Orbea Rallon RS is - hurray - an actually interesting mountain bike. And Benji's had a play on one.
That's about the best looking ebb I've ever seen, mostly because it doesn't look much like an ebb.
Orbea RS is a system connecting the remote, motor, shifting, Orbea MC10-RS dropper post, Fox eNEO Live Valve suspension and central battery (everything is powered from this one battery).
So, the suspension is informed by the motor data. The suspension is also informed by dropper position (when the dropper is lowered, the shock stays fully open). The motor is informed by terrain and rider position; it recognises when the bike is pointed downhill and/or with the dropper lowered and adjusts its assistance.
How utterly, indescribably awful. Just because you can, doesn't mean you should....
( In the context of MTB obvs)
I'd love to try one of those. Just enough umph so you can stick with decent tyres, flat pedals and good suspension without it being an sluggish wallow-fest.
WTF (to quote Benji), it costs how much!!
It is a lovely looking bike, most Orbea's are, but c'mon ....
Also at some point you will come alongside a full fat (albeit maybe ugly) eeb and think "I wish I had that power and range".
Totally agree with @thegeneralist comment.
Nice idea to run all the electric gizmos off the one battery just a surprise they appear to have gone for a rear mech battery rather than a proper sized ebike battery 😀
acoustic
Should be a dismissible offence
Yeah, nice. That's probably the evoke I kidded myself I wanted back when I first wanted one. Now, I think it'd be an awesome second ebike for solo rides. But obvs not for that money. Or with that rear mech 😆
I don’t get who this bike is for?
170mm travel but no power
Do you use 170mm of suspension going uphill?.
I don’t get who this bike is for?
170mm travel but no power.
Someone without the fitness to pedal a chunky 170mm bike to the top of hills?
I'm struggling to see the appeal of this one, despite my preference for lighter eMTBs than full fats. My 170/150, 60Nm/450W/430Wh eMTB is 3.1kg heavier than my Geometron G1, both with a similarly chunky build. eMTB is light enough that it doesn't behave much differently on descents, but on the climbs it's hugely quicker than my naturally-powered G1 hence I can do more distance/descents. Whereas this Orbea appears to only have the power to offset the heavier bike, not to make the climb hugely quicker or ride further. Might appeal to others but not for me.
This one does seem pretty niche, I can't see it being popular, but I guess more choice is good for everyone.
I heard rumours of this bike a while ago and hoped it would have the tq hpr60 motor, then it could have been my next bike, but not with the hpr50.
The price is a bit steep too.
Exactly the bike Mark Alker suggested to that ALL mountain bikes would be in the future..!
I think that was over 10 years ago to be honest....
I sort of struggle to see the point. It's the worst of both worlds IMO. I mean how many people rely on just having 1 bike? Many of us have atleast two and use them for different things. I've got a full fat eeb (coming on friday) and a chunky enduro rig, depending on the type of ride I want will depend which one I use. And I plan to build up a hardtail later this year too for other use cases when I just want to bridlebash or do moors rides and get the fitness in.
Plus, the price tag for that orbea is insane. Heavier than a normal enduro bike, not as much power as even an SL ebike, still have to plug it in, charge it, worry about batteries and motors etc. If you've got 10k spare to spend on a bike, why not buy something like a full fat alloy whyte kado S for 4k and something like a transition patrol for 4k and then you've still got 2k left over to either buy a mid level hard tail or spend on upgrades for the other 2 bikes
Saw the price, read no further......I do caveat that with only owning a steel rigid single speed🤓
Okay I got board and read the review, however I'm now more confused by bike jurno lingo.
Can someone please explain the difference between acoustic and unassisted, same thing - no?
Just needs to lose the rear mech for me to consider buying an electric/assisted bike.
It's interesting, but so so niche. If you ride in a group, and most people do, then it doesn't really work if you mix eeb and non-eeb and this is closer to the latter than the former.
Price aside, I could absolutely see the point of a bike like this. At 58, I hopefully won't 'need' an ebike for another 10 years or more, as for me, going for a long ride and doing all the climbing under my own steam is what I want from a bike, and the riding I do.
I do have to acknowledge, however, that riding my 160mm FS with decent tyres uphill is increasingly hard work and tiring; it's not stopping me doing it or spoiling my enjoyment, and I'm not looking to replace uphill effort with a turbo boost up all the hills. But, to have a tiny bit of assistance, that makes a burly AM/Enduro bike 'feel' like a racy XC bike on the way up, but still have all that capability downhill, is an intoxicating prospect!
Take out all the 'talking to each other' electrical gubbins (suspension/dropper etc), fit mechanical gears, and drop the price to £5-6k, and I'd absolutely be scrabbling around the back of the sofa to find the money!
Kind of baffled as to why you'd put the TQ40 in this and not the TQ 60. You can always decide to use less power than you have, you can never yous emore
This is exactly the kind of e bike I’d buy if I wanted one. Already ride a 170mm bike and my usual rides are 1500m ish of climbing in the day, like to stretch to a 2k day every so often and this bike would let me do that more. Never had any interest in the heavy e bikes, too much of a hindrance on descents
Kind of baffled as to why you'd put the TQ40 in this and not the TQ 60. You can always decide to use less power than you have, you can never yous emore
Yeah seems an odd choice, it's not like it's that light with the hpr40 motor and 290 battery, it weighs 18kg.
If it had the hpr60 motor and 360wh battery it would only be a kilo heavier, so 19kg which is pretty light for a long travel ebike.
