Orro Venturi Ultegra Di2 Wind 400 2020

Orro has quite simply nailed it with the Venturi Ultegra Di2 Wind 400. Comfort, speed, handling, feedback and stiffness – you can have it all. And the icing on the cake? It's a looker too!

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Ride

I've ridden a lot of bikes over the last 20 years, especially in the 10 that I've been with road.cc (41 in 2019 alone), and while a lot of them have been very good, there are probably ten or so that really stand out as brilliant – and the Venturi is one of those.

While beauty is in the eye of Noddy Holder and all that, I think the Orro looks stunning, especially in this pearlescent white and deep red paintjob; it just makes you want to go for a ride in the sun, and when that day finally arrived, I couldn't wait to get out.

As per usual, I roll out of the estate, turn right and give it a little dig up to the roundabout to make sure everything feels all right. It didn't, though.

The boxy section of the tubes and overbuilt chainstays that I'd cast my eye over in the house weren't behaving anything like I expected. I was geared up for a bit of resonation over the far from perfect road surface, or a little vibration through the handlebar, but there was none of it.

I even gave the bike a little bunnyhop to make sure the tyres weren't soft.

I'll go into this a little deeper in the next section of the review, but basically Orro – which, by the way, designs its own frames and doesn't use any open moulds – came up with three carbon fibre lay-ups for the Venturi in the prototype stage, and the bike you see here is the one it chose after plenty of test riding. It was definitely the right choice.

If you've read some of my previous reviews, you'll know that I like a stiff bike. I want that feeling of performance, and if that sacrifices comfort, I can deal with it. I like a frame that feels alive, a bit on the edge, I want to feel everything that is going on from that tiny rubber footprint on the ground, and if I need to take a little bit of a battering to get that then so be it.

The Venturi delivers that in spades, but the carbon lay-up used means it manages to do that while being very comfortable too, without taking anything away.

This means you can ride the Orro for hours at a decent pace with little fatigue. It's not the sharpest handling race bike I've ridden but it isn't far off, and you can really take those descents with the bit between your teeth and not really feel out of your depth. The Venturi just flows between bends and gives you that surefooted feeling of confidence.

For the majority of the time the Orro feels like an endurance bike with a racy edge, but when you really want to push it, get out of the saddle or head out for a lunch hour blast, it certainly delivers on performance.

The model we have comes with the Fulcrum 40mm-deep Wind 400 wheelset, which adds to the aero design of the frame, and once you get it above the 23mph to 25mph mark it certainly shifts.

If you need to get out of the saddle for a short, sharp climb or a bit of sprinting, you won't be left wanting when it comes to bottom bracket stiffness. This thing is responsive, and while disc brake-equipped bikes still can't challenge in terms of weight against rim braked versions, the overall 7.99kg certainly doesn't hold you back.

On the whole, I can't fault its ride. As I'm entering my non-competitive days it does everything I want from a road/race bike. It's quick, delivers the excitement I like, and is just so damn fun to ride no matter how long I'm out for.

Frame and fork

The frame features spread tow carbon from UK carbon composite specialist Sigmatex, which means that the carbon fibre is arranged in flat, wide tapes; think of it as ribbons that are woven together. It's something that Orro has already used on its Gold STC road bike.

What's the point of spread tow? According to Sigmatex: 'Spread tow fabrics are very thin, are ultra-lightweight, have near zero crimp and fewer interlacing points. As well as being aesthetically pleasing, this technology has improved mechanical performance at a reduced thickness and cost when compared to standard 2D fabrics using 1K fibres.'

The spread tow construction is said to reduce weight and increase stiffness. Plus, the fact that the carbon comes from Sigmatex, based in Runcorn, means that Orro can trace it through every stage of the bike's production.

Spread tow also has a distinctive chessboard appearance. If you go for the black version of the frame you'll be able to see it clearly, whereas on the white/red version it's visible only where Orro has left little windows in the paintwork.

With the combination of wider wheel rims and the fact that many riders are running larger tyres these days for added comfort, Orro has developed the Venturi's aerodynamics around a 28mm tyre width.

The fork crown is integrated into the frame and a slight curve has been incorporated into the bottom of the down tube to let the tyre tuck in close.

The rear also follows the line of the curved seat tube, although Orro has still left enough clearance to go a little bigger if you so desire.

A pair of 30mm tyres should fit without too much issue, for instance.

The whole look of the frame is quite boxy, surprisingly with no tapering to the rear end of the tubes at all, like you find on most aero race bikes.

The down tube looks almost like an elongated hexagon with its multiple faces, although the bottom is curved and much narrower than the upper profile.

The junction created from the huge down tube, curved seat tube and oversized chainstays highlights where the high stiffness levels in this frame come from. At first glance the bottom bracket shell looks to be press-fit but on closer inspection you can see that it uses standard external bearing cups, which are shielded by the frame rather than sitting proud like normal. This allows for a wider frame at this point for extra stiffness without increasing the Q-factor, the distance between the pedals.

