Walk assist on Gazelle NL not available?

[catzilla]

I bought my Gazelle NL a couple of weeks ago and one of the feature I liked is the walk assist. Being a heavy duty compact utility bike, I thought the walk assist is a standard feature on the NL. My dealer contacted Gazelle and their answer is that walk assist does not come with the NL in Jeans-blue only on the hunter green version. The NL is the heaviest bike in Gazelle's line-up, why would this be?

Doesn't the NL also come with an Intuvia display? One bike in the shop is outfitted with a Purion.

Can someone enlighten me, please?

 

[EdM]

Which color did you get and what display did it come with?

My wife and I just got Gazelle NL‘s delivered this evening. I got the Hunter Green and my wife got the Jeans Blue. I had to order them without seeing them since our local Gazelle bike shops did not have any in stock. I ordered the bikes believing the specs on Gazelle’s website for the NL C8 HMB.

I assumed that both bikes would have Intuvia displays and both would have Walk Assist mode.

Well, my Hunter Green bike came with a Purion display. I would not have ordered the bike had I known that it did not have the Intuvia display as specified on Gazelle‘s website. I really want to be able to power my phone from the display, plus the Intuvia is a much better display IMO. The manuals that came with both bikes only describe the Intuvia display; nowhere is the Purion display even mentioned. So, I don’t know why my bike came with the cheaper Purion display.

The owner of our LBS who delivered the bikes said that he would contact Gazelle on Tuesday (since its the Memorial Day weekend) and ask Gazelle to see about getting an Intuvia display for my bike. He said that he could install Intuvia display to replace the Purion display. I also asked him to find out about the SmartphoneHub as a replacement option.

Funny thing is, I have been trying to figure out how to activate Walk Assist on my wife’s bike for the last couple of hours. I have been searching the internet to see if I was doing something wrong or if there was some setting that needed to be changed. This is how I found your post.

I have followed the instructions that I found on how to activate Walk Assist on the Intuvia display which is on my wife Jeans Blue bike and it does not activate.

We bought our bikes expecting to have Walk Assist on both of our bikes. As you state, the bikes are heavy. Walk Assist is really important/necessary for some of us.

I am able to activate Walk Assist on my Hunter Green bike with the inferior Purion display.

Both bikes supposedly have the same Performance Line motors, so you would think that they both would have Walk Assist.

Gazelle is misleading customers with incorrect information in their advertising. They do not state that certain colors come with different displays or features. Gazelle specs for the NL C8 HMB model state the that it comes with an Intuvia display.

I am pretty upset. Let’s how Gazelle responds to the problems with our bikes.

 

[catzilla]

Hello @EdM

I have the Jeans Blue bike like your wife.

I dropped by my LBS yesterday and my Seller contacted Gazelle Bikes. The answer provided was the walk assist only comes on the hunter green version of the C8 HMB NL and is disabled on the rest of colours. The other strange thing is that the hunter green is equipped with a Bosch Purion Display instead of the Intuvia like you said. His and other people’s suggestions is for us to write to Gazelle Bikes referencing our frame numbers (should have been issued to you and may be found on your receipt) and ask for an explanation. Then we can compare our answers here. What do you think?

I have however decided to keep the Jeans Blue Gazelle NL anda not exchange it for the hunter green one with walk assist. I can live without the walk assist for now and really like the features of the Intuvia over the minimalistic Purion. And who knows after we contact them we may come to some sort of agreement where they will issue us both special firmware updates that will unlock the walk assist features on your wife’s and my bike. It is already integrated with the Bosch Performance Line Motors after all.

As for your display, the answer to that change is also of interest to me.

Let us see their response! Cheers!

 

[EdM]

Hi @catzilla

In addition to the specs listed on Gazelle’s website, I based my purchasing decision on the information contained in EBR’s review of the NL: Gazelle NL C8 HMB Review. At the 13:50 time mark in the video review, the Gazelle rep explains the Walk Assist function on a NL C8 HMB bike that is not Hunter Green in color. I don’t know the reasoning behind Gazelle’s decision to remove this very helpful feature, especially since it is still on one of the bikes I just received.

Hopefully Gazelle will come through on Tuesday with acceptable solutions to both the Purion display and Walk Assist issues.

 

[catzilla]

Hi @EdM!

I have watched that video again, too. And that is what I will be mentioning in my conversation with Gazelle on Tuesday. Let’s hope for a favourable answer. Will keep you posted.