Kind of baffled as to why you'd put the TQ40 in this and not the TQ 60. You can always decide to use less power than you have, you can never yous emore
I would guess that giving all the power available means people (crucially, reviewers and customers on demo rides) will churn through the battery in 20 minutes and call it crap.
Limiting the power to matching the riders input and with a hard cap of 200W (if I read it right) forces you to use it "properly" rather than treating it like a 30kg full power brap machine.
You can already see people in the web who see the 290Wh, compare it to their 800Wh monster that they blast around in turbo pedalling at 30rpm and state definitively that this bike will only climb 600 feet before being dead based on scaling the relative battery capacities.
Phsycologically, 300Wh sounds like it is so much bigger than 290Wh so they missed a trick there.
But, to have a tiny bit of assistance, that makes a burly AM/Enduro bike 'feel' like a racy XC bike on the way up, but still have all that capability downhill, is an intoxicating prospect!
Trouble is, a lot of full power bikes ride downhill as well as most enduro bikes. You can turn them down to as little assistance as you want, but then you have all the power (and range) when you want it for as little as a couple of kilos and more a lot less ££ than the Orbea.
"a lot of full power bikes ride downhill as well as most enduro bikes" - this entirely depends on terrain and conditions. Full fat eebs are not-ideal in properly steep and slippery conditions IME.
Limiting the power to matching the riders input and with a hard cap of 200W (if I read it right) forces you to use it "properly" rather than treating it like a 30kg full power brap machine.
so you spend a fortune on a £12k ebike and every time you ride it up a hill it reminds you you are ‘paying ‘ for your decision to have an under powered motor 😂 it’s a punishment bike for people with lots of money
I just turn my Rise power right down if I want a workout and that didn’t cost £12k for the privilege
Full fat eebs are not-ideal in properly steep and slippery conditions IME.
Im sure Atherton would disagree will be interesting to see how much their bike weighs 😁
Irbea obviously think there is a market, but I would have thought (stereotyping) the type of people who want a 170mm bike for steep downs, on the whole can’t be arsed pedalling hard up
For those who enjoy peddling up and across, I can’t see the need for 170mm travel
Trouble is, a lot of full power bikes ride downhill as well as most enduro bikes.
Ignoring “as well as”, because we can all disagree about that… do you accept they don’t necessarily ride “the same as” each other?
Anyway, interesting bike, I’d love a go… but this thread shows why talking about e-bikes is less interesting than riding them… there’s always the “but more power / bigger battery” comments distracting from something trying to walk (ride) a different path.
For those who enjoy peddling up and across, I can’t see the need for 170mm travel
i think the key element here is the fox live valve.
live valve / flight attendant get called a bit pointless on big travel bikes because you can stiffen your suspension to make your enduro plow pedal like an XC bike... but an XC bike with 5 kilos of ballast and downhill tyres. So never quite acheived the hype.
But here, you overcome the weight and drag with the motor.
So the motor and fancy suspension work together (meaning the cheaper version misses half the point of the bike) to potentially makes something that works.
Maybe. Obviously none of us punters have ridden it.
And at that price most of us (including me) won't.
I like the idea of it, being able to pedal uphill like an XC bike but with 170 travel would be great. But I really like my full fat YT Decoy. Sure it’s heavy and people complain about full fat e-bikes being too hard to throw around, but I just got stronger. The only time I notice the extra weight is loading them into the van. My wife has one as well and sure, she’s probably stronger than most guys on here, but again she only notices the weight when it’s time to lift it up, chucking it around on jumps and trails never bothers her.
I would like to try either this or the Trek Slash-E (or whatever it’s called) though.
Just a thought, how hard would it be for Orbea to switch the motor for the more powerful TQ and a bigger battery? If tha’s possible on this frame then maybe that’s something they’re going to offer later on to make the frame more commercially viable. Release the Super super light model first and then a more powerful version later on.
"a lot of full power bikes ride downhill as well as most enduro bikes" - this entirely depends on terrain and conditions. Full fat eebs are not-ideal in properly steep and slippery conditions IME.
I think it is marginal in my experience. Don't have any issues riding the ebike compared to the enduro bike down anything. analogue is perhaps 5% better at descending but getting a fraction of the riding in and then pushing up sections? I prefer doing more in less time. Which is why this orbea doesn't appeal. The dream of a motor and a full fat battery in that weight is the one. but this is compromised and I don't know what I'd use it for
In the Pinkbike review, they pointed out, that Orbea accept that is bike is more of 'test case/show whats possible' thing, so I suspect that Zerocool is right and there will be a model with the 60 and less tech along soon.
In a world where money was no object and you and all your friends could all buy one, it would make a great extra bike.
These threads always make me smile as they really make it clear that we all have a very different idea of steep, slippery tech. I accept that Tommy C and Shag can ride anything on an e-bike with Shreddas in any conditions but for us mere mortals a 25kg bike versus a 20kg bike makes a big difference at the edge of our lack of talent ,as speeds slow down, corners require endo's and camber disappears...
That said, I still chose a 25 kg bike as that was the best bike for me on balance but my next one will be lighter as things have moved on.
Biggin up a 12 grand cycle peddle .You've lost your minds
FTFY. Rather cleverly if I say do myself 🙂
Finally a good looking eeb! Kinda like the idea behind it, although for me the whole appeal of an ebike would be to use it in turbo as a self uplift for seasoning DH trails, rather than "just a bit" of assistance.