The 2027 Orbea Rise is no longer one bike with two fork options. Orbea now sells it as a Rise SL and a Rise LT, and the honest read of the Orbea Rise 2027 geometry is that the two models sit closer together on paper than their names suggest. At size L the SL has 5mm more reach, 4mm less stack and a head angle half a degree steeper. That is the whole gap. What separates them on the trail is travel, shock and a flip chip, not the front triangle.
Orbea launched both on 5 November 2026 around Shimano’s new EP810 motor. BIKE magazine confirms that “both models are based on the same full-carbon frame,” with the SL at 140mm front and rear and the LT at 160mm front and 150mm rear. If you are choosing between them, the numbers below are the place to start, because they show how little you give up in fit either way.
The full chart: Rise LT in the high setting
E-MOUNTAINBIKE’s launch first ride printed the complete Rise LT table. These figures are the high flip-chip position on 29in wheels.
| Rise LT (high) | S | M | L | XL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | 435mm | 460mm | 485mm | 510mm |
| Stack | 617mm | 626mm | 635mm | 644mm |
| Head angle | 64.5° | 64.5° | 64.5° | 64.5° |
| Seat angle (eff.) | 77.7° | 77.7° | 77.7° | 77.7° |
| Chainstay | 443mm | 443mm | 443mm | 443mm |
| BB drop | 26mm | 26mm | 26mm | 26mm |
| Wheelbase | 1,208mm | 1,237mm | 1,267mm | 1,296mm |
| Top tube | 569mm | 596mm | 623mm | 650mm |
| Head tube | 100mm | 110mm | 120mm | 130mm |
| Seat tube | 400mm | 410mm | 420mm | 440mm |
Flip the chip to low and the size L moves to 480mm reach, a 64.05° head angle, a 77.27° seat angle and roughly 639mm of stack, with the bottom bracket dropping 6mm, according to the same E-MOUNTAINBIKE test. The chip now lives in the lower shock mount and is adjusted with the 6mm hex key stored in the rear axle lever.
The LT is also the only Rise that takes a mullet rear wheel and a coil shock. Orbea specs a Fox DHX Factory coil on some LT builds.
The Rise SL: shorter fork, same bones
Orbea’s SL numbers only appeared as ranges and size L spot figures in launch coverage. Pinkbike lists 440 to 515mm of reach and 613 to 640mm of stack across S to XL, and Blister’s first look gives the size L as a 65° head angle, 78.2° seat angle, 490mm reach and 631mm stack. Head tubes match the LT at 100 to 130mm, and the chainstay is the same 443mm on every size.
| Rise SL | S | M | L | XL |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | 440mm | 465mm | 490mm | 515mm |
| Stack | 613mm | 622mm | 631mm | 640mm |
| Head angle | 65° | 65° | 65° | 65° |
| Seat angle (eff.) | 78.2° | 78.2° | 78.2° | 78.2° |
| Chainstay | 443mm | 443mm | 443mm | 443mm |
| Head tube | 100mm | 110mm | 120mm | 130mm |
The pattern is exactly what a shorter fork does to an identical frame. Take 20mm of travel out of the front and the head tube drops and rotates forward. Stack falls 4mm, reach grows 5mm, and both the head and seat angles steepen by about half a degree. The SL has no flip chip, so it lives permanently at what is effectively a steeper version of the LT’s high setting.
That has a practical consequence. A rider sized for an LT in M will feel the SL in M as slightly longer and lower at the bars. The 1.34 stack-to-reach ratio of the SL medium versus 1.36 on the LT medium is a small difference, but it puts the SL rider slightly further over the front wheel, which matches E-MOUNTAINBIKE’s note that the SL feels “a touch quicker and more direct” than the LT. If you are between sizes, the SL argues for the smaller frame more than the LT does.
What changed from the outgoing Rise
The second-generation Rise from 2024 already shared one frame between SL and LT versions. Vital MTB’s first ride on that bike listed the SL at 65.5° and 78°, the LT at 64.5° and 77.5° in high, 440mm chainstays and a size M LT at 460mm reach with a 1,228mm wheelbase.
Against those numbers, the 2027 changes are modest and deliberate:
- Chainstays grew 3mm, from 440 to 443mm, on every size.
- The SL head angle went 0.5° slacker, from 65.5° to 65°.
- The LT head angle stayed at 64.5° in high, with the seat angle a touch steeper at 77.7°.
- Size M reach held at 460mm on the LT, but the wheelbase grew 9mm to 1,237mm. Three of those millimetres are the chainstay.
- Standover dropped 10mm and stack rose, per Singletrack’s launch report.
None of that reinvents the bike. Orbea kept the Rise’s character as a light, playful eMTB and spent the generation’s real budget on the drive system.
