The History of Gazelle Bicycles
If you think about Dutch Bicycle, you probably think of Gazelle. Gazelle was founded 1892 by Willem Kölling and Rudolf Arentsen. Initially they sold bicycles imported from England, but by 1902 they began their own production under the Gazelle name.
In the 1920’s to the 40’s Gazelle exported bicycles to Indonesia, where you still see many of them today being used for everyday life, as well as being sought after as collector items.
In 1925 Gazelle used the Piet Pelle cartoon character for advertising purposes and created this video of their factory and production techniques. For those who love history, this video is pretty impressive.
The centenary in 1992 coincided with the eighth millionth bicycle produced. Princess Margriet of the Netherlands classified the company “Royal” Gazelle in honor of the anniversary. Gazelle has become the oldest and largest bicycle manufacturer in the Netherlands.
Today, one can see a Gazelle on every street corner of the Netherlands, it is the only bicycle brand where multiple generations share stories of their first Gazelle.
Over 122 years, Gazelle has kept the nostalgic look of their classic Tour Populair, but have added trekking bicycles, modern city bicycles with pops of colour, and yet have kept a high level of quality, and production in the Netherlands. There is a bicycle for everyone!
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