Orbea Wild LT M20

The Wild LT M20 sits at the entry point of Orbea's 2027 Wild LT range, but the parts that do the real work are shared right across it: a 170mm-travel carbon OMR chassis and an Avinox M2S motor tuned by Orbea's own RS setting for climbing response. If you want a full-power carbon enduro bike that will get you up a genuinely steep, technical climb and then let you point it back down again, this is a serious way into that platform, without paying for the flagship builds' connected remote and electronic suspension.

29er or Mullet, and which battery

Orbea builds the M20 in two wheel layouts: a full 29er, with 29-inch wheels front and rear, and a Mullet, which keeps the larger front wheel but swaps in a 27.5-inch rear. Independent testing of the wider Wild LT platform, carried out on the higher-specification M-LTD RS build that shares the same wheel-layout choice, found the full 29er nimble and composed, while noting that its 29-inch rear wheel could start to crowd the rider on exceptionally steep terrain. That's worth knowing if most of your local descents are properly pitched, because it's exactly the situation the Mullet's smaller rear wheel is meant to answer, tucking in a bit more room over the back of the bike. Swapping between the two layouts later isn't a simple wheel change either: 29er and Mullet use different rocker links, so it's a decision worth making before you order rather than after.

Both wheel layouts come as standard with an 800Wh Avinox battery, which is the sensible default if you want genuine all-day range. A 600Wh battery is available as a £219 factory-selected alternative rather than a standard fitment, and it suits riders who mostly do shorter local loops and would rather save some weight and money than carry capacity they won't use.

What you get for the money, and what you don't

UK retailers list the standard 800Wh builds, in either wheel layout, at £6,199, though Orbea hasn't published a separately confirmed base RRP; choosing the 600Wh battery adds the £219 factory option on top, with no complete configured price confirmed. Either way, the Avinox motor and its RS tuning are the same as on the pricier Wild LT builds, so the climbing assistance itself isn't diluted lower down the range.

Where the M20 does differ is in the suspension, brakes and dropper around that motor. It runs a RockShox ZEB Select Rush RC fork and a FOX FLOAT X Performance shock, both delivering the full 170mm of travel, alongside Shimano MT420 brakes on 200mm Galfer rotors: capable, serviceable kit rather than the flagship's electronic dampers. The dropper post is the mechanical OC Mountain Control MC22, worked through Orbea's BC100 remote, so it's worth knowing upfront that this isn't the wireless, connected RS remote and electronic post fitted higher up the range. Shifting comes from Shimano's Deore M7200, a wide-range 12-speed groupset that's durable and straightforward to keep running, if not the lightest Shimano makes.

Getting the size right

All four sizes, S through XL, are offered in either wheel layout, and Orbea scales more than just the frame across them. Dropper travel grows from 150mm in a size S to 230mm in an XL, with stem length and handlebar reach also changing between sizes to match. Orbea's own UK size guide doesn't currently publish numeric height or inseam bands, so any height ranges you see quoted elsewhere are indicative figures carried over from the same generation rather than an official chart, and they overlap by a good few centimetres between neighbouring sizes. Treat them as a starting point rather than a strict cut-off: if you're near a boundary, the size geometry and dropper length are a better guide to genuine fit than a height figure on its own.

Ownership: charging, warranty and configurator options

One detail worth planning around before you buy: the battery is reported as fixed in the frame on this platform, so unlike an e-bike with a simply removable battery, you'll want a charging point near wherever the bike lives rather than planning to carry the battery indoors. The M20 ships with Orbea's 4A charger; a faster 12A unit is available as a paid option through the UK configurator, alongside alternative suspension and brake selections, so it's worth checking exactly what's specified on any individual bike rather than assuming the standard kit described here. Buy new and register within 30 days and you get Orbea's lifetime commercial frame warranty; as with most e-bikes, the ordinary capacity loss a battery experiences over years of use isn't covered as a defect.

It's a small thing, but the frame's built-in hex multitool, tucked magnetically into the lower pivot with a further 6mm key at the rear axle, is a genuinely useful touch on a bike built to be ridden hard a long way from the car park.