The frames that come with Orbea mountain bikes are known for being reliable and long lasting. They even come with a lifetime guarantee. A promise like that is what ensures that Orbea mountain bikes are a favourite and well respected brand amongst their customers. However, offering a lifetime guarantee is surely a business risk? Not if a company is as convinced as Orbea is that they’re making the best product they can be.
Quality controls at Orbea mountain bikes are renowned for being stringent. They really don’t just test for legal compliance to European Norms regulations, but have their own strict set of tests. Simply put, if a bike doesn’t meet the levels required, it goes back to the drawing board until it does. Only bikes that can reach the golden standard are sold with the Orbea mountain bikes lifetime guarantee.
Of all the tests that the bike frames undergo at Orbea mountain bikes’ laboratories, static load and fatigue testing come first. In a static load test, a significant amount of weight is applied continuously to a particular part of the frame. During fatigue tests, a lighter but still significant weight is placed onto a certain part of the frame hundreds of times over. Such tests allow engineers to see just how durable and rigid the frames are.
Those tests are followed by frontal collision testing which resembles the crash tests performed on cars. Because mountain bikes are designed to tackle uneven terrain and sudden drops are frequent, Orbea Mountain bikes’ frames are tested for their resilience to sudden drops. The frames’ rigidity is also further tested in a lateral hit simulation.
As well as being tested for durability, frames are tested for their ability to withstand the elements and are therefore subject to corrosion testing. In these seriously rigorous tests, frames are kept in a chamber at 35?C full fo water vapour with 5% salinity. Only after the frames have withstood 1000 hours in the chamber will they be declared corrosion resistant enough to pass the stringent tests. The last test checks for signs of sun deterioration under infra-red light. Should there be any deterioration, the material is reformulated.
