New Orbea Gain 2023, more fun than ever

Road 19/01/23 16:00 Migue A.

Orbea renews its Gain road e-bike to reduce the differences with its Orca. A road e-bike with which to enjoy the routes with the same sensations as if we were riding a conventional bike but with the little extra help provided by its Mahle motor.

Get the most out of your rides with the new Orbea Gain 2023

After a few years on the market, road e-bikes have not yet achieved the same success as their mountain bike counterparts. Perhaps part of the blame lies in the approach given to these bikes by the brands themselves, creating models with very relaxed geometries and creating bikes aimed at people of a certain age who could no longer keep up with the pace of their group, those who were just starting out on a bike or those who wanted to be able to accompany their partner in their training sessions. An approach that obviously limited the number of potential riders of these bikes.

Now Orbea reimagines its Gain, which was already one of the road e-bikes with the greatest conventional bike sensations, as a real road bike with the idea of making it attractive not only to those cyclists with lesser abilities but to anyone looking to have fun on the bike without being put off by the physical requirements of the outing. Who hasn't ever opted for a bland flat route instead of climbing that pass near home with breathtaking scenery just because it was too hard for that day? How many times have we designed our vacation routes and had to do without some of the passes because they were getting out of hand?

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With this philosophy, Orbea renews its Gain for the 2023 range, a bike that, at first glance, we could perfectly confuse with the Orca, the sporty model. A road bike aesthetic achieved mainly thanks to the decision, since the first generation of this model, to opt for a Mahle motor located in the hub of the rear wheel, the option that least conditions the design of the bike as it is only necessary to have in the frame with the housing for the battery, in this case, in the usual placement along the down tube.

The frame is made using OMR carbon, the second step among the materials used by Orbea, just one step behind OMX, which is reserved for competition bikes. The Gain range of bikes with hydroformed aluminum frame is also maintained, although this model does not receive any new features with respect to the existing one in its catalog, beyond the new decorations implemented for this 2023.

The Enough Power concept

The secret to making a good road e-bike lies in the sensations that the motor transmits when providing assistance, as well as in maintaining the agile handling typical of these bikes.

Traditionally, when the motors came into operation they added to the equation all the power available for the selected mode, which was then added to the watts generated by the cyclist, until 25 km/h was reached, when the motor was suddenly cut off in accordance with legal requirements.

A very noticeable sensation when starting from standstill in the form of that typical "kick" of many of the electric bikes on the market.

However, this is far from providing a natural pedal stroke, which is why Orbea has decided to tune the Mahle motors on its bikes by creating proprietary firmware that adapts the power delivery to make the assistance as minimally intrusive as possible. Precisely, the ability to be tuned is one of the reasons Orbea chose Mahle motors for its Gain.

This new Gain opts for the Mahle X20 model, the model with the best power-to-weight ratio of those available on the market thanks to the 55 Nm of torque it is capable of delivering in just 1,399 g. Orbea takes advantage of this light weight to fit a 350 Wh battery compared to the standard 250 Wh battery. In any case, it is a lightness that has an impact on the final result, achieving an attractive weight for the whole bike of only 11.5 kg in its top-of-the-range model with Shimano Dura-Ace Di2 and carbon wheels.

When customizing the motor's response, Orbea used a very simple test. A cyclist climbing a constant 6% gradient mountain pass at his FTP power. With motor assistance, that same rider would have to climb in the same time but at a purely aerobic pace.

The response of the motor is also defined from there, which does not provide all its power from the first pedal stroke but has a real power meter to respond to the power applied by the rider in a linear way. In addition, the cut-off does not occur suddenly at 25 km/h but, from that speed onwards, the assistance decreases until it disappears completely at 27 km/h. All this is optimized for a cadence range between 75 and 95 pedal strokes per minute.

This not only results in a more natural response from the motor: the more power the rider provides, the more help he receives, but also, by not operating at 100% at all times, it saves electricity consumption, which, together with the inclusion of the 350 Wh battery, means a considerable range is achieved.

Instead of talking about kilometers, Orbea refers to the range in terms of the meters of elevation gain that can be overcome with the available load. Well, with this Gain, taking a 70 kg cyclist as a reference, it is possible to climb a phenomenal 4,000 m of elevation gain using the lowest assistance mode. A figure that is reduced to 3,000 m in mode 2 and 1,500 m if we use the maximum capacity of the Mahle X20.

In any case, Orbea continues to offer the Range Extender external battery as an option, which with its 171 Wh capacity adds 1,900 m of extra elevation gain in mode 1 to the range of this e-bike.

Road sensations

The other aspect when it comes to making a road e-bike behave like a traditional road bike is the geometry, which must have dimensions that favor agility and place the rider in the ideal position for efficient pedaling.

In previous generations of the Orbea Gain, the focus of the bike was on mixed use, both for road and gravel, which forced Orbea to opt for a more relaxed geometry that would allow the bike to be used on trails with total guarantee.

Now the idea is clear: this new Gain is a road bike, and it's sized for road use. This can be seen in the noticeable reduction of the wheelbase, mainly by shortening the chainstays, which results in a more agile ride. In addition, Orbea has added one more size to its Gain options, increasing the number of sizes to 6, between XS and XXL, which allows for better scaling so that the rider can more easily find the ideal fit.

In any case, Orbea does not completely abandon the mixed philosophy of this bike, with a couple of gravel setups available thanks to the ability to accommodate up to 35 mm tyres, but a lighter gravel, mainly for trail riding, in the style of what we saw at the Gravel World Championships, which was criticized for having been tackled with road bikes and cyclocross tyres by most of the professionals.

Full equipment

Apart from the possibility of using up to 35 mm tyres, this Gain includes other purely high-end features, demonstrating Orbea's strong commitment to its road e-bike.

Of course, all the cabling is completely internal from end to end, although Orbea opts for the ICR plus system whereby the cables appear briefly at the exit of the handlebar tape to be reinserted under the stem until they reach the inside of the steering. This allows the stem to be easily interchanged in case you want to adjust the position or dismount the handlebars if necessary, for example if you have to travel with the bike using a specific case.

The handlebars include a specific holder for the cyclocomputer that integrates a useful front light that adds to another rear light also integrated around the seat post on the seat clamp. Both are extremely discreet.

To continue with the control panel, the Mahle motor functions are controlled from a unit integrated behind the steering on the top tube. Easily accessible and, in addition to allowing us to select the operating mode, also shows us in a very intuitive way in its display both the battery charge in the form of a bar and the selected mode depending on the color of the bar.

In addition, Orbea has included on the Gain additional buttons on the horizontal part of the handlebars to select the motor mode without having to take your hands off the handlebars. However, the dedicated Mahle Pulsar One computer is not included, assuming riders prefer to use their own computer, although it will be available as an option.

There is no doubt that this Gain is a powerful commitment by Orbea to extend the use of road e-bikes and eliminate the stigma that they have carried since their inclusion in the market of being little less than "bikes for grandparents". You can find more information about this bike on the website that Orbea has created for the Gain.

Orbea Gain: set-ups and prices

Orbea has designed a wide range of options for this new Orbea Gain in addition to the aluminum frame versions. Specifically, there are 6 options with the OMX carbon frame, two of them with gravel mount; and 5 with the hydroformed aluminum frame, one of them gravel, covering a price range between 2,999 € and 9,999 € of its top of the range. The carbon ones have two color options, although it is possible to opt for a custom design thanks to the MyO program. On the other hand, the aluminum ones offer 3 color options. Here you can find them in full detail.