Orbea Rallon and Intend Dream Build - Build Story

It’s not Orbea’s fault that none of their build options appealed to me. Rather, I simply had a different idea of what I wanted from the suspension. I didn’t buy it sight unseen, as I had a few days to test the Rallon in both enduro and downhill configurations at the official launch in spring 2025.

That said, from an early age I’ve always felt most at home on bikes with generous amounts of travel. Climbing performance was secondary, as was my desire to be the first to reach the top of the mountain. The bike should make me happy on the descents, no matter what the trail has to offer. This isn’t the first time I’ve equipped a downhill bike with a wide-range drivetrain (back in the days of triple or double cranksets, this was considerably more cumbersome) and a single-crown fork, nor have I shied away from hours-long rides at home and abroad.

For this reason, I opted for the downhill rather than the enduro version of the Rallon—naturally with a custom paint job. Probably my only chance ever to ride a pale pink bike. Even so, getting there was anything but straightforward: over the course of several weeks, the decision-making process in the online configurator was far from quick. The classic light blue and orange combination inspired by Gulf racing livery, for example, is still an eye-catcher, not to mention the wilder colour combinations. Pale pink with sky-blue lettering was also in the running, but then my girlfriend put her foot down; in keeping with the motto: if you're going to do it, go all the way.

Anticipating that I would also use the Rallon for various component reviews and because I enjoy tinkering with suspension setups, I also got both links for converting it to the enduro version with either a 27.5" or 29" rear wheel—along with their respective weights.

But back to the intended use and setup: I wanted maximum travel, but neither a dual-crown suspension fork nor a seven-speed downhill drivetrain; instead, I wanted a single-crown fork and a twelve-speed drivetrain. A single-crown fork with 190 mm of travel has the same axle-to-crown length as a dual-crown model with 200 mm of travel, so the geometry is not affected. Based on experience, the ten millimeters less travel at the front compared to the rear is not an issue in terms of balance; this is also demonstrated by some downhill bikes that generate more rear-wheel travel. Not that a dual-crown fork might not find its way into our office for a review again at some point—it would also fit straight onto the bike.

It only became clear to me that I would also need a crown race compatible with 1.5" tapered steerer tubes for this conversion experiment after I saw the individual components of Orbea's custom headset laid out in front of me. Naturally, the Rallon DH comes standard with a 1 1/8" version.

One could certainly call my Dreambuild a Rallon FR - meaning Freeride. I don't see the topic quite so strictly; for me, my Rallon is simply the only regular bike without a motor in my fleet. The bike I'd take on a multi-hour tour - downcountry, so to speak (haha) - or spend a day at the bike park with. The bike I'd shuttle back and forth on during a summer trip to Whistler, between the bike park and the surrounding double- or triple-black-diamond trails - with a bit of extra travel in reserve for when my riding skills fail me, or the landing turns out a bit flatter or rougher than expected.

Other details that mattered to me: long chainstays (the Rallon is available in two variants), a slack head angle, a steep seat angle, and a short, straight seat tube.

Weight: 4,289 g (with Fox X2, without weights), Orbea headset 122 g, thru-axle 49 g | Price: €3,999 | www.orbea.com

It wasn’t going to be just any suspension fork, but a model from the small German manufacturer Intend. I’ve been riding an Intend Edge on my personal e-bike for a good two years now and, at least for the moment, see no reason to switch to another brand or design—except, of course, for review purposes in the constant search for the latest technological achievement. Its performance, sensitivity, manufacturing quality, and thoughtful details won me over in no time and made me a believer in cleverly designed upside-down suspension forks.

Unfortunately, the Edge is only available with up to 180 mm of travel. After a few emails with Cornelius Kapfinger, the mastermind behind Intend, the Intend Flash 35 Blackline was chosen for my dream build. The lighter Carbonite would have been my first choice, but unfortunately it is still stuck in the prototype phase. The Flash 38 may be unbeatable in terms of stiffness, but for me as a lightweight rider it is probably even too stiff—not to mention that it weighs over 200 g more. Nothing beats a certain amount of compliance; not that I ever felt the Edge was not stiff enough or lacked precision when holding a line.

