Electric bike or second car

[pasadena]

Sounds like the cargo bikes are too cumbersome for you, but like others stated, there are many good ebikes in the 1500 price range.

Just get one with racks to take care of groceries and cargo.
There are two types of ebikes:
hub motor and mid-drive

Mid drive are more expensive, but they are the best type.
Hub are cheap

Either way, not really too expensive to try it out to see if it fits your lifestyle, easy to sell if you don't like it.

For security, get a HD chain and ulock and just leave it at work where you lock up if possible.
Abus has a nice lock that clamps the wheel- common security lock on commuter bikes. In tandem w a ulock, wouldn't worry about theft.
Good thing is you can get a heavy duty chain/ulock and carry it since you have power to compensate- no extra effort required.

[YoKev]

FYI, Trek Travel is blowing out their bikes from last year.

The XM700+ is $800, which strikes me as a great deal.

https://shop.trektravel.com/collecti...cts/trek-xm700

[pasadena]

That is an AMAZING deal!
@benb if you want to try an ebike, you can't get a better deal than that!
bosch mid drive, rack, and front susp. perfect commuter rig

Originally Posted by YoKev

FYI, Trek Travel is blowing out their bikes from last year.

The XM700+ is $800, which strikes me as a great deal.

https://shop.trektravel.com/collecti...cts/trek-xm700

[Ti Designs]

A few years ago I went to a hardware store in the next town and rode back with my trailer loaded down with an 80 pound bag of ice melt. The hill seemed so easy on the way there ('cause I was going downhill with an unloaded trailer), and much, much harder on the way home. I thought about solutions for this problem. I'm not an e-bike kinda guy. I'm lazy by nature and I like to eat. If I owned an e-bike I would be 800 pounds by now. Just the same, when towing the trailer full of stuff, my own pathetic power output just isn't enough. The solution I came up with is the e-trailer. The yoke would have a strain gauge to tell when the trailer was a drag on the system and the motor would only run to eliminate that drag. At that point riding a bike is still riding a bike. The motor and battery don't need to be as large 'cause I'm never going more than a few miles and it only has to overcome the drag of the trailer. The fact that it's a trailer even makes design easier. I haven't built it yet, but I've seen so many applications where it would work so well...