Orbea have launched the third generation Gain, their e-road bike offering. Shoddy Dave headed to Spain to check out if the Basque brands marketing slogan of "the many faces of joy" rang true with the new bike.
I would have said E road bikes are contrary to what cycling is all about but now after a knee injury which may prevent me from delivering anything like the power I used to for the rest of my life, I say to those who once thought like me, cycling not just a sport but an integral part of your social life. Should I give up those friends for life now? Hold them back? Should I just give up those lovely early morning spins over the mountains? Hell no I won’t. These type of bike are not for everyone but they do provide vital inclusion.
Yes I'm contemplating one , 70years old and bad arthritis in my knees, I can keep up with mates on the flat but any extra pressure going up hills is really painful, the beauty about these bike is that you can ride without assistance !
74 year old female, starting to develop a few pains in knees going uphill, have bought an ebike and can now go up hills, can ride with my group still, without it I would be left to ride on my own. Just love it.
James is still there. Amy Jones is still there. That's it. Wade Wallace said something new is coming, so there's hope again for journalistic integrity and independence in the cycling media.
I could definitely do with this to go further into the Peak District, I can go for miles & miles on roads, but after doing Blaze hill & Brickworks climbs, I was ready to go home.
The great thing about this e-bike, is that including the hub motor and battery, it still weighs less than 30 lbs. so if you choose to do so, you can ride it like a normal bike on zero assist and not be lugging around all of the extra weight of MOST e-bikes, which tend to be 50, 60 and in some cases, even over 70 lbs... When you need a little extra boost, it's there for you!
Awesome…. I just bought a d30 and I’m looking forward to it, my old heart can’t pump it out any more but I still enjoy riding. Now hopefully I can keep up with the young ones.
Nice video. I recently bought a BMC Roadmachine AMP which also uses the Mahle X20 hub drive and I have been impressed. I bought it mostly for commuting duty as I have a 50km round trip commute with 800m of total height gain and wanted a bit of help on the climbs to avoid fatigue building up over the week and not wanting to go out riding at the weekend. it works great for that. Last weekend, I also used it for a local sportive here in switzerland which was 165 km in length with 2500m climbing. I used the bottle cage extender battery for the ride and rode in a strong group (average 27 km/h over 165 km). If you put the effort in, the range is superb. After the ride, there was still 63% of the main battery remaining (extender battery was fully discharged) so there was still another 80 km or so in the tank which whas more in the tank than I had left. The nice thing about the x20 system is that the bike rides and feels more or less like a normal road bike so it is fun to ride as well as fast. So all in all worth considering, ignore the idiotic troll posts in the comments to this video, they don't know what they are talking about.
Wow, that's one heck of a commute. Bet it's a stunning commute too. And you're right the range if you put the effort in is great. I have one in for a project where I'll be seeing how far I can get from the Basque coast into the Pyrenees. - dave
@@davidjones9636 I have the roadmachine AMP 3 which has the 105 mechanical groupset. All three models are still available here in Switzerland. I can’t really justify the cost of the electronic shifting models as mechanical has always worked fine for me. There are enough batteries to charge as it is, don’t want any more to worry about.
Ive been thinking about an e-bike for a while and this one interests me. What worries me is that on my current bike, i'll zip along the flats at 20mph and it feels comfortable. I would hate to compromise that due to the limiting factor of the motor and the extra weight but i like the idea of assistance up hill and into headwinds.
Evil69. If you can still power along at 20 mph, then in all honesty I would suggest you don't need an e-bike yet - although it is great for hills and headwinds. I added an e-kit to my road bike last year, because I finally decided that at my age the hills were getting too difficult, and my speed on the flat had been down to about 18 - 20kph for a couple of years now. I've extended my rides back to what they used to be, now that the hills are not such a problem.
Orbea looks to have done away with the integrated lower head tube and fork treatment on the previous model Gain for a more traditional setup. I wonder if this was to cut manufacturing cost or allow for more fork options. Perhaps both.
another great vid, however as an eMTB owner and roadie I would like to hear more comment on what the bike is like past the limiter? You mentioned that Orbea have tuned it so that its not an abrupt transition but not how the bike feels - can you still easily maintain speed? On an eMTB once at the limiter its like the brakes have gone on - can you comment please as this looks a great bike. thanks
Im the other way around.. Im trying to get my head around the "speed limiter" on EMBTs.. I ride a eroad bike with the Mahle X35.. no drag.. once you cross the 25km/h its exactly like a normal road bike just a bit heavier (but so am I).. calling it a speed limiter is really deceptive.. It's not limiting it just cuts out the help at 25km/h. I spend the vast majority of my ride at about 29-33km/h... I ride with some younger fitter riders on light weight analogue road bikes, my bike helps getting the weight moving off at the lights and getting up a hill faster but you still have to put the effort in.... I'm getting older, I'm not little, my knees are trash and my job is very physical, if any of those apply get a Mahle driven road bike.. I love my mine...
If it lets you extend your adventure and enjoy life while still getting some exercise, then I'm in. I'm not riding as often as I use to and I'm getting any younger or lighter. I've been eyeing up the Gain for several months now and was about to pull the trigger on the X35 equipped model. Now I have to think about the X20 with the thru-axle with more power and range.
I love my carbon Gain, 2nd generation, everybody said it was a good handling bike, I own 5 electric and 15 road bikes. The Gain is the worst handling bike, probably by far, even compared to my 2001 and 2010 models.
@@roybuffey3886Exactly - I added an e-assist kit to my road bike, when I hit 90 last year. This has enabled me to keep going, although my 75 year old cycling buddy packed it in.
Are you really gonna gatekeep cycling? Cycling isn't *about* anything, let people have their fun without breathing down their necks because they aren't doing it the exact way you want them to. One more e-bike is still one less car to kill a cyclist isn't it?
pure roadie use their legs not a motor, you'll be riding alone on that ejunk I'm afraid. cycling aren't that hard, some basic training and you can ride lots of miles - get fit, get healthy decrease chance of diabetes, heart disease. motor do all the hard work you get no cardio, you get fatter, no egood.
And it’s this kind of comment that makes some of us look like w**nkers. Cycling should be about fun and friends as well as fitness, and so if someone wants to join a group ride on an e-bike, let them - it could be their gateway to building that fitness you allude to.
Funny, it’s your legs, but you buy all this aero kit, ceramic bearing that, weight weenie this, oversized pulley that, and have at least 300% gearing… why not ride a fixie or a single speed… that’s right. It would be too hard. Imo ride what you like. Don’t be an elitist prick. Unless you’re racing, why would you care if your mate had a ebike?
