For stuff like this I'd just bite the bullet and go to suppliers that do it regularly for this model and get the items that fit, and work and suck it up.

Since you're in the lower mainland, a quick hop across the border might help you out but I'd just as soon ship it and save the time personally. Before you go replacing everything I'd make sure the outputs from the controller are working as expected, it's just an electrical circuit, so I'd make sure I'm getting voltage and amperages as expected and signal wires are doing what they should be.  You may have a brake cable cutting power, or no power to the motor, or something like that that'll trip up any new controller and motor combo.

I haven't looked for a diagram myself (haven't needed to fortunately!) but I'd start there with an multimeter and a coffee.

Let me know how it goes, I'm keen for the controller and motor upgrade myself when the time comes.

So I never did stud my tires in the end. Aside from the couple of really icy days we had here the knobbies made it through the winter with few issues. The big footprint and more rigid yet compliant tires improved the ride too vs the stock tires.

I am back on the stock front tire again and it's amazing what a difference the tires do make for ease of rolling. I should weigh the tires to get a true sense of the weight difference but the rolling difference is massive. It's worth a whole PAS just for the front tire.

That's awesome thanks for sharing the info. It's something I intend on doing at some point in the future.

This is still a great idea, and may end up not costing a whole lots more in the long run after buying a tire, then studs, doubly so if you're paying for someone to do it for you.

Quote from: Ddaybc on December 11, 2023, 08:10:09 AM
Banjopete, when your Kenda tires arrived, other than an arrow showing which direction they are supposed to rotate, did they have any markings indicating Front or rear? I'm still divided between ordering one for my front wheel verses the tire chains from Slipknot Traction.

Thank you.

No front/rear designation, they're an identical pair. I've still not done anything about studding them, and am about a month in on snow riding now. They've been quite good in packed snow conditions. Decent enough on ice, but I'd still prefer studs at least on the front. I have liked the deep lugs for the deeper snow but the 90lb bike just doesn't it lend itself to a lot of agility when things get squirrely.

So far so good though as my next winter chariot. I don't have any worries it will do the job for the winter kid shuttling here, or my winter commuting.

Quote from: John Rose on December 07, 2023, 11:24:33 PM
@Banjopete :
Is that houndstooth an upholstery fabric or some kind of waterproof vinyl?

What did you use for the clear plastic sheet fastened to the fender? Some kind of Lexan / polycarbonate stuff? And where did you get it?

Nothing that fancy as it was just a quick solution to the no pad situation. It's just cotton. We mostly deal with sun and snow here so rain isn't a concern. The plastic guards on the rear wheel came with the bike, standard stuff. It's quite nice to have as it keeps my kids' feet out of the spokes, and I would have wanted to do something about it if it wasn't a stock item.

I went out last night with my family, two kids on board and did a 20km round trip for ice cream. These tires are noticeably slower, significantly so, much more rolling resistance felt like the bike was dragging the whole way. PAS felt like 2 less, so 3 felt like 1 and so on. I didn't check tire pressure but think first thing I'll try is a higher pressure and see what that does.

I knew this would be a thing going in, but wasn't quite prepared for how big a change it made. Ride wise I can feel the additional load rating of the tires, the ride for me and passengers was more supple while also being a lot stronger. Bumps, and curb ramps etc felt a lot smoother. I'm a hopeless upgrader and already am thinking a bigger motor and more batteries would be the ticket haha.

I got mine mounted up, so far so good. They fit! most importantly to start things off.

Well I've got the tires mounted up. They're pretty beefy looking, and went on without as much fuss as I thought they would. Pretty much just my hands and body weight to wrestle them on.  I swapped to some new tubes while I was at it as well.  Hoping these are durable and grippy for the kilometers ahead.

Quote from: Antti L on September 27, 2023, 11:17:20 PM

Quote from: Banjopete on September 27, 2023, 11:55:39 AM
Fun related note my tires have arrived. Big and knobby, seem really stout. Hopefully they go on okay.

As mentioned above these are kenda k262 small blocks, 18 x 2.75

It would be nice to get an update at the end of the winter on how these work in icy conditions.

Regards,
Antti

Will do.

Fun related note my tires have arrived. Big and knobby, seem really stout. Hopefully they go on okay.

