ORBEA WILD FS

Whether it’s their Grand Tour level road race bikes or World Cup winning mountain bikes, Orbea’s wide line of pedal bikes are some of the most beautifully designed bikes on the market. With a passion for detail and creativity, the Spanish company has offered an array of premium quality bikes for years. As opposed to just slapping a battery on a frame and calling it an e-bike, Orbea maintained their tradition of thoughtful bike builds and went all-out on creative quality with their new Wild fs line.

THE BIKE

Hitting the scale at 51 pounds, the carbon framed bike keeps the bike about 4-5lbs lighter than most alloy frame e-bikes. An integrated 625wh battery with a fiberlink protective cover. Neatly organized internally routed cables run through the sturdy and rigid frame. Not forgetting any details, Orbea made sure to include a water bottle mount as well as bumper stops to prevent the forks from smashing the frame. One slick feature is a hand tightened cap on the handlebar stem that unscrews and hides the key for the battery.

The frame comes in small, medium and large and has seven different build options including alloy versions. The lines that define what makes up “all mountain geometry” are becoming more blurred each year. Nonetheless we’ll call the Wild FS an all mountain bike with a 65=degree head angle. Girls and guys alike shouldn’t suffer with the usual limitations of color options as you can custom order an almost endless variety of color schemes through the Orbea website. The bike we are testing is the Wild FS M10 that sits near the top of their line at $7299.99.

THE PARTS

Orbea outfitted the Wild fs M10 generously with mostly upper end Shimano components. Shimano Deore XT derailleur with SLX shifters and Shimano XT brakes. An OC2 dropper seat post is topped with a Selle Royal Vivo saddle. The 780mm wide Race Face Aeffect 35 handlebar as a 20mm rise and the stem is a 35mm Raceface on the small bike we have.

For suspension the Wild is running an e-bike tuned, 160mm Fox 36 Float Performance fork with a Fox DPX2 Performance custom tuned shock. E- bike optimized 29” DT Swiss H-1900 wheels are mounted with a Maxxis 2.6” wide Minion DHF in the front and Minion DHR in the rear. The drive train consists of a 32T front chainring with a Sun Race CSMZ80 11-51t 12-Speed cassette in the rear making for steep climbing abilities.

The pedal assist system is the Bosch Gen 4, with the new Bosch Kiox display. The Kiox display is a big improvement on the original Bosch purion display. Capable of giving the rider as much info as one could think of including the rider’s wattage input. The power meter is huge for riders wanting to use the bike for full-fledged training.

THE VERDICT

The Wild fs M10 is definitely not a cheap bike, although when compared to other big-name companies it most definitely rivals the value of any big-ticket bike out there. The look of the bike is one of the classiest and sharpest we’ve seen. Not just sharp looking but well thought out with agreeable geometry and beautiful frame shape. Orbea has put themselves into virtually an elite category with the custom order color scheme design options.

With the ability to mount a range extender to the 625wh battery it should excite many adventure enthusiasts. Orbea’s choice of the new ultra-intuitive Bosch gen 4 motor is a quality option that compliments the sophisticated design nicely. peculiarly located the charge port is questionable as it is in direct path of the crank rotation.

A plastic charge port cover is kind of flimsy and could use a better latching design. The new Bosch Kiox display offers more to benefit the rider’s data. Knowledge of how much effort their putting in via the power meter is beneficial for training or just conserving battery.

Weight: 51lbs

www.orbea.com

Price: $7499.99