Orbea Gain E-Road Bike

[Captain Slow]

Thank you for the response. I was looking at the CREO as an option as well, but the stand-over height would be a little high for her (even in XS size). Her inseam is around 27 inches. Plus, the reach is slightly longer, and the Q-factor is wider on the CREO. Yes, my wife is on the petite side. If Specialized made an ebike with the Ruby geometry, it would be perfect for her... but I guess that's wishful thinking.

I have a Creo and I've found that it does well on hills. I went back to look at some of my Strava ride data. There's one section of 3% grade around Stanley Park that I rode. According to Strava over this segment my average speed was 24.1 km/hr and my average cadence was 78. However that is a bit misleading because the average grade is less than 4% because it includes a section that is flat. My average power (not including the motor) through the segment was 189 watts.

I would like to have a double chain ring on the Creo. I do like the Gain better there. It's not so much that I wish for a lower gear, but I would like a cassette that has fewer gaps. If I had a double chainring then the cassette could be an 11 speed 11-30 rather than the 11-42 and the gaps would be smaller.

Would the new Vado SL be an option if the stand over height of the Creo is too high?

 

[Saratoga Dave]

Or a regular Vado. That would certainly do it. Court has a video on YouTube from maybe a year ago of a group Press ride when the Vado was introduced, including a section of riders, male and female, riding up some very impressive hills around Palo Alto. Very compelling.

Found it. It’s long, but the climbing stuff starts around 56:30 or so. The whole second half of the video is pretty entertaining. Court did a very nice job on it.

 

[Captain Slow]

Good point Dave, plus the regular Vado has a step through, so that makes sizing for a smaller person much better.

 

[Sewnsurg]

I test rode an Orbea Gain today. I rode both the classic road version and the gravel grinder All Road model. Both were bottom of the line bikes, but with the same motor and battery as the higher level models. They are all disappointingly limited to 20 mph. The local dealer was only allocated these two bikes.

Both bikes are exceedingly stealthy and sexy. It is impossible to tell they are ebikes other than the small illuminated control button on the top tube. It is the only control on the bike—a fatal shortcoming. More on that later. The motor is in the rear hub, which is discreet. There are no visible wires. The pleasing aesthetics are undeniable. The 250Wh battery is hidden away in the small down tube. On appearance alone these are sleek, standard road bikes.

The aluminum road model was fully charged but unfortunately the motor didn’t work. I rode it around the block, then the dealer took it out. It powered up, changed power levels, but never engaged the motor. Apparently it worked the day before.

The All Road model was outfitted with an off-road 1x crank and knobby tires. The motor worked. It is agile, lightweight at ~25 lbs, and fun to ride as far as it goes. Both come in aluminum and carbon fiber versions.

The problem starts with changing power levels. It reminds me of the original Specialized Turbo Levo eMTB. The power level button was located out of sight on the side of the down tube—dangerously requiring one hand off the handlebars to blindly change levels. Who would design that into a mountain bike?

Orbea takes reckless to the next level. On the Gain you change the power level by briefly pressing the top tube button, waiting for it to blink, then within two seconds pressing it again. So one hand off the handlebars and both eyes off the road.

This cycles through low, medium, and high one at a time. To go from high back to medium, say after cresting a hill, you repeat this process three times. From high mode you take one hand off the handlebars, both eyes off the road, press the button, watch to see if it is blinking, then press again to turn the motor off. That’s right, off follows high. You’ve just turned the motor off. Now repeat the process twice more to move from off to low and from low to medium. I found this completely unworkable and dangerous, having to look down at the top tube with one hand off the handlebar keying in an obscure sequence of push button Morse code.

Aside from the terrible user interface, the bike was underpowered. Orbea markets the bike for those who want to feel the road, essentially making a feature out of the lack of power. Does anyone buy an ebike and not want to feel the power? Maybe. No one I know. I found the Orbea Gain slow off the line, plodding on hills, and feeling lively only in a small cadence/speed sweet spot.

I’m not sure who will be happy with the Gain. Experienced ebikers demand safe, informative controls along with power which the Gain just does not deliver. Aging roadies with creaky knees will need usable power, not just stealth for their egos.

