Orbea started teasing its all-new Terra machine a few months ago, sending us (by post) cryptic tales of big adventures with little or no information on what it was all about. We then got a Terra Passport and a bike sized box a few days ago, and inside was the all-new Orbea Terra.
The Terra is based around Orbea’s own all-road geometry that takes some of the details from its brilliant Avant endurance range and extends them a little more for sand and gravel duties. So that means a frame with a longer wheelbase, longer chainstays (for a more complaint back end), a lower bottom bracket (for stability when descending) and up front a higher stack and shorter reach for more endurance comfort and more stability when riding on loose gravel, Orbea claims.
Up front the longer legged fork is designed to be compliant in its lower two thirds, while the crown is stiffened to track precisely and stay rigid though the bumps.
Orbea also tells us that it's concentrated on small sections of the frame to help absorb vibrations, with a special lay-up at the head tube, seat tube/top tube joint, above the rear dropouts and at the fork dropouts, all using its special ‘dynamic structure’ design to smooth things as you bounce along.
The Terra is aimed to be as versatile as possible so the tyre clearances have been optimized for up to a 40c gravel tyre down to a 28c for road duties. The Terra range is topped by the Force 1 equipped M21-D, with SRAM Force hydraulic brakes and Fulcrum Racing 5 DB wheels.
The bike shown here and soon to be tested is the M20-D with Ultegra and FSA’s new 46/36 adventure compact Gossamer Pro chainset and Fulcrum Racing 5 DB wheels. The M20-D also runs the same Ultegra/FSA mix but steps the wheels down to Mavic Aksium discs.
For 1x fans the M31-D gets Rival 1 and Fulcrum Racing Sport DB wheels.
While entry into the Terra family starts with the 105 equipped M30-D with a Gossamer Pro 46/36 chainset and Mavic’s Aksium disc clincher wheelset.
Orbea Terra prices
TERRA M30-D 17 2.799€ £2.399 $2.999
TERRA M31-D 17 2.799€ £2.399 $2.999
TERRA M20-D 17 3.199€ £2.799 $3.499
TERRA M21-D 17 3.599€ £3.099 $3.999
TERRA M20i-D 17 4.699€ £3.999 $4.999
