Orbea Gain e-bike gets carbon frame for an 11.3kg headline weight

Last year, Orbea launched the Gain. It’s an e-bike with the battery enclosed in the down tube and powered by a rear hub motor. The Gain had an alloy frame and a quoted weight of 13kg. Now Orbea has launched an all-carbon Gain, dropping the weight to 11.31kg.

Power for the Gain is provided by a removable battery fully enclosed in the down tube and a rear hub motor, along with sophisticated controller electronics. Orbea stresses that the Gain is designed to enhance riding, rather than to dominate it, with a power meter in the rear hub allowing the system to adjust input as you ride. Pedalling is drag-free when the motor is not providing power.

The Ebikemotion rear hub motor means that the rear wheel has to be built especially for the Gain. For the new carbon Gain, Orbea has partnered with Mavic for the build. This means that the Gain now has Mavic wheelsets: either the Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon Disc UST or alloy Aksium Elite Disc UST, both tubeless ready and with 28mm Yksion Pro tyres. There’s frame clearance to fit tyres up to 40mm.

Orbea says that the Gain has a range of around 100km. But now you can buy an extra bottle cage mounted booster battery to keep you powered up on longer outings.

Like the alloy Gain, the motor and battery on the new carbon model are controlled via a single button and LED indicators on the top tube and a phone app, which also gives you navigation and other functionality. This leads to a clean profile and no clutter on the bars.

Competitors, specs and prices

There’s currently a lot of action in lightweight, integrated carbon framed e-bikes with a more racy profile. Last month, Focus launched the Paralane² with a sub-13kg headline weight, while Wilier has just announced the Cento1 Hy with a claimed weight of under 12kg.

The carbon Gain comes in four specs. The Gain M10 has a Shimano Dura-Ace hydraulic disc brake groupset and Mavic Cosmic Pro Carbon Disc UST wheelset and is priced at £6799.

The Gain M20i costs £4999 and comes with Ultegra Di2 hydraulic and Mavic Aksium Elite wheelset. Drop down to mechanical Ultegra and the Gain M20 comes in at £3999. Finally, the Gain M30, with Shimano 105 hydraulic is priced at £3399.

All the Gain models benefit from Orbea’s free built-to-order MyO, with the option to choose from a range of different components and colour schemes.