Like many other manufacturers, Orbea has now listed the new bike and e-bike models for the coming 2021 season on its website. In our opinion, the urban Gain models are always of particular interest: with their almost invisible electric drive and fair prices, the model range has met with great interest in recent years — no wonder that our test of the entry-level model Gain F40 is still one of the most popular articles here.
If you’re currently looking for new gain models on Orbea’s website, you won’t find them. Among the Urban bikes, the whole Gain F series is no longer listed and it looks like the bikes have been taken out of the program! Only the already known model series Katu-E, Optima and Keram remain, all of which are not really comparable with the gain models. And indeed, at the request of a Twitter user, Orbea itself announces the following there:
So do you really want to leave this field to the competition? It’s hard to believe, because Orbea had made the then brand new Mahle Ebikemotion drive popular on the mass market with these bikes. It was only after this that numerous other brands — including industry giants such as Cannondale — followed suit with similar bikes. And the growth of the e-bike market in general does not exactly speak in favor of discontinuing a model series without a successor.
This leaves room for speculation: it would be conceivable, for example, that Orbea would launch a similar bike under a new name — after all, the Twitter response only stated that there would be no “Gain Urban” model. And perhaps the refreshed Carpe and Vector models will give a clue as to the color scheme; in previous years, these two models without electric drive were always well comparable to the gain wheels in terms of color selection and components. Whether this will prove true or whether it will turn out completely different, should become apparent in the coming weeks — we will stay tuned!
1 thought on “Orbea Gain Urban 2021: is the successful model removed from the lineup?”
It’s worse than just losing the urban iteration. The Gain, an ideal bike for aging riders, I now rate as UNACCEPTABLE. Here are my comments posted on the Orbea Gain FB Group site
2021 Orbeas, including the Gain: Beware!
Orbea now routes cables through the stem. Only Orbea stems work. Selection of stem lengths and angles not provided.
To adjust bar height requires threading cables through steering tube spacers. Thus bar tape must be sacrificed, all cables disconnected, hydraulics refilled and bled, and reassembled with new tape, all just to try a different handlebar height.
Steering tube spacers are elliptical with channels for cables, ordered only from Orbea and shipped from Spain.
Bikes are arriving with steering tubes already cut, so customized bar height is very restricted.
My Gain is a 2019 M30. I must ride an ebike consequent to lung injuries from a bad crash in 2016. I also have an arthritic 74 yo neck and back, titanium within. I can only ride with a shortened reach and a taller stack. With this, many aging riders can identify. For us this new Gain is not ridable. Happy with my 2019, now with 4376 miles.