Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB review: A graceful electric bike

Our Verdict

One of the more sophisticated ebikes on the market place for people who demand the best and but want to put on a helmet and go.

For

• Fantabulous ride
• Frictionless electric power
• Top combination of accessories

Tom's Guide Verdict

One of the more sophisticated ebikes on the marketplace for people who need the best and just want to put on a helmet and become.

Pros

• +

  Excellent ride

• +

  Frictionless electric ability

• +

  Summit combination of accessories

Gazelle Ultimate C380: Specs

Battery: 500 Wh
Max estimated range: 43 miles
Max assisted speed: 20 mph
Motor: Bosch Performance Line 3.0 65 Nm mid-drive motor
Gearing: Enviolo 380 stepless gear system
Wheel diameter: 28 inches
Weight: 54.6 lbs. (with battery)

True to its proper noun, the Gazelle Ultimate 380 may be the most svelte ebike to hit the road even so.

It's too proof that ebikes can't simply exist reduced to a list of specifications. There are ebikes with bigger batteries and bigger motors, to be sure. Only in that location is no ebike that is more than thoughtfully designed to requite the rider a ameliorate drive than the Gazelle Ultimate C380.

With a Gates belt drive and seamless Enviolo shifter that allows you lot to change gears in the middle of a hill, this luxury cruiser delivers unequalled condolement in a nearly maintenance-free package. It's ane of the all-time electrical bikes we've ridden, but all of this comes at a cost.

Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB Review: Price and Availability

Gazelle has been building bicycles in the land of the bicycle (The Netherlands) for more than 125 years. And that experience imbues every model information technology produces, from touring bikes like the $two,499 Gazelle Medeo T9 up to the pinnacle-of-the-line luxury model nosotros tested, the $3,999 Gazelle Ultimate C380. If you've always been to Amsterdam (or seen it in the movies), a Gazelle is what y'all picture the Dutch riding along the banks of the city'due south canals.

The visitor offers more than a half dozen different ebike models, near of which take an integrated battery, footstep-through or low-step blueprint and an piece of cake, upright riding stance. And while the company offers traditional 10-speed derailleurs on many models, it has taken its traditional upright designs and added Gates belt drives to several. Gazelle also sticks to its strengths: these are city and country touring bikes, so if you're shopping for a mountain bike, you'll have to look elsewhere.

Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB Review: Blueprint

The design of the Gazelle Ultimate C380 focuses on two goals, delivering the ultimate in comfort along with ebike convenience. Its low-footstep frame is topped with a Selle Loire Gel seat with an internal pinch post to soften the ride. The aluminum frame also has an internal front fork intermission system and built-in (merely removable) battery to keep the whole pattern as graceful as possible.

(Prototype credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Gazelle Ultimate C380 is a pedal assist bike, meaning that it does not accept an all-electrical power throttle. The system uses a smooth as drinking glass Bosch mid-drive motor with monochrome display that lets y'all wheel through iv power modes: Eco, Touring, Sport, and Turbo. Amend still, Gazelle has fabricated this model as close to maintenance gratis as you tin can get these days. It uses a sealed rear hub with a continuous Enviolo Trekking shifter, so at that place are no gears or fussy derailleurs to tweak or worry about. And there's no greasy chain to maintain. The Ultimate C380 employs a Gates chugalug drive that uses a carbon cobweb reinforced notched belt instead.

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Finishing it off, Gazelle includes full mud guards, a metal belt guard (to go on your pants clean), kickstand, lights front and dorsum, a rear rack with a congenital-in stretch subclass, and even an Axa Defender lock that immobilizes the rear wheel when you snap it close and remove the fundamental. All you need to think to ride this bike is your helmet. What could be more convenient than that?

Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB Review: Performance

Equally its svelte name suggests, whether y'all're bounding downhill on a clay road or existence buffeted by passing truck traffic on a two-lane, blacktop, the Gazelle stays steady and true. It was unwavering when we were doing more than 30 mph downhill; the Ultimate C380's iv-piston hydraulic brakes made us feel confident that we weren't overstepping our bounds on the road.

Nosotros found ourselves coming up with excuses to go for a ride.

The Gazelle is a pedal-aid merely wheel, meaning that it doesn't use a throttle to run under total electric power. That ways yous're ever pedaling to propel yourself forward. The Bosch drive has a raft of sensors, so that it applies additional power precisely when yous demand information technology. The smooth awarding of torque meant that we mostly did non miss the electric-but mode.

(Image credit: Tom's Guide)

We were able to offset off from stop lights and at the bottom of slight hills without trouble; the electric assistance was plenty to become the states going without as well much endeavour. On the other manus, some steep clay mount roads presented a claiming, although we did manage to get all the fashion upwardly our exam hills without getting up out of the saddle (a point of pride around here). But yous will feel the exertion after a long hilly ride.

Nosotros should note that the continuous variable throttle-way shifter is a godsend in such situations. With the carbon fiber belt drive, you can shift in the eye of a hill if you realize you can't go on in a particular gear. That's a no-no with traditional derailleurs but perfectly adequate with the Gazelle — and it'south silent. No clicking and clacking from the gears biting against the strain.

(Image credit: Tom'south Guide)

The Gazelle Ultimate C380 was also lots of fun. Indeed, we found ourselves coming up with excuses to go for a ride. Staff of life? Why don't I cycle over to the bakery? Check the post? I'll go for a quick 4-mile ride to the mailbox and dorsum. Need a quart of milk? I'll become become information technology at the local farm stand up....13 miles away.

It's cheers to all the fine touches to the design that Gazelle has made to the Ultimate C380 that lets you forget most riding a bike or switching gears and just focus on enjoying the day. In fact, the but flaw we could find was the mechanical bell. Information technology could be louder — or electrical for better warnings. But by this bespeak nosotros were struggling to discover some weakness.

Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB Review: Contest

There are now other touring ebikes aiming to replace Gazelle in this section of the market, only they are going to take a tough time of it. Most of the contest comes from modest, boutique companies similar Bluejay Bikes trying to capitalize on the ebike craze. But the big companies are taking note of the luxury touring market, too.

(Image credit: Gazelle)

Trek, for example, has its Verve+ three line of ebikes that starting time at virtually $3,150 but don't come with conveniences similar the belt bulldoze and continuous shifter. Meanwhile, Specialized has launched its $4,800 Turbo Como SL 5.0. The Como is a slick design and uses a Gates belt bulldoze, too, but the price premium is not insignificant.

Gazelle Ultimate C380 HMB Review: Verdict

Gazelle has focused on a market place segment it understands perhaps better than anyone else: the daily wheel rider who needs a solid, reliable instrument that won't let her down — and is comfortable, day in and day out. The Gazelle Ultimate C380 will satisfy such riders, whether you have to habiliment a 3-slice suit to work or can show upwardly wearing cutoffs and a Slayer T-shirt. (Okay, maybe the band shirt would be a fleck much, merely you get the point.) Did nosotros like this bike? You bet we did. It pretty much encompasses all the country-of-the-art features you would desire for weekday commuting or Sunday sightseeing. We just wish it were more than affordable so that more people could enjoy it.

John R. Quain has been reviewing and testing video and audio equipment for more than xx years. For Tom's Guide, he has reviewed televisions, HDTV antennas, electric bikes, electric cars, as well every bit other outdoor equipment. He is currently a contributor to The New York Times and the CBS News television program.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/reviews/gazelle-ultimate-c380-hmb

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