BIKER'S EDGE

Boy, oh boy, have I been excited to ride the new Orbea Wild LT. I went to Pisgah Forest, NC, earlier this year to preview the bike. Unfortunately, Orbea only had a non-rideable sample at that time, but it still had me drooling. It checks all of the boxes: a great motor, great geometry, cool tech, integrations, and lots of travel. And now that I’ve been riding it religiously for the last few weeks, I can confirm it is certainly drool-worthy. In fact, this is as close as a bike has ever come to “no notes” as my entire review.

What You Should Know About the Orbea Wild lT

So let’s spend a second or two chatting about all the new features on the Wild LT. Starting with the drive unit, we have the Avinox M2S motor and battery. But this is slightly different than every other Avinox MS2 bike on the market. Orbea teamed up with Avinox and applied their own RS technology to the Avinox system. A lot goes into the RS tune, which we will discuss later, but it essentially caps the motor at 20 mph and 750 watts. Also worth noting, the main battery powers your motor, dropper, and derailleur.

In addition to the motor bits, the frame received a complete redesign and now closely resembles the new Rallon. In fact, the bike looks so sleek, it’s hard to tell them apart. It features 170mm of travel front and back, as well as updated kinematics more focused on descending performance. You can run it either as a full 29” setup or with mixed wheels.

Now let’s get into the fun stuff.

Orbea Wild LT: Ride Review

Drive system: +2

There’s not much to complain about here. The Avinox M2S is a hell of a drive unit. Add Orbea’s RS tune, and it checks all the boxes. Some folks might not appreciate the detuned motor, but let’s chat about why that may be a good thing.

When I first saw the new Wild LT and heard Orbea explain that they had detuned the Avinox motor, I was a bit skeptical. My first thought was, give the riders the ability to choose to be legal or not. And just so we are all on the same page here, the Avinox M2S can do up to 1500 W and 150 NM of peak torque. It can also assist up to 28 mph. Whichever side of the argument you’re on, the legal limit for a Class 1 to be ridden on trails in the most of the US is 750 watts and no more than 20 mph. So that’s exactly what Orbea did. They detuned the motor to meet those legal requirements with their RS tune. You can argue about it all you want, but I would imagine the primary reason Orbea did this is to keep themselves safe legally. And fine. If that’s the reason, great. Orbea can continue to sell their bikes and not face potential legal repercussions in the future. But they also have made the rider experience potentially better than a stock M2S motor.

The RS tune does a couple of things. Orbea claims that RS connects the rider to the bike better than the standard tune. It reacts quicker to your input, so it can better mirror your effort. It also takes less pedal rotation on your part to get the motor to kick in. You can almost think of it as a quicker-engaging hub, but at the motor. A motor that can mirror your output better is going to feel more natural in terms of ride quality. You won’t have that herky jerky, on-off feel that can happen at times on an ebike. And that is certainly true in the case of the Wild LT. It is very smooth. It doesn’t have much or any noticeable lag between you turning the pedals and the power ramping up. It feels about as instantaneous as possible.

And what a lot of folks will love is that it uses the battery more efficiently than a standard Avinox tune. Because it mirrors your efforts more and reacts quicker, it can be more energy efficient and give you exactly what you need when you need it. It doesnt waste power when it’s not needed. Add in Avinox’s already efficient use of the battery, and you’ve got a long-range monster.

My Wild LT is equipped with the 800 Wh battery, which led to some really encouraging range stats. At 200 lb and in full boost, I was getting over 5700’ of vert on a single charge. And here’s the wild part: that motor puts out a ton of sustained power, even when things get steep. To illustrate the point, let’s pull up some GPS stats. I did a 12.5-mile ride with 2825’ of vert in 53 minutes. My average speed was 13.7 mph. The motor was doing a lot of work. I still finished that ride with 53% battery remaining. Range worriers dont need to worry with this one.

Climbing Performance: +1

Now let’s talk about how the bike climbs aside from the motor. Orbea’s most recent round of gravity-focused bikes have had a very different feel than Orbeas of old. In the past, they’ve been on the pedaling side. Possibly too pedally for me and my liking when it comes to bikes that are primarily designed to go downhill. What I mean by that is they prioritized efficiency over most other things. Things like traction, comfort, and control.

From the new Rallon to the Rallon RS, and now the Wild LT, the suspension feel has changed drastically. It’s now much more active and open, providing more traction and control when your climbs happen to have a couple of rocks in them. That same active and open feeling has downhill performance implications as well, which we will address. But on the climbs, especially on a high-power e-bike, traction and control are essential for good performance. Without them, you’ll slip out and get bounced around when things get rough and steep. With the Wild’s gravity-focused geometry and Avinox motor, that traction and control go a long way in helping it climb some pretty ridiculous stuff.

I did come across a pretty floaty front end on steep climbs. In fact, I struggled to clean some sections that I can usually get on most ebikes. The front end on the Wild is fairly tall, and while the chainstays are long, they’re not as long as some contemporary bikes we are seeing, especially when you factor in the reach measurement. All of that combined can make the front wheel a bit light and floaty.

Downhill Capability: +1

I’m still so torn about this score. The Wild LT is incredibly close to scoring +2, but one small item kept it at a +1. It is everything you’d expect from a big brawler of an ebike. It’s plush, comfortable, and deep. It handles steep, rough, and rocky terrain with the best of them. The one small thing that holds it back is the front-end stability, especially on faster, flatter terrain. I lost control of the front end from time to time on fast, but less steep terrain. I think it primarily comes from the front-to-back proportions and taller front end. The bike craves some gradient — the more, the better.

