Gazelle Eclipse review: A luxury Dutch e-bike

If you are looking When buying a bike online—or anything, really, whether it’s a headset or a monitor—you have to weigh price and affordability. Gazelle has been promoting its latest ebike, the Eclipse, as a long-range comfort cruiser. It’s essentially the pricey Dutch version of the Radster Road by Rad Power Bikes sold directly to consumers (DTC) (8/10, WIRED recommended).

I mulled over that price difference while driving, until I realized that I actually used to be Much more comfortable and for a really dumb reason. The handlebars on the Eclipse are much narrower than those on the Radster as well as other DTC bikes I tested. Most bikes come with smaller parts for a smaller frame, but if you’re a smaller or newer bike company, you may want to standardize your handlebar sizes due to limited supply or calculation. economies of scale. That’s not what you would do if you were the Royal Dutch Gazelle, which has been around for more than 130 years and holds the top spot. royal command in the Netherlands as a high quality distinction.

You can swap handlebars quite easily on an acoustic bike, but do so an electric bicycle is a more complicated problem. Finding a narrower handlebar was an unexpected comfort. It’s just… a really nice bike. Even the paint job is better than other bikes I have, with four coats of paint applied by hand and dimensional shading to make it look thinner. If you don’t want to pinch pennies, there are a lot of really cool things about Eclipse.

Very informative

There are two different Eclipse models. Both have aluminum frames, but the T11+ HMB has Shimano Deore XT gears, while the version I tested was the C380+ version, which has an Enviolo CVT hub and a low-maintenance Gates belt drive. May I never lose my chain while crossing a busy street again!

Both come in step-by-step and step-by-step versions with three different frame sizes, the smallest of which is 46 cm. I’m 5’2″ and was delighted to find a Dutch bike in this small size because the Dutch are tall people and this is unusual. Of course, all the bikes are UL certified, which means the bike has been certified to comply with Underwriters Laboratories safety standards and won’t accidentally burn down your garage.

Photo: Adrienne So

Perhaps the first thing you will notice is the new system from Bosch. It has a Bosch Performance Line motor with 85 nm of torque and a huge 750-Wh battery integrated into the exhaust. After about 45 miles of riding up hills and towing equipment, the battery was down to 45%. It is a electric bicycle class 3 with a top speed of 28 miles per hour.