Megamo Reach HT 10 Equipped review

Although ‘SUV’ style e-bikes have been around for a while, there still isn’t an overwhelming choice of models, though it appears to be growing incrementally. With the Megamo brand now landed on UK shores, an attractive option to fill out our SUV reviews came to fruition in the form of the Reach HT 10.

Back in 2023, I wrote a piece for Cycling Electric’s print magazine detailing the ten best SUV-style e-bikes and truth be told, the shortlist of SUV style bikes that didn’t make it onto the list is pretty small.

What’s an SUV? If you Google the term you’ll probably see vague definitions of cars called Sports Utility Vehicles that blend on-road and off-road features, though in reality the many SUV cars available today are simply large boxy affairs that will probably never leave the tarmac. My 2023 article outlined several criteria for what I thought would be a perfect SUV e-bike – I think it comes down to the fact that really these are just e-bikes that try to do just about everything.

My previous list of SUV e-bike criteria included most obviously a blend of on and off-road features (i.e. some suspension, mudguards and off-road tyres), carrying capacity, connectivity and a choice of frame designs, especially the option of a step-thru model, as that really starts to open up the genre to more riders. I’d also add in powerful hard-wired lighting and a powerful motor (nine of the ten models I chose back in 2023 had punchy mid-drive motors).

Megamo are a Spanish brand who have made headlines recently as one of the first brands to use the super-powerful Avinox motor system from drone manufacturer DJI. The SUV style Reach HT 10 Equipped I’m taking a look at here is their take on an SUV. It caught my eye as it uses Bosch’s top-of-the-line Performance Line CX mid-drive in it’s latest software update guise, with peak power and torque uprated to an impressive sounding 750 watts and 100 Newton metres of torque respectively.

It looked like an awesome ride and a capable everyday e-bike combined. Let’s see if the Megamo Reach HT 10 lived up to expectations in this review…

Megamo Reach HT 10 review: The headline details

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Pros
Super powerful, smooth hill-climbing ability
Good grip, even in the wet
Connectivity and power tuning works well
Effective hardwired lighting system
Shimano Cues gearing appears to handle the strong mid-drive power well

Cons
No dropper post
Plastic mudguards feel a bit cheap given the price tag
You need to subscribe to get extra Bosch Smart System services

Features
Latest and most powerful Bosch Performance Line CX mid-drive variant
Neat Purion 200 display
Wide ratio 1×10 gear range
Nice riding Maxxis Recon Race knobbly tyres

Specifications
Motor: Bosch Performance Line CX
Battery: Bosch PowerTube 600, removable for charging
Range: Estimated 30-40 miles in moderately hilly conditions
Weight: 25.2kg
Brakes: Shimano MT200 Hydraulic Disc, 180mm
Saddle: Selle Royal SRX Open
Tyres: MAXXIS 29 x 2.25 Rekon Race
Suspension: Suntour XCR 34 air, front fork, 100mm Travel
Frame material: Aluminium
Gearing: Shimano CUES 1×10 speed derailleur, 11-48T

Megamo Reach review: An SUV, or just equipped?

SUV isn’t my favourite moniker for this style of bike – it’s a mean green machine after all and the opposite of a huge inefficient car – but the name seems to have stuck so I’m sticking with it as useful shorthand. In reality I really love the idea behind it – a do it all e-bike – and once I laid eyes on the Reach HT10 Equipped I was raring to get on it and give it a go.

As you would expect of a £4k e-bike it looks extremely well made with the only jarring note for me being the plastic mudguards in an e-bike world where alloy ones feature on plenty of e-bikes half the price or less.

That quibble aside, there were plenty of features that looked to blend the power of that Bosch mid-drive motor with some comfort and everyday practicality. The Suntour XCR 34 is a metal sprung coil rather than the air version but is certainly one of the higher quality coil versions and the 100mm of travel it offers should be fine for the intended use. Light placement was practical and visible and whilst the SKS GT4 PLUS rear pannier rack is rated at a mere 12kg it looks solid enough and I would wager it will handle much more load than this quite comfortably.