The Orbea Gain is a self-loathing e-road bike v1.0. It is the victim of roadie navel gazing, deep philosophizing about stealth, fretting over the 28 mph speed limit, and justifying low power by purporting to put “you” into the ebike. In reality the Gain’s frustrating design won’t please anyone looking for a fun way to combine the freedom of ebike speed, range, and acceleration with a light weight and agile road bike. Roadie bike manufacturers need to get over themselves and uncork a full fledged e-road bike that isn’t ashamed of its genetics. Specialized did it with the Turbo Levo v2. I went to the bike shop today to buy an Orbea Gain. Instead I’ll wait for v2.

I am new to this group but would like to respectfully disagree with the above review and offer another view of the Orbeo Gain. I am a new owner of an Orbea Gain M20i and have ridden it about 300 miles in the past 3 weeks. I love, love, love the bike. There is a learning curve and it takes about 2 rides to become comfortable with its functions, but it is a dream. My favorite things about the bike: 1) It is very swift (without the motor) and nimble. I am 80, and not a strong rider, just enjoy bicycling recreationally. That having been said, I use the motor only about 10-20% of the time because of the nimbleness of the bike. I rarely need to use the smaller front chain ring; only if there is a greater than 4% grade. 2) the motor is a pleasant and unobtrusive assist, as it should be. I have done up to 7%, brief, grade without ever using more than the lowest level of assist. With a longer 7% or more grade I would use a higher level of assist and it would be more than adequate. 3) using the motor as described (only 10-20% of the time and on lowest level of assist) I easily bicycle 50 miles and the battery remaining will be 25-50%. 4) the Shimano electric gear shift, hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless tires, light weight (for an e-bike -- 28#), and overall efficiency of the bike make for an outstanding experience. 5) I never look down to turn the electric assist on and off, though of course I do need to briefly (2 seconds), reach slight with one hand to turn the motor on or off. Because the motor/assist is automatically activated when turning on, there is no necessity to cycle through the levels of assist to get back to no assist. Simply turn on the assist when you need it, and off when you don't. Now for the not so wonderful: 1) the charge cord is a nuisance to plug in properly. 2) the manufacturer's literature says to not charge for more than 5 hours and hence I need to set my alarm to remind me to unplug the charger; I don't know the reason for this but suspect this is unnecessary. 3) If you want a powerful assist from lowest level, you will not be able to get it; you will need to go to a higher level of assist and of course a shorter range. However, who is going to want to use a higher level of assist constantly on an efficient road bike. Such a person should be purchasing a heavy hybrid with a large motor, not this clearly advanced road bike. That's all for now, but if you want the alternative of a more powerful, but yet lightweight road e-bike, look for my review of a Cytronex e-bike kit added onto an existing Trek carbon road bike.

 

[taylorpetie]

Would the new Vado SL be an option if the stand over height of the Creo is too high?

Or a regular Vado. That would certainly do it.

Thanks both the suggestions. She test road some of the e-bikes and she did like the bottom bracket motor e-bikes... thanks again. The Vado did well, but she wanted a road-looking e-bike and therefore passed on the Vado. I wish we had a chance to demo the Orbea Gain M20 but none available in XS size. So, she went the other model -- the standover height was borderline where she was comfortable with it.

 

[Captain Slow]

So what did she end up getting?

 

[taylorpetie]

So what did she end up getting?

The wife went with the CREO Comp SL. Seems the standover height was tolerable with her mountain bike clip on shoes ... plus, my measurement of her inseam was just a tad off

 

[Captain Slow]

Would appreciate hearing about her experience with the new bike once she's had a chance to put say 300-500 miles on it. Maybe in a new thread on the Specialized forum since this is the Orbea forum.

 

[Pete D]

The motor is in the rear wheel hub. It is not affected by gearing. Increasing cadence won’t help the motor, only speed. Higher speed would help “bogging” and overheating, if that’s a problem.

Higher cadence can help the rider produce power more efficiently. Rider power + motor power = total power.

 

[abn1000]

Hello everyone
I have an Orbea Gain m30 and I am very happy with my bike I have read that there are people that use home trainer.


