New Orbea Gain owner

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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
Hi all, my Gain is on order. It’s one of the last two 2022 spec XL frames at the factory. 2023 model is imminent but the shop predicts a price hike in the hundreds!

Buying on the cycle scheme and my original choice was Ribble CGR AL-e but put off by the somewhat elastic lead times. I didn’t want to be paying for six months without a bike yet! Then was toying with idea of the Cannondale Topstone Neo SL2 but decided on the Orbea as the Cannondale seemed just a smidge more gravel oriented and 90% plus of my riding is on roads.
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
Welcome to the Orbea Gain owner's club! There's lots of discussion and information on this forum about Gains in particular, and more generally about the Mahle X** system.
 

curzons246

Veteran
Location
derbyshire
Hi all, my Gain is on order. It’s one of the last two 2022 spec XL frames at the factory. 2023 model is imminent but the shop predicts a price hike in the hundreds!

Buying on the cycle scheme and my original choice was Ribble CGR AL-e but put off by the somewhat elastic lead times. I didn’t want to be paying for six months without a bike yet! Then was toying with idea of the Cannondale Topstone Neo SL2 but decided on the Orbea as the Cannondale seemed just a smidge more gravel oriented and 90% plus of my riding is on roads.

From my personal experience you've made the right choice. I'm afraid my Mercian is feeling very neglected.
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
Collected her today and rode back from Harrogate to Morley, 22 miles, doubling my previous longest ride!
Lovely to ride, so smooth. I used all 3 power settings, with most of the latter half on level 2 or 3 as I was running out of puff. I’m not used to drop bars yet and a couple of times fluffed the changes, changing up instead of down on a steep bit. D’oh.

Battery went into the green about 5 miles from home. I haven’t checked the accurate level as I’ve not got the app yet.
 

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CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
Congratulations on your new found riding range. They're great for allowing you to get further, which means longer riding=improved fitness
 

richtea

Senior Member
That's a very tidy Gain - black with no wires. I like it! Good purchase.

Green means you've got into the 50-75% battery range (obviously close to 75% since you saw it change).
It goes:
- white 75-100%
- green 50-75%
- orange 25-50%
- red 0-25% (and reduced power if I remember correctly, so it 'gets you home' without suddenly leaving you with no power)
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
When I got home I was fairly cream crackered, which was probably to be expected, never being in the saddle that long. But I do need to tweak the saddle and bar height a bit. I'm 100% sure the saddle was set too high in the shop, despite the assistant suggesting I could do with an extra 1cm higher. I nearly fell off 3 times stopping at junctions, and would definitely have done if I was getting used to cleats on top of that. But that's for later on when I get used to this bike! I also was putting too much weight on my hands on the hoods. When I got back my right index finger was numb on the pad and tingly along the outer edge of the finger. This took about a day to subside suggesting some pressure on the nerve. I wasn't conscious of this at the time but it may have been partly due to having a death grip on the hoods too, as I'm not used to drop bars.

Just been reading this excellent thread and https://www.cyclechat.net/threads/saddle-height-and-bar-position.269034/ and the linked document. I've dropped the saddle about 1/2", which feels better just sat astride it and riding a few yards up and down my drive. Not been out on it again yet due to the horrible weather. I'm also thinking the bars are angled down a bit and maybe should be rotated up to be level. The photo above is deceptive as the bike itself isn't horizontal in the pic due to the angle it's leaning against the wall, but even so the saddle was considerably higher than the bars in real life and I don't need or want such an aggressive position.
 

youngoldbloke

The older I get, the faster I used to be ...
Do you have another bike that you used before the Gain? I always transfer fitting measurements from my existing set up. Must say that if your bike set up is much like that in the photo it does look rather aggressive. It doesn't appear you can flip that stem to raise the bars either, but I think you could try rotating the bars up a little. There is lots of advice online regarding saddle height. Check out the Lemond method and the 109% method as a starting point.
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
Thanks. Yes I've got my Giant hybrid, but I suspect the saddle height on that has been a little too low. And it's probably a more upright geometry anyway. Plus flat bars of course.

I've settled on splitting the difference for now. Hoping to get out for a little ride in the next hour so we'll see.
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
I dropped the saddle another 1cm and rotated the bars so the tops are level. I'd guess the latter probably raised the hoods by 2cm. A definite improvement.

IMG_0512.jpeg
 

CXRAndy

Guru
Location
Lincs
I only found out my saddle was slightly too low was after 4 hours into a ride which was on the third day of a week's tour

I've been riding 6 years upto that point

Knees slightly began to hurt on the front. I stopped, marked the saddle stem, raised it 5 mm. Knee pain almost instantly subsided.

Ever since then that has been my saddle height for all my bikes.
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
Three months report:

I love this bike! So far I've only done 150 miles but I'm blaming winter weather, especially that horrible cold snap before Christmas, plus my wife being ill so having to work from home and do school runs so very little commuting.

After storing it in the garage for a couple of weeks I brought it inside after I found out the roof was leaking (or possibly just dripping from condensation). This does encourage me to keep it clean!

It's now riding on 35mm Schwalbe G-One Allround tyres after a couple of hairy moments with the 30mm Hutchinsons on wet leaf mould, and I’m impressed. Better wet grip than the Hutchinson 30s and I've not noticed any difference in dry grip or rolling resistance. It was a struggle to get them off but managed it eventually with just fingers and plastic levers. Once I’d broken the adhesion of the bead it got a bit easier. It was nearly as fiddly to get the Allrounds on the rims too.

I was annoyed after placing the order to learn the post 2021 D frame Gains don't have any lugs for mudguards or racks, so I fitted SKS Raceblade Pro XLs which work pretty well and look good, though it's niggling that the rear isn't long enough to stop the BB and cranks getting plastered. I do have a cunning plan here though!
 
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Dadam

Senior Member
Location
SW Leeds
First real test of the Gain (and me) at the weekend, on one of @ColinJ 's forum rides. A 31 mile hilly, at times rocky and muddy, at times windy and rainy jaunt over the hills around Hebden Bridge.

Not the Gain's ideal terrain but with the G-one allrounds it coped with a stern test pretty well. I was able to get up almost all hills even on the dodgy terrain. Where things got sketchier were the descents on rougher stuff so I slowed right down at times. A good time to mention the Tiagra hydraulic disk brakes were fantastic, plenty of stopping power but equally important when I could feel the rear slipping on the poorer surfaces, very easy to modulate with plenty of feel.

I used all 3 assistance modes, some of the climbs needing the top level assist and bottom gear. At the end of the ride I had 25% battery left (2 bars on the LCD). The latter half of the ride I'd been husbanding the battery, going into L0 (no assist) on the flats and trying to stay in L1 most of the time, only going up when really necessary. Still, I think getting 31 miles with over 4000ft of climbing with a fair bit left in the tank wasn't bad for a little 250wh battery. Extrapolating that would give 41 miles with similar amount of hills before empty, and probably 50+ on a flatter/smoother ride.
 
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