voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

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sm1thy
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Joined: 5 Nov 2020, 7:10pm

voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by sm1thy »

I'm looking at two bikes and I'm not sure which to get. Or which is best.
The voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50
I love rattling about forest tracks and sometimes cycle tracks. I'm 57 but relatively fit but I won't be tearing down mountains or bouncing about rocks. What are your recommendations. I've seen the review of the voodoo and it looks good.
What to go for
hamster
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Joined: 2 Feb 2007, 12:42pm

Re: voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by hamster »

Put simply there is never a simple 'best' - it's a very personal thing, depending on what you want to do with it. Both are complete overkill for forest tracks and will be happy (as you say) for tearing down mountains or bouncing about rocks.

Try each for fit - regardless of enything else, fit is the single most important factor. Consider also whether a lighter, skinnier bike might be more fun - especially uphill. Both are the equivalent of a Landrover. Modern off-road bikes are heavy with rather dead steering to take acount of the long suspension travel.
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LinusR
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Re: voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by LinusR »

sm1thy wrote:I'm looking at two bikes and I'm not sure which to get. Or which is best.
The voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50
I love rattling about forest tracks and sometimes cycle tracks. I'm 57 but relatively fit but I won't be tearing down mountains or bouncing about rocks. What are your recommendations. I've seen the review of the voodoo and it looks good.
What to go for


I have the previous model of the Voodoo Bizango. The Bizango is a "trail" bike while the Orbea Alma h50 is a "cross country" or "XC" bike. A trail bike would handle rougher terrain and steep, rough downhills better (especially for someone with my lack of bike handling skills), a XC bike would climb smoother trails faster. The Bizango has XC tyres while the Bizango has trail tyres. The Alma has got a shorter fork travel than the Bizango. But both have the same length of handle bars. The components are similar. The XC bike is probably lighter. The Orbea looks nicer ;-)
Bonzo Banana
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Joined: 5 Feb 2017, 11:58am

Re: voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by Bonzo Banana »

Normally a Voodoo bike is much better spec'd for its price point than an Orbea. If I could get a similar spec bike with the Orbea brand on for the same price I'd go that route everything else being near enough equal especially if the Orbea had local support from a independent bike shop.

Generally the reality is Halford's bikes are far superior value though, they buy directly from the factories and retail directly themselves. I've seen Halford's bikes like Carrera's that retail close to £300 that have Orbea equivalent's for sometimes as much as £500-600. However end of season clearance offers often massively reduce that price difference.
Stevek76
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Joined: 28 Jul 2015, 11:23am

Re: voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by Stevek76 »

End of season barely happened this year with the overall demand/supply imbalance for bikes!

Am I looking at the right bikes or are they somewhat different price points, with the orbea being £125 more?

How rough are your forest tracks? Have you considered a gravel/adventure bike? Decent volume tyres and a carbon fork would take much of the smaller buzz out of the front and it'll be less of a slog on the smoother stuff.
The contents of this post, unless otherwise stated, are opinions of the author and may actually be complete codswallop
sm1thy
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Joined: 5 Nov 2020, 7:10pm

Re: voodoo bizango or the orbea alma h50

Post by sm1thy »

Thanks very much everyone for the replies.
I agree the orbea looks amazing. I've ordered the voodoo and it's coming next Saturday. I'll see what it's like as it's probably right on my limit for my size. If it's to big I'll just hand it back then order the orbea. This crazy situation called covid has got me back into cycling after a 14 year absence.
Thanks again and stay safe
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