SpecializedTop pickThis sturdy, practical hub-drive ebike is capable on hills, comfortable to ride, and equipped with commuter-friendly lights and a rack. It’s a Class 3 ebike, though, which may limit where it can go.The Specialized Globe Haul ST is the ebike we recommend for anyone who would like to use a bike for commuting, ferrying a kid to school, or going on everyday errands. It encouraged us to make one extra out-of-the-way stop, or take the more scenic route, even if that meant adding a lot more in the distance ridden or elevation gained.It has all the power you need. The Globe Haul ST is a Class 3 bike, with pedal-assist capability to 28 mph that’s propelled by a 700-watt-rated hub motor running on a 48-volt 772-watt-hour battery. Specialized makes an optional plug-in thumb throttle ($50) for the bike, but using the throttle gets you only to 20 mph (similar to how throttles work on Class 2 ebikes). The practical result of all those specs: During testing, I could cruise at 20 mph, with a combined rider and cargo weight of about 200 pounds, up all but the steepest hills.It provides a fun yet stable ride. I really liked the overall geometry of the bike. The wheels, which at 20 inches are smaller than those on most bikes, are paired with fat, 3.5-inch tires, and coupled with the wide handlebar, they made it easy for me to keep the bike stable even while it was carrying a lot of weight. Yet the seat provided a great position for me to pedal efficiently. The Specialized Globe Haul ST’s motor is in the hub of the rear wheel; its battery is tucked under the bike’s down tube (the tube running, roughly, from the handlebars down to the pedals). SpecializedIt includes commuter-friendly features — and add-ons are available, too. The bike comes with fenders to keep rain and slush off you and anyone riding behind you, as well as a rear rack and pannier racks. Big bucket-style plastic panniers ($80 each) and a front rack ($100) are available separately.The Globe Haul ST also comes with high-powered front and rear lights (1,500 lumens and 50 lumens, respectively); you can adjust the front light’s power using a small switch on the handlebar. As someone who has never managed to remember to charge his lights, I found that having very bright lights always there and fully charged (as long as the bike’s battery was charged) was one of my favorite things about most of the ebikes we tested.Its hub-drive system should make it cheaper to repair — or at least spread out the cost. The cost to replace an entire mid-drive unit after the warranty period for something like a bad torque sensor or water intrusion past the seals (which could wreck a crank bearing, the motor, or the circuit board) could total around $1,000. With a hub-drive system like that of the Globe Haul ST, those are all individual parts, so chances are, only that one problematic thing needs to be replaced. The warranty for this ebike’s hub-drive system lasts for two years, the same as the coverage period for Bosch’s mid-drive systems. Specialized offers a lifetime warranty on its bike frames, as does Trek.That difference in repair cost is especially important for high-wear bearings, as you’d find in the bottom bracket — with their being a non-serviceable part on both the hub-drive and mid-drive bikes we tested, we’d rather have them tied to a $100 component instead of the entire $1,000 mid-drive motor. This also goes for electronics, such as the circuit board, which on Bosch mid-drive systems such as the one found on the Trek Verve+ 3 are nestled between the gears and bearings, so if anything shorts after warranty it would probably mean buying an entire new unit. Compare that with the Globe Haul ST’s control unit, which is located on the underside of the bike, where you can more easily swap it out. The controller unit sits on the handlebar, near your left hand. The brass bell, on the right, comes with the bike. SpecializedYou’ll probably be able to find parts for it over a longer period than for other ebikes. Specialized has committed to keeping parts available for seven years after the last date of manufacture, and all the parts for the Globe Haul ST are listed on the company’s support site. Unfortunately, if you like to fix things yourself or want to have someone you trust other than a Specialized dealer replace certain parts on your bike, you’re out of luck, as many of these parts are supposedly available only if installed by a Specialized dealer.Flaws but not dealbreakersYou may not be able to ride it everywhere you’d like. The Globe Haul ST comes only in a Class 3 version, and Class 3 bikes aren’t legal in some parts of the country and on some multiuse paths and bike lanes. Even if you install the optional throttle, which powers the bike only up to 20 mph, the motor will still operate in pedal-assist mode up to 28 mph, and that’s what makes it a Class 3 bike. We wish it were available in a Class 2–only option as well, since many people wouldn’t find themselves going over 20 mph often but could benefit from having more legal access. (Also, as of fall 2024, California does not allow Class 3 bikes to have a throttle, so if you live in that state, you can’t install one.)It’s heavy. The most immediately noticeable downside to the bike’s powerful motor, large-capacity battery, heavy-duty components, and aluminum frame is the resulting weight, starting around 75 pounds depending on the accessories you’ve installed. This is definitely not a bike that you would want to (or be able to) carry into a walk-up or even up a single flight of stairs. You also need a heavy-duty, hitch-mount tray-style bike rack for your car, if you plan to transport it.Changing a rear flat tire is a pain. Hub motors, and the wiring involved in powering them, make removing the rear wheel more complicated. Also, some shops won’t do that task for you because they don’t want the liability of damaging a wire or being blamed for an electrical issue afterward.It can feel jerky. The power delivery at some speeds and pedal pressures can be a bit too reactive. You can lessen this effect by trying to pedal more smoothly, lowering the power-support level, and pedaling a little harder or pedaling at a much higher cadence. This highly reactive output makes the bike easy and safe to control at low speeds because it stops the power as soon as you stop pedaling, but at cruising speeds we wish the controller could provide a smoother experience without needing so much input from the rider.The walk-assist mode is hard to use. This mode lets you power the bike, while walking beside it, at a very low speed — helpful if, say, the bike is fully loaded and you’re trying to push it up a steep driveway or sidewalk. However, we had the same ergonomic gripe with this model that we’ve had with all the others we’ve tested from every manufacturer: You have to hold down the walk-assist button on the controller to activate it, but the buttons are on top of the controllers, not where your thumb lands naturally, and keeping a button with very little movement depressed is awkward and tricky, especially if the ground is bumpy. We’d love to see some sort of lever option instead.This is a one-size-fits-all bicycle. Although it does offer a lot of handlebar and seat adjustability, taller riders may find themselves seated far back of the rear wheel when they raise the saddle height, as the wheelbase is fairly short. The wheelbase also puts any child seats close to the rider, and some people may find that position too tight. (The longer Globe Haul LT could be the better, though pricier, bike for those situations.)
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