Anyone use a home trainer?
what kind of home trainer?
I have a tacx flow smart and I don't know to put in the trainer.

Thanks

 

[abn1000]

Thank you
But we have a problem because axle is fix (axle is the motor) and the nuts ares so big.

 

[abn1000]

I want a trainer only for bike in home when I cant go to the street and I have only one bike. I don't want to buy another I live in a flat in Barcelona "space is strategic"

Tacks sells axle and nuts but are metric (until 10mm) and my nuts are 12mm whitworh ( i think, I'm not mechanic).
I have some solution: to buy a wheel only for the tacx flow(i dont need the motor for home) or to buy two nuts orbea (1 euro ) and I will file them until can put in the support.

Im looking for a solution until the market become "normal" because now is "total crazy" about bike, training...i don't kno in USA but Europe is....
Tacx Neo is a good home trainer and you don't have to change the tire o wheel but it is impossible to find in Europe, it's impossible to find any training.
Thank you

 

[MikeC89]

Hello everyone
I have an Orbea Gain m30 and I am very happy with my bike I have read that there are people that use home trainer.


Anyone use a home trainer?
what kind of home trainer?
I have a tacx flow smart and I don't know to put in the trainer.

Thanks

I have an M30 and use a Wahoo Kickr Core, which is a direct drive trainer. Since I have to remove the rear wheel my rides are all "non-assisted", but that's how I want it on a trainer anyway. Fit is not a problem on this trainer for the M30, and I would highly recommend it, it transmits power, speed, cadence.

 

[Pemberton]

I bought an M30 a few days ago and have a couple of rides on it. I rode 38 miles today and averaged 2 mph faster over the same ride I did last week on my road bike. Most of the ride was in the eco mode. Some of the hills were in the mid power mode, and the system was in no assist mode for a few miles too. At the end I was at 43% battery life; not too bad over a ride with rolling hills. I'm pretty sure I'm going to get the bottle battery when it becomes available.

The speed at which the power assist cuts off is 20 mph; not 15 as reported above. This is in the US. In the EU it's 25 kph (15.5 mph). The power cutoff is not abrupt and it's difficult to tell at what speed above 20 mph it's actually occurring.

The bike is tubeless ready, but comes with tubes installed. It has room for 40mm wide tires and comes with 28mm wide tubeless tires. I'm thinking of getting wider tires to ride gravel and soften the ride. The wheels and tires are Mavic tubeless ready UST. This is about the best engineered tubeless system as the tires can be mounted and removed without tools and can be aired up without an air compressor.

The groupset is Shimano 105 11 speed mechanical with 105 disc brakes with 160mm rotors front and rear. It shifts and stops nicely. Gearing is 50x34 front and 11-32 rear. There's plenty of gearing over a wide range, even when you run out of electric power.

One thing I don't like is the chainstays are wide at the back. I'm duck footed so my heels hit the chainstays now and then. I'm going to have to adjust my cleats to prevent that. I can hear a little brake rotor rub on occasion when pedaling out of the saddle.

The motor is seamlessly integrated and very quiet. I could only hear it on climbs. I can detect no motor drag when power assistance is off, however the rear wheel doesn't spin as freely as an unpowered bike if you pick up the back of the bike and give the wheel a spin by hand. I haven't used the iPhone app much, other than to check the power level at the end of the ride. I'm thinking of getting a bar mount for my phone but I have a Garmin and it would probably drain my phone battery pretty quickly if there's a lot of screen time. From reading the information on the EVmotion website, the battery is supposed to have a USB output. It would be nice if Orbea would provide a way to tap into that to power a cell phone. The iOS app is impressive and sophisticated, but unfortunately currently not useful while riding without an external power source and holder for the phone.

I didn't have much problem with the power button out on the road changing power modes. It's not something that I need to do often. I'm sure I'll get more adept at it. I think I fumbled with it once when I was trying to cycle through several modes to go from moderate back to eco mode.

The bike has a thru axle at the front and nuts at the rear wheels. Make sure you carry a multi tool and it fits these fasteners so you can repair a flat out on the road.