I chose the Blackline version because I remain convinced of the importance of stanchion guards, even though one could spend several hours discussing the subject with Cornelius in front of the fireplace, and his arguments against them are equally valid. For a little over a year now, you have been able to choose between the Originals (without guards) and the Blackline (with guards), and that is a good thing. To each their own; I simply feel more at ease laying my bike down at the side of the trail without first having to search the grass for large rocks, or getting beads of sweat on my forehead when maneuvering it in the car and passing pedals with their pins close by.

The latest 2026 version of the Flash 35 features adjustable travel (Travel Ranger) from 160 to 190 mm in 10 mm increments. Brand-new is the Smooth Operator compression damping with a floating shim stack and additional low-speed damping, without overdamping the high-speed flow. Racing Bros seals help the tubes glide buttery-smoothly. The progression can be adjusted using different volume spacers. One accessory that I would no longer want to do without on the Edge will probably also be retrofitted to the Flash: The Linearizer expands the dual-chamber air system to three chambers. A "floating" piston allows the spring curve to be adjusted, particularly in the middle of the travel.

Weight: 2,485 g | Price (with 220 mm brake mount): €2,267.90 | www.intend-bc.com

The Rallon DH frameset comes with a Fox Float X2 Factory, and there truly isn’t anything bad to say about the latest generation of this shock. But for a dream build, you don’t want to mix suspension components, so an Intend air shock had to be used here as well.

The new design of the extremely lightweight Intend Hover Monocoque features a low-friction polymer coating, while the new Autoflate dimple provides a self-balancing negative air chamber. A new three-position flip lever allows quick switching between downhill, gravel, and road modes. The system features both high-speed and low-speed damping; when ordered, the shock is custom-tuned to the rider's weight. In addition to an Opticoat Unipiece piston shaft, dynamic seals from Trelleborg are used, while the bushing axles are sized in precise 0.01 mm increments to compensate for tolerances. A larger negative air chamber optimizes the air-spring curve within this overall extremely low-friction design.
Thanks to the new IBS mount, switching between trunnion and metric sizing is easy—greatly increasing the likelihood that you can simply transfer your shock to your next bike.

As I have no previous experience with Intend shocks, I am very curious to see how it works with the fork.

Weight: 434 g | Price: €1,108.24 | www.intend-bc.com

Intend's Trinity disc brake has gained a certain cult status in the scene over the past few years—not least because Intend can only release small batches (usually between 50 and 100 units) every few months. These sometimes sell out within seconds, or minutes at the latest, and without information on social media or in the newsletter about when the next launch will take place, you would probably have to wait even longer to get your hands on one of these coveted examples.

The system features a four-piston brake caliper with 17 mm pistons, combined with a radial brake lever with a short lever throw. The entire construction is made from high-strength 7075 aluminum. It uses "Painless Technology," which promises a simple bleeding, piston, and connection system (the hoses can rotate inside the lever, preventing tension). On the downhill version, Refrigerators are mounted on the pistons to reduce heat build-up.

Version 2.0 is now available (the Dreambuild features version 1.2). The Refrigerators, Painless Fitting, and Safe Sleeve have been updated, the steel bolts have been replaced with titanium bolts, and a silver version has been introduced alongside the black one.

I have to admit that I’ve come to hate brakes in general after all the problems I’ve had with various models over the past few decades. By now, I have little hope of ever finding a brake that combines maximum braking power and consistency without any side effects. Intend’s Trinity comes close to meeting these demands, but unfortunately, it isn’t perfect either.

Compatibility with e-bikes isn’t really possible due to the distinctive lever shape, as there isn’t enough room to position a remote near the thumb. However, the Rallon isn’t an e-bike, so this point can be disregarded.
They offer plenty of stopping power, bleeding is child’s play, and they are top-notch when it comes to low maintenance—as well as the smoothness of the lever action. You just have to be able to live with a very slight amount of brake-lever drift.

Weight: 262 g (front) | Price: € 1,068.91 | www.intend-bc.com

The Intend Massive rotors are a chunky 2.3 mm thick and are available in 180, 203 and 223 mm sizes.

Weight: 254 g (223 mm), 199 g (203 mm) | Price: € 74.63 (223 mm), € 59.50 (203 mm) | www.intend-bc.com

This requires some explanation. For years, I have been pursuing an alternative geometry setup strategy with my bikes: a long reach relative to my height, long chainstays for balanced weight distribution and plenty of pressure on the front wheel, combined with a very short stem. This is not the first time such a concept has been tried—just think of the first, more extreme iterations of Mondraker’s Zero Geometry with 10 mm stems. In my opinion, it failed to achieve the desired success at the time simply because the chainstays were too short.