My first ride on the Wild LT was on a local classic. It’s flowy, fast, and gets a bit rubbly and loose by the end of the season. It’s not particularly difficult, but it’s a great test for a bike. The Wild LT loved the steeper parts of the trail. It rode confidently and stayed very calm, even through the roughest and rockiest bits. On the flatter bits of the trail, that front end got a bit tougher to control. I later adjusted to the body position required to keep the front end from pushing, but it was not necessarily an intuitive riding position. If you owned the bike, I suspect this would become a non-issue over time, but just something to be aware of.

Now I dont want to end this section with you thinking it’s a sketchy, squirrely bike. It’s far from that. Ride it on the stuff it was intended to ride, and you’ll have a hard time finding a more confident and capable rig.

Suspension Performance: +2

I love the new era of Orbea’s gravity suspension philosophy. I feel like they’ve finally nailed the efficiency vs. active balance. A big bike doesn’t need to be overly efficient, especially if that compromises the descending performance. The new Wild LT clearly prioritizes downhill performance over efficiency now. It’s very plush and calm through the small to medium chatter. It feels bottomless on the big hits. And it does all of that without feeling dead and impossible to get off the ground.

The Wild LT’s traction, plushness, and control are basically as expected for the category. The reason it earns a +2 is for its ability to remain lively while doing all the big-bike stuff as expected. For a bike with 170mm of travel, it is engaging and fun to ride — pumping actually does something. The bike doesn’t just absorb all of that energy and feel sluggish. Instead, it generates speed and allows you to influence and control the bike like a much smaller all-mountain or trail bike.

Handling: +1

When I talk about handling, I’m primarily referring to two characteristics: corners and jumping. Not jumping in the sense of giant dirt jumps and slopestyle tricks, but bunnyhopping, unweighting, changing lines, and jumps if you’re so inclined.

The Wild LT is great at the jumping part of that equation. It’s easy to get off the ground, fun on jumps, and very lively for a big bike. That’s what earns it its points here. Where it starts to suffer a bit is in the cornering ability. I noticed quite a bit of understeer in tighter terrain. I found myself swinging wide into the bushes. It takes a pretty heavy amount of english to get it to lean over and dig in. Once you get it leaned over, it hooks up, offers a lot of traction, and corners very well. In fact, it was one of the more confident cornering bikes when the corners had less than desired support and traction. I could tell the tires were at the edge of their traction limits as they’d break loose. But both wheels broke free predictably and in a way that lets you recover the slide. One wheel doesnt just shoot out, and you find yourself sideways in the weeds. Just be prepared to put some effort into getting that turn initiated, and you’ll be stoked.

Versatility: +1

The Wild LT wins a lot of versatility points in the setup category. With MyO, you can customize it to fit your needs and preferred components. You can set it up MX or 29, and you even get custom paint options.

The Wild LT also wins points for its battery efficiency. It’s not just the ebike for short post-work rips. It will go further than a lot of ebikes opening up bigger ride options.

Where it loses some points is in the difficulty of trails it likes to ride. It’s great at the tough stuff, but the easier, flatter stuff isn’t necessarily where it shines. It wouldn’t be my first choice for anything less than a tough blue or black diamond.

Intangibles: 0

We’ve got ourselves a bit of a mixed bag in the intangibles. The finish feels very premium, and the electronic integration is extremely clean and tidy. It makes for a very sleek-looking bike. And that’s what keeps this one from being a -1.

I have one major complaint about the intangibles. Normally I don’t care much about the components on my bike. I have found that very few of them can actually worsen the bike’s ride quality in a significant way. The dropper post on the Wild LT is one of those. Not because it doesn’t work or it’s too short or anything. But the electronic dropper reaction time is noticeably slow. It takes a second or so and has thrown off my timing frequently. And normally I wouldn’t dock a bike point son account of the dropper, but this one is so integrated into the bike it feels like more than just an easily upgradeable dropper post. It is replaceable with a dropper of your choice, but it’s not as simple as others.

And the power selector buttons on the controller are most definitely inverted.

orbea wild lt: Comparisons

There are a lot of comparisons here so we will move quickly.

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Who is the orbea wild lt for?

Rider Profile: The Big Mountain Rider

You ride steep, technical, exposed terrain and want a bike that’s got your back when things get ugly. You need traction, control, big-hit performance, and a bike that will stay calm through it all. Essentially, you need the capability.

Why you’ll like it: It’s plush, deep, confidence-inspiring, and happiest when the trail gets steep and difficult. It gives you a lot of the seriousness of something like the LTe, but with more energy and playfulness.

Rider Profile: The Long Range Rider

You can’t get enough vert in a ride. You want to keep going until you have to peel your hands off your bars. A quick little shuttle lap or a 10-mile post-work ride isn’t enough. You’re doing long-distance e-bike races like Zach. You appreciate power, but range is even more important.

Why you’ll like it: The RS tune on an already efficient system is great for squeezing out all of the distance on a ride. The Wild LT is easily one of the most efficient full-power eMTBs I’ve ridden.

Rider Profile: The Big Bike But Not Dead Bike Rider

You like big bikes for the confidence, capability, traction and control. But you don’t like the side effects that often come with those traits. You want a lively ride quality but want the bike to have your back when things get rough.

Why you’ll like it: That may actually be the Wild LT’s defining trait. It does the big-bike stuff while still letting pumping generate speed and making it surprisingly easy to get off the ground. It’s not Bullit-level playful, but it’s much livelier than most big eMTBs.

Final Thoughts

I’ve ridden a handful of versions of the Wild over the last few years and this newest iteration is easily my favorite. It checks all of the boxes for a big eMTB. The Wild LT sits very close to the middle of serious and playful without actually being a middle-ground bike. It makes very few compromises. It’s still very much a big bike, it just doesn’t come with big bike tax.

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