 

[catzilla]

Hello @EdM,

I am dropping off my bike at my LBS at noon today. Gazelle says that my bike comes with walk-assist. A Gazelle representative will go into the software with their OEM Bosch tool to update the firmware. I am hoping for a favourable outcome. Will keep you posted.

 

[EdM]

Hi @catzilla,

We are being offered the same solution for the missing Walk Assitant mode. Looking forward to hearing how the firmware upgrade on your bike went.

We are looking at upgrading my bike that was delivered with a Purion display to a Smartphonehub display. I was told that the Smartphonehubs are on back order, so I will need to wait a bit to get the Purion replaced with something better.

I am happy to see that Gazelle is standing behind their bikes.

 

[catzilla]

Hello @EdM!
Alas! The walk-assist mode is not to be! The Gazelle rep spent time with the team at by LBS to update firmware and troubleshoot. Unfortunately, the root cause may be with the Bosch Performance Line motor itself not allowing the walk-assist to function. I am a bit bummed but have no real need for the walk-assist. It would have been a handy feature to have on occasion, specially when the model was advertised to come with it. Another option from my LBS I have, is to swap my motor out or possibly take this matter up with Bosch as my bike may be equipped with an older motor (pre-walk-assist).

I have been riding the bike since the attempted "repair" and am enjoying it so much, that I am forgetting about the walk assist.

I hope Gazelle's fix will be successful for you and your wife - and I'd still be curious as to how things work out for the both of you!

 

[Explorer-1]

Hello @EdM!
Alas! The walk-assist mode is not to be! The Gazelle rep spent time with the team at by LBS to update firmware and troubleshoot. Unfortunately, the root cause may be with the Bosch Performance Line motor itself not allowing the walk-assist to function. I am a bit bummed but have no real need for the walk-assist. It would have been a handy feature to have on occasion, specially when the model was advertised to come with it. Another option from my LBS I have, is to swap my motor out or possibly take this matter up with Bosch as my bike may be equipped with an older motor (pre-walk-assist).

I have been riding the bike since the attempted "repair" and am enjoying it so much, that I am forgetting about the walk assist.

I hope Gazelle's fix will be successful for you and your wife - and I'd still be curious as to how things work out for the both of you!

Too bad. I never thought I would need walk assist, but once I had a flat and my bike was loaded, i was not far from home so decided to walk it, even on the relatively flat terrain walk assist was god sent. Since then I've used it on some steep narrow hiking trails, saved my butt just this last weekend. On my RCS it has a Walk mode that is way underpowered and is useless, I really miss the feature now on that bike. Luckily the RCS throttle works when assist mode is off and that has helped a few times.

 

[EdM]

Hello @EdM!
Alas! The walk-assist mode is not to be! The Gazelle rep spent time with the team at by LBS to update firmware and troubleshoot. Unfortunately, the root cause may be with the Bosch Performance Line motor itself not allowing the walk-assist to function. I am a bit bummed but have no real need for the walk-assist. It would have been a handy feature to have on occasion, specially when the model was advertised to come with it. Another option from my LBS I have, is to swap my motor out or possibly take this matter up with Bosch as my bike may be equipped with an older motor (pre-walk-assist).

I have been riding the bike since the attempted "repair" and am enjoying it so much, that I am forgetting about the walk assist.

I hope Gazelle's fix will be successful for you and your wife - and I'd still be curious as to how things work out for the both of you!

Hi @catzilla,

Thanks for the update!

It’s unfortunate that your bike could not be enabled to have the Walk Assist mode as was advertised. Glad that you are enjoying your NL nonetheles.

We finally got to ride our bikes this weekend. We went on a long ride and really enjoyed having the pedal assistance. I wish that there was a higher gear above gear 8. I found that even with no pedal assistance, I found that I had to pedal faster than I would like. In order words, I found the bike too easy to pedal, even when in the highest gear.

I am waiting for the Smartphonehub that is on backorder to be delivered to our LBS to replace the Purion display on my bike. Once our LBS owner receives the Smartphone hub, he said that he will pick up both of our bikes and try to enable the Walk Assist on my wife’s bike. Since my NL currently has Walk Assist working with the Purion display, I am hoping that I will still have it after the Smartphonehub is installed.

Maybe we will have better luck with the Walk Assist fix. I will let you know what happens.

