ITALIAN MASTERPIECES FROM COLNAGO, BIANCHI & CINELLI · 2017. 10. 17. · ITALIAN MASTERPIECES FROM COLNAGO, BIANCHI & CINELLI REVEALED LOVE ISLANDS? THEN YOU’LL LOVE THIS MONTH’S

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ROAD TESTED

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WHY WE

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SEVEN INSPIRATIONAL

READERS’ STORIES

Recover faster with milk Get ready for cyclo-cross Climb out of the saddle

like Simon Yates

HOW TO

Issue 331 + September 2017

ITALIAN MASTERPIECES FROM COLNAGO, BIANCHI & CINELLI

REVEALED

L OV E ISL A NDS? THEN YOU’LL LOVE THIS MONTH’S BIG RIDE IN THE FAROES

TOUGHEST TEST EVER!

wrecked

& rated!

CYCLING PLUS | September 2017 | 55

istorically Orbea has been a race-focused brand with a long association with professional cycling,

and numerous world and Olympic champs piloting its bikes. The new Terra is somewhat of a departure, being every inch a gravel bike. With only a handful of events in Europe to suit this type of bike, Orbea has built something that’s more about the fun of riding, and that’s fine by us.

Orbea claims an 1190g frame weight for the Terra. As this one’s built for toughness not lightness that’s a decent compromise weight wise. Orbea backs up that toughness

ORBEA TERRA M20-D 17 £2799 › All-roader first from the Basque race brand

claim with a lifetime warranty. The bike’s versatility comes to the fore when you see the mudguard and rack mounts included in the frame’s construction, allowing it to just as easily take on bike-packing duties, daily commuting or gravel riding and racing. With the right tyres you could even consider cyclo-cross.

The Terra’s tyre clearances have been optimised for a 40mm gravel tyre down to 28mm for road duties. Even though our test bike is running fat Schwalbe G-Ones and a very gravel-friendly 48/32 chainset with an 11-32 cassette we were hugely impressed with the way the Terra covers tarmac. Aside from the buzz

of the tyres when cornering and the slightly sluggish acceleration, compared to racing slicks, the Terra is a great companion for road riding.

The traditionally shaped frame means a solid basis, and the stiffness through the drivetrain makes for a responsive ride. Up front the slightly longer fork is designed to offer flex in its lower two-thirds, taking the sting out of rough roads and heavily rutted trails. Orbea has concentrated on small sections of the frame to help absorb vibrations, with a special layup, using its ‘Dynamic Structure’ design, at the head-tube, seat-tube/top-tube joint, above the rear dropouts and at the fork dropouts to

H

Below Despite a gravel-friendly chainset and cassette, the Terra

still impressed on the road Bottom Shimano BR-RS805 disc brakes keep you in control

SPECIFICATIONWeight 9.18kg (L) Frame Terra OMP

carbon Fork Terra carbon

Gears FSA Gossamer 48/32,

11-32 Brakes

Shimano BR-RS805

Wheels Mavic Aksium disc

Finishing kit FSA Energy bar and stem, FSA

Gossamer chainset, Prologo Nago Space saddle, 1.5in Schwalbe G-One tyres

Orbea has built something

that’s more about the fun of riding

NEW LINES

56 | September 2017 | CYCLING PLUS

With a switch of tyres you would also

have a superior on-road machine

THE VERDICTA very welcome departure from Orbea that’s

smooth, sweet handling and speedy

HIGHSRapid off road, sweet handling

and smooth on it

LOWSSome component

compromises mean less value

for money than some

BUY IFYou want to

cover grit and gravel fast and don’t want to

compromise your road rides too much either

FOR A LITTLE MORE

ORBEA TERRA M21-D £3099 Sharing the same frame but stepping up to SRAM’s cyclo-cross racing-bred Force 1 groupset and matching hydraulic brakes.

FOR A LITTLE LESS

ORBEA TERRA M31-D £2399 The same frame but driven by SRAM’s Rival 1 single chainring setup and rolling on Fulcrum’s wide Racing Sport DB wheels.

smooth things as you bounce along. We can’t vouch for the slightly secretive design, but on broken and rougher dirt surfaces the Terra is impressive. It doesn’t jar or jolt but doesn’t feel soft either.

