Enlarge / The Maven. (credit: B. Mole)

The first thing I should say in this bike review is that I am not a bike enthusiast.

My preferred form of exercise is running, where no mechanical components are necessary. But I'm acting as reviewer here because what I lack in longstanding opinions on brand-name bike gearing and motor hubs, I make up for by being the exact target audience for the bike under review: the Maven Cargo E-bike by Integral Electrics. This is a cargo bike designed not for hardcore cyclists but for smaller riders, women specifically, who would happily swap out their family's second car for a simpler e-bike—as long as it can handle the needs of family life: toting children, running errands, and making short commutes.

This is exactly what Integral CEO and co-founder Laura Belmar and her family were looking for amid the pandemic, she told me in an interview. But while her husband picked out e-bikes that were comfortably designed for him, who is taller than her, she consistently found herself top-heavy and struggling as soon as her two kids were loaded onto the bikes. "They were scared to ride with me," she said of her kids. "One time, we were literally going down in the park and a jogger came by and grabbed the rack and pulled us back up."

Enlarge / It's not likely to totally replace your car, nor will it probably be your only bike. But access to a cargo bike can reduce car trips, and even car ownership, a study from Germany suggests. (credit: John Timmer )

Cargo bikes started as something you'd see in images from Europe— bakfiets loaded up with groceries or sometimes kids. Now they're getting more popular, and seemingly for good reason. A new study out of Germany suggests that once you let people try them, they tend to have a real impact on car use, and even car ownership.

The study, from Transportation Research Part F: Traffic Psychology and Behaviour, surveyed people using a cargo bike share (CBS) system from 58 different programs and initiatives in Germany, controlling a collective 751 cargo bikes. Out of the 2,386 active CBS users surveyed, 45.8 percent had one car in their home, and 54.2 percent lived without a car. As you might notice, this mix of cargo bike shares and car ownership is not representative of the US, but using a cargo bike, even one they didn't technically own, still impacted ownership decisions in even one-car households.

A bit more than 18 percent of survey respondents said they either got rid of their car or decided against buying a car, and 80 percent of those people said they did so for environmental reasons. Nearly 49 percent said they ditched a car for financial reasons, 42 percent because they had "no interest in driving a car," and about 10 percent due to the safety risks of driving a car (with the survey allowing for multiple reasons).

Enlarge / The Specialized Turbo Creo 2 Comp taking a break from central Illinois gravel. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

If the question is "what is the ideal number of bikes to own," the answer is usually " n+1 ." Whether you are into gravel trails, BMX, mountain biking, road biking, or cyclecross, there's a bike for that. But after spending a couple of months riding the Specialized Turbo Creo 2 Comp , the answer could actually be n .

The $6,500 Turbo Creo 2 Comp is a gravel e-bike that Specialized calls "category defying." It looks the result of an illicit tryst between a gravel bike and a mountain bike. With the motor, the is a double-duty road-plus-gravel machine—at least that's what Specialized claims. And it turns out Specialized is on to something.

The proportions on the Creo are spot-on. You can see the charging port for the integrated battery near the bottom of the seat tube (credit: Eric Bangeman)

The Turbo Creo 2 Comp is certainly eye-catching. Not only is the "Harvest Gold" colorway easy on the eyes, but the thickness of the downtube and tires also grab the viewer's attention. The massive downtube is necessary because that's where the 320 Wh integrated battery lives. The chunky, mountain-bike-appropriate 700 x 47 tires, however, are a statement of intent by the Creo 2 Comp, screaming, "Ride me anywhere you want—I'm up for it."

Enlarge (credit: John Timmer)

The arrival of e-bikes has blurred the lines between bicycles, mopeds, and scooters. Depending on what country or state you're in, some e-bikes can legally hit 45 km/hour (28 mph), yet they don't require a license, registration, or insurance, unlike their competitors. Whether that's a good or bad thing depends on whether the bike riders in your area ride like lunatics or not.

Regardless of how you feel about the state of things, it's definitely true that most e-bikes are relatively bike-like compared to mopeds and scooters, lacking things like brake lights, directionals, and other components that make navigating in urban environments a bit safer. Most, but not all. Heybike offers a number of scooter-substitute e-bikes that come with a powered horn, brake lights, directionals, and a zippy motor. As a bonus, they're foldable. We checked out its latest model, the $1,499 Ranger S .

A foldable heavyweight

Let's address one thing right away: In our review of the Ranger S's sibling (the Tyson) , we ran into a number of mechanical problems that threatened to make the bike unusable. The only real issue we saw on the Ranger S was a rapidly fluctuating reading of battery capacity. Otherwise, the bike was solid.

Enlarge (credit: Velotric)

Over the last couple of years, some of your intrepid Ars staff have been trying out a very broad range of e-bikes. Some of these we've quite liked, a few we weren't so sure about, and we suspected at least one of trying to kill us.

