Rad the worst e-bikes on the market

[Rady]

Hello Rad community:
A normal bicycle steel frame, for example a Trek 970 from 1991, lasts for 200'000 miles or even more. No issues. Replacing the usual spare parts, that's it. Cost per year USD 200,- max..
I have the Radwagon, 1'000 miles on it and I've had all issues. Motor, controller, cables, throttle, battery would not charge, brakes, hubs (not right sealed), bottom bracket. Almost everything is ready for the trash. Ok, Rad is replacing, but this takes weeks and months and a many e-mails and calls.
The Radwagon is just not a good bike, it is not reliable. Compared to the Trek 970 from 1991 it is nothing. Compared to every other bike that I've had or have it's also nothing.
An e-bike has to last at least 30'000 miles without issues. Even more, if it has to replace a car.
No of the Rad Power Bikes lasts as long as 30'000 miles. What Rad does is very bad. Mostly bad stuff form China, bad quality, bad electronic and mechanical parts, very bad durability. Very, very, very bad for the environment! Time consuming for the customers and Rad people. And like this, Rad does not even make good money, if most of the customers have to contact their customer service and get new replacement parts.
With only a little more money they could build bikes like the Trek 970 from 1991. China can also produce good quality that lasts for a long time.
All this is very sad for the good geometries of the Rad bikes.
Shame on Rad! Only seeing money without having satisfied customers won't be working in the short or long run. Nobody would buy cars as bad as Rad Power Bikes.

[Hehateme]

Trek 970 is not an ebike or cargo bike. Weird comparison.
You should walk instead.


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[fin_rad]

@Rady, do you happen to work for The Daily Rider in Washington?

But to be honest, if not a troll this could be a true real life case. Seen many like this in car forums, where brand new cars (even so called premium brands) just gets broken in any possible ways. Not many, just a few but still. And who got problems, make most noise. Who are happy, mostly stay quiet.

And yes, Rad Power Bikes do not use the highest quality (and priced) parts. Keeping this in mind and doing regular maintenance tasks you can do thousands of miles with Rad bikes (just Google it).

To be honest, if my Rad would have been more expensive I never bought it. And I got it on sale just 1200 euros...

[sloppy]

You want to sell it? 

[fin_rad]

Some experiences from Rad ebike owners...

This guy did over 5000 miles in about 3 and half years with his RadRover without any bigger trouble:
https://youtu.be/T2ZU2RGXtzc

And this guy over 3500 miles in 11 months:
https://youtu.be/zwW_Hyn_P3w
... Until he had enough and changed to a DIY ebike...

Youtube is full of Rad ebike reviews, you can get a quite good understanding what can get broken etc. with Rads.

[sloppy]

The Stan guy kinda cracks me up.  The wally world Mongoose that he build is way more of a POS base bike that any radpower bike.  I built a DIY ebike using a mongoose Mack and the thing is not nice and no way it will hold up.  I just did it to mess around with and when I run across a decent frame to upgrade to that. 

I will be surprised if his DIY walgoose lasts 6 months.

[fin_rad]

The Stan guy kinda cracks me up.  The wally world Mongoose that he build is way more of a POS base bike that any radpower bike.  I built a DIY ebike using a mongoose Mack and the thing is not nice and no way it will hold up.  I just did it to mess around with and when I run across a decent frame to upgrade to that. 

I will be surprised if his DIY walgoose lasts 6 months.

Well, this guy has done over 10000 km (6200+miles) with his DIY ebike, and his frame nor the e-kit is not that nice either: https://bendurham.ca/transportation/ebikes/diy-ebike-1000km-update-april-2018/ (look for other blog link for the 10000 km update)

Actually, like he mentions on his blog, the look of his bike will not make thiefs much interested in it. And I believe it...

[sloppy]

Right.  And I have a very similar bike.  I would say that Raleigh is a slight step up from a mongoose.  but still its not at the level of rad bike.  and all of them will require repairs and will wear faster than a high end bike. 

My point was just that if he rides that walgoose for a year and has zero problems he isn't telling the truth.

The bottom bracket on the Mongoose I built is already junk.  I have about 70 miles on it.  The disk brakes on it are total garbage. the derailleurs are pretty bad.  I had to switch out handlebars and stem to a 1 1/8" adapter because the quill stem it had was so flexy it was scary..

With that said I rode to work yesterday and home 20 miles round trip. The bike made it I didn't die and it was a cheap build.  But I would not in anyway say that the bike felt better while riding the my radwagon.  It is faster but thats about it. 

[fin_rad]

Sure you can built ebikes like these, that cost next to nothing. But I would never want to ride one myself... These cheap bicycles just can't be safe - front fork, frame, wheels etc. If they crack on speed, well good luck! And add the extra stress that electric motor causes to the components that were not originally designed for ebike use, you will only get more problems.

[rheine3]

I run some biggie BBS boards and I see this all the time. Pro trolls, first post. 

[fin_rad]

Yeah, that user Rady seems to have only this single post on this forum... And never came back after that.

And that video from Youtube user Stan I posted here earlier... He seems to be riding his Rad still, no news about his DIY ebike though:
https://youtu.be/UZKhIay5Ox8

[Ryan]

Agreed, I debated removing this thread when I saw it, but it just gives us all the opportunity to talk about how this has not been our own experience. 3,200 miles and have only replaced break pads 

[captgh]

Trolls hit and run.

[RMM]

My experience thus far isn't great.  I want to love the bike, but cannot yet.  I have 120 miles on my rad delivered in July and already had to replace a brake caliper and waiting on a new controller from rad to see if it fixes the dreaded error 30.  They will replace parts but it takes 2.5 weeks to get a replacement.  I would have around 250 miles on it if it hadn't broken.  Really hope the part they are sending fixes it. 

I buy $1000 laptops from Dell with a 4 year warranty.  I call/email/chat them and they show up the next day with a technician with parts in hand.  Now Dell is a lot larger than rad and I don't need the technician but if they could 2 day ship instead of 10 day ship parts, I'd be a lot happier. 

[Ryan]

My experience thus far isn't great.  I want to love the bike, but cannot yet.  I have 120 miles on my rad delivered in July and already had to replace a brake caliper and waiting on a new controller from rad to see if it fixes the dreaded error 30.  They will replace parts but it takes 2.5 weeks to get a replacement.  I would have around 250 miles on it if it hadn't broken.  Really hope the part they are sending fixes it. 

I buy $1000 laptops from Dell with a 4 year warranty.  I call/email/chat them and they show up the next day with a technician with parts in hand.  Now Dell is a lot larger than rad and I don't need the technician but if they could 2 day ship instead of 10 day ship parts, I'd be a lot happier.

I don't want to downplay your frustrations since it is annoying to get a new product with issues. However, many ebike companies have had to pivot to a pre-order business model which means that any delays just get passed directly to the customer. For some customers Rad has actually given discounts or offered customers to cancel their order. If we weren't in a pandemic I can guarantee you would have been back up and running much quicker. Yes, it sucks but Rad will make it right - which can't be said for every other ebike company with less resources.