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Orbea gets Wild, plugging adventure into a trail e-mountain bike

Written by Cory Benson
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Orbea snuck this one into our inboxes with a shady pic that didn’t hint at the motor & battery tucked inside the new bike. For their first full suspension eMTB, Orbea’s new Wild FS goes in a slightly different direction than most e-bikes we’ve seen popping up lately. Instead of either tacking on a standard battery pack or opting for a one-off integrated battery solution, the Wild FS hides the stock E8000 500Wh battery inside their alloy downtube. Orbea say this helped build a trail capable e-bike to get out into the Wild, on your choice of wheelsize.

Orbea Wild FS trail e-MTB

 

Orbea started with the powerful Shimano E8000 motor, but wanted to integrate what they say is already the least bulky, most powerful & proven battery on the market.

So they engineered a big non-driveside opening in their massive oversized aluminum downtube to get the best of both Shimano’s modular battery & some clean design integration.

The resulting 140mm travel full-suspension trail e-bike itself uses a hydroformed 7000 series aluminum tubeset and builds-in an alloy skid plate to protect the motor when you hit the trail.

It uses a short link four-bar design with a pivot around the rear axle in a suspension setup tailored to eMTB use.

The Boost-spaced frame will fit either 27.5+ or 29er wheels. You even get to pick which wheel size that you want. Each of the four complete bikes on offer is available with either 27.5×2.8″ or 29×2.4″ tires, each with eMTB casings from Kenda.

Complete bikes

Wild FS 40

Complete bikes start out with the $4700/4000€ Wild FS 40, spec’ed with a Shimano Deore 1×10 setup and Fox Performance level suspension.

Wild FS 10

Component spec around the same frame climbs up to the top level $7000/6500€ Wild FS 10, with an XT 1×11, Zee disc brakes, Fox Factory suspension, a RaceFace dropper & a DT Swiss Hybrid 1700 e-bike trail wheelset.

No word immediately on availability, but US & European pricing suggests that the Wild FS should hit the trail in both markets very soon.

Orbea.com
Cory Benson
4,485 articles

Cory Benson is the EU Tech Editor of Bikerumor.com.

Cory has been writing about mountain bikes, enduro, cyclocross, all-road, gravel bikes & bikepacking for over 25 years, even before the industry created some of these names. Prior to Bikerumor, Cory was a practicing Architect specializing in environmental sustainability, has designed bike shops & bike components, and worked as a bike shop mechanic.

Based in the Czech Republic for 15+ years, he is a technical mountain biker, adventurous gravel rider, and short & medium-haul bikepacker. Cory travels extensively across Europe riding bikes, meeting with key European product developers, industry experts & tastemakers for an in-depth review of what’s new, and what’s coming next.

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ElectricBUGaloo
ElectricBUGaloo
7 years ago

Gotta love the pictures of these e-bikes absolutely devastating the trails with their wheel slides shooting dirt into hyperspace.

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socially conscious and concerned
socially conscious and concerned
7 years ago
Reply to  ElectricBUGaloo

Ummm, that’s downhill on scree – the bike motor has exactly zero to do with how that roost is created.

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myke2241
myke2241
7 years ago
Reply to  ElectricBUGaloo

Exactly my thoughts. And that goes for every brand that creates marketing media in same way.

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Ty thimbal
Ty thimbal
7 years ago

specialized really stepped up their e bike game

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thekaiser
thekaiser
7 years ago

From what I understand the trail access issues and ebike acceptance are totally different in Europe, but for USA based folks this vid seems like the worst bit of PR out there. Riding off trail in what appear to be alpine wilderness areas, skidding, etc…is often contentious, and adding a motor to the picture is going to eturbo charge the negative reactions.

On a more tecnical note, from the quoted run times I usually see published, it doesn’t seem that eMTBs are very well suited to multi day back country adventures. I guess this is just a fantasy vid, and they only showed descending on day 2, but it seems weird to even promote them in that way.

On the positive side, was good to see a couple fellow riders who were elderly and disabled still getting to enjoy the riding experience thanks to eMTB technology. 😉

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myke2241
myke2241
7 years ago
Reply to  thekaiser

In the USA we have worlds that collide on the these trails. Each one of those worlds wants to take or limit access rights. that coupled with no requirement for manufacturers to educate buys of ebikes where they can legally ride is asking for trouble on a system that is already strained…

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JBikes
JBikes
7 years ago
Reply to  myke2241

I think the majority of mtb’s and e-mtb’s will act appropriately. However, like anything, there will be those who don’t.

One the trails I ride, hikers will typically be very cordial, and I believe lots of that is due to them “amazed” I rode up that climb. There is some respect, I “earned” my fun. When that starts to wane and they realize the guy behind them on a climb yelling “on your left” has assist, that respect will drop and fast.

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myke2241
myke2241
7 years ago
Reply to  JBikes

Nope! I live in the land of boys with big toys. I just don’t see that type of common respect happening. It has gone the way I thought it would. Example was four days ago when I two eBikers would change my mind. Well, they just proved my points.. and a three eBiker that day just hammered the nail deeper. The majority of people riding these things still display extremely poor trail edict.

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Dustytires
Dustytires
7 years ago

eBikes makes them sound like some fendered little putt putt for going to the store, or something the people on board the AXIOM space ship might ride to get their next smoothE. These are Motorized Off Road Bikes, I believe ASS coined the phrase and it fits, they are motorized first and foremost capable of putting out more watts over the course of their fuel capacity than any human not earning a paycheck on a bicycle. These are off road vehicles. And lastly they are a bicycle, as in two wheels. Wouldn’t it be easier just to call them a motor/cycle then? Thankfully I have not seen as many in a week as myke has, but every one I have seen the pilots are seemingly in this fog of ground speed hypnosis, like STRAVA fiends only not breathing very hard. Specifically on the climbs they were put off as if I should immediately dismount my slow ass and clear their trail, dare I say it was kinda like being afoot. Yes I have ridden MORBs and yes I have done more than a few trail miles on foot. MORBs are considerably faster than a pedal bike, that’s the point and therein lies the problem. Hikers and horses have never been too happy, in the USA anyway, to be sharing their space with us riding bicycles, NEVER HAVE BEEN and when they figure out there are so called mountain bikers sneaking around with motors on pedal bike heads then heads will roll.

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