Yamaha Cross Core, and yes, I would recommend if it suits your purpose and budget.
I began researching ebikes for my stepdaughter. I had no intention of buying one. Then we went out test riding, and my wife was immediately hooked, and I was at least infatuated. My wife decided that it would be a class 1, so we narrowed it down from there. The Yamaha Cross Core seemed to have exactly what she was looking for, (3 year warranty, being a long established company, good range, plenty of power, not too heavy, not out of the budget and it handles like a decent hybrid should).
A couple weeks later and after trying to ride together with me on my road bike and her on the ebike, I realized that the two were not compatible. She would pass me on any steep hill and I would blow by on then decent or the flats. Basically, we could do the same ride, but not really together, so kicking and screaming, I bought one too.
After a few months on the Yamaha, I have not seen anything that would have been a better choice for us, for the money. I did make a lot of changes to the stock bike, but even with the upgrades, they still come in at a lower price than most of the established companies mid drives and they are set up as we want them.
Both of our Cross Cores are used as flat bar, gravel ebikes. Both have been upgraded with Shimano 1x11 SLX drivetrains, (46t up front with a 11-42 cassette), Maxxis 40mm Receptor gravel tires, Cane Creek suspension seat posts, Red Shift suspension stems and Salsa Deluxe Bend handlebars. Basically the Cross Core was a very good platform from which to build the bikes that we wanted, (the bikes that we ended up with are not really available turnkey from anyone).
I did manage to damage a wheel during transport and Yamaha didn’t have any available, so my Cross Core has a set of DT Swiss CR1600 wheels. The originals were decent and I would not have replaced them, but these are definitely an upgrade, (the only issue was the proprietary speed sensor which was not a big deal. I just had to turn a groove on the left flange. Fortunately, I have a good lathe). Not too fancy, but it does the job very well and we enjoy them very much.
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