad raceat theBeijing OlympicsandJulien Absalonwon themountain bikegold on an Orbea Alma.Craig Alexander, three time Ironman World Triathlon Champion (2008, 2009, 2011), rode an Orbea Ordu in his first 2 wins and although he had planned to spend the rest of his career racing on Orbea bicycles, having signed a lifetime contract with Orbea in 2010,[5]he switched to another brand for the 2011 race.
The UCI Professional Continental teamCofidis Solutions Créditsraced Orbea bikes in the 2016 and 2017 seasons.
The UCI Domestic Elite Cycling Team, Rio Grande Elite Cycling Team, currently races on Orbea bikes.
E-bikes
Launching at the end of 2017, Orbea introduced the Gaine-bikemodel available in both road and hybrid model. Further to this they introduced the electric-assisted Orbea Wildmountain bikein 2019.