Orro Terra Ti GRX800 Tailormade

The Orro Terra Ti, Orro's first titanium bike, is a high-end offering that is not only stunning to look at, it is also beautiful to ride. With an adjustable fork rake, it transfers from gravel to road machine easily although the lack of 2x gear options restricts the performance on the latter. Other than that, though, the Terra Ti can't be faulted.

> Buy now: Orro Terra Ti GRX800 Tailormade for £4199.99 from Orro

Our best gravel bikes buyer's guide shows our top gravel choices, while check out our best road bikes buyers guide for more tarmac-based machines.

The Ride

Titanium frames are always touted as having this magical ride quality, and generally that is true – although it's not a given that the bike is going to ride as smooth as velvet just by welding some high-end metal sticks together.

I've ridden some not-so-supple titanium frames over the years, but thankfully Orro's designers look like they know what they are doing, as this Terra is very comfortable, and a very impressive machine overall.

The Terra Ti retains the geometry of the carbon fibre model, a setup that has impressed us over the years since the first model was released. It strikes a balance of bringing a relaxed front end on a gravel surface that tends to move around beneath you, while not feeling sluggish or uninspiring when you're riding on the road.

The head angle is slackened off compared to a road bike's, which brings neutrality for the tarmac sections and keeps things calm on by-ways and other kinds of off-road routes even when the bike is loaded up with bags and kit.

If you are using the Orro for touring and travelling on routes for the first time, the Terra remains easy to handle even if you need to correct your line mid-bend, so there are no surprises to be had.

If you want to up the ante and give yourself a faster-handling bike on either the road or gravel, you can adjust the fork rake measurement. You have two settings – 52mm for a more relaxed setup and the setting it was delivered with, or if you want to speed things up you can flip the inserts to change the measurement to 47mm.

I used the Terra Ti for commuting as well as gravel riding and with some deep-section rims, slick tyres and the trail reduced to 47mm it was a lot of fun to ride on the road. My route to work is just under 20 miles with plenty of climbing, and therefore descending, plus some urban riding into the city to finish up and the Terra felt just like an endurance road bike the way it handled.

At speed it carved a smooth line through corners and had no qualms about twisting its way through built up traffic. The only downside is that this 1x build is geared quite low, which meant my cadence was high by the time I hit 25mph and over about 30mph there's pretty much no point pedalling at all. If your riding is going to be more focused on the road though there is a 2x build coming soon using Shimano's 105 Di2 groupset.

The 42T largest cog and the 42T chainring paired together does give a low gear for climbing though and I was happy for that on many occasions. By only offering 11 speeds on GRX (at least for the moment) Shimano is limiting the ratios it can provide on 1x systems compared to SRAM's 12 speed and Campagnolo's 13 speed Ekar groupsets.

So, it handles well and it's very comfortable. It's also impressive on the stiffness front too.

Orro has gone for a T47 bottom bracket, which is basically an oversized BSA threaded design using some of the dimensions of a press-fit offering.

The bottom bracket diameter is the same size as the press-fit so you get the increased stiffness from the larger shell, but rather than the bearing cups getting pressed into the frame they sit outboard and are threaded instead. This is designed to bring the benefits of press-fit designs without the associated creaking and advanced wear created by poor tolerances between frame and bearing cup.

At 9.4kg the Orro Ti is no lightweight, so it isn't the quickest from a standing start and climbing isn't the kind of dance-on-the-pedals feedback you get from a pure road bike, but on the whole it does feel efficient.

Out on the gravel trails I found it to be fine. It feels responsive, and at no point did it feel sluggish.

Overall, from a ride point of view it's a lovely machine to be aboard and great fun too. If I wanted a single bike as a commuter, road tourer or gravel racer-cum-adventure machine, I'd definitely have the Terra Ti on my shopping list.

Frame & Fork

Orro offers the Terra in steel, aluminium, carbon fibre and now this titanium model – so you should be able to find a build to suit your budget somewhere in the range.

For this version, as with most brands Orro has used the 3Al/2.5V grade titanium alloy which blends 3% aluminium and 2.5% vanadium with the titanium.

Orro has then hydroformed the tubes, which is why you see many different profiles throughout the frame, the D-profile top tube having a flattened top, for example.

By contrast, the down tube morphs from fully round nearer the head tube into a tube with a flatter bottom where it meets the bottom bracket.

For increased strength the bottom bracket shell is cast from 6Al/4V grade titanium. The head tube is also cast before having the rather neat looking Orro logo CNC-machined into it.

With no paint to hide any mistakes or sanding the welding needs to be top notch on a titanium frame and the Orro doesn't disappoint. All the joins are incredibly neat throughout, even around the small details such as the bottle cage bosses and dropouts.

By running the cables and hoses in through the head tube via the inside of the stem Orro have kept any drilling to the frame to a minimum, plus you also get a very clean look to the bike overall.

Orro has also included ports on the fork, which lets you run the bike with a dynamo setup, further adding to the bike's touring and commuting credentials.

There are sufficient fittings for carrying luggage too, with the carbon fork getting three eyelets on each leg for cages.

The frame has the usual two bottle positions within the main triangle with an extra one under the down tube. 

You'll also find 'bento box' fittings on the top tube for an extra bag.

