The Maven: A user-friendly, $2K Cargo e-bike perfect for families on the go - Ars Technica

The $2K bike is aimed at smaller riders who want a manageable cargo e-bike. It delivers.

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."

Belmar said she knew other families in the same situation. So she set out to design a bike that would essentially be a family station wagon on two wheels, one that would be easy to maneuver and control by smaller riders but still adjustable for taller cyclists—the Maven claims a size range of 5 feet, 0 inches to 6-foot-7. And, aside from ease of use, she sought ideal family-car features: comfort, safety, and affordability.

As a 5-foot-4 person with a 5-year-old, a taller husband, a need to run occasional errands, and an interest in ditching a second car, I'm the best person on Ars' staff to see if the Maven lives up to its lofty goals. With the help of the cycling enthusiasts and experts on Ars' staff, I'll make sure this review hits all of the technical details cycling nerds will be looking for. But this will be an accessible review for families interested in an alternative to a second car and who, like me, may be cargo e-bike newbies. I'll start with my general impressions and then dive into specifics.

As mentioned above, this is a cargo e-bike designed to never feel unwieldy to smaller riders while they're hauling precious cargo. On this count, the Maven hits the mark. Straight out of the box, before I even dove into the manual, I easily rode around without even turning on the motor. It's certainly a hefty bike, weighing in at 85 pounds on its own. But I never felt top-heavy on it or struggled to maneuver it. Integral boasts that it accomplishes this with a low center of gravity and fat, stable tires. Its two batteries sit low on the bike, and its 20-inch wheels allow the rear rack to sit just 24 inches off the ground. The tires are also 3 inches wide, giving them extra stability.

The Maven isn't the only cargo e-bike on the market with these features; 20-inch tires are on several other bikes, including Aventon's Abound and some others previously reviewed by Ars, like the Trek Fetch+2 and the RadWagon. So, whether the Maven is the best bike for your situation may depend on its other features.

The bike provides a fun, effortless ride—with and without groceries or my kid on the back. My review bike came with a rear railing/handlebar (a $99 add-on) and a seat pad ($69) that allowed my kid to help me test out the bike. He was not afraid to ride with me. In fact, he loved it. And in our many miles together, I found myself periodically forgetting he was back there. Going up hills and accelerating was effortless when the 750-watt motor kicked in. The adjustable front suspension was generously cushiony as we took the bike over gravel, dirt, asphalt, and sidewalks in various states of repair.

On a few occasions, my kid reminded me of his presence by shaking the bike from side to side, pretending we were sliding on ice. (He was having fun imagining us re-creating one of his favorite scenes from the animated movie Polar Express, when the train derails on a frozen lake.) But even with his best efforts to destabilize the bike, I never felt at risk of losing control or going down.

The Maven, a Class 2 e-bike, comes with a Bafang 750-watt motor built into the rear wheel, which is controlled by five motor assist levels that you can step through with the + and – buttons on the system button pad that sits on the left handlebar. Overall, the motor has more than enough power to easily whisk me to the 20 mph maximum for a Class 2 e-bike. It glided up hills with cargo in tow, boasting a payload capacity of an impressive 440 pounds. The bike uses cadence sensors, which detect the speed at which you're pedaling and adjust the amount of motor assistance accordingly. As a Class 2 e-bike, it also includes a throttle on the left-hand side that, when pushed down gently, offers a smooth, quick start from a standstill or a boost to your speed once you're already going.

One thing I really appreciated about the Maven is that it allows you to control the motor assist levels—and in general adjust a lot of the ways you interact with the motor. This can be done by going into the advanced settings menu, accessed by holding down both the + and – buttons for two seconds. There are five default motor assist levels, and from the advanced setting menu, you can adjust the amount of motor power (represented as percentages) for each of the five levels.

When I received the bike, the first motor assist level was set at the default of 50 percent power, with levels 2 through 5 going up incrementally to 100 percent. If I were commuting in city traffic and needed to get up to street speeds quickly, or if I were often traveling with a hefty load, the 50 percent power at level 1 might be a good starting point. But for me alone or riding with my kid, 50 percent was a bit too powerful. It threw us back in our seats when starting from a stop or getting back up to speed after a slow down or turn.

With just me onboard, the 50 percent power put the level 1 cruising speed at around 12 mph, and the rest of the motor assist levels went up from there. This was a fast starting speed for me, especially because we were often moving around calm residential streets, bike paths, and greenways with 15 mph speed limits. So I experimented with different percentages and found that 30 percent power at level 1 gave a gentler start and put my starting speed at around 8 mph. I set the other motor-assist levels accordingly and could use them to finely control the bike's speed. The ability to adjust the motor levels is very handy for switching between riders of different weights, more or less cargo, hillier or flatter terrain, or higher- or lower-speed routes.

Through the advanced settings menu, you can also adjust the speed sensor, cadence sensitivity, the delay between cadence detection and motor activation, and the bike's speed limit.