All the other details that you'd expect to find on a bike of this quality are also present: twin bottle cage mounts, 12mm thru-axles for keeping the wheels in place and flat mounts for the disc callipers.

The cable/hose routing is all internal, too, which not only ups the aero qualities but also gives a clean look throughout.

As for the geometry, it's certainly in the race camp but not quite as aggressive as you might think. This large size comes with a 558mm effective top tube and a 164mm head tube. The seat angle on this model is 73.5 degrees, while the head angle is slightly slacker than expected at 72.3 degrees.

It works, though, and in part helps explain why the Venturi is such an easy bike to ride, just taking the edge off any twitchiness in the steering. The stack is 562mm and the reach is 392mm, giving a stack/reach of 1.43 – nothing too radical there.

Groupset

The Venturi is available in a range of builds (details in the report section below) or as a frameset only for £1,999.99. We have the top-end Ultegra Di2 Wind edition on test, with an rrp of £4,199.99, although ours does have a few extra little tweaks to it like upgraded tyres, saddle and handlebar.

As electronic shifting goes, I'm a big fan of Shimano's Ultegra Di2 groupset. The hoods are really comfortable, and the buttons sit in a natural position if you are coming over from Shimano's mechanical shifters.

Over the years, Shimano has refined and tweaked the gear shifts and on this latest version the chain crosses the sprockets of the cassette and between chainrings quickly and smoothly. Some electronic systems can feel a little vague or there is a slight lag between the button being pressed and the mech moving, but you get none of that here.

Orro has specced what I reckon is the right gear ratios for the style of riding the Venturi is intended for. A semi-compact 52/36t chainset matched to an 11-28t cassette gives a good spread of low and high gears without any large gaps between them, so you can keep a smooth cadence going.

The Venturi uses Shimano's Ice-Tech rotors and they are 140mm diameter front and rear, which for road use is plenty big enough in my eyes.

The braking is fantastic – loads of power and plenty of feel through the levers so that you can modulate how hard you are braking in wet or greasy conditions.

Finishing kit

Deda components are chosen for the cockpit, with Zero1 models for the stem and handlebar, although out test model has the slightly more expensive Zero2 bar.

The Zero1 components are towards the lower end of Deda's range but their performance is just what you need: loads of stiffness, and the handlebar uses Deda's RHM (Rapid Hand Movement) styling which gives you plenty of comfortable hand positions.

The seatpost is specific to the frame so it comes from Orro. It's clamped into position by an expanding wedge system that is tightened by a bolt hidden under the top tube. It keeps everything clean and tidy, and held the post perfectly in position.

This model should come with a Prologo Kappa RS saddle, which I have sat on many times before and found very comfortable. I'm a big fan of the shape of the majority of Prologo saddles.

This test sample has a Prologo Dimension Nack saddle instead, and it really is very good. I like the short shape, and it works well for the aggressive kind of riding the Venturi is likely to see.

Wheels and tyres

The Wind part of this model's name relates to the wheel choice. Non-Wind models get a pair of Fulcrum Racing 400 DB wheels, but the Wind variant has the deep-section Fulcrum Wind 400 carbon fibre hoops instead.

The Wind 400s are basically original-equipment versions of the Fulcrum 40 DB wheels I tested recently.

With a 40mm rim depth, they offer a decent aero advantage but are more versatile than something deeper for when you take to the climbs, plus they don't get battered about by crosswinds either.

At 1,620g they are pretty responsive too, and certainly don't hold the Venturi back anywhere, especially under hard acceleration.

They are tubeless compatible, and our test bike came fitted with a pair of Continental's latest Grand Prix 5000 TL tyres, which David Arthur found to be pretty impressive, and I'm inclined to agree.

As standard, though, the Venturi comes with Continental's Grand Sport Race in 28mm width – not a bad set of tyres, and something we see quite often on bikes coming in for review.

They offer a decent balance of grip and rolling resistance and are pretty durable, too. They are perfectly capable of dealing with the Venturi's performance, but the bike does deserve an upgrade once they wear out.

Value

Taking everything into account, I actually think the Orro Venturi is competitive on price and offers decent value for money.

For instance, Pinarello's Prince FX Disc is a similar kind of bike yet costs £5,550 for an Ultegra mechanical build and alloy Fulcrum wheels. A Venturi with that build will set you back just £2,599.99!

> Buyer's Guide: 13 of the best carbon fibre road bikes from £599 to £10,000

I recently tested the Specialized Roubaix Comp, and along with the addition of the Future Shock damping system it has also had quite a few aero tweaks, making it as slippery as its Tarmac race model. The Roubaix Comp I tested came with Ultegra Di2 and cost £4,400, but you are getting alloy wheels rather than the deep-section carbon ones found on the Orro.

Conclusion

Overall, I really like the Orro Venturi. Its ride quality is brilliant, as is the way it behaves so you can ride it hard or take it steady and it always feels fun and responsive. It's a lot of bike for the money, too.

Verdict

Beautiful looking race bike with an absolutely brilliant balance of comfort, speed, stiffness and sublime handling