Spanish bicycle brand Orbea, probably best known for its road and mountain bikes, has a new e-bike on the horizon. The Orbea Diem is the brand’s new city bike, adding to its impressive line-up of urban e-bikes but sitting alongside its other city e-bike, the Vibe. If you’re interested in an e-bike you can check out our buyers guide to the best e-bikes you can buy.
Orbea claims the Diem is a step forward in urban strategy and is centred around three main pillars: performance, smart design, and personalisation. It’s taken its high-performance road and mountain bike design and trickled that down to its city bikes, bringing lightweight frames, quality components, and a new level of ride quality and teaching technology that can be incorporated into the bike.
Who is the Diem for?
The Orbea Diem is for city dwellers who want a new way around town. It’s perfect for the commute or just buzzing about town carrying out errands. The Diem offers 20kg and 30kg rear carriers compatible with Ortlieb and MIK systems and an optional 10kg front rack and basket. This means you have options on your way home to pick up some shopping or carry your gym equipment.
You can also use it to carry kids around, as the optional adaptor makes Diem 10 and Diem 20 compatible with Thule, Burley, Croozer, and Hamax trailers. Diem 30 works with conventional thru-axle adapters. So, with the added kick from the motor, nursery and school runs become a doddle.
What motor and battery does the Orbea Diem have?
With its powerful Shimano EP motor, you can choose a 630Wh battery integrated into the down tube, giving you up to 150km of range or nine hours of riding between charges. There is also a slightly lighter option in a 540Wh battery pack, giving you a range of up to 120km.
The design has considered all this, with a small and subtle remove that you can control without taking your hands off the bars to cycle between pedal assist modes. The LED lights tell you which mode you’re in, but you can also connect your Shimano EP system to your mobile phone and have it on the integrated mount for better access to detailed system information.
There is the option of a 252Wh range extender battery; while you may not need the extra range of this battery, it enables you to take a battery off your bike while it’s parked up and into your office to charge.
Safety all round
In the design, Orbea has incorporated front and rear lights that run all the time to make you stand out on the road, no matter the light or weather conditions. The Supernova Starstream headlight is integrated into the handlebar or the front of the optional rack. It is also protected from damage or theft, and it removes obstructions from the light beam, making you more visible. If you choose the optional Supernova Starstream dual beam light, you can easily switch between the low and bright high beams.
That’s the visibility sorted. For the battery, there is an SBS system that securely fixes the battery inside the bike frame. As well as making the battery impossible to steal, SBS allows us to design better-looking, slimmer frames that are lighter and stiffer, resulting in faster reactions and added control when zipping around the city.
Models in the range
We will see three models in the Diem range, the Orbea Diem 10, 20 and 30 with the Obrea Diem 10 getting a Shimano Shimano EP801 which the Orbea Diem 20 and Diem 30 get a Shimano EP600 motor. The Diem 10 and 20 share the same 630Wh battery while the Diem 30 takes the 540Wh battery pack.
There are other slight differences, too with the Diem 10 and 20 having belt driven internal gears and the Diem 30 having a 9 speed Shimano Cassette. This of this as the smaller the number the higher the spec, the Diem 30 is base spec while the Diem 10 is the ranger topper with the spec to match and front basket as standard.
Prices vary from £3,499 for the Orbea Diem 30, £4,299 for the Orbea Diem 20 and £5,299 for the range-topping Orbea Diem 10.