Nowadays, genuinely short stems are almost impossible to find; among the very few exceptions are those made by Italian tinkerer and suspension genius Rulezman. The man behind Rulezman is Dave Cerutti, who offers the 15 mm short Rulezman HC-V3.1 HD, made from 7075 aluminium and featuring a 60 mm handlebar clamping width. The stem is only available with a 31.8 mm clamp diameter, since Dave believes that 35 mm handlebars offer too little inherent damping and, from a purely technical perspective, provide no other advantages either—an opinion I share, with only a few exceptions. The HC-V3 is produced in small batches from time to time, and it is worth following Rulezman’s Instagram channel if you want to get your hands on one.

What does the short stem offer? Direct steering that doesn’t throw the bike off balance even with sharper steering inputs, as the steering axis remains stable. In my opinion, the concept only really works if the balance between frame reach and chainstay length is right.

Behind my rather unconventional-looking setup with three spacers under the stem is a plan to test extreme positions before finally cutting the steerer tube. The look is also somewhat extreme because the 120 mm head tube is on the short side for a size L frame. Rulezman recommends running his stem without any spacers for maximum stiffness at the cockpit (he might well burst a blood vessel when he sees these pictures), but my approach is cheaper than installing the stem without spacers and then buying five handlebars with different amounts of rise to find the best setup. Visually, the final version of this dream build will probably end up with no spacers and a higher-rise handlebar.

Weight: 146 g | Price: € 286 | www.rulezman.com

Regarding the handlebar, the SQlab 30X Carbon 9° is not my favorite (that would be the OneUp V2 Carbon, but unfortunately it is only available with a 35 mm clamp diameter), as it is quite stiff and unforgiving despite its 31.8 mm clamp diameter. The handlebar is available with 25 mm (fitted) and 55 mm rise and has a width of 800 mm—mine has been cut down to 780 mm. I will probably also review handlebars with more rise as part of my stack experiment.

Weight: 251 g | Price: €279.99 | www.sqlab.com

When it comes to grips, I’ve relied on Ergon’s GE1 Evo Slim and its predecessor for ages. With other grips, my hands tend to go numb, and whenever I try new grips, I always end up returning to Ergon’s models after a relatively short time.

Price: € 34.95 | www.ergonbike.com

Of all the dropper posts available on the market, OneUp is still the leader when it comes to offering the longest drops with the shortest insertion lengths—at least for most sizes. Besides, I have trusted its system since the V1 version and have never experienced a failure.

The OneUp V3 Dropper is available in 30.9 and 31.6 mm diameters with 90, 120, 150, 180, 210 and 240 mm of drop. In the 34.9 mm version, the 90 mm drop option is not available. The 27.2 mm version is only available with 90 and 120 mm of drop. The OneUp Dropper offers 20 mm of travel adjustment, an extended service interval of 350 hours, as well as new low-friction IGUS bushings and SKF seals. In addition, the optional Titanium Bolt Upgrade Kit saves a further 10 g of weight.

In the case of the Orbea Rallon, the L frame’s 410 mm seat tube is very short relative to its reach, allowing me to use the version with 210 mm of drop. Once you have experienced the freedom of movement provided by more than 200 mm of drop, you will not want to go back.

The V3 Dropper Remote is a smooth-operating remote with a replaceable rubber thumb pad (available in seven colors) and an integrated cable attachment.

Weight: 547 g | Price: € 299.99 (€ 49.99 for the remote) | www.oneupcomponents.com

Basically, my personal choice would have been the Ergon SM E-Mountain Pro Men. However, shortly before completing the project, a brand-new Sixpack Evo Rail Ultra arrived. Extremely lightweight, with E-TPU padding and available in two widths (140 mm and 160 mm).

One of the coolest features is the extremely long rail system, which can simply be slid into a conventional clamp. Pushing the saddle as far forward as possible can compensate by a few degrees for an overly slack seat tube angle. That feature alone deserves praise.

In the short time in which I have already ridden several tours on another bike with the Sixpack Evo Rail Ultra, my backside has become quite comfortable with the saddle. It is not exactly soft, yet even after several hours I have never reached the point of experiencing annoying pressure points or even pain. From this perspective, the Ultra has automatically moved into my top three.

