New Orbea Terra – For the fun and faster side of gravel

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Orbea’s press launch is at some pains to point out that the Orbea Terra is not a jack-of-all-trades gravel bike. They’re not claiming it’s amazing at everything, has no limits, will take you to the moon, or double up as your enduro bike. Instead, they’re firmly focussed at the gravel end of gravel, where tarmac gets rough and then disintegrates – rather than something that might be confused with a mountain bike trail or small quarry.

No, we haven’t cropped this photo.

Gravel, we’re told, is defined in a dictionary somewhere, as stones that don’t exceed 1cm. Keep your rocks to yourself, or your other bike. The Orbea Terra is for fast tarmac transitions, for fun on gravel, and light and fast bike packing. It’s not for avoiding effort, and while gravel isn’t a race, going fast is fun. If you’re nodding along here, then this might be for you.

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Its design aims to satisfy three types of people: the true gravel rider, who likes long days in the saddle  and wants speed, comfort and efficiency no matter what the surface is. The explorer, those people who love to get lost looking for new paths and backroads. And finally, the adventurer, who seeks out long routes while bikepacking or  exploring new places they otherwise wouldn’t be able to access.

Orbea

While it’s not a jack-of-all-trades, it is adaptable, with tyre clearance for 700x45mm or 650Bx50mm. There are drivetrain options for 1x and 2x, with clearance for an inner chainring up to 34T. Compared to previous iterations of the Orbea Terra, this one has a shorter seat tube and slightly more relaxed angles, for comfort, stability and confidence. Rigidity has tuned around the bottom bracket shell to make sure you keep that feeling of power transfer without losing your fillings. The chainstays are shorter at 420mm, and the bottom bracket has been lowered to 78mm for stability and control.

Orbea Terra
Maybe it wouldn’t balance in the middle of the road?

There are two bottle cage mounts inside the frame, plus a downtube pair, and there’s a stash hatch in the downtube for your car keys or an inner tube if you want to ride without pockets full of stuff. Internal cable routing means you have a clean frame with no clashings of cables and bag straps.

Because they’re not aiming this bikes at rocks and gnarly trails, there’s no dropper post or suspension fork build option, but the frame is compatible with both.

There are six sizes available, from XS – XXL, all in a carbon frame and fork, with six standard build specs available. Of course, you can use Orbea’s customisation options to choose more or less flared bars (how about their own brand 12 deg flare riser drop bar with 15mm raise?), different colours, or different wheel sizes.

  • M21 eTeam 1x – £4,999
  • M20 iTeam – £4,599
  • M31eTeam 1X – £3,799
  • M20 Team – £3,399
  • M30 Team – £2,999
  • M30 Team 1x – £2,899

Comments (3)

    Article doesn’t mention the alloy ‘H’ models; the H30 at £1999, the H31 1X at £1919 and the H40 at £1749.

    @househusband It’s just the carbon model that’s had an update – any alloy ones will be old stock and the previous geometry.

    @Hannah Dobson Doh! Thanks for pointing out I’d missed that ever so slightly important point; I was too eager to look at the prices of those at the lower end – cheers! #slapsampleforehead

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