There are of course mudguard and rack mounts, though the front fork's mudguard fittings are inside the legs so you'll need to fettle the stays to make them fit.

From a tyre clearance point of view, the Orro will take 44mm tyres in a 700c size and 47mm in 650b.

Five sizes are available ranging from XS to XL with top tubes form 508mm to 604mm in length – our medium frame sits smack in the middle.

Our bike has a 553mm top tube and 165mm tall head tube, the wheelbase is 1,031mm and the chainstays are 420mm.

The stack and reach figures are 587mm and 387mm respectively.

As for the angles, you are looking at 74.2° for the seat tube and 71° for the head tube.

Finishing Kit

You can buy the Terra Ti as a frameset for £2,599.99, or in three build options. The cheapest is the GRX 800 model, which has exactly the same groupset as our bike but comes with lower-spec Fulcrum Rapid Red 500 wheels, a Deda Zero 1 stem and Deda's flared Gravel 100 handlebar.

That costs £3,899.99 while this Tailormade version gets the Fulcrum Rapid Red 3 wheels and an FSA stem and handlebar that integrates those hoses and cables directly into the frame without them ever being out in the open.

These little upgrades cost an extra £200 pushing the price up to £4,199.99.

You might notice from the pics that we have a different cockpit on our review model, with it using a carbon BLKTEC bar and stem.

This sometimes happens due to availability of components when the demo bikes are being built, and Orro had to do the same when it sent the Terra X in recently for review.

Topping the range is a Rival eTap build. It comes with the same finishing kit as the £3,899.99 GRX model.

In terms of performance and quality, GRX 800 is the gravel equivalent to Shimano's Ultegra with some subtle changes. The hood shape on the levers is very similar, but you do get an embossed pattern where your hand sits, which gives you a bit of extra grip when you're riding on the rough stuff, and the brake levers have a flat section on the front.

This helps a lot for when trying to brake hard on rutted descents when the terrain is doing its best to shake your hands off the levers. The flat area gives you better purchase compared to road levers, which gravel bikes running Shimano used to come with.

The 1x specific mech comes with a clutch to keep chain tension tight so that a front mech isn't required and even on rough singletrack the whole set up runs pretty much silently.

With 160mm diameter rotors front and rear there is also plenty of braking power on tap, even when loaded up.

Orro's own carbon fibre seatpost is topped by the Orro Bostal saddle. The only thing I find with 1x systems is that they mean that I spend much more time in the saddle than I would with a 2x set up, spinning along using the larger sprockets.

If you don't get on with the saddle then that is definitely going to show up with this in mind, and I found the Bostal to be too softly padded for me, which caused me a bit of numbness. I also prefer a short-nosed saddle to the length of the Bostal. I wouldn't say it is uncomfortable per se, just that it didn't suit me with this build. That said, saddles are the most subjective component on any bike and the Bostal may work for you.

As mentioned, the Terra comes with Fulcrum's Rapid Red 300 wheels, the OE equivalent to the Rapid Red 3s.

They are gravel specific with a 29mm external rim width and 24mm inner measurement. The rim height is 24mm too, and to follow the theme both the front and rear wheels have 24 spokes.

All-in weight is a claimed 1,780g and thanks to Fulcrum's 2-Way Fit Ready design you can run them with tubes or as tubeless.

I've ridden most of Fulcrum's wheel over the years and have always found them to be durable wheels that offer good levels of performance. Something lighter makes the Orro feel more responsive as you'd expect, but you aren't going to drop a lot of weight without spending a big amount of money, so I'd stick with the Fulcrums especially if your riding is varied.

The tyres are the Vredestein Aventuras that Matt rated very highly. 

He described them as light, fast and smooth, with grip that surpasses expectations – and I'd agree with him. Admittedly the conditions have been very dry and fast rolling for the review period, something that has suited the Aventuras well. They are ideal in these conditions, but I also found them robust on rocky trails.

Their subtle tread pattern means that they' roll well enough on the road without feeling overly stodgy, so you won't need to keep swapping them over for road rides unless all-out speed is your number one goal.

However, you will need to factor in something a bit wider and with more pronounced tread for riding through the wetter winter months though.

Competition

Orro's bikes have always done well on value for money, and I still think that is the case here whether you are looking at the cost of the full builds or a frameset.

On paper, though, there is undoubtedly some tough competition.

With a similar build to the standard GRX Orro, the Dolan GXT that I tested last year comes in at £3,219.93.

The Dolan's geometry is more road biased than the Orro, and I'd say that the attention to detail and overall quality of the Orro's frame is finished to a higher standard. And you also have the addition of the cast parts of the frame, which ups things a level.

Ribble's Gravel Ti (the steel 725 version we reviewed has the same geometry) costs £3,099 with the GRX 800 groupset.

Genesis' Croix de Fer Ti has a much higher price, coming in at a more wallet-worrying £4,999.99 in a similar build.

Conclusion

Okay, so it's not the cheapest on the block but I stand by what I say in the paragraph above. The Orro's frame is manufactured to a very good standard indeed – similar to that you'll see on some very high-end titanium bikes.

It's well specced for the money too, and if you are looking for a versatile titanium bike that covers a whole ranging of riding styles, you really should have this in your short list.

Verdict

A stunningly finished titanium frame with a lovely ride quality and plenty of attention to detail