Tern Orox S12 27.5 Cargo Bike

Tern Bicycles Orox

You may not have heard the name Tern before but that's not unexpected for a mountain biker. Until recently they didn't even made bikes that go off road. Born out of a family dispute around 2010, Tern had a few years of innovating to do before they could release a bike worthy of review. Tern primarily focused on 20 inch-wheeled folding city bikes much like Dahon. These bikes could fit in impossibly small places like Bramptons, but without the price tag of their British counterparts. There are still plenty of 20" bikes in the Tern catalogue that work really well as family movers in big cities.

The Orox I will be reviewing for the next few months is cut from a different cloth.

Tern Orox S12 27.5

The Tern Orox comes in a couple of flavours. The heart of the beast is an overbuilt, cross-braced aluminum chassis that can handle a total load capacity of 210kg/462lb. That is a crazy number for a 2-wheeled machine you can also take to the trails.

The Orox comes in four flavours. While the North American market is served with 27.5"x4" tires, the European and rest of the world also have a 29"x2.6" option.

The drivetrain comes in two flavours: S12 with a Shimano Deore XT mix and R14 with a Rohloff Speedhub and a Gates belt drive. Both bikes are also available in Medium and Large. At 175mm (5'9") I opted for the Medium S12 Orox with some pretty interesting accessories.

If you have been shopping for a cargo or city bike to ditch the car and live a traffic-free life, you know there are plenty of options on the market. I personally prefer the rear cargo bikes rather than the bucket style front loaders. Riding those requires a little more finesse and they are better suited to European streets and bike infrastructure. Around these parts, where there are more primitive ways of getting around in the city, the rear loader bikes are far more agile and manageable when loaded with kids, groceries, bikes and such.

When you have such a large vehicle to pedal around, a motor is needed to help move the 83-lb vehicle mass. Assist duties are taken care of by the Bosch Gen 5 CX motor with 85Nm output. To feed the hungry motor, the Tern Orox comes with 725and 800Wh batteries in the S12 and R14 models, respectively. There is also a plug-and-play mount for a second battery to instantly double your range. With a single 725Wh battery in the electron-sipping ECO mode, the Orox will do 130km of flatland pedaling - doubled with a second battery. The primary battery mounting location in the front triangle is sheltered by an armoured hardshell cover with plenty of room to store other things. Jackets, snacks, tools, anything you want out of the elements. The secondary battery goes on behind the seat tube and can also be used as the primary battery location. If you would like to use the frame bag for bulker items, this could be a good option.

The watts are put into the rear wheel with a 12-speed Shimano Drivetrain. An XT derailleur matched to a Deore cassette, chain and shifter works well. The Deore cassette's all-steel construction is solid and the whole system shifts remarkably quickly and accurately considering there is an idler pulley in the middle of the 2-chain length system. The wide hubs are laced to Tern Atlas X70 rims with 13G stainless steel spokes and the rims are wrapped in 4" wide Vee Rubber Snow Ball, studdable tires.

To be honest, I haven't done much pedaling on tires this wide before the Orox's arrival. The extremely wide footprint and rolling mass of the Vee Snow Balls required a learning curve. Leaning a heavy, long bike with 4" tires over is a tough task, especially at speed! The faster the Orox goes, the more stable it becomes. It stands itself up and on tighter corners, you really have to lean the beast in to hug inside lines. I do understand the functional reasons why the bike comes with such wide tires. The claimed payload and the surfaces you might end up on require such a footprint. With 15psi, the 4" tires roll nicely on pavement and if I am primarily offroad, 10psi is plenty for suspension-like comfort on the Vee Snow Balls.

Stopping this train with heavy duty wheels is also no easy task. Tern equipped the Orox with powerful Magura MT-5 brakes and 203mm rotors for peace of mind. Bombing down the Seymour Parkway at 60-65km/h, If I get caught off guard by a stale green light turning red, the Maguras have no problem slowing the bike down in a hurry. No complaints there.

The lighting system on the Orox is also powerful enough with a 800-lumen output and a power switch on the left side, along with high/low beam on the right side under the rider's thumb. Great placements that make high-beam flashing shitty drivers a regular activity. I enjoy this functionality a lot more than I thought I would. The tail light is supposed to be a brake activated one. I have not been able to make it work even after checking the wiring all the way to the motor. I may need a person riding behind me at speed to tell me if it is working or not.

The Orox is also fully clad with fenders wrapping the massive tires. The amount of water they spray is impressive in a downpour, but luckily the front fender and the rubber mudflap is almost to the ground making wet rides a clean affair. The hardware to attach the fenders was missing in my delivery but I found some rotor bolts to make then work and they have been trouble-free since.

Accesorizing cargo bikes is an involved activity. With so much to bolt on and many configurations possible, the buyer has to think what is the best use case scenario for the cargo portion of their bikes. I opted for the dual 75L panniers and foot platforms. Since I won't be carrying small humans on the back of this bike (I have since carried full grown adults and used the Tern as a camera dolly for a video shoot) I chose the configuration that would give me plenty of weatherproof storage. 75L panniers are absolutely cavernous and can swallow a small human whole. They are also great for groceries, parts, tools, wheels and really anything you dare to carry on a bike. You need to bring 40kg of soil home? No problem. You rode by a yard sale and find some ski boots that fit you? Not an issue. Do you want to pack the panniers with chainsaws and a whole variety of trail tools? Go right ahead.

Another accessory that caught my eye was the trailer hitch and the bike tow accessory. Now things are getting interesting. With the trailer hitch you can attach any after market trailer to pull behind the Orox. With the Bike Tow kit, you can bolt an adjustable fork mount to the back of the Tern to tow your child's bike or your mountain bike to the trails! Hell yeah, I can get excited about that. Since the limousine-like Orox was not already long enough, I now have a way to attach my Orbea to the back of it and tow it to Pete's neck of the woods on the Sunshine Coast. Riding with such a tail requires planning and sharp turns are to be avoided but the powerful and stable Orox does not mind the added 36-ish pounds trailing behind.

Part 2?

The Tern Orox S12 is one of the more interesting bikes to arrive at my door. It is weird, wild and bigger than anything I have ever ridden. It has a ton of potential to be a car replacement for many folks living in the boonies getting around. Or city folk who want a bike version of a mall crawler to pedal around. This thing has potential. I would like to explore camping opportunities and trail building days to see how far I can take it with a bike or tools on the back. I sure hope nothing goes wrong because the 4" wide tired 83-lb Orox will only fit on the back of a flatbed.

Stay tuned for part 2 where I see if I can get this thing aboard BC Ferries with a mountain bike on the back!

Tern Orox S12 is 9,700 CAD / 6,499 USD