The bike weighs about 25 pounds which means it pedals easily when the power assist is off or you run out of battery. It also handles like a regular road bike as it's not too heavy. It has endurance geometry and rides and handles nicely and has no toe overlap (I have the large sized frame).

As Greg LeMond once said, "It doesn't get any easier, you just go faster." That about sums up my experience. If you're looking for an easy ride, maybe a Class 3 bike would be better. But if you're looking for an ebike that's similar in weight and handling to your current road bike and that makes the climbs a lot easier, then this bike is a good choice.

Update 1/29/19. I've ridden the bike on a number of rides. I love it. Looking forward to getting the bottle battery so I can do longer rides. I find I'm using powered assistance on the flats as well as climbs; great for headwinds.

I’ve read all the reports on the Orbea Gain. The negative ones are clearly from those cyclists who do not wish to keep themselves active. Preferring to use battery power than pedal assist.
I have had an Orbea Gain M1 for a year. I also use the range extender battery. It is absolutely brilliant. I hardly use the L2 and L3 control buttons, preferring to keep myself an active 79 year old and former racing cyclist. It’s fit is perfect and with Ultegra drive train is ideal. Those who criticise the IWOC controls clearly are not proficient in its use.

 

[Pemberton]

I am new to this group but would like to respectfully disagree with the above review and offer another view of the Orbeo Gain. I am a new owner of an Orbea Gain M20i and have ridden it about 300 miles in the past 3 weeks. I love, love, love the bike. There is a learning curve and it takes about 2 rides to become comfortable with its functions, but it is a dream. My favorite things about the bike: 1) It is very swift (without the motor) and nimble. I am 80, and not a strong rider, just enjoy bicycling recreationally. That having been said, I use the motor only about 10-20% of the time because of the nimbleness of the bike. I rarely need to use the smaller front chain ring; only if there is a greater than 4% grade. 2) the motor is a pleasant and unobtrusive assist, as it should be. I have done up to 7%, brief, grade without ever using more than the lowest level of assist. With a longer 7% or more grade I would use a higher level of assist and it would be more than adequate. 3) using the motor as described (only 10-20% of the time and on lowest level of assist) I easily bicycle 50 miles and the battery remaining will be 25-50%. 4) the Shimano electric gear shift, hydraulic disc brakes, tubeless tires, light weight (for an e-bike -- 28#), and overall efficiency of the bike make for an outstanding experience. 5) I never look down to turn the electric assist on and off, though of course I do need to briefly (2 seconds), reach slight with one hand to turn the motor on or off. Because the motor/assist is automatically activated when turning on, there is no necessity to cycle through the levels of assist to get back to no assist. Simply turn on the assist when you need it, and off when you don't. Now for the not so wonderful: 1) the charge cord is a nuisance to plug in properly. 2) the manufacturer's literature says to not charge for more than 5 hours and hence I need to set my alarm to remind me to unplug the charger; I don't know the reason for this but suspect this is unnecessary. 3) If you want a powerful assist from lowest level, you will not be able to get it; you will need to go to a higher level of assist and of course a shorter range. However, who is going to want to use a higher level of assist constantly on an efficient road bike. Such a person should be purchasing a heavy hybrid with a large motor, not this clearly advanced road bike. That's all for now, but if you want the alternative of a more powerful, but yet lightweight road e-bike, look for my review of a Cytronex e-bike kit added onto an existing Trek carbon road bike.

Well said.

 

[Pete D]

Turning it off as a way to go from level 1 to 0 rather than stepping through 2 and 3 is one way to do it though a connected device (smartphone, GPS) would complain about the loss of signal. I’d rather they had just used an up and down button. I’ve ridden my 2020 D30 now over 500 miles and I tend to just leave it at level 1 all the time (set to 80%) and that works well for me. Also the GPS screen has a down level button and I use that.

I wondered about what seemed like a “no more than 5 hour charge warning” but the charger knows when it’s done (green light) and ended up thinking the image was saying it could take up to 5 hours to fully charge.

 

[TouchingCloth]

My average speed on a ride when i classed my self as fit, but not an athlete by any means was 14mph give or take dependin on route, time of year, weather and number of rides in the past few days etc.
Now I have it I can surpass this average on a uk 15.5mph version reletivly easily.

