Gazelle T10 Medeo

First off, I really kind of dig Gazelle as a company. They’re a Norwegian company that’s been around since 1892 or so, and make both normal bicycles as well as e-bikes. I believe they still make their own frames, and while they don’t make e-MTBs, they make a line of very usable bikes, for normal people.  Their bikes all have racks standard, with various accessories available, have mostly decent parts on their bikes (Shimano Deore, Schwalbe tires, ..), and look nice.  They run Bosch motors, which have some of their own limitations (lack of programmability, not always the highest power of the EU-types of bikes, expensive battery replacements) but also positives that go along with it.

Their prices are also somewhat reasonable, ‘reasonable’ being relative to other big-name manufacturers, ranging from < $2K to just over $4K, and they offer belt drives on some models.

The paint quality is good, and the bike just looks - nice.  My wife loves it hundreds of miles later, and unlike my used Eunorau - it just keeps going.  

The range is pretty impressive, considering it ‘only’ has a 500Wh(watt-hour) battery; when I completely drained my ~650Wh battery on the FAT-HS, she was still happily chugging along at > 50% battery power.

The ~2.2” Schwalbe Big Apple tires wouldn’t be my personal choice of tires (I lean more e-MTB) but they’re wide enough to at least competently do hard-packed trails and a bit of gravel, which she’s done, so really - a pretty good selection considering the bike’s primary purpose - an all around commuter and fun bike.  

The bike is very nice overall.  While I personally wish it had the 28mph speed limit of the top-of-the-line Gazelles versus the 20mph assist limit (class 1), for most of our rides, it’s not a real problem - on trail rides, we’re under 20mph most of the ride, and on the road, we’ll ride side by side on country empty roads, or I’ll slow down now and then if need be so she can catch up.  

She rides mostly on ECO mode, occasionally unassisted for grins, and the battery life is very good at these levels vs my Bafang-powered bikes.  Unlike most ebike range claims, I’m inclined to believe Gazelle saying 70 miles - it might actually be attainable from what we’ve seen so far.  Our usual rides are between 10-20 miles, usually 15-16 just dependent on the various routes we’ve planned out and saved.  

With several hundred miles at this point, other than usual maintenance (clean/lube) the bike has just worked consistently and well, so - fingers crossed.

Not much at this point, really.  The bike has a 10 speed Deore derailleur with clutch, Deore brakes, and is overall solid.  I’m considering switching my ebike to 10S just for some parts commonality (chains, master links in the pack, etc.).  

The front suspension travel is marginal for any trail riding other than double-track, although we did do a few sections of single-track wth the bike, but that’s unreasonable versus what the bike was made for, and the bike has been great on double-track trails and roads alike so far.