WORLD CUP DH ROOTS
By starting with the goal of making the new Rallon a bike worthy enough to excel in a World Cup Downhill mountain bike race, its capability was guaranteed to also thrive in the Enduro guise. The Rallon mainframe is the same between both versions, built to handle the punishment of downhill but with provisions made to climb comfortably and carry the essentials in its enduro setup with a different GravityLink installed. But more on that below.
The Center of Gravity of the Orbea Rallon frame has been lowered as far as possible, thanks to the spacious frame design. Since the new Rallon borrows some styling and design queues from the Orbea Wild (Orbea’s award winner enduro eMTB) there was a lot of room around the BB for moving things around. The goal was to give a suspension feel and frame that offers high levels of stability on the descents. With tuned stiffness through the OMR Carbon Fiber layup, the frame is designed to balance stiffness between the front and rear but also remains compliant enough to react to the terrain and provide a blend of traction, comfort, and support.
DH OR ENDURO
With one mainframe featuring adaptability to switch between an enduro and downhill setup, Orbea offers unique possibilities. In DH guise, there’s 200mm of travel front and rear with more aggressive downhill-focused geometry, components and Mullet-only wheel setup.
In the Enduro setup, the Rallon has 180mm front and 170mm of rear travel with enduro components to unlock uphill capabilities while still delivering enough downhill confidence to charge hard on the way down, and riders can choose between Mullet or dual 29”.
GRAVITYLINK – RALLON DH
Orbea’s Gravity Link is the piece of the puzzle that sets the Rallon apart from most and offers incredible tuning potential. The Rallon DH’s GravityLink features a progression flip chip, as well as the ability to directly bolt weights to the bottom bracket area. With these tunable weights, the preference of handling agility or stability can easily be tweaked to offer the handling desired for each track. On the DH bike, riders have three potential weight settings: a 395g center weight and two smaller 80g and 86g weights that can be bolted to the side of the main weight. This gives roughly 561 grams of low-slung mass.
DH Kinematic Goals
- Progression of 25% or 30% lets DH riders choose between improved mid-stroke support or bottom out resistance.
- Low Pedal Kickback to provide a near-chainless feeling
- Fairly Low Anti Rise around 60-65% to give free suspension performance when braking
GRAVITYLINK – RALLON EN
With the GravityLink on the Enduro configuration of the Rallon, the adjustability hits another level. In addition to the singular 553gram weight (different than the DH link) that can be bolted on, there’s also a four-position flip chip to tailor the progression and geometry independently. With a separate GravityLink, the rear wheel size can be adjusted between 27.5” or 29”, and the other adjustability is retained.
The geometry settings on the flip chip offer a high or low position, delivering the rider’s preference of increased stability and integration (low) or improved pedal clearance and agility (high). The difference between the two settings is 0.5° head tube angle and 7mm bottom bracket height.
Enduro Kinematic Goals
- Progression of 22.5% or 27.5% lets enduro riders choose their suspension characteristics
- Low Anti Squat reduces the pedal kickback effects. With the increasing popularity of electronic suspension platforms, riders seeking high efficiency should be able to get the best of both worlds.
- Fairly Low Anti Rise around 60-65% to give free suspension performance when braking
FURTHER HANDLING TUNING POTENTIAL
At the point of purchase, customers can choose between two different length rear ends: 450mm for stability and balance between the wheels, or 442mm for snappier direction changes and increased playfulness.
The headset features a two-position cup, which can be rotated 180° to modify the head tube angle by 0.75° from its nominal setting on either build.
STEEP, DEEP ‘N’ LOW
Orbea continues with their Steep ‘N’ Deep philosophy, guaranteeing extra-long dropper post insertion that should allow for every rider to maximize the dropper post travel they can fit to the Rallon. With the standover dropped and a long-travel dropper post, riders have exceptional freedom to move around the bike for the ultimate control.
HUSH HUSH
Orbea worked on the cable routing to ensure the Rallon runs as free from rattles as possible. The fully internal cable routing can be routed through either the headset or through the ports at the side of the headtube, depending on rider preference. We know, we know, your preference (and ours) isn’t inside the headtube.
The frame protection was improved to quiet rattles and improve protection. The chainstay protector is hollow with a soft durometer rubber, keeping chain slap at bay. Protecting the GravityLink is a removable bolt-on cover.
CARRY THE ESSENTIALS
Consistent across the Orbea Rallon and Rallon DH are the FLP and LOCKR storage systems. FLP, or Fully Loaded Pivot, is a multitool stashed inside the main suspension pivot, providing quick access to the main tools required to maintain the bike. The LOCKR frame storage features a robust and weather sealed door into the downtube, opening up the space to store items safely on the ride. On top, a bottle cage mount is featured to help the rider stay hydrated, even on the DH bike!
READY TO RALLY
Orbea gives the Rallon thoughtful touches to help it stand up to the abuse on the trails. The Fully Sealed Bearings prevent water and dirt from attacking the suspension pivot bearings, prolonging their life and ensuring smooth suspension action. The Second Skin frame protection adds replaceable vinyl protection film to the most damage-prone areas, helping the paint to remain looking fresh for the long haul.
MAKE IT YOURS – MYO
Both the Orbea Rallon and Rallon DH are available to customize in the Orbea MyO program. With this, customers can select the frame color from a range of mild or wild options, and tailor component selection to their liking. MyO is one of the most comprehensive custom bike configurators on the market, and something us Loam Wolfers have had a lot of fun playing with in the past.
DH GETS THE LTD TREATMENT
The Orbea Rallon DH is available only in the D-LTD spec, retailing for $8,299. MyO allows for some tweaks to this spec level. A frame+shock only option is also available with a retail price of $4,299.
ENDURO BUILD RANGE
The Rallon Enduro is available in a range of builds from the E10 at $5,699 to the E-LTD at $9,999. Using MyO, these spec levels can receive a variety of customizations and upgrades to tweak the Rallon to the customers’ liking.
THE WOLF’S FIRST IMPRESSION
We were lucky enough to spend two days shuttling the Rallon DH and Rallon EN in Bellingham, Washington. The primary goal of the days was to film our Dissected video and experiment with various settings under the guidance of Orbea employee and former racer Parker DeGray. Having Parker on-hand was a great asset, as we could bounce our theories and ideas off him as we learned the bike and played with different setups. Coincidentally many of our steps were like that of their riders and team as they learned the capabilities of the new machine.
I (Drew) spent time aboard the DH bike, while Cole focused his efforts on the Enduro spec. It was a fun experiment to see what parts of the trail the DH bike would pull away and where the Enduro bike would effortlessly reel the DH rig back in.
Both Cole and I were very impressed after nearly 12,000 feet of downhilling over two days. Far from enough for an official review, but more than enough to get a good feeling about this bike in both guises…The new 2025 Orbea Rallon is truly a versatile and capable machine that could pull double-duty if you’re interested in having two shocks and forks, but can be just as comfortable being a dedicated horse for your dedicated course.
While both of the bikes had their own respective standout characteristics, the flat out speed, poppy feel and cornering prowess stood out to both of us. Similarly, both Cole and I were pleased to feel discernable differences in the different settings of the bike right away. It’s nice to make a change and notice it on trail right away. This means the tweaks are significant and can really help riders find the right feel for their terrain.
Overall, we both enjoyed our test time aboard the Orbea Rallon, and we’ve brought the DH bike home with us and have already begun our long term test. With the weights having just arrived at our HQ, we look forward to test runs, timed segments and of course rider feedback reports to see just how different the weights make this already impressive bike perform. Could this be the ultimate DH and Enduro platform? We’re damn excited to find out.
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