I used to know the difference between these two models, but it seems to have slipped from my memory.
What I do recall however is just how well those frames handled. They are straight-out-of-the-factory machines with few evident refinements, except that possibly the company was owned by the TI Company in England that also owned the Raleigh company.. and maybe Gerald O'Donovan, the design guru at Raleigh pulled a few demon tweaks along the line.
My shop manager signed as a Pro with an English team equipped with the top-of-the-line Reynolds 531 Gazelle frames, with their Bocama lugs and crowns. In the shop we tended to think his bike was a bit of a joke...but he swore that it was probably the best handling bike that he had ever had...not very light, but with incredible road-holding. Before joining me in the shop the rider had been a member of the ACBB-Peugeot team in Paris which at the time was the nursery club for the BP-Peugeot team.. There he road along with his Peugeot Pro frames, a Bespoke-built Columbus SLX frame, complete with the Bespoke "bottleneck" rear stay assembly, beautifully decked out in Peugeot livery. he rode with the likes of Sean Yates, Alan Piper, Robert Miller, Graham Jones.
Unfortunately he crashed one of his Gazelle frames, so I had the pleasure of replacing tubes and was able to see the quality of the mitering etc There was just nothing special at all...it was just very ordinary. We checked out every possible measurement of the frame, but at 55cms C-to-C, it was bog standard design. It wasn't silver-soldered. so the lack of heat imput hadn't worked the trick.
Some years later another top amateur from our region came to the shop with his new...Gazelle. Without any prompting he claimed that it was the finest handling bike he had ever ridden. Something like 18 years later he still trains on it..but the Gazelle decals are long-gone, to be replaced by the decals of the shop he has opened.
Anybody on the List got the inside track on Gazelle's designs and manufacturing techniques??
Norris Lockley...Settle UK