Orbea demo day yesterday

[Gyre]

I managed to hit up the Orbea demo day in San Clemente yesterday and tried out a 23 Wild and a (prior year) Carbon Rise.

IMHO the Wild really took a step in the right direction with weight, fit, and balance. At 175cm, last gen's S/M was too small and the large was roomy enough but a bit on the big side. This year's size M feels more compact and a better fit, even though the old size L and the new size M have the exact same reach/stack numbers on paper.

The new Wild definitely feels lighter and better balanced (the old one was rather nose heavy). The Bosch remote is finally reasonably svelte, and while the LED bar display is way behind the Specialized Mastermind, as long as it can broadcast bike data like battery/power/speed/cadence over ANT+/Bluetooth to a cyclecomputer head unit, then it's less of an issue.

The reps confirmed the port in the back of the downtube is meant for a range extender, but no details on price/capacity/compatibility are available, so your guess is as good as mine.

I've never messed with a bike with a cable-integrated headset, but according to the reps, the only time you'd need to disconnect the brakes and rebleed is when you're replacing the upper headset bearing. If that's true, then maybe it's easier to live with than I expected. I'm still skeptical about routing cables and hoses this way, but I'll leave some room for benefit of the doubt.

Overall, I think the Wild is much more "Levo-like" than the past iteration, and that's a good thing.

Finally, the Rise. I had really been intrigued by the Rise ever since I saw its clean and simple look at a dealer years ago, but never had the chance to try one. After my test ride, I'm really glad I didn't buy one, but I can see the appeal for the right kind of rider.

The Rise is stupid-light and spindly, and packs a punch in the motor that puts the Mahle in my KSL to shame. The demo bike had relatively skinny tires, and it was pretty sketchy at the edge of traction on the steeps of the local advanced lines. In Turbo mode, it did a very impressive job clawing up stuff even though the trails were thoroughly matted down with long-dead mustard bush.

The thing is, the Rise feels more like a pedal-assist Ibis Ripley instead of a lightweight Levo. That's just not my cup of tea personally. I like hardtails, XC bikes, and short travel trail bikes, but if I'm pulling the trigger on pedal assist I want more travel and more robust construction. To be fair, had the bike been available with a beefier fork and bigger tires, maybe I'd have a different opinion. Perhaps some day Orbea will take the 801 EP8 RS and came up with a long-travel rival to the KSL.

 

[Bigtuna00]

I've never messed with a bike with a cable-integrated headset, but according to the reps, the only time you'd need to disconnect the brakes and rebleed is when you're replacing the upper headset bearing. If that's true, then maybe it's easier to live with than I expected. I'm still skeptical about routing cables and hoses this way, but I'll leave some room for benefit of the doubt.

• It makes installing and removing the fork harder, you have to make sure the cables are in the right place
• The cables damage the steerer; it's really minor, but it will rub the anodizing off
• It makes working on the front end harder. Getting all the fittings and spacers to stay in place before you put on a stem is more work.
• It's generally harder/impossible to remove any controls that don't have hinges (some dropper clamps, some shifter clamps, some brake clamps) without removing the bars. So every time you want to remove a control (e.g. a dropper lever so you can slide the cable in to get the post disconnected) you have to reset your bar position
• You have to align everything, once it's on (headset top cap, which has 2-3 parts, spacers, stem). The good news is if you stick with the stock stuff they usually have alignment tabs for everything. But if you need to swap stems or spacers, it's an extra headache.
• You can't install a *lower* headset cup using a press either. I made a modified press so I could replace the lower cup:
  
  
• You'll get water ingress where the cables enter the headset. You now have water sitting on your lower headset bearing...
• Acros's lock block headsets are garbage (it's a commonly used brand). They have the locking mechanism on the bottom cup, which leaves a huge gap for dirt ingress, and the lower bearing races are impossible to remove without damaging the fork
• If you *don't* have a lock block headset, the risk of damage to the cables from rotating the bars is much higher

IMO there are literally no advantages to headset cable routing. I don't even agree it's a "clean look". Look at Pivot bikes, their frame routing is WAY cleaner.

I ended up eliminating the headset cable routing on my Crafty. Luckily the frame has two ports that can be used for cables. No such luck on the Rise that ordered