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.