And if it’s extra accessible ease of use you are after but still like the look of all the other features of the bike, note that Megamo also produce a step-thru version called the Reach Low in several variants.

I felt the only real omission on first inspection was a dropper post. I love these as comfort and ease of use features as much as for a downhill performance. Megamo certainly aren’t alone in this omission, indeed I feel most e-bikes could benefit from droppers.

The Bosch mid-drive in particular looks to be a standout feature – not just for the aforementioned 750W peak power and 100Nm torque but for the fact that, as a so-called Gen 5 version, it’s had some new design elements added to help evolve what is probably their most popular high-performance motor to its next stage of development.

A magnesium housing means the motor unit has lost about 100g in weight (it now weighs 2.8kg) whilst. The sensor tech has been upgraded, most notably with the introduction of new inertial sensors that apparently measure acceleration and rotation rates in six directions to help recognise incline and tilt angles (i.e. to automatically recognise hills and help boost power). A new ‘hill start assist’ is said to be more useful than the old ‘walk assist’ feature. Finally – and probably of more interest to manufacturers than riders – is the fact that the mounting points of the Gen 5 CX are compatible with the mounting points of the SX.

The Reach gets a Purion 200 combined display and push-button unit which I felt suited this bike well – the pricier more feature-rich Kiox displays seem better suited to fitness style bikes like Megamo’s e-gravel offering, the Lande.

Enough of the tech-speak though, time to see what the riding was actually like.

A ferocious climber

The UK weather was ready and waiting to give the Reach a true test with days of freezing fog interspersed with lashings of rain and the odd bright crisp day. The Reach’s grip underwheel coped with it all and the control afforded by the mid drive power helped the bike stay upright and pretty easy to handle in some pretty demanding conditions, even though it’s not an out and out hardcore mountain bike.

Before we get to the nub of how the mid-drive actually performed with that significant extra power on tap, it’s important to note what (for want of a better term) ‘power tuning’ plays in getting the optimum out of your motor for your particular riding conditions. It does make a world of difference.

In Bosch’s e-Bike Flow you can power tune the performance of each of the four power levels (Eco+, Tour, eMTB and Turbo). All four are set to a default middling position in one of four performance settings (Assistance, dynamic, max torque and max power). Torque and power are well-established and distinctly different scientific measures, but I was a bit suspicious of the need for Assistance and Dynamic settings as they are decidedly non-scientific.

Overall – despite my feeling the dashboard for these settings was more complicated than it needed to be – I found it a very useful feature despite my preference for making life as simple as possible. And in practice I guess people will decide they want more or less ‘performance’ and will turn all the settings up or down. If you want the low down on the setting in detail here’s the official version.

Initially, I boosted the Eco+ as it felt peculiarly unresponsive when starting off, but increasing the Dynamic and Torque settings made it feel more like the Bosch responsiveness I was used to. I left the middling power levels as they were, as they felt about right. Note the e-MTB mode is semi-automated and I felt this works well; in essence, you will be doing more of the work, relative to motor input, over less demanding terrain, whilst the motor progressively kicks in with more power over more demanding terrain.

I had to turn up all the settings in Turbo mode just to see what it felt like. Who wouldn’t? Hill climbing was simply amazing when tuned up – is it too much? It scorched up my usual ultra-steep hill test in record time and will let you tackle just about any gradient on any terrain as long as you have the skills to control the bike.

I suspect it’s overkill for the vast majority of riders in most situations and I’d echo Mark’s words when testing the Megamo Reason with its even more powerful Avinox system – a fully tuned up Turbo mode Gen 5 Bosch motor ‘makes such a mockery of steep hills.’ That’s especially the case when you have a super low bottom gear, as you do on the Reach. On a bike like the Reach – equipped for load hauling and touring too – the extra power could come in handy just for shifting stuff over hilly terrain.

