Rad Bike for business Usage in Holland

[Bike4living]

Hi everyone,

I am Jeroen(46)from holland and i am 1.75 long
I am full time delvivery driver its my main job i cycle around 350km each week.
I want a good decent bike for that so i am thinking about a Rad bike dont know wich one for now.
the rads wil be limited because i live in holland so it wil be 250 whatts motor if i can set it to 32km/h its perfect.
I drive with a backpack so no addons needed for that.
The bike must be realy comfort with driving because i work 50 hours a week on it(including wait times in the restaurants)
I need a range of 140 150 km a day, i can swap battery half a day!
I dont want to use for instance speed 1 all day because of the range i need assist 2 3 wil do the job?
What rad do you recommend and why?

Thanks for reading and maybe answering my post

[JimInPT]

Even though you say you use a backpack and don't need more capacity, I would suggest a cargo bike like the RadWagon or similar from other companies.  They're bigger and heavier, but are designed to carry loads around all day long, and if you're riding up to 150km/day I think it would be wise to start the day with 3 fully-charged batteries and you'll need someplace to carry two of them, secure from theft or damage. 

Additionally, a cargo bike would give you the option of adding baskets, panniers or other additional capacity - you never know when your business might grow to demand such things!  As for comfort, you'll need to try one out to see if the frame geometry works for you, then maybe consider changing the seat and seatpost if you want more suspension to absorb road bumps.

I'm assuming in Holland you're mostly riding on paved flat surfaces; the Wagon is definitely not a trail bike, and if on flatlands you should be able to provide pedal power to reduce the load on the battery without exhausting yourself at the end of a long work day.  With the weight of a cargo-bike frame and two additional batteries, plus you and your cargo, 250 watts isn't very much and would be useless in my hilly town (my MiniST2 now has about 1550 watt capacity after I hotrodded it a bit), but might work in your (flat, correct?) area - talk to other e-bike owners to see if that's true.

Good luck and let us know what you decide!

[Eric7]

I lived in Manhattan and have the opportunity to see many bike deliverers/messengers. They tend to buy their bikes from a handful of stores with good service.  They use a few models only and those models are not consumer models. All the deliverers use a few stores and they specialize in taking care of bicycle deliverers with quick turn arounds.  Amazingly, these bikes don't have racks and the racks are not used. The deliverers use messenger bags - sometimes high ones with 56L capacity (Timebuk2, classic messenger, XL size).  I don't know why. My guess is that the bike racks have too much shock and would thoroughly toss any food or documents not tightly packaged? Those bike are so utilitarian, I would not use them for any recreation. And I have not seen anyone else using them for recreation either.

My advice is, look around, see what other deliverers are using, follow them and use a popular model with good service. A popular model will allow you to quickly replace parts and get you back on the road and making money ASAP. I also read an article that stated most deliverers who deliver full-time would own a backup bike. I love Rad but the turnaround time for getting the bike in the first place and getting replacement parts under warranty makes it purely a recreational bike - not a commercial bike. There is probably a good reason why everyone is using the same model.  For a business, choose your equipment to give you a money-making advantage.

[Bike4living]

Thanks for the Advices!
i think the best thing to do is go to Rad and do some test riding.
I just want a sturdy realy comfortable bike with good range and okay speed

[Eric7]

If this is your first electric bike, you should go for a test ride first.  You have the right idea.

It was not what I thought.  It is much bigger and, for the same wheel size and frame size. More maintenance is required because the bike is not more complicated. It is fun but a slightly different kind of fun.

A 32 Kg ebike is not a 11 Kg road bike or even a 16 Kg utility bike.

Have fun.

[Bike4living]

Thanks but i am realy experiented in ebikes i think lol.
I did ride alot of ebikes even home made ones....
But then again i want a way more sturdy and comfort on my next bike and speed within limits so 32km per hour is good enough...
And offcource the range is realy important