As mentioned above these are kenda k262 small blocks, 18 x 2.75

Quote from: Antti L on September 25, 2023, 02:10:07 AM
Hi,

I live in Helsinki and have the RadWagon4. I have been through 3 Finnish winters with it. In Helsinki the temperature tends to fluctuate around freezing throughout the beginning of winter and then stays below freezing in Jan - Feb, so we get lots of slush, ice, and re-frozen semi-melted snow, with lots of bike-corroding salt thrown in for good measure 

Getting a new rim for the front can be kind of expensive, but if you are serious about riding around in the winter I would recommend it. I would say forget the snow chains or moped tires and get a studded tire.

This is another good idea, it's pretty clear radpower wasn't thinking at all of winter riders which makes sense based on numbers alone but it's a shame I can't simply go buy properly studded tires for my RW4. I'm probably in a very similar climate to you pretty much frozen November through to March with fluctuating temps along the way but wet ice, sheer ice, snow, and certainly deep cold for days or weeks. I would not expect anything but trouble from the stock tires as they're essentially slicks very brave of you to ride them at all. I'm going to try the knobbies first, and likely stud the front for exactly the reasons you've pointed out. I can deal with a slippy back but washing the front is bad news. I'm hopeful the big footprint of the low psi tire will help a lot compared to my 29'er studded ones I'm accustomed to for winter.

Thanks for sharing the real world experience.

I'm hoping the heft of the RW4 will be part of it's success in the snow. It could work against it if it just plows on corners but it's pretty close to a conventional bike with the weight distribution over the tires it seems. I have run into issues with tight fitting tires on rims in the past that made mounting tires an absolute nightmare. Whenever I encountered that I swapped to a different tire just so I'd have some confidence in being able to change tubes along my route. I've no idea how easy tube changes en route will be with this as I've not changed tires on it yet. 

Hi there, I'm in edmonton, have ten years of winter bike experience here and am trying to get my brand new to me RW4 up to speed for winter duties this year too. Will be using mine with two kids 6 and 8 for daycare duties as well.

The tire you're looking for apparently is actually an 18" rim diameter despite the silly naming radpower uses for their wheel size. I've ordered a pair or tires to replace the stock ones, and will see how they do unstudded, but likely will look to stud at least the front tire as the winter gets underway. We get pretty awful and long periods of ice and freezing rain in recent years so I've become pretty sure that studs are mandatory for me.

Anyways I've ordered a pair of these
https://fortnine.ca/en/kenda-k262-small-block-tire?utm_id=74584643731&utm_campaign=1768276252&utm_source=google&utm_medium=paid&utm_content=342522037899&gclid=CjwKCAjwmbqoBhAgEiwACIjzEJXVEVGEVeJYQFAjQ9i22BH564E-L_gRfgxN3R7kTpHw9YWzExygTxoCTSkQAvD_BwE#521=7713

18" x 2.75" they'll be here next week for me and I'll have a chance to mount them up and see how they fit. I couldn't find the Shinko Sr241 that I've seen most commonly used as a replacement tire for the RW4. None were available in Canada and I didn't want to incur all the shipping costs from the us to try.  These kenda's have nice big blocks, and look like I'll be able to add studs without any issues.

Would love to hear how you end up, and share any winter riding ideas on these things. I still have my regular/backup winter bike if needed but I'm hopeful the big wagon will do the work. 

Quote from: Ddaybc on September 16, 2023, 08:11:28 AM
I don't think setting the seat post at a comfortable height will be an issue for you.

I believe on the RW4 one could even be 7 feet tall and still get proper leg extension.

It's a strange thing indeed but something about me and bikes has always resulted in massively exposed seatposts. In stock form on the RW4 I felt like I was close to 90 degrees at the knees at the bottom of the stroke. Maxed the minimum insertion height on both sleeve and post.

I've got a 400mm post in now and I think I could still go to 450 to get closer to what I'd usually set it at. So I'm maxing out the min insertion lines on both sleeve and new post. It's still not perfect but it's much much better than before. Just a strange body I guess, and I've always had long legs. 6'4 and I don't even look at pants unless they have 36" inseams or more (shoutout lululemon's 38" inseams!!).

No big deal, I expected the one size to fit all to be a challenge to adjust to.