Orbea Rise – A new lower power Shimano driven eMTB

The Orbea Rise is another of those seemingly unintuitive developments in the eMTB journey that deliberately goes for less power both in the motor output and the battery capacity. At first it seems odd that anyone would deliberately not choose to go for the more power, more torque = better formula, but we’ve seen brands like Specialized and Focus spend a lot of development time concentrating efforts to retain the lively, light weight (relatively) trail feel of an analogue bike but with a helping power assisted hand when needed.

I’ve been a big fan of these lower power options where the assist is more of a helping hand than a fully boosted power jolt that sends you 15mph up a hill while barely gracing the pedals with your shoes. These lower power machines leave you feeling like you are working with the motor rather than being carried by it and they have the added benefit of being a lot lighter to handle too than your more typical 50lb 750wh options.

Not that there is anything wrong with what we have started calling ‘full fat’ eMTBs, you can tune them to ensure you put in more of your power if you like and you don’t HAVE to push that boost button, but these ‘low fat’ options do provide a different feel and associated handling that some of us really quite like. If you want to ride an eMTB that feels like your analogue machine then these lower power offerings are well worth a look at.

Today, Orbea have joined the ‘Low Fat’ movement with the Orbea Rise. The full press release is included below, but first, let’s start with the highlights that we’ve noticed.

Orbea Rise Highlights

• The Rise is an all day trail eMTB that comes at the lower end of the range with a Fox 34 fork up front but with higher priced options with a Fox Factory 36 for more burly trails.
• The motor is a Shimano EP8 that has been customised by Orbea. They are calling this the EP8 RS. Out of the box it provides 60nm of torque compared to the 85nm of the standard EP8.
• The battery is not made by Shimano and has a 370wh capacity. There is an optional bottle cage mounted additional battery that will provide an extra 250wh of capacity.
• Adjustable geo means head angles are 66/65.5
• Seat Angles are 77/76.5
• The claimed weight of the highest spec model is just 36lbs.
• But that will cost you £8899
• The price of the lowest model in the Rise range is £5399

Geometry table

The Orbea Rise Range

Spec lists

There’s a full suite of connections available for many smart phones and devices, including Garmin smart watches. The motor can be tuned by the Orbea app too.

Naturally we are looking forward to seeing one of these bikes turn up at our door for testing, but from the looks and the spec we are rather looking forward to that.

The full Orbea Rise press release reads…

RIDER SYNERGY

Rider Synergy Concept: A new riding experience that enhances the joy of traditional trail riding with smooth support that feels as natural and alive as your own body. RS is a new philosophy – a completely integrated system that becomes a reality when Power, Range, Interface and Weight are considered together.

Rise brings you nearer the sensation that less “e” delivers more “bike”. Whether you crave riding greater distances, reaching more epic locations, improving efficiency or increasing the frequency of your adventures, Rise beyond expectations and discover the new standard in MTB.

RS POWER

The idea of creating our own power plant for RISE was daunting, but we imagined it would be the only way to realize our goal of a complete RS system for trail bikes. Our dream of a “rider first”, highly responsive and super-efficient system had become a reality.

Working jointly, Orbea set out to develop proprietary electronics and batteries while Shimano created and delivered an exclusive motor configured to our own RS specifications.

Power is only as useful as the manner in which it is applied. The EP8 RS power band feels alive, smooth and responsive, echoing your input and cadence.

• Max Torque: 60nm
• Max Speed: 25km/h (20mph in USA)

RS RANGE

Rise is intended for big rides. With two battery options Rise has enough fuel for the longest days, it utilizes a very light and compact 360Wh main battery with an optional, patent-pending 252Wh range extender.

The RS concept provides a great day on the trails because the lighter bike, lower power consumption and of course, the pedal-friendly weight and assistance extends battery life by a factor of over 1.5x. This means the 360Wh RS Battery of Rise delivers ride timesand ranges similar to a 540Wh battery in a typical eBike. 3-4 hour ride time.

Adding the RS Range Extender gives ride times comparable to a 900Wh battery on a regular ebike. That’s 8 hours and over 4,000m of climbing in Eco mode.

RS INTERFACE

The elegance of simplicity is undeniable. Many riders spend hours removing excess weight, noise and visual distractions from their bikes. We have embraced data collection with cycling computers and smartphones but often stop short of attaching large displays on our handlebars or top tubes.

With a traditional ebike, displays, sensors, extra wires and large glowing buttons are standard and unavoidable. For us, the option of a traditional, uncluttered machine is a critical aspect of the RS philosophy.

The RS Interface is sleek, but doesn’t lack expandability. The simplest configuration consists of a discreet rocker switch near the left brake lever to control assistance level and a small, inline junction box with two tiny LEDs that provides support mode info and smartly broadcasts wireless data.

RS WEIGHT

The RS Motor, Battery and Electronics are lighter than other eBike systems by over half,

Rise can weight as little as 16 kg or 36lbs.