The Terra is part of Orbea’s MyO program so you can choose options on some of the finishing components, gear ratios and, more interestingly, the paint scheme. We love the ’90s-inspired fluoro touches on our Terra, but if you have more modest tastes there are plenty of options for you.

Ride-wise there is a lot to like about the Terra, and as a gravel-based machine it’s one of the best we’ve tried for covering grit and gravel quickly, and it’s impressively light for a bike of this type at just over 9kg, but in terms of value we do have some reservations.

At just under £2800 we’d have expected Ultegra, and while we can

happily forgive the down-spec to FSA’s Gossamer chainset as Shimano doesn’t yet offer a gravel-friendly 48/32 option, the entry-level FSA Energy bar and stem and Mavic’s highly competent yet still entry-level Aksium disc wheels do come across as a little below the otherwise highly impressive Terra’s pay grade. That said, the Terra does meet the needs of the fastest gravel riders, and with a switch of tyres you would also have a superior on-road machine. With the current fad for looking for a single bike for all solutions the Terra should be on everyone’s shortlist.

ROAD

TEST

68 | September 2017 | CYCLING PLUS

WINNER Orbea Terra › A gravel master that isn’t compromised by road work

t’s hard to pick a winner from such a disparate bunch. Pitting steel, titanium and carbon

against each other is one thing, but throw in all-road, gravel, endurance, race and aero and it’s a wider mix than most.

Ironbridge’s steel chassis is five-star, and its handling impressive, but there are some niggles in the drivetrain and brake performance, and those flashy components add to the price, but sadly not to the ride experience.

Thompson’s race-bred Capella can only have come from the tight

street races that are the signature of the company’s Belgian heartland. If you like your bikes sharp and explosively quick, the Capella is a compelling choice.

Holland’s Pilot adds to a growing world of titanium disc-equipped road bikes. With a beautiful frame and ride to match, this slice of rarefied metal is worth consideration if you can swallow the price.

Evo2Max was the big surprise, an unknown quantity and with a lot of aero design work the Nebular had the hallmarks of a worrying machine. The fact that it rides so nicely and is priced so keenly is great.

Chapter 2 only launched its first bike on July 1 this year, and we were the first magazine to get our hands on a test bike. The Tere is so on the money for a state-of-the-art road bike. It’s beautifully finished, great fun to ride and, in this spec, pretty flawless in its performance.

That leaves Orbea’s Terra. Off-road it feels as nimble as a pro-level ’cross bike, on long gravel drives it’s accomplished in its cushioning, but on the road it feels endurance bike-fast and endurance event-ready. We’d be more than happy to switch out the gravel tyres for a set of Conti GP4000S IIs or Schwalbe S-Ones and run the Terra on a hilly 100-miler.

On the road it feels endurance

bike-fast and endurance event-ready

I

ROAD

TEST

NEXT MONTHIt may be considered an old-school frame material, but we’re keeping things real with steel in next issue’s bike test. Condor’s all-rounder Acciaio, Ritchey’s Road Logic, Salsa’s touring bike o�ering Vaya, Specialized’s Sequoia Expert, the hand-built Holdsworth Strada and Reilly Cycleworks battle it out.

CYCLING PLUS | September 2017 | 69

NEW LINES

EVO2MAX NEBULAR R9 £2799

ORBEA TERRA M20-D 17 £2799

THOMPSON CAPELLA £3999.99

IRONBRIDGE BICYCLES 1851 £4025

PILOT VETURI £5187

CHAPTER 2 TERE £5999

Size tested 56cm L L 57cm 57cm 56cm

Sizes available 49, 52, 54, 56, 59cm XS, S, M, L, XL XS, S, M, L, XL, XXL 47-62cm 47-62cm 51, 53, 55, 56, 58cm

Weight 7.75kg 9.18kg 7.68kg 9.8kg 8.65kg 6.8kg

Frame High modulus Toray carbon

Terra OMP carbon High-modulus carbon Reynolds 853 steel Double-butted Grade 9 titanium alloy

