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Gazelle

In 1892 Willem Kölling and Rudolf Arentsen founded Gazelle Bicycles in Dieren, the Netherlands. They started as importers of English bicycles and by 1902 opened their first Gazelle factory, soon becoming the largest manufacturer of Dutch bicycle and continuing to this day to produce 350,000 bicycles per year from the same location. Gazelle has produced over 16,000,000 bicycles in the past 132 years. In 1972 Gazelle was acquired by Tube Investments. Today, it is owned by Pon Holdings, a Dutch company which also owns Cannondale, GT, Mongoose Schwinn, as well as Cervelo, Focus, Juliana, Public, Santa Cruz and another dozen brands.

Their first “off the Road” ATB debuted in 1984. Photos of their first few years of Gazelle ATBs are not to be found, other than in the Gazelle archives, perhaps as the Netherlands is quite flat and has a strong culture of practical urban cycling, leading to very few Dutch mountain bikes being sold in the 1980s.

Resources:

Cycling Culture

The Netherlands has the strongest bicycling culture in the world. The Netherlands has highest numbers of commuters, bike paths, bike safety and societal acceptance. The stereotypical Dutch bike is the “bakfiets”, a sturdy, practical cargo bike, as cycling in the Netherlands isn't just fun, it replaces the family car for going to work, hauling the kids to school, or shopping at Ikea¹⁾. A train station in Utrecht has a parking garage with a capacity for 12,500 bicycles, making it the world's largest bike parking garage.

Some more stats:

1.3 bicycles per capita. The highest in the world. The USA is at 0.31%.
65% use a bike at least once a week.
41% use a bike as their primary method of transportation 1.6% for the USA.
World's lowest cyclist fatality rate ²⁾
Cyclists in the USA are 17x more likely than the Netherlands to be killed per ride.
20% of all paved roads are bike paths. 0.43% for the US.
- 22,000 miles of bikes paths vs 87,000 miles of paved road for cars. The USA has 18,000 miles of bikes paths with over 4,100,000 miles of paved auto roads.

Q: How do you spot a bicycle tourist in Holland?
A: They're the ones wearing a helmet.

Cultural Resources:

Willem Kölling, 1922 gazelle.nl

Cargo bike parade, Nijmegen, 2015. holland-cycling
As part of the International Cargo Bike Festival.

1984 Off the Road

Debuted in the March, 1984 price list. Reynolds 531 lugged frame, Campagnolo Nuovo Record Strada crankset, possibly Campy Rally Touring derailleurs (1982-83), SR slingshot stem, sliding saddle. The catalog states that it's a Campy touring gruppo. 1984 catalog shot.

1984 Off the Road gazellechampionmondial.nl

1985 Off the Road

The 1985 Off the Road uses nearly identical specs as the 1984 model, minus the bell and some stickers. Reynolds 531 lugged frame, possibly Campy Rally derailleurs. The Dutch 1985 price is DNG1995 == $635 ($1854 in 2024 dollars.)

1985 Off the Road gazelle.nl

1986 ATB

Shimano XT M700 v2 (1985) derailleurs, 600 EX cranks, Reynolds 531 lugged frame, sliding saddle. This same exact spec is used in the 1986, 1987 & 1988 catalogs, using nearly the same 1985 components.

1986 ATB gazelle.nl

1988 Instinct

Shimano RD-L541 (1987-89), TIG welded frame, u-brake rear, Ritchey Quad tires, Araya rims, not in standard catalog.

1988 Instinct gazelle.nl

1989 ATB Champion Mondial

Reynolds 531 lugged frame, equipped with full Campagnolo Euclid ??

1989 ATB Champion Mondial retromtb.pl

1992 Instinct

Possibly Shimano Exage 500LX (1990-91). TIG welded.

1992 Instinct mountainbikemuseum.nl

1993 Formula

Not a mountain bike, as the forks can't handle fat tires. Reynolds 525 or 501 lugged frame. Not the same as their cross or road frames. They continue to make Champion Mondials through 1993.

1993 Formula rennrad-news.de

¹⁾

The Netherlands has headquartered Ikea since 2013.

²⁾

This is per cyclist. However, the Netherlands has a higher overall cyclist fatality rate than the US in the population at large. For example, the USA has 44 fatalities per billion miles cycled and the Netherlands has 10.7, which is the World's lowest. As there are so many cyclists in the Netherlands, this leads to more people per capita being killed on a bike than the US.

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