RadRunner 1 - Max Climbing Ability

[se-riously]

After having the RadRunner for one month, I wanted to test what it could do on the San Francisco hills fully loaded.  With a battery at 65%, pedal assist set at "4", max throttle, and a 340 lb payload (2 adults + cargo), I'd say the maximum a RadRunner 1 can climb is a 10% grade, and that's with me pedaling hard.  With a 7-mile ride with this 340 lb payload, 341-feet overall climb in elevation, 223-feet overall drop in elevation, and no climb exceeding 10% grade, I used ~22% of the battery capacity.

If you routinely run into these kinds of grades to move such heavy loads over large distances where your battery will be more depleted as the ride continues, for maximum bang-for-buck I'd suggest a Bolton controller + display upgrade to get the extra power, rather than getting a RadRunner Plus with the gears.  The gears will help with slow hill climbing and top unassisted speed so you're not pedaling super fast, but you'll wish you had the extra power to begin with.

Again, my test is with a 340 lb load, which is 40 pounds more than the stated maximum on Rad's website.

[Radio Runner]

On flat land I routinely spin out the stock 52x16 gear ratio anyway and just ride the throttle so I choose to swap out the front chainring to a 50t and the rear freewheel to a 17t. This gets up serious hills yet still makes for a solid cadence on flatland.