However my aim is to increase my fitness and strength in my legs. My health condition is called peripheral claudication, which in a nutshell is blocked arteries to the legs, causing severe cramp in the muscles when they need more oxygen than the blood flow can supply. So the assistance when I hit an incline of any description is absolutely necessary or even working very hard on the flat.
The gain is perfect of course, allowing me to add power assistance as necessary.
As my fitness improves, I can tackle most mildly undulating terrain unassisted until my legs are begining to generally tire due to lack of endurance. I did a 65mile ride last week and battery level was an impressive 61% on my return.

Recently while out alone and wanting to ride for longer, I have been happy to cruise at a steady 13mph under my own steam to conserve my own energy, however as the miles rack up and the inevetable climbs and fatigue take there toll, I switch on the assistance where I would normally go solo. The problem is the motor wants to take me up to 15.5mph while I'm more than happy to stay around the 13 mark and conserve battery. I adjusted the power setting to around 65% on level one and this seemed to have the desired effect as i didn't feel the motor pushing me beyond my desired speed. I also reduced level 2 to 80%
However when out with my daughter, she rides at a average of 16 plus. Momentum and drafting allows me to achieve this, and as a result I conserve battery too due to the motor cutting out. Downside is, I tire a lot quicker and need to adjust the power setting back to 100% to keep up at present. Hopefully as my fitness improves, I will continue to need less assistance and not need to purchase the range extender.

Its a marvelous machine for those of us who still want a work out, with the added ability to adjust the power setting to suit the ride ahead if necessary.
Its given my my cycling pastime back, and the feeling of achievement from completing a ride at a certain pace or distance is still there.

 

[Ed B]

The bike is tubeless ready, but comes with tubes installed. It has room for 40mm wide tires and comes with 28mm wide tubeless tires.

What 700x28 tires are forum members finding success with?

I'm riding a Gain M20i which came in the USA with Mavic Aksium Elite Disc UST tubeless ready wheels and Mavic Yksion Pro tires. I am riding with a tube around 100PSI in the rear. The rear only lasted like 1,000 miles so I tried a Schwalbe 11600810 Pro One but that wore out quickly too. Most other tires wont fit the Mavic rims (despite the UST part!) And, even the Yksion and Schwalbe are extremely hard to mount by hand.

Just wondering if there are other options I havent yet discovered. I'm looking for durability over weight. I dont mind the hard ride of a 28 at the higher end of the recommended pressure range.

-E

 

[yungleen]

What 700x28 tires are forum members finding success with?

I'm riding a Gain M20i which came in the USA with Mavic Aksium Elite Disc UST tubeless ready wheels and Mavic Yksion Pro tires. I am riding with a tube around 100PSI in the rear. The rear only lasted like 1,000 miles so I tried a Schwalbe 11600810 Pro One but that wore out quickly too. Most other tires wont fit the Mavic rims (despite the UST part!) And, even the Yksion and Schwalbe are extremely hard to mount by hand.

Just wondering if there are other options I havent yet discovered. I'm looking for durability over weight. I dont mind the hard ride of a 28 at the higher end of the recommended pressure range.

-E

I was surprised when I saw the recommended pressure on the 28 tires on my M20i. It is something like 67-87. I have been doing it around 80 and being more relaxed about topping off before each ride like I normally do. It gives a nice, smooth ride at the lower pressure.

 

[Pete D]

I was surprised when I saw the recommended pressure on the 28 tires on my M20i. It is something like 67-87. I have been doing it around 80 and being more relaxed about topping off before each ride like I normally do. It gives a nice, smooth ride at the lower pressure.

Me too ... I have been riding bikes for exercise for 15 years and 14-3/4 of them were spent on skinny 23mm tires pumped up to 110 PSI the 28mm at 75-80 is much more comfortable and the tires still seem efficient. Wish I knew this years ago.
However the other day I hit a pothole and the rear tire flatted. That was an experience ... the tubeless ready rims and tires were locked together and were nearly impossible to separate by hand, in fact a buddy had to do it. The lower pressure may increase the number of these kind of flats. Going to explore going tubeless.