First Ride: New Orbea Terra Gravel Bike Gets Bigger Clearance, More Storage, and Greater Focus

2017 feels like quite a while back now, a time when things seemed a little calmer on the world stage. It was also the year that I’d say gravel really took hold of the mainstream cycling industry, and Orbea was one of those companies with its Terra gravel bike.

Looking back at that bike now, it was closer to a cyclocross bike than today’s all-around gravel bikes. Oh, how things have changed.

Back in 2017, I lived on the outskirts of Paris, a place that surprisingly has good gravel riding. I had one on the original generation one Terras on test, along with the now forgotten Rotor Uno groupset (man, I wish that had worked out, spongy shifting but a lovely brave move by the Spanish company). The new Terra now feels a million miles away from that original Terra, and it should be!

First up, yes, if you’ve been eagle-eyed, you will have seen this bike in use already this year under the OLab name at Unbound and The Traka. So, does that make the new Terra a race bike? Yeah, no, kinda, could be. Let’s just say there may have been a different Orbea doing the rounds at those races, too.

What has changed between version one and the new third-generation Orbea Terra we have here today? Let’s delve in.

Quick hits: Seven things to know about the Orbea Terra

• The Orbea Terra is the third generation of the Basque brand’s do-all gravel bike
• Features SRAM UDH, downtube storage, and the MyO custom component and paint program
• Frame weight: 1040 g (size medium, unpainted), or 90 grams lighter than before
• Max tire clearance: 700c x 50 mm with 6 mm clearance on either side
• Sizes: six, XS to XXL
• Price: starting at €2.999 / $2.999 / £2.599
• For more: orbea.com

Yes, there is plenty of tire clearance

Rather than performance, comfort, and all those technical, challenging engineering details, let’s get to the usual first question that seems to dominate new gravel bikes today: tyre clearance. It’s 50 mm, okay! But according to Orbea, there is also a generous ISO MTB standard of 6 mm of clearance at the fork crown and stays. So, for looser, dryer gravel, there’ll be no problem unofficially throwing a wider tyre in there.

As the tech heads at Orbea stated, tyre size is now a grey area due to different brands measuring differently, and believe it or not, there is up to a 2 mm tolerance in manufacturers’ tyre sizing. Yep, that also came as a shock to me.

That width drops to a still respectable 45 mm in size if you mount fenders, and yes, there will be specific fenders available for this bike.

Build details

I’m going to please a lot of people here with the next sentence: Orbra has included a “proper” 27.2 mm rounded seatpost and standard clamp. There is no silly flush or integrated design, but a lovely, trustworthy alloy clamp. Can we all take a minute now to appreciate that? There are a few reasons for this. Reliability was a big one, and the other was that it also allows droppers to be used unimpeded.

It’s not just the rounded 27.2 post that accommodates the use of a dropper, but Orbea has optimised the length of the seat tube on each frame to allow a multitude of droppers not to be obstructed in performance.

Frame weight is 1040 g (size medium, unpainted), which is 90 grams lighter than the previous generation Terra. The fork, though, beefs up a touch by 20 grams to 425g.

Orbea’s OMR carbon layup is used on the latest Terra, unlike Orbea’s performance-oriented bikes, which come in the lighter OMX layup (yet with the same carbon). Instead, the Terra opts for the more compliant OMR layup, and for the same reasons that they have used it on their recently launched e-gravel bike, the Denna (a bike I have in for review and will get around to testing once I can pry it out of my wife’s grip). The OMR layup is slightly heavier than the OMX but offers better compliance and comfort and is somewhat more robust.

The frame is compatible with both 1x and 2x drivetrains. As ever, this is dependent on gearing, chainring sizes, cassette options, and whether you’re running a road or gravel-specific rear mech.

Mounts and storage are plentiful, though not over the top, with fork mounts, a top tube bag mount, two bottle cage mounts in the frame, and another under the down tube. There are also mounts for fenders on the chainstays, though these will not accommodate a standard rack.

There is now the standard down-tube storage that Orbea calls the Locker XXL. Orbea has increased this by 35% over the previous model, and it’s obvious from the frame design that it’s something they’ve not added as an afterthought. Their research showed that more people preferred using a storage box than handlebar bags.

There is a new gravel comfort bar, the HB-GR10 carbon handlebar, that comes standard on the new Terra with a 12-degree flare. It comes in four sizes: 38, 40, 42, and 44 cm, all with a 70 mm reach measurement and a 120 mm drop measurement. This, of course, is something you can swap out and change for a preferred bar in Orbea’s MyO program.