In nearly every case, we've gotten a sense of what the company's offerings were about—what they are trying to do, and how that's reflected in their hardware. Even if a bike wasn't the right one for us, it was often easy to understand out who it might work well for. So, as these companies have started sending us information about the holiday sales they have going, we thought it might be helpful to share our impressions in order to help people find a bike that can match their needs. Plus, some of these deals really are quite good.

So, in alphabetical order, here's a rundown on the bikes we looked at.

Enlarge (credit: RyanLJane via Getty )

We hop in the car to get groceries or drop kids at school. But while the car is convenient, these short trips add up in terms of emissions, pollution, and petrol cost.

Close to half (44 percent) of all Australian commuter trips are by car—and under 10 km. Of Perth’s 4.2 million daily car trips, 2.8 are for distances of less than 2 km.

This is common in wealthier countries. In the United States, a staggering 60 percent of all car trips cover less than 10km .

Enlarge / The Trek FX+ 2 e-bike (credit: Eric Bangeman)

When it came time to buy our son his "adult" bike, the Trek FX 2 was an easy choice. Not only is the candy-red color eyepopping, but the hybrid offers hydraulic disc brakes and an aggressive riding position for $749. So when Trek offered us the chance to review the FX+ 2, we jumped at the chance to take it for a ride or three.

It's not often that we get to review an electrified version of a bike we are familiar with, so we'll start with the differences between the FX+ 2 and the FX 2. Let's get the biggest one out of the way: the price. The Trek FX+ 2 retails for $2,499, over three times the price of its unelectrified sibling (also significantly higher than some hybrid e-bikes, many of which are made by new companies most of us have never heard of). Some of the price difference comes from the motor and battery— the motor itself sells for $450 —but you're also getting an integrated bike computer with cadence and speed sensors along with a power meter. All you need to access the integrated gear is the Trek Connect app.

The motor lives in the rear hub. (credit: Eric Bangeman)

Component-wise, the FX+ 2 is very similar to the FX 2. They use the same Shimano shifter and cassette, the same aluminum wheels, and the same Alpha Gold aluminum frame. The differences between the two mostly come down to modifications needed for the electric bits and the tires. The FX+ 2 comes with 700x40 mm tires instead of 35s and has a max tire size of 50 mm, whereas the FX 2 is capped at 38 mm. Lastly, the FX+ 2 has a rear rack, fenders, and integrated headlight and taillight.

Enlarge / The Apex, SWFT's take on a very affordable e-mountain bike. (credit: John Timmer)

The subject of this review, SWFT's new Apex mountain bike , pulls together threads from two bikes we've looked at previously. One of those threads came courtesy of SWFT, which introduced itself to the world with the Volt , an exercise in trying to get e-bike prices down to the point where they weren't competing with a decent used car. While the Volt wasn't a great bike, it was perfectly functional and offered a decent ride at a sub-$1,000 price. Now, SWFT is trying to work that same magic with a mountain bike.

The second thread came courtesy of the Specialized e-mountain bike we looked at earlier this year. In that review, I suggested that if you wanted to drop less than three or four thousand dollars on even a non-electrified mountain bike, you would sacrifice quality and features.

The Apex raises the stakes of that sacrifice by keeping dual suspensions, throwing in an electric assist, and targeting the price below $2,200. The sacrifices involved are pretty noticeable and are made worse by a couple of questionable design decisions. While the bike can be fun to point at a trail, it doesn't work especially well as a mountain bike, though a lot of its issues would be easy to correct if SWFT decided to come out with a 2.0 version.

Enlarge / There aren't many e-bikes you can buy with rim brakes and mid-'90s gray/pink styling. (credit: Kevin Purdy)

Recommending the Swytch e-bike conversion kit feels like recommending a DIY desktop computer upgrade. You’re not evaluating or describing any one experience so much as telling somebody that it might save them money, that it could be a fun project, and that the end result can be a point of pride. Though it would be easier, you can’t replicate the upgrade experience by simply buying another bike. It all depends on what you want out of an e-bike—or a weekend project.

I’ve now converted two bikes with Swytch kits, I’ve walked my in-laws through upgrading their own cruiser-style bikes with them, and I’ve made tweaks and fixes to all of the bikes over two years. What I've learned is that there’s no single "Swytch kit experience" because every bike is a collection of components, and each component has dimensions and angles and quirks that play off the kit in different ways.

Some people will drop the front wheel off their bike, replace it with Swytch’s wheel, strap down a few cables with zip-ties, mount a battery, and feel the boost on their first ride a couple hours later. Some people will learn a lot more about rims, tires, and beads than they knew before or discover that their seemingly normal-looking front fork is quirky and find that the dropouts require some filing.