Unboxing Orbea’s new Terra gravel and adventure bike

Not a week goes by without a new gravel and adventure bike arriving in the road.cc office, and this week it’s the brand new Orbea Terra. In this video above watch as the bike is unboxed.

Like many bikes that fall under the large gravel and adventure bike umbrella, the Terra is designed to be able to blur traditional boundaries between a road bike and an off-road bike.

Orbea feels it has designed a bike that could be used for everything from road riding to cyclocross racing, to adventure and bikepacking and even commuting. It’s versatile, the only limitation is your imagination.

- Gravel and adventure bikes

To enable it to cover such a broad spectrum of riding, Orbea has developed All Road Geometry. It’s longer, slacker and lower than a cyclocross bike to give it extra stability in the rough, whether it’s a poorly surfaced road or farm track.

The carbon fibre frame and fork is designed for the 40mm G-One tyres this model is specced with. You could probably go a little wider, 42mm at a pinch. It’s not class-leading clearance but I suspect it’s probably enough for most people. There’s no mention of 650b compatibility so presumably, that wheelsize hasn’t been considered.

The frame is constructed from Orbea’s OMP high-modulus carbon, one step down from the highest quality OMR carbon reserved for its highest level Orca race bike. There are features carried over from the company’s regular road bikes, such as the tapered head tube and BB386 EVO  press fit bottom bracket. 

It has worked the layup and tube profiles to provide areas of flex. The lower section of the fork blades, the rear dropouts the top tube and seat stays are all designed to provide additional compliance, while the down tube, bottom bracket and chainstays ensure adequate stiffness for efficient power transfer.

Frame weight is a claimed 1,190g so it’s up there with the likes of the Open UP and other carbon adventure bikes. Durability is a consideration when riding off-road, so Orbea has added clear plastic protection to the down tube and rear stays to provide extra protection against rock strikes.

There are also mudguard mounts if you wanted to double it up for winter commuting and training rides, with discrete eyelets (you hardly notice them until you get up close) using a removable seatstay bridge. While this bike has no front mech, there is a mount to fit one if you ever change your mind. There are just two bottle cage mounts inside the front triangle.

All cables and hoses are internally routed, brakes are flat mount and 12mm thru-axles secure the wheels into the frame and fork.

The Terra M21-D bike we have in for test costs £3,199 and is one of six models available. It’s specced with an SRAM Force 1 groupset, Fulcrum Racing 500 DB wheels with Schwalbe G-One Allround 40mm tyres, FSA SL-K stem and seatpost, Energy Compact handlebar and a Prologo Nago Evo Space Tirox saddle. On the scales this size medium is 8.4kg.

You can choose from a range of stock colours or for no extra cost you can use MyO to customise the colour of your bike. What do you think of this blue over grey combination?

More info at www.orbea.com