The EP810 and why the RS tune matters to geometry
Shimano’s EP810 weighs a claimed 2.3kg, which E-MOUNTAINBIKE puts at roughly 380g lighter than the outgoing EP801. Shimano rates it at up to 750W, but Orbea’s Rider Synergy firmware caps it lower. In the RS profile, Eco, Trail and Boost top out at 85Nm and 400W, with a hold-to-activate Super Boost that briefly unlocks 100Nm and 600W. The RS+ profile gives the full 100Nm and 600W all the time.
The same 2.3kg Shimano unit appeared two days earlier in our Honda RN0 geometry breakdown, where Honda left it at full output in a 24kg bike. Orbea went the other way. Batteries are Orbea’s own 420Wh (1.9kg) or 630Wh (2.9kg) packs, plus an optional 210Wh range extender that weighs 1kg.
Why does this matter for a geometry site? Because mass placement changes how numbers feel. A lighter motor and a smaller battery mean less weight hanging low between the wheels, so a 443mm chainstay and 26mm BB drop ride livelier on a Rise than identical figures on a 23kg full-power bike. E-MOUNTAINBIKE weighed its size L test bikes at 18.1kg for the SL and 18.8kg for the LT, against Orbea’s claimed 17kg and 18kg starting weights. Vital weighed the previous LT at 19.1kg in size M. For more on that trade, see our look at eMTB weight versus power.
How the size L lines up against full-power rivals
| Size L | Rise LT (high) | Rise SL | Honda RN0 | Canyon Spectral:ON CF 9 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Reach | 485mm | 490mm | 480mm | 495mm |
| Stack | 635mm | 631mm | 649mm | 650mm |
| Head angle | 64.5° | 65° | 65° | 64° |
| Seat angle (eff.) | 77.7° | 78.2° | 76.5° | 78.5° |
| Chainstay | 443mm | 443mm | 442mm | 447mm |
| Wheelbase | 1,267mm | not published | 1,259mm | 1,293mm |
| Travel (F/R) | 160/150mm | 140/140mm | 160/145mm | 160/155mm |
| Peak torque | 100Nm | 100Nm | 100Nm | 150Nm |
The Rise stands out for its low front end. At 631 to 635mm, a size L Rise is 14 to 19mm lower at the head tube than the Honda or the Canyon Spectral:ON CF 9. That is a deliberate trail-bike posture: easier to weight the front tyre in flat corners, slightly less comfortable on long descents unless you add spacers or a higher-rise bar. Orbea’s test bikes ran a 20mm-rise, 800mm bar for that reason.
Fit for tall riders: the XL is short on stack
At 6’4″, I look straight at the XL. Reach is generous at 510mm on the LT and 515mm on the SL. Stack is the problem. The LT XL tops out at 644mm and the SL XL at 640mm, which is lower than the size L of the Canyon Spectral:ON (650mm) or the Honda (649mm). The 130mm head tube does not leave much room either.
In practice, a tall rider on an XL Rise will want 15 to 20mm of extra bar height. Get most of it from bar rise rather than headset spacers. At a 64.5° head angle, every 10mm of spacer pulls effective reach back by about 4mm, so a full 20mm stack would turn the 510mm figure into something closer to 501mm.
The chainstay is the second issue. A fixed 443mm across four sizes means the rear centre shrinks as a share of wheelbase from 36.7% on the S to 34.2% on the XL. Taller riders end up more over the rear wheel relative to the front, and on steep climbs that shows up as a lighter front tyre. The Rise’s effective seat angle is also quoted as a single 77.7° for all sizes. With a long seatpost extension, a tall rider’s actual saddle position sits behind that figure, which compounds the rearward bias. Our guide to reading a geometry chart covers why the effective number flatters tall riders.
If you are 6’4″ and set on a Rise, the LT in the low setting is the better choice. It adds about 4mm of stack and slackens the head angle to 64°, at the cost of 5mm of reach, and the extra height helps a long rider stay centred.
Builds and pricing
Every Rise uses Shimano drivetrains and brakes, and the top M-LTD RS runs XTR Di2 powered from the main battery. BIKE magazine lists euro pricing with the 420Wh battery; the 630Wh pack adds €200.
| Build | Rise SL | Rise LT |
|---|---|---|
| M30 | €5,699 | €5,999 |
| M20 | €6,599 | €6,999 |
| M10 RS | €7,999 | €8,499 |
| M-LTD RS | €10,999 | €10,999 |
UK pricing starts at £4,999 for the SL M30 and £5,299 for the LT M30, with retailer Wheelbase expecting deliveries from late November. Blister lists US prices from $6,284 for the SL M30 to $12,347 for the LT M-LTD RS with the 630Wh battery. For context, the outgoing SL M10 sold for $8,699 in the US.
The €300 step between SL and LT at entry level buys 20mm more fork, 10mm more rear travel, a flip chip, mullet and coil compatibility, and a 0.5° slacker head angle. For most riders who already ride a 150mm trail bike, that is the better value. The SL makes sense if your trails are tight, your climbs are long and you genuinely prefer a lower, more forward position. Both share the same 443mm back end and the same stack problem at XL, so the size decision matters more than the model decision.