Radwagon redo

[barato_bikes]

Hi all, for those looking to improve their radwagon - here are my list of improvements. There weren’t any commercially available analogs to what I wanted, so went the diy route:

- 52v bbhsd, Luna wolf battery
- gave up on using a derailleur with this thing, chain line issues, etc. so I used nuvinci n171 hub (fraction of the price of a rohloff) laced to velocity cliffhangers
- bmx bars
- hydraulic brakes (shimano) 2 pot rear 4 pot front
- lekkie cranks and 42t sprocket. The bbhsd cranks are made of an exclusive aluminum/cardboard alloy that will fail when you are taking your kid to school. Lekkie sprocket helps maintain chain line.
- surly extraterrestrial 2.5 tires
- diy lighting system (12v, bright)
- swapped out the dorky seat
- cnc’d steel torque plates (your dropouts don’t stand a chance without this!)
- white industries eno sprocket 22t
- cnc’d rack for ortlieb bags. Also allows me to use the Yepp maxi seat in the rearmost slot.
- surly ecr fork.

That’s it. Rode the stock radwagon for 900 miles and made a list of what sucked. Wanted something that would eat hills, go off-road, and bring a kid.

My list of gripes- The radwagon did not like hills, the brakes were terrible, the bags for the radwagon are not as good as ortliebs in design or quality, ergos were terrible due to frumpy dad seat and trying to climb a hill with the mary poppins handlebars was a no-go, proprietary tires are obnoxious, rads policy on selling parts only to registered owner is even more obnoxious.

[Thebenpink]

Sounds like a great rebuild!

I bought a used 2019 radwagon from a Friend and I'm trying to get my  head around all the mods he did—also using a bbhsd and 52v battery.

A few questions:

What did you do with the rear wheel? I'm currently looking at replacing the stock wheel with the DD Motor to shed weight and motor drag, but all the available 26" wheels i've found either have 14g spokes, or are only compatible with rim brakes.

Did you have any issues mounting the battery? Mine is currently held on with hose clamps, because my friend Couldn't get it to line up with the original battery bosses (and then lost the battery key, so I'm sorta stuck with this for now)

Also wondering what kind of range you are getting out of that set up. I used the programming cable to adjust some of the controller settings but I'm not happy with the way it's responding yet and would love to know your settings. Im looking for a balance between power and range. At full charge, my DC18 display tells me I'll have 21 miles of range, but I've gone further than that... I've also had to ride home 5 miles on dead battery and that was not a pleasure!

Would love to see pictures!

[barato_bikes]

Hey there, to answer your questions- the rear wheel is just sitting there. I strongly suggest just building your own wheel. Spokes are cheap! And can be bought to order off eBay once you figure out your cross pattern, etc. with one of the many spoke calculators.

Range is ok with this battery. Guessing it is about 20 miles with a full charge?

The Luna battery came with a magnetic mount. I had to break off the tabs on one side to get the battery back in. It is a tight fit!

One thing, the n171 hubs are $80 from Calder design. Pretty solid design. Get some extra fluid if buy one, they can leak.

Couple extra notes, rear dropouts are 140mm so you will need spacers. I also have the cad files for the torque plates if you need. Much better than stock. I can also make the them if anyone needs them.