Weight: | Price: € 129.95 | www.sixpack-racing.com

I reviewed the FR 1500 Classic from DT Swiss some time ago, and all the details can be found here.
Since then, DT Swiss has introduced even more new technologies. I would be extremely keen to review the DT Swiss DEG rear hub with DF technology, as I have had excellent experiences with systems such as Ochain for eliminating pedal kickback. Integrating this function into a hub is extremely smart.

Weight: 1009 g (front) 1022 g (rear) | Price: from € 899,– | www.dtswiss.com

With its radial technology, Schwalbe has taken its tires to a new level. The Schwalbe Albert Trail's tremendous all-round capabilities impressed me in more than one situation. Only in muddy conditions would the Albert not be my first choice, as its closely spaced knobs clog up too quickly. However, with the Ultra Soft rubber compound and the radial carcass's ability to conform to obstacles, the Albert remains a reliable companion even in wet conditions.

Compared to the Gravity version, the Trail casing is naturally more prone to punctures, but I always pair my tires with Rimpact Pro tire inserts. On the one hand, I want to protect the rims; on the other, the thinner casing can conform better to uneven terrain—and despite the inserts weighing around 150 g, the combination of Trail tires and inserts is still lighter than the Gravity tires alone. Since the inserts support the sidewalls, I also don't have to worry about excessive tire squirm.

I had actually planned to try Schwalbe's new Romy with the softer rubber compound on the rear wheel; however, due to postal issues, it didn't arrive in time for this story. We will review it in another format, though.

Weight: 1,058 g (27.5 x 2.5"), 1,172 g (29 x 2.5") | Price: €74.90 | www.schwalbe.com

As exclusive as most of my components are, I had little desire to invest in expensive drivetrain components. On the one hand, because the shifting quality of more affordable component groups has reached a very high level, and on the other, because with all the review bikes and my preference for e-bikes, I won’t be riding my Orbea Rallon Dreambuild constantly and don’t want to deal with dead electronic drivetrain batteries if it sits in the workshop for an extended period. So I chose SRAM’s cable-operated Eagle 90—I didn’t want to forgo the hangerless mounting system or the reduced chain slap provided by the strong return spring.

After threading the cable housings through the frame, I was reminded once again of one of the major advantages I’ve come to appreciate about electronic drivetrains. I can happily do without the hours lost to nerve-racking fiddling when routing the cables—even with the right tools. But the same also applies to the seatpost cable. Without the access cover around the bottom bracket and the frame’s storage-compartment hatch, the process would have been impossible anyway.

Where the Transmission drivetrain concept unfortunately fails completely in the case of the 2026 Rallon is in determining how many chain links are required and which setup setting must be used to install the drivetrain. Orbea's instructions refer to SRAM's app; however, the list of correct data for all Transmission-compatible bikes, which was heavily promoted at the launch of the Transmission groupset, could hardly be more incomplete. At the time of this build in mid-2026, no current Orbea models could be found on the list, including the Rallon. A look at several other brands revealed the same glaring lack of information. Accordingly, the chances of completing the retrofit without swearing are slim—unless you wait for the manufacturers to respond. A list that is not kept up to date is fairly useless, and I believe SRAM, Orbea, and all the other companies whose current bikes are not listed need to take action.

When it comes to crank length, I have had positive experiences with short 150 mm cranks in terms of ground clearance and have not noticed any limitations in efficiency. Unfortunately, the Eagle 90 is not available in a 150 mm length, so 155 mm is the closest option in this case.

Eagle 90 Shifter | Weight: 132 g | € 55
Eagle 90 Transmission Derailleur | Weight: 391 g | € 205
Eagle 90 Transmission Crankset | Weight: 794 g | € 170
XS-1275 Transmission Cassette | Weight: 444 g | € 300
GX Eagle Transmission Flattop Chain | Weight: 308 g | € 60
DUB Bottom Bracket | Weight: 76 g | € 42
www.sram.com

That's it, that's all. The complete bike weighs 15.975 kg, with tire inserts and without pedals or weights on the bottom bracket. The weights—one weighing 80 g, one 95 g, and one 395 g—can be attached individually or combined, adding up to a total of 570 g to make the suspension feel more settled on descents. Whether you want to haul the additional weight uphill is up to you. After all, the Dreambuild Rallon also needs to be pedaled uphill—despite its generous travel. In my experience, it does this better than is often assumed.