Orbea Urrun – Shimano EP8 RS equipped hardtail for mile munching

Urrun means ‘far’ in Basque, which is where the Orbea company harks from and hints at what this bike is for. Following on from the success of their fu …

By mark

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Orbea Urrun – Shimano EP8 RS equipped hardtail for mile munching

I feel like I’m being trolled. Is there any point in having an option to not have news on your homepage when things aren’t tagged properly?

Those aren’t the worst looking bikes though.

@malv173 sorry, some recent tech changes have stopped the filter working. We’re working on reinstating it.

As e-bikes go the Orbea range are (imho) by far the best looking ones on the market. I would be interested to know what the rough mileage figures are, i.e. roughly how far can I go. Could this be a bike packing option with the range extender, assuming of course your overnight stops include somewhere to charge the bike. One significant draw back to this is not being able to remove the battery to charge it.

Orbea are doing great things with these bikes with detuned Shimano motors and small/optional batteries. A really useful and adaptable option for people.

For me, the proper down “tube”, without a way to easily remove the main battery, are essential to the design (look and weight). Many other options are available with battery doors (and the heavier frame and interrupted look they require), including from Orbea itself. A hard to remove battery does require you to store the bike away from the frost and close to a power supply though.

I would be interested to know what the rough mileage figures are, i.e. roughly how far can I go

Its too hard to predict range on ebikes, as the variables (assist mode, your weight, the terrain, and the speed you travel at ) make so much difference. The range can be enormous if you switch the motor off on the flat bits, and only use eco on the hills, travel at normal mtb speeds for example. or the range could be tiny if you’re heavy, use turbo all the time, and travel at 12mph up hill.

Once you get one you’ll quickly work out what your typical range is based on your set of variables.

Could this be a bike packing option with the range extender, assuming of course your overnight stops include somewhere to charge the bike. 

I know people tend to diss the misuse of the work “bikepacking” because the perfectly good “touring” was available, but surely the one key difference between touring and bikepackng is that bikepacking implies a bit more wilderness and self sufficiency…
Ie you don’t have a thirteen amp plug at the end of each day.

Thus whilst this bike would be grand for touring, it’s not really for bikepacking.

Or you could say this bike might be better for bike packing than other ebikes. Lots of space in the frame for bags. Perfectly rideable (like the Rise) in eco or off mode when the battery is low or flat. You could tune the trail mode to be an even lighter assist, for gentle assistance when climbing loaded, and aim to only use the boost and walk modes to get your loaded bike up the steeps.

The older i get the less i look at a hardtail as being a mile cruncher, as the more miles i do, the more pain i get in the lower back, hips, etc, not to mention contact points on the saddle, especially in summer when the grounds hardpacked and cracked up a bit.

Would be interesting to see how the fatigue factor works with ebike hardtails for long distances, i struggle on a full susser to reduce the fatigue on arms and joints over say a 40 miler due to the terrain, speed you go at and so on.

Also, bikepacking can be heading out from home for a night out and back the next day. It’d be a bit grand to call that a “tour”! Having the power to get you further afield than you might otherwise in one day makes a short trip potentially more interesting.

@thegeneralist, get your drift, but you say tomato and I say tomato. If I am carrying all my “stuff” from a to b to c to d etc, but not necessarily camping, I would still call that bike-packing or touring.

@argee Looking at the prices there isn’t too much difference between the high end HT Uurun and the low end FS Rise H30.

That looks really good. After the issues with my Kinesis Ride Pro – something to recommend to my mate who was considering getting one. After riding proper mountains on an Orbea Wild, I think I can safely say Orbea have the ebike thing sussed out.

For me, the proper down “tube”, without a way to easily remove the main battery, are essential to the design (look and weight)

as an owner of a bike with an integrated battery i`d disagree strongly. if you have to keep your bike somewhere that gets cold in winter its not great for the battery. Also charging it when travelling is a pain in the arse as you need the whole bike not just the battery so you cant just sneak into a pub and plug it in while you have dinner.

it does look great though. and the detuned motor is a great idea as a full power motor is pointless for most situations. I happily did a lap of cwmcarn on eco only.

Looks like a decent proposition, although the cable-eating stem isn’t going to be much fun from an ownership perspective. Doesn’t look like the frame has any drillings to support conventional routing either, so you can’t even ditch it.

Have Orbea given any indicators on weight? Presumably somewhere just south of the weight of a Rise H? Or, more simply, what do the Singletrack Towers Scales of Truth say?

Have Orbea given any indicators on weight?

just under 20kg according to the orbea blurb

as an owner of a bike with an integrated battery i`d disagree strongly

Surely, you’re just agreeing with me? I said the same about bike storage, temperature and charging. There are plenty of options for people who need an easily removable battery (Orbea have other good bikes that do), but the design of this bike, weight and looks wise, depends on it having a full “tube” for a downtube. Need a battery door? Don’t buy a bike like this.

They look great.

Perfect for my MinceCore style of riding.

@stwhannah cheers! And I apologise for being a big whinger.