We now have the slowly popular UDH dropout out of the rear, too.

Three stock colour options will be available at release, but there is also the option to customise the bike via Orbea’s MyO program. Not only can the paint scheme be customised, but the components and finishing kit can be as well, often with a minimal upcharge.

Geometry

Okay, on to geometry and how things have changed from generation two. Things have been modified here, first with a longer reach matched to a shorter stem for that now on-trend fit. Orbea says this should offer more direct handling and control over the second-generation Terra. On average, the reach is 10mm longer, with the stack numbers increased by roughly 20 mm across the board.

With the tyre clearance beefing up, this means that it’s allowed Orbea engineers to lower the wheelbase by 10 mm. The fork trail has been changed by roughly 20 mm across the board, though each size gets a size-specific rake for a less aggressive ride feel (now, may I just nudge you into asking yourself why they’ve done this? Does it mean there’s something more aggressive in the pipeline?).

Further, chainstays are longer on average by 10 mm, allowing the bike to sit firmer and more stable on gravel. All in all, it’s a significant change from what was a more nippier generation two.

Builds, specs, and pricing for the Orbea Terra

In total, there are sizes available from XS through to XXL.

First ride review: Orbea Terra

Let’s get this out of the way: for those who might want something with more clearance, or the ability to add a suspension for, you may want to look elsewhere. While the Terra could theoretically accommodate a fork, according to the engineers at Orbea, you may want to look at a cross-country bike. That’s a clear-cut opinion right there.

Orbea’s initial design team concluded that a gravel bike with those qualities leaned far too hard into the XC world. I firmly agree. As a result, we have a gravel bike for every person, a general-use gravel grinder.

This latest Orbea Terra is a bike designed for the masses, built for a wide array of gravel disciplines. It’s rapid and nimble enough to work as a race bike, but versatile enough for long-distance events. And considering the number of mounts on the bike, it would work well for an adventure into the wilds, too.

It’s highly predictable in its handling. Not once was I caught out by its characteristics, something I can’t say for some gravel bikes. Jumping out of the saddle and climbing is something I often find not rewarding on a gravel bike, but the Terra never faulted in this regard. The Terra is a bike that I can see being popular with cyclists who want something to commute on during the week in style and hit the gravel on the weekend. Again, it’s a great all-rounder.

Orbea hasn’t played it safe, but hasn’t done anything to alienate people. Rather, the Terra offers enough for what I would argue most need out of a gravel bike. Sure, it’s not the lightest or whippiest gravel bike out there, but neither is it sluggish or heavy feeling. Instead, it’s highly stable, smooth riding, and sprightly. Plus, the lack of crazy gimmicks or odd design traits means the bike should stand the test of time and be a breeze to service.

The Orbea Terra is arguably a good looker, too. It screams Orbea’s current design language, and I dig the large downtube with its hefty storage box, too. From what we were told, that storage box is what many are asking for and using. If so, that extra 35% capacity, which certainly looks spacious, should help you carry all you need. It should definitely fit anything from a spare tube and jacket to the grub you’ll need to keep you going. It’s a solid system.

Like nearly every Orbea available, it is customizable through Orbea’s MyO program. Here, you can chop and change everything from bar width, stem length, wheel and tyre choice, groupset configuration, saddle choice, and, of course, custom paint. Most of those changes come with an upcharge, but from looking at many custom programs over the years, Orbea’s certainly seems one of the more complete packages available.

Conclusion

I’ve said it before, and I’ll repeat it here: we’re at a point where bikes that don’t attempt to be something wild or new. So long as the bike is designed for a specific job, be it as a race bike, an all-road bike, or in this case, as a well-rounded gravel bike. Don’t get me wrong, there are still some stinkers of a bike out there, but you have to dig deep to find them. Fortunately, the Terra is far from a stinker.

The new Terra offers a heck of a lot for its asking price with all the options in the range. It’s nothing ground-breaking, but I don’t think it’s safe, either. Rather, it’s just a great bike that doesn’t try to be anything but what many would need for general gravel duties. And that’s what more bike brands need to offer.

The Orbea Terra is a bike that oozes what Orbea does best. It isn’t trying to offer the next wild idea; rather, this new gravel bike checks the boxes at a reasonable price and without fuss. Keep up the good work, you bunch of Basques!