The Terra’s versatile design combined with Orbea’s MyO program offers the rider choice, so much choice

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The Orbea Terra has been redesigned for 2022 and now boasts bigger tyre clearances, nimbler handling characteristics and an adaptable design. Orbea says that to best serve the wide-ranging remit of gravel, the Terra can be easily modified to suit a variety of riders’ needs and budgets.

As such, barring some special headset spacers, the new Terra is as non-proprietary as things get. It’s compatible with 1x and 2x electronic and mechanical groupsets; with both 700c wheels (with 45mm clearance) and 650b wheels (with 50mm clearance); fits conventional bars, stems and seatposts; and offers mounting points galore for bottle cages and mudguard/fender mounts.

The bike is offered as seven models in six sizes, ranging in price from £2,899 / €2,899 / $3,199 to £4,999 / €4,999 / $5,299.

Using Orbea’s MyO custom bike builder tool, however (an option Orbea offers at no extra cost), the spec and even paint scheme can be tweaked further to suit individual needs to a much greater extent than many other bike brands offer.

The carbon-framed Terra will be available to buy later in November, but there will also be an aluminium version of the Terra available in the near future that Orbea says will achieve more accessible price points. The aluminium Terra will also have rear-rack compatibility.

Orbea launched the first Terra back in 2017, having started to develop it in 2015.

“We recognised the gravel trend had potential, but didn’t really know how it was going to evolve,” says Orbea’s product manager, Joseba Arizaga.

It meant the brand was early into the discipline, but it entered somewhat conservatively.

In geometry terms, the first Terra wasn’t too far removed from an endurance road bike, offering a similar high and short ride position, but with a more relaxed head-tube angle and moderate 40mm 700c tyre clearance.

With the new Terra, Orbea has taken a much more modern and committed design approach. Orbea says the new bike has more reactive handling, yet should be more stable too.

The brand says this has been achieved by lengthening the reach of the bike (the distance from the bottom bracket to the top of the head tube) and dropping the bottom bracket.

Changes like these usually calm the handling of a bike but, to counteract this, Orbea has steepened the head-tube angle and specced shorter stems as standard. It’s a recipe that’s proving popular in modern gravel bike design.

The new Terra’s tyre clearance is much more contemporary too. Orbea claims tyre clearance has been bumped up to 45mm for 700c wheels and 50mm clearance can be achieved on 650b wheels. That’s despite shortening the chainstays to 420mm.

Orbea says it was able to tuck the chainstays in that much – which helps the new Terra’s lively handling characteristics – but still offer so much tyre clearance by dropping the driveside chainstay.

This was a feature pioneered on gravel bikes with the OpenUP, but has since been widely adopted as it very effectively solves the space conundrum of fitting chunky gravel tyres between chainstays constrained within a narrow road Q-factor (the distance between the cranks).

While much of the comfort in a gravel bike can be created by the tyres, Orbea claims it found it could build a little compliance into the Terra’s frame without sacrificing any stiffness or weight.

The front triangle has been made compact to shorten the seat tube and expose more of the 27.2mm seatpost, helping it to flex. Orbea also says the material at the base of the seat tube, where it joins the bottom-bracket junction, “has been adjusted to provide just the right amount of rigidity”, adding rear-end compliance.

Orbea says the Terra also has a longer fork – the increased length should make it better able to dissipate vibration – plus the distinctive kink forward at the fork crown apparently helps it to absorb impacts.

Orbea has nicely complemented the Terra’s general capability with some neat extra touches.

Echoing a feature adopted by brands such as Trek in its Checkpoint gravel bike and Domane endurance bike, the Terra has a storage space in the down tube, accessed via a hatch underneath the down tube bottle cage mount.

Orbea dubs it ‘Lockr’ and says it’s voluminous enough to pack in a spare tube, pump, CO2 cartridge and multitool, which would probably otherwise have to go in a saddlebag or jersey pockets.

Somewhat controversially for a bike purporting to be versatile and simple, the Terra uses Orbea’s ICR internal cable routing system to tuck cables away at the front end.

The ICR system (found on several of Orbea’s other bikes, such as the Orca OMR and new Orca Aero) guides cables along the underside of the stem and down the front of the steerer tube using shaped, extended headset spacers. These feed into a headset with a larger-diameter 1 1/2in upper bearing.

As the steerer is a smaller 1 1/8in in size, there is space for the cables to slide into the frame alongside the fork steerer.

This solution means changing the upper headset bearing will be tricky, but Orbea reasons that because it’ll be such an infrequent job it’s worth the trade-off, as it results in a clean front end that’s much easier to attach bar bags to.

The new Terra will be available in seven models, although the Campagnolo Ekar build will only be available in the US.

The available builds add credence to Orbea’s claims that the Terra works in any guise, with electronic and mechanical, 1x and 2x options all available in the range. The bikes all come with 700c wheels though, so any riders wanting the extra grip and comfort of 650b tyres will need to buy an extra set of wheels and tyres separately.

Courtesy of Orbea’s MyO program, many of the spec choices on each build can be changed during the purchase process, but to keep things simple only the standard specs are detailed below.

Sam Challis is a technical editor at BikeRadar, responsible for our road and gravel coverage. He considered himself a road rider for many years but unashamedly jumped on the gravel bandwagon when it became de rigueur and can now often be found exploring the bridleways and trails near his home in Dorset. He has a borderline obsessive interest in cycling tech and enjoys tinkering with bikes almost as much as riding them. Previously the technical editor of Cyclist magazine, he has nearly 10 years of experience writing about tech trends, quizzing the biggest brands in the business, and testing the latest bikes and kit. As a result, Sam has developed distinct and well-informed opinions on what road and gravel products should offer riders. Sam's young family means his legs aren’t quite as strong as they used to be, but he rests easy in the belief that if you can’t go fast, look good and everything will turn out okay.

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