Writing about e-bikes isn’t as much fun as riding one, but it’s still fun, so I’m always happy to seize the opportunity. Especially since it usually involves riding an e-bike—such as Gazelle’s thoroughly enjoyable new Eclipse T11+, the best all-around one I’ve spent time with.
Before I tell you more about it, here are some Fast Company tech stories you may not have read yet:
- It’s time to be generous with AI
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- 2024 MacBook Air review: Dawn of the AI laptop
- The Kate Middleton scandal shows the worst of a generative-AI-filled social media world
In April 2020, when I splurged on an e-bike, I justified it as an investment in my mental and physical well-being during pandemic times. For a while, it also made me feel like a celebrity. Everywhere I went, passers-by realized my Gazelle CityZen T9 was an e-bike and wanted to know more about it. Sometimes, they shouted questions at me from the sidewalk as I cruised by.
That was then. More than 8,000 miles later, I still hop on my CityZen every chance I get, but nobody notices or cares: E-bikes, whose U.S. sales exceeded 1 million units for the first time in 2022, are everywhere, at least here in the Bay Area. People have figured out that they’re often the best way to get from one place to another—good for body and soul, kind to the planet, and free of many of the headaches inherent to car travel.
The basic idea is straightforward enough. As you ride an e-bike, a small battery-powered motor boosts the power of your pedaling. That helps you go faster and farther and—maybe most importantly—makes even the steepest hills conquerable. Beyond that, manufacturers have plenty of ability to tailor their models for particular purposes. You can buy an e-bike that folds, is designed to lug cargo and/or kids, or thinks it’s a moped.
Gazelle, an institution in the bike-crazy Netherlands since 1892, focuses on building e-bikes that feel pretty much like bikes—uncommonly comfy ones catering to folks who don’t consider themselves hard-core cyclists. Gazelles offer an upright seating position, usually come with “low-step” frames that don’t require gymnastics to mount, and use front suspension to smooth out bumps in the road. Their electronics are from Bosch, whose motors are among the best at seamlessly integrating themselves into the riding experience: More than anything else, it’s as if you’ve suddenly developed bionic legs.
At $5,499, Gazelle’s new Eclipse T11+ costs more than twice what I paid for my CityZen T9, itself one of the larger discretionary purchases I’ve made. But it’s an upgrade in almost every possible way, from its more efficient and powerful motor (offering assistance at speeds up to 28 mph) to wider tires that make for a more stable ride. Even the pedals and fenders are of noticeably higher quality. Did I mention that it just looks way more deluxe, with a sleeker frame and matte paint job befitting its price point? (An even posher version, the $5,999 Eclipse C380+, swaps out the chain for a low-maintenance carbon belt and has a continuously variable transmission that doesn’t make you carefully click into a specific gear.)
One of the best things about the Eclipse is its battery. Embedded in the frame, it packs 750 watt-hours of power, a 50% increase over the respectably capacious one in my own Gazelle. The increased range on a charge makes long, adventuresome rides all the more tempting, though how far you can go is impacted by everything from your own weight and that of your cargo to the hilliness of the terrain involved to the headwinds you encounter. When I completed my favorite 40-mile loop on the Eclipse T11+—from my home south of San Francisco past San Francisco’s Ocean Beach, across the Golden Gate Bridge, and into the laid-back Marin County town of Mill Valley for lunch—the battery gauge was still nowhere near zero. On my own Gazelle, the same trip can leave it dangerously close to depleted.
Compared to my Gazelle, the Eclipse is also a decidedly more high-tech piece of equipment. It comes with a newer, smarter version of Bosch’s Performance Line Speed motor and the fancy Kiox 300 color display, and has a companion smartphone app. Instead of manually switching between various levels of battery assistance on your own, you can choose to have the e-bike manage them as you ride. There’s an alarm system and map-based navigation, options for tweaking the screens and assistance modes to your liking, and GPS tracking that might be a lifesaver if your e-bike is ever stolen.
As useful as all this stuff is, the Kiox screen is the one aspect of the Eclipse I didn’t love. I never quite bonded with its feature-rich-to-a-fault interface, whose buttons I kept forgetting how to use. Ultimately, I wasn’t traumatized by returning to my own Gazelle e-bike’s minimalist, monochrome display, which looks like a relic from the 1980s but gets the job done without commandeering too much of my attention. Even without the Eclipse’s gadgetry, apps for my Apple Watch, such as Strava and Apple Maps, let me add a dash of tech to my trips. I even stuck a $29 Apple AirTag in my CityZen’s battery compartment to help me keep tabs on its whereabouts, just in case.
Now, I’m guessing that some of you stopped reading this newsletter back when I quoted the Eclipse T11+’s $5,499 sticker price. That’s perfectly understandable: Most people will never plunk down that much for a bicycle, no matter how nice it is. But if you’re the least bit intrigued by e-biking, I urge you to seek out models you can afford. Less tricked-out Gazelles start at $1,999, and there are plenty of reasonable choices from other manufacturers for around $1,500. I can’t think of many purchases I’ve made that have improved my life more—and my only twinge of remorse is over the fact that I wasn’t smart enough to buy one earlier.
You’ve been reading Plugged In, Fast Company’s weekly tech newsletter from me, global technology editor Harry McCracken. If a friend or colleague forwarded this edition to you—or you’re reading it on FastCompany.com—you can check out previous issues and sign up to get it yourself every Wednesday morning. I love hearing from you: Ping me at hmccracken@fastcompany.com with your feedback and ideas for future newsletters.
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