Carbon

Fork High modulus Toray carbon

Terra carbon Carbon Reynolds 853 steel Carbon Carbon

Frame alignment Head-tube good, rear dropouts, fork dropouts perfect

Head-tube, rear dropouts, fork dropouts perfect

Head-tube and rear dropouts good, fork dropouts poor

Head-tube, rear dropouts good, fork dropouts perfect

Head-tube good, rear dropouts and fork dropouts perfect

Head-tube and fork dropouts perfect, rear dropouts good

TRANSMISSION

Chainset Shimano Ultegra 52-36

FSA Gossamer 48/32

Shimano Ultegra Di2 50/34

SRAM Rival 1 38 Shimano Ultegra 50/34

SRAM Red eTap 52/36

Bottom bracket BB86 FSA BB30, BB386 adaptor

BB86 Hope BSA C-Bear ceramic bearing BB86

Cassette Shimano Ultegra, 11-28

Shimano Ultegra, 11-32

Shimano Ultegra Di2, 11-25

Hope, 10-44 Shimano Ultegra, 11-28

SRAM Red eTap 11-25

Chain Shimano FSA Team Issue Shimano Ultegra Di2 SRAM Shimano SRAM

Derailleurs Shimano Ultegra Shimano Ultegra Shimano Ultegra Di2 SRAM Rival 1 Shimano Ultegra, Fouriers carbon cage and jockey wheels

SRAM Red eTap

Gear levers Shimano Ultegra Shimano RS805 Shimano Ultegra Di2 SRAM Rival 1 Shimano STRS685 SRAM Red eTap

WHEELS

Front and rear Evo Momentum R1 Mavic Aksium Disc Thompson TRC FCC040

Hope 20Five 9th Wave D38-C carbon

Zipp 404 NSW

Tyres 25mm Continental GP4000 S II

1.5in Schwalbe G-One 25mm Schwalbe One 30mm Schwalbe G-One Speed

25mm Schwalbe Pro One

25mm Continental GP4000 S II

Wheel weight F 1.13kg R 1.51kg F 1.65kg R 2.01kg F 1.1kg R 1.52kg F 1.43kg R 1.83kg F 1.09kg R 1.45xkg F 1.05kg R 1.35kg

COMPONENTS

Stem Zipp Service Course SL FSA Energy Thompson TRC Evo Deda Zero 2 3T Team Stealth Chapter 2

Handlebar Zipp Service Course SL FSA Energy Thompson TRC Evo Deda Superzero 3T Team Stealth Chapter 2 carbon wingbar

Headset Evo2Max FSA Thompson Hope Pilot FSA No 42 ACB

Saddle Fabric Scoop Prologo Nago Evo Space

Fizik Arione Kium Brooks Cambium Selle Italia SLR Fizik Arione

Seatpost Carbon FSA SL-K Di2, 27.2mm Thompson TRC carbon Hope 3T Team Stealth carbon

Chapter 2 D-pro�le

Brakes Shimano Ultegra direct mount

Shimano BR-RS805 hydraulic disc

Shimano Ultegra Hope X2 disc, 160mm rotors

Shimano BR-RS785 (r), BR-RS805 (f), Magura rotors

SRAM Red

Evo2MaxCockpit 70cm Standover 82.5cm BB height 27.5cmFork o�set 4.5cmTrail 5.7cm

IronbridgeCockpit 66.5cm Standover 80cm BB height 27cmFork o�set 4cmTrail 6cm

100.5cm

51cm

72˚73˚

43cm

54.5cm

101cm

50cm

72.5˚74˚

41.5cm

55.5cm

98cm

54cm

73.5˚73˚

41cm

57.5cm

99.5cm

55cm

73˚73.5˚

40.5cm

58.5cm

106.5cm

56.5cm

72˚73˚

43cm

58.5cm

99.5cm

56.5cm

73˚73˚

43cm

57cmOrbea Cockpit 71cm Standover 85.5cm BB height 28.5cm Fork o�set 5cm Trail 5.9cm

PilotCockpit 68.5cm Standover 81cm BB height 27.5cmFork o�set 4.25cmTrail 6.4cm

Thompson Cockpit 72cm Standover 82.5cm BB height 27.5cmFork o�set 4.25cmTrail 5.6cm

Chapter 2Cockpit 72cm Standover 82.5cm BB height 28cmFork o�set 4cmTrail 6.2m