Why buy a Gazelle Orange electric bike?
So you’ve started thinking about possibly buying an E-Bike and joining this sustainable movement towards low cost, green travel? Great, because the bike revolution is here, and it’s electric!
There are so many E-bikes now on the market, it is easy to be overwhelmed (mostly due to the fact they are becoming so popular). To help you decide on the best E-bike for you, we’ve drawn up a list of our favourites.
First, let’s talk you through the advantages of an E-Bike:
- You WILL get up that mound, hill or small mountain
- You get the benefits of cycling, whilst being able to manage tricky terrain
- They are great if you can’t ride a push bike due to an injury
- Make life that much easier when you need to pop into town - no traffic queues, no paying for parking
- Makes carting a child around easier and fun!
- Easy to take on holiday, just pop on a bike rack (or cycle to your destination) and away you go
Here at Bell’s we love the Gazelle E-Bike range precisely because Gazelle is a reputable, trusted, internationally known bike manufacturer. Their bicycles are well designed and packed with features that mean their bikes are a pleasure to ride (like integrated lights). The Orange bike frame is one of Gazelle’s most popular, it is available in both a low step through (great for people with hip/knee issues) and a cross bar frame. In our view the Orange bike frame is stable, solid, a good all rounder.
The Gazelle E-bikes offer a choice of engine - Bosch, Panasonic, and Shimano.
Your decision on motor is dependent on how you wish to use your E-bike and whether you are looking to get a powerful ride that can zoom up and down hills or one that will give you a gentle nudge when you need it.
Here at Bells, we love the Bosch system as we've found it to be the best at handling Hastings steep hills and it has a very smooth transmission. This makes for a ride that seems to glide. Plus the Bosch motor is set in the middle of the bike frame (just by the pedals), thus making the bike a bit more stable, as the weight of the motor is carried at the strongest part of the frame.
Bosch are renowned for building motors and their E-bike system lives up to the expectation, offering both powerful performance and long life (if taken care of). Gazelle offers three levels of battery to compliment the system - Silver, Gold or Platinum. The only difference between the batteries is simply the mileage that you can achieve in a single charge. If you only intend to use your bike to run about town then a silver battery is probably all you will ever need. However if you are considering long journeys you might prefer to upgrade to gold or platinum.
The batteries all have the same four power settings. These are; Eco (gives you a gentle boost), Power (general pottering about, great for small hills), Sport (turning up the power a bit higher, good for hills), Turbo (speedy and fab for tackling mini mountains).
Silver battery:
- Takes 5-9 hours to charge from empty, depending on use
- Travels up to 110 KM (roughly 68 miles) in Eco setting
- Travels up to 42 KM (roughly 26 miles) in Turbo setting
Gold battery:
- Takes 5-9 hours to charge from empty, depending on use
- Travels up to 145 KM (roughly 90 miles) in Eco setting
- Travels up to 55 KM (roughly 34 miles) in Turbo setting
Platinum battery:
- Takes 5-9 hours to charge from empty, depending on use
- Travels up to 180 KM (roughly 111 miles) in Eco setting
- Travels up to 70 KM (roughly 43 miles) in Turbo setting
Once you have decided on the best system for you and found the right style of frame (Orange naturally), all you need to decide is the model. We stock and LOVE the C7, C7+ and C8. This literally translates as C = comfort, 7 or 8 = gears and the + means an added extra, like a virtually silent motor or a new display screen.
Gazelle Orange C7 HMB
The C7 is the gateway to the Orange E-bike range, with 7 gears to help you ride up and down the hill, in our view this E-bike cannot be beaten. The motor is quiet and the ride is smooth and easy. It has integrated front and back lights, that come on with a click of a button, most of the cables are within the frame of the bike, therefore making the bike practically weather proof. This model has an older Bosch system that we have found to be more powerful on hills than the newer system and for this reason the C7 HMB is our stand out favourite.
Gazelle Orange C7+ HMB
The C7+ is the same as the C7, except that Gazelle have used a newer release Bosch system which is quieter and they have upgraded to a larger LCD which includes a walk assist and USB for smart phone connectivity. It even tracks the use of your bike and lets you know when it is time for a service! The C7+ is up to date and a pleasure to ride.
Gazelle Orange C8 HMB
Then there’s the C8, which is just another step up from the C7+. It offers an extra gear for a little more oomph, an even larger LCD with bluetooth connectivity, sat nav and 8GB of memory so you can plan and save your route.
All three bikes have integrated lights, cabling and suspension at the seat post and fork. All three utilise Gazelle’s easy one hand stem adjust mechanism.
There’s a lot to love about all three bikes, but we put our money on the Orange C7 HMB. It has everything you need to get going and it will get you up those steep hills that just seem to go on forever.