If you are looking When buying bikes online (or anything, really, whether it’s headphones or monitors), you have to consider price versus profitability. Gazelle has announced its new electric bike, the Eclipse, as a comfortable long-range cruiser. It’s basically the expensive Dutch version of Radster Road’s direct-to-consumer (DTC) Rad Power Bikes (8/10, WIRED recommends).
I thought about that price difference while I was traveling, until I realized that it really was much more comfortable and for a really silly reason. The handlebars on the Eclipse are much narrower than the Radster, as well as other DTC bikes I’ve tested. Most bicycles have smaller parts for smaller frames, but if you are a smaller or newer bicycle company, you may standardize your handlebar sizes due to restricted supply or economies of scale. That’s not something you would do if you were Royal Dutch Gazelle, which has been around for more than 130 years and has the royal order in the Netherlands as a distinction of high quality.
You can change the handlebars quite easily on acoustic bikes, but doing so on an electric bike is a more complicated matter. Finding a narrower handlebar was an unexpected convenience. It’s just… a really nice bike. Even the paint job is better than other bikes I have, with four coats applied by hand and dimensional shading to make it look thinner. If you’re not trying to save money, there are a lot of really good things about the Eclipse.
so much information
There are two different models of Eclipse. Both have an aluminum frame, but the T11+ HMB has a Shimano Deore May I never drop a chain when crossing a busy street again!
Both come in a walk-through and walk-through version with three different frame sizes, the smallest being 46 centimeters. I am 5’2″ and was very excited to find a Dutch bike that comes in such a small size, as the Dutch are tall people and this is unusual. Of course, all bikes are UL certified, which means the bike has It has been certified to meet Underwriters Laboratories safety standards and won’t inadvertently set your garage on fire.
Photography: Adrienne So
Probably the first thing you’ll notice is the new Bosch system. It has a Bosch Performance Line motor with 85 nm of torque and a huge 750 Wh battery integrated into the down tube. After about 45 miles of uphill biking and hauling gear, I only got the battery down to 45 percent. It is a class 3 electric bike with a top speed of 28 miles per hour.