First raced at the UCI’s XCM stop in Capoliveri a couple weeks back, Italian bike maker Scapin is now letting the cat out of the bag on some of the details of their upcoming 2017 Oraklo 148 carbon hardtail reboot. The bike gets a fairly major overhaul for next season, and while a good bit of the changes might appear to be just for looks, there is some rational behind the new appearance. Built specifically for racing the long distances off-road of marathon cross-country races, the 29er hardtail incorporates some new tech that hasn’t made it into too many racing hardtails yet, and along the way earns its name adopting a 148mm Boost rear end…
The Oraklo 148 builds on Scapin’s typically angular aesthetic, with faceted shaped tubing throughout. The new bike gets a small kink in the downtube that is said to help with tire and fork crown clearance, and a larger kink in the toptube that both isolates flex in the rear of the frame and effectively curves the toptube into alignment with the seatstays. This also has the added benefit of slightly improving standover, especially on the smaller sizes.
From the wider rear-end up through a wide, boxy downtube to an oversized headtube, the monocoque Toray T800 frame is designed to be stiff laterally to provide stability and precise handling to live up to its race pedigree, but more vertically compliant to keep riders fresh for several hours long off-road racing events.
The bike’s geometry carries over mostly from the current Orkalo which already has a really long toptube (463mm of reach on a size L!), but the new Oraklo 148 does get a 1° slacker headtube angle in a nod towards modern trail riding geo updates. At the same time its bottom bracket drops down by 5mm, also in a move to generally increase ride stability.
Scapin mentions that the chainstays get shortened a bit too, which will be a good step as the current 440 stays are a bit rangy, for even a full-suspension 29er. At the same time as the move to a wider Boost rear end, Scapin switched to a direct Side Swing front derailleur mount that freed up space at the tire to trim things down a bit in the rear.
The claimed 1290g weight Oraklo 148 frame (in S) will come in 4 sizes from Small-Extra Large, 3 color finishes (orange/black, gloss/matte black & black/white/red), and 7 different builds. In the range of build kits there will be at least one SRAM Eagle 12 speed setup and five different forks on offer. The bike uses a 31.6mm seatpost, post mount disc brake, and 12x148mm rear thru-axle. Full details on the bike and pricing will come later at the end of summer at Eurobike.