There are potential issues of course when you get to such high performance levels. If you’ve ramped up the Dynamic and/or Torque settings in the app, resting your foot on the pedal whilst stood still, as most riders do at traffic lights for example, feels to be unkindly stressing the motor. Extreme power can lead to excessive chain and derailleur wear or even breakage.

The Shimano Cues derailleur system was designed partly to stand up to the big forces generated by such mid-drives and the 10-speed system on the Reach performed very accurately and smoothly overall, with only the occasional complaining noise when shifting through several gears under load up a very steep hill. Still, only much more time than I had with the test bike would tell how good it is at standing up to the repeated stresses of such a powerful system.

Range is the other element that could be affected by all that power – the more you max out the assist the more it will eat into your range (though note the double set of bottle mounts suggest you could add two 250Wh Bosch MorePower range extender batteries if you wanted, though do confirm this with a dealer if you are going to purchase them). Alternatively, you could turn the power settings down to achieve significantly more range. As a very rough guide, I felt I could achieve 30 to 40 miles in fairly tough winter conditions over hilly Pennine terrain and I weigh about 10.5 stone.

So what kind of rider would Megamo’s Reach HT 10 Equipped suit? Perhaps a very demanding everyday rider with adventurous tendencies would be the best way to summarise this hypothetical person.

Full equipment, including powerful and effective hardwired lights, allows for commuting, leisure riding and touring in all conditions, whilst that amazing mid-drive power means you can have tons of off-road fun on the bike too, though factors like the relatively shallow tread of the tyres and more seriously the lack of full suspension will be limiting factors here.

Interested in buying a Megamo Reach, having read this review? The distributor Alsobikes has built up a UK dealer network, so whilst ordered bikes are generally built up and shipped out from Spain (to UK spec) on request, there should be some samples in shops and local backup to hand if you decide to buy.

Bosch software: A question of value

With Bosch’s eBikeFlow app having evermore features added it seems timely to have a quick update on what digital Smart System features it offers in early 2026. In addition to the aforementioned ‘power tuning’ there are both security and map / navigation features. Most usefully from my point of view as a bike tester you can link the app to several different Smart System e-bikes.

A quick glance at what the included and paid features are suggest the following:

Free: eBike Lock (motor support is only enabled when smartphone nearby), power tuning as described, activity tracking (distance, duration, speed etc), over-the-air updates, maintenance history, Apple Health Integration, Component Configuration (customize layouts for Kiox and Purion 200 displays).

Subscription Features (Flow+ Premium): Remote charge level view, enhanced security (eBike Alarm requires a ConnectModule (hardware) installed on the bike, which often comes with a 12-month free trial of Flow+ and offers GPS tracking, motion sensors, and an acoustic alarm if the bike is moved, battery lock (making it useless if stolen), 3D map views on the latest Kiox displays, allow sharing the bike with up to five other people….and more!

Megamo Reach review

Whilst a lot of this will no doubt be useful for riders much of it probably won’t and there seem to be two issues here.

Firstly the latest Bosch-powered e-bikes are premium priced products and it some will view it as unfair to charge for ‘extra services’ that the system is already capable of and just need unlocking. OK, much of it might be viewed as information overload or even data pollution and you may not want it, but surely the answer to that is simply to give you a simple checklist on the display to let you turn the features you want on or off at will.

There is also the issue of Bosch potentially being able to control whether replacement components will work or not. Of course, repair at a certified workshop shouldn’t be an issue but this electronic locking seems to clash with the latest EU regs on the right to repair. It’s easy to see problems a few years down the line should you want to replace components yourself cheaply – perhaps with second-hand or third party items (not necessarily the controversial battery replacement but potentially any type of electronic hardware).

But getting back to the bike in question, I really enjoyed my time with the Megamo Reach and it deserves to find a demanding but widespread audience looking to access Bosch’s latest e-bike tech.

How about the competition?

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