The Maven comes with a Shimano Altus 7-speed derailleur and shifters (for the non-cyclists, that means it has seven gears). The gears shifted smoothly and efficiently. But because the bike has cadence sensors—which, as noted previously, adjust the motor assistance based on pedaling speed—the gears sometimes felt like an afterthought while moving through the motor assist levels. It's very easy to put this bike in a low gear, pedal at a steady, low-resistance pace, and let the motor keep you sailing along at your chosen speed.

Cadence sensors are one of two options for e-bikes, the other being torque sensors. The latter adjusts the contributions of the motor based on the amount of force you're putting on the pedals as you ride, not the speed at which you're pedaling. Whether you'd prefer torque sensors or cadence sensors for a bike like this will likely depend on what riding experience you're looking for. For the Maven, the cadence sensor allows you to easily keep the bike going up hills and inclines with little effort. You just have to keep pedaling at some level; you don't necessarily have to pedal hard. For us smaller riders, being able to haul an 85-pound bike plus cargo up a hill without ever breaking a sweat makes the cadence sensors a blessing. Another benefit is that cadence sensors are simpler and often cheaper than torque sensors, helping to keep costs down. With a starting price of just under $2,000, the Maven is very competitively priced.

But there are downsides. Cadence sensors don't integrate into the riding experience as naturally or seamlessly as torque sensors. At times, the cadence sensors can feel like an on-off switch for the motor, making the ride seem a bit jerky, even with adjustments to motor assist levels. This is more noticeable at slower speeds. Use of the throttle can help smooth things out some, but it's not a natural biking feel.

The only time I really struggled for a smooth ride with the Maven was at a tight entrance to a nearby bike path. To get to the bike path, I had to go through a switchback path with three sharp 180-degree turns that were downhill on the way in and uphill on the way out. No matter how many times I went through this entrance, I still struggled to make the turns without awkward lurches in acceleration, especially on the way out.

For braking around those curves, the Maven comes with a Tektro Auriga hydraulic brake system for cargo e-bikes. Hydraulic brakes are a common component on e-bikes and offer a reliable stop over mechanical disc brakes. On the Maven, the brakes were responsive and very effective.

Integral goes the extra mile (or miles, in this case) by making two batteries a standard feature on the Maven. There's a 48 V battery built into the downtube of the bike frame (behind the Integral logo), which can be removed using a key. To quell any range anxiety buyers may have, there's also a secondary 48 V battery in a black casing that sits basically below the seat. Together, the batteries offer 1,512 Wh, which puts the estimated range at around 100 miles, depending on how you ride the bike. Both batteries are UL-certified, meaning they meet safety standards. They also meet ISO 4210 and UN 38.3 manufacturing standards.

Charging the battery is pretty simple. The Maven comes with a 150-watt charger that plugs into the wall and then into a battery. It takes several hours to charge up, depending on how low the battery gets. The charger has a red light that indicates it's still charging and a green light to indicate it's done. Identifying when it was done charging was a little challenging for my red-green colorblind husband.

In keeping with the family-vehicle design, the Maven has a lot of well-thought-out and convenient features that make for a comfy, safe ride. The front of the bike has an adjustable, generous suspension that you can set to a cushy setting that noticeably sinks down when you get on, which is nice. On the back, there are generously sized foot supports with a stylish wood finish for passengers. For the driver, the wide seat comes with a built-in shock absorber and a quick-adjust lever.

If lights and signals are important to you, you'll be very happy with the Maven. It's hard to imagine a better setup. The front of the bike houses a very large, extremely bright headlight. This is not a nominal light useful only for signaling your presence to surrounding traffic; this is a headlight that will effectively illuminate the path ahead of you in the dark. The bike also has a brake light in the back and turn signals in the front and back. The turn signals and headlight are controlled by a button pad on the right-side handlebar.

Also on that buttonpad is the horn, though "horn" may be too generous a term to describe the sound it makes. It's not horn-like to me, and it's definitely nothing like a classic bike-bell sound. It's more like an electronic shriek, which was startling the first time I heard it. On the plus side, it's loud, and it will definitely get the attention of people around you. But you may have to forgive them for thinking the bike is preparing to self-destruct. See the video below. I had to take it three times because I kept giggling.

The kickstand is a two-pronged metal stand that flips backward. When you're ready to ride, it's easy to push forward and flip the kickstand back. Pushing the kickstand back down when you're ready to park can take a bit of muscle. It requires lifting the bike slightly and pushing back, but it's manageable. I will note, though, that it seems impossible not to rub the paint off the stand in the process of simply using it. It can also leave marks on concrete.

This review does not include an unboxing and assembly because the review bike arrived fully assembled in a wooden crate. For buyers, Integral says that the Maven ships assembled.

The Maven is a user-friendly cargo e-bike that's equally great for jaunts with kids or hauling loads of groceries. There are a lot of fun features that make the ride feel comfortable, safe, and breezy. Most importantly, the motor makes riding effortless, and the two batteries brush away any range anxiety. The cadence sensors may be the biggest thing to mull when you're shopping around. They're great if you're happy to avoid flexing some muscles up hills, but torque sensors may offer a smoother and more natural biking experience in some instances. Still, the stylish, thoughtfully designed, and competitively priced Maven is definitely one to consider.

Listing image: B. Mole