Orbea's Wild enduro e-MTB receives Bosch Performance Line CX motor
After a couple of years on the market, Orbea's flagship e-mountain bike, the Wild, has received a well-deserved update. Rather than a complete overhaul, the new bike introduces several small tweaks to build on its already solid foundations ushering in less weight, tuned stiffness, and Bosch's latest drive system. Here are all of the details.
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The biggest story around the new Wild is stiffness and how it's built around several parts of the frame. Orbea reckons that an e-MTB's frame needs to be 10 per cent stiffer overall to account for the forces applied to the bike through the additional weight of a motor and battery. The brand states that many competitors compromise stiffness to make the battery removable. On this bike, that's not the case. The battery is built into the bike and it's not removable in the interest of stiffness.
The battery is held in place using Orbea's Secure Battery System said to be more reliable, stiffer and lighter – which aids in the weight distribution of the drive system.
The Wild's geometry has been tuned for its e-MTB intentions but it's not too dissimilar from the geo found on the Rallon, Orbea's enduro bike. With that, the new bike is longer and slacker than before with a seat tube that's shorter and straighter to allow for the accommodation of long travel droppers.
To put the geometry into numbers, there's a 63.5-degree head angle, a 77.5-degree seat tube angle and a 448mm chainstay across the size range. A large frame gets a 480mm reach. To touch back on the chainstay, Orbea claims it's the shortest in the category.
As for the wheel size, the Orbea joins the most modern of e-mountain bikes and can run either a full 29-inch wheel setup or go for a little wheel at the rear and go mullet. That's with the help of specific rocker links
The bike benefits from 170mm of Fox suspension at both ends. As for the frame, it boasts cool features such as the SIC system that routes cables through the headsets for a tidy look at the expense of simple headset servicing, there's a spin block that stops the handlebar from over rotating and the bearings feature extra sealing.
Another headline strapped to the Wild is that it joins the raft of recent e-mountain bikes, such as the Trek Rail+ and Santa Cruz Vala and runs Bosch's new Performance Line CX Smart system. It kicks out 85Nm as before but it's lighter and quieter. The brand is offering a choice of two batteries, a 600Wh unit and a 750Wh. There's also the opportunity to add a range extender for extra lengthy spins.
Six models make up the Orbea Wild range and they all benefit from Fox suspension with Shimano shifting present on all models but the range-topping Wild M-LTD that gets SRAM's XX T-Type drivetrain.
Additionally, there's a Wild ST on offer. As its name suggests it gets less suspension travel at 140mm at each end, but it gets all of the features found on its enduro-focussed sibling. However, that's all bolted to an alloy frame.
At the moment, we only have Euro pricing starting at €6,499 and going up to €11,999 for the Wild. The Wild ST starts at €5,299 and tops out at €5,999 – there are only two models on offer.