I am planning on buy new e-bike for my wife and myself and a key concern is customer support after the sale has been made should any problems arise. I have sent e-mails on 4 occasions to Rad Power and none of them have been answered after several weeks. I finally phoned them and spent more than half an hour on hold to get to a person.

Curious as to how much success others have had in contacting and receiving help from Rad Power.

With the eventual purchase of the presently out of stock RadRunner Plus I know that I will be removing the rear passenger seat and installing something like the Wald Sports folding rear basket in its place. This will allow for replacing the seat with a Brooks "Cambium" C19 carved saddle.

Can anyone tell me whether the seat post also needs to be replaced and suggest a good one to buy?

Thanks

For reduced rolling resistance a narrower tire with a high PSI rating and less aggressive tread will provide the best results. Normally with rims there is a maximum recommended width and rarely a minimum width specified. Or work backwards with the tire specifications and see what the maximum rim width they specify.

I would look for a 20x3 inch tire that had as high a max inflation amount as possible. Start with your current tires and see what the max pressure shows on the sidewall and at least pump the tires to that level and use an accurate tire pressure gauge.

Lack of chain lubricant can also cause this to happen. Can't hurt to use a dry silicon lubricant on the chain and see if it helps the problem.

Many places online that sell tubes for 20x3 inch tires including bike parts suppliers and even Amazon where one can buy a Serfas Bicycle Tube - Schrader (20X2.6/3.0 - Schrader) for $11.95 with free shipping. There is no reason whatsoever to buy bicycle tubes from a bike manufacturer. With the bikes I have owned over the past 60 years the tubes were bought at the nearest bike shop or from online companies. If any of my cars or trucks needed a new tire or inner tube I bought it at a tire dealer or auto supply store and not at an automobile dealership - same applies with e-bikes.

Rad sells the tubes as a convenience for customers and no reason to slam them for being out of stock during the pandemic which is still affecting suppliers around the globe in case you have not noticed. 

Battery packs are a different matter and there needs to be standardization so one can buy any any battery pack and put it on any bike. At this time Rad is out of stock of batteries for their 2018 and newer bikes.

If you use 10 amps from the battery and take 4 hours around noon each day to recharge the battery the panel output needs to be 3 amps as the charge controller is at best 90% efficient. Do you want to be sitting around for 4 hours each day to recharge the bike battery?

I would pack a 25 foot 18 gauge extension cord so you can plug in the charger wherever you can find an outlet. In the days before wireless I would pack a cord like this and plug in my laptop at a vacant ticket agent counter and be able to reach a place to sit or to jack into a pay phone headset.

Better to use a non-electric bike for multi day trips where nothing needs to be recharged and you only need to worry about flat tires.

Can anyone provide the dimensions for the passenger seat on the RadRunner Plus? I want to be able to mount a folding rack/basket in place of the seat to carry a backpack.