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TECH NEWS

First Look: J.Guillem Orient + video

A titanium all-road bike that's designed to be versatile and rugged

The Orient is a titanium all-road bike, that term covering all kinds of of quick and comfortable road riding over various different sorts of surfaces. You can imagine the Orient being used for weekend rides, winter training, longer commutes, Audax… It’s intended to be versatile and rugged and a bit of an all-rounder.

The frame is made from seamless 3AL/2.5V titanium which is designed to be strong and lightweight. It has a hand brushed finish.

J Guillem Orient - head tube badge.jpg

In terms of frame features, you get a cast head tube that’s tapered – it takes an 1 1/8in bearing at the top, 1 1/2in at the bottom for some extra front-end stiffness.

J Guillem Orient - seat stays.jpg

You get very skinny seatstays, designed to offer a bit of give at the back, and cast titanium 3D disc dropouts that take flat mount disc brakes.

J Guillem Orient - front.jpg

The Orient is built to an endurance geometry. We have the 56cm model here with a 558mm top tube, 530mm seat tube and 185mm head tube. That’s going to put you into a slightly more relaxed riding position than a race bike, but you won’t sit completely upright by any means.

J Guillem Orient - fork detail.jpg

The full carbon fork holds the front wheel with a 12mm thru axle, the same system that’s used at the back.

J Guillem Orient - seat post collar.jpg

Like the frame, the seatpost is titanium and so is the collar, while the saddle, handlebar and stem are all J.Guillem’s own. 

J Guillem Orient - drive train.jpg

The Orient is built up with Shimano’s new Ultegra R8000 groupset. You get a compact chainset here (with 50/34-tooth chainrings), an 11-30-tooth cassette, and hydraulic disc brakes.

J Guillem Orient - rim.jpg

The wheels are DT Swiss R23 Spline Disc, and the tyres are Schwalbe G-One in a 30mm width. They’re set up tubeless.

J Guillem Orient - bars.jpg

With J.Guillem you can either buy an off-the-peg bike or frame only. On J.Guillem’s website you can also hit the ‘configure’ button and choose things like crank length, handlebar width, stem length. You can choose the model of wheels, seatposts and stem you want and the price will be adjusted accordingly.

We’ll get this bike out on the road and have a review on road.cc in the next few weeks. In the meantime, you can get more info from jguillem.com.

Mat has been in cycling media since 1996, on titles including BikeRadar, Total Bike, Total Mountain Bike, What Mountain Bike and Mountain Biking UK, and he has been editor of 220 Triathlon and Cycling Plus. Mat has been road.cc technical editor for over a decade, testing bikes, fettling the latest kit, and trying out the most up-to-the-minute clothing. He has won his category in Ironman UK 70.3 and finished on the podium in both marathons he has run. Mat is a Cambridge graduate who did a post-grad in magazine journalism, and he is a winner of the Cycling Media Award for Specialist Online Writer. Now over 50, he's riding road and gravel bikes most days for fun and fitness rather than training for competitions.

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7 comments

Avatar
amazon22 | 6 years ago
0 likes

There's a picture on their website of it fitted with what looks like a Tubus rack (with a single centre stay) and rear mudguard but no front mudguard ...

Avatar
Jeroen | 6 years ago
0 likes

The Orient does have rack mounts, which can be removed smiley

Avatar
DoctorFish replied to Jeroen | 6 years ago
0 likes

Jeroen wrote:

The Orient does have rack mounts, which can be removed smiley

 

Maybe, but I can't see them mentioned on their website

 

Avatar
Nick0 | 6 years ago
1 like

Can't see the rack and guard mounts either. Not sure why you'd even shortlist this against the new Enigma Etape disc. I got one, it's sublime. Yours, Mr Smug smiley

Avatar
DoctorFish | 6 years ago
2 likes

 "You can imagine the Orient being used for weekend rides, winter training, longer commutes, Audax"

Yet I can't see the rack and mudguard mounts.  

Avatar
Tones0000 replied to DoctorFish | 6 years ago
1 like

DoctorFish wrote:

Yet I can't see the rack and mudguard mounts.  

Their website shows removable mudguard mounts at the rear but no option for racks.

Avatar
DoctorFish replied to Tones0000 | 6 years ago
0 likes

Tones0000 wrote:

DoctorFish wrote:

Yet I can't see the rack and mudguard mounts.  

Their website shows removable mudguard mounts at the rear but no option for racks.

 

Fair point, maybe it should have been mentioned in the review.  I do think though that as there are now several options for titanium cycles like this that they are missing a trick.   Maybe in these times of strapping bags all over bikes that rack mounts are becoming less required?  I'm not ready to do without a rack on my do anything bike yet though.

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