 

[catzilla]

Too bad. I never thought I would need walk assist, but once I had a flat and my bike was loaded, i was not far from home so decided to walk it, even on the relatively flat terrain walk assist was god sent. Since then I've used it on some steep narrow hiking trails, saved my butt just this last weekend. On my RCS it has a Walk mode that is way underpowered and is useless, I really miss the feature now on that bike. Luckily the RCS throttle works when assist mode is off and that has helped a few times.

@CityExplorer I will mark your words Meanwhile I am enjoying the NL a lot despite its hefty weight. I bought the bike with exercise in mind. My husband is way more athletic than I am, so in order to keep up with him I decided to invest in an e-bike. I no longer get discouraged when I see a hill or a significant distance.

 

[Cycledoc]

Just took possession of T10 Medeo. It has walk assist. Waiting for the rain to stop to take a ride, but walk assist in my garage works fine.

 

[EdM]

Hi @Cycledoc,
Congrats on your new bike. Did your bike come with a Intuvia or Purion display?
We are still waiting resolution on the missing Walk Assist on the NL (Jeans Blue color with Intuvia display).

 

[Cycledoc]

Purion, also jeans blue

 

[EdM]

Thanks for the info @Cycledoc.
It seems like the bikes with Purion display have Walk Assist while those with the Intuvia display do not. Our LBS is supposed to download the Bosh settings from our problematic bike next week. Hopefully, Gazelle or Bosch will be able to tell us why the Walk Assist is disabled.

 

[Cycledoc]

Good luck.

 

[Baygulls5]

Yikes! Just came across this. I am waiting for my NL to be shipped from Eastern Canada in iced blue and am expecting it to come with the Intuvia display and walk assist as described by the bike shop and Gazelle. Looking at the most recent Gazelle manual it states that walk assist is available for both the Intuvia and Purion displays as well as the Performance Line motors. https://www.gazellebikes.com/media/gene-cms/g/a/gaz_bosch_uk_17.1_v01.pdf
So why does it seem like Gazelle has changed these features? Very interested to see what arrives in my bike box.

 

[EdM]

Hi @Baygulls5. Congrats on getting an NL. Please post what display your bike comes with and if it has Walk Assist enabled. Our LBS owner told us he will investigate the missing Walk Assist function further this coming week. Maybe the information you provide will help.

So far we like our NLs. We are just upset about the display (received Purion instead of Intuvia) and Walk Assist (disabled on our bike with the Intuvia display). Hoping that Gazelle rectifies these issues.

 

[catzilla]

Hello @Cycledoc, this weekend I checked out the T10 Medeos in various colours that arrived at my LBS and all have the Purion display and the walk-assist works. Glad to hear your bike works as expected!

What @EdM and I are puzzled about is that we ordered NLs that are supposed to come with the Intuvia displays. Instead, his hunter-green bike arrived with a Purion display with working walk-assist , but his wife's jeans coloured one came with Intuvia and the walk-assist is not functioning. I happen to have the same model and accessories as his wife's and walk assist doesn't work either.

My LBS has done a firmware update for the Intuvia with Gazelle USA Rep. but it didn't work. The rep says it may be possible to change to the Purion display (but I like the big Intuvia) or my Bosch Performance Line motor may be a pre-walk assist model which in case I should contact Bosch.

@Baygulls5, welcome! I see you ordered an NL as well. May I ask what colour and what display it comes with?

I am still debating if I should contact Bosch about this. I am keeping an eye out on the updates of this thread...

 

[Baygulls5]

Hello @Cycledoc, this weekend I checked out the T10 Medeos in various colours that arrived at my LBS and all have the Purion display and the walk-assist works. Glad to hear your bike works as expected!

What @EdM and I are puzzled about is that we ordered NLs that are supposed to come with the Intuvia displays. Instead, his hunter-green bike arrived with a Purion display with working walk-assist , but his wife's jeans coloured one came with Intuvia and the walk-assist is not functioning. I happen to have the same model and accessories as his wife's and walk assist doesn't work either.

My LBS has done a firmware update for the Intuvia with Gazelle USA Rep. but it didn't work. The rep says it may be possible to change to the Purion display (but I like the big Intuvia) or my Bosch Performance Line motor may be a pre-walk assist model which in case I should contact Bosch.

@Baygulls5, welcome! I see you ordered an NL as well. May I ask what colour and what display it comes with?

I am still debating if I should contact Bosch about this. I am keeping an eye out on the updates of this thread...

There is currently a two week delay to get it shipped out but when it comes in I will post an update. I’m wondering if there may be a difference between the US and Canada in terms of accessories.
Stay tuned!