Premium Headlight now Available

[Ryan]

Rad Power Bikes is now listing the premium headlight which was first announced with the 2020 RadRunner Plus. Looks like for now you can only put your email in to get notified. See below, it's $49:

not compatible with the front rack accessory

Rad Power Bikes Premium Light

[johndforney]

Unfortunately the Notes state that "not compatible with the front rack accessory".
I was hoping it would be compatible. Hoping someone comes up with adapter/bracket.

[Ryan]

Unfortunately the Notes state that "not compatible with the front rack accessory".
I was hoping it would be compatible. Hoping someone comes up with adapter/bracket.

I bet you could do something custom to make it work. Just need to make sure you have enough cord length and then find a good mounting point with a custom bracket.

[Ballermaris]

There are two mounts that are feasible. The one that came with the original light that was to mount on the post behind the rack or the one that came with the rack modification.

I ponder if it is not the size of the light regarding tire clearance. On the RadWagon that I just got, the clearances could be the deciding factor.

[jshill]

Does anyone have any comparison photos of the light patterns of the premium headlight vs. the standard Rover or mini light?

[Ryan]

Does anyone have any comparison photos of the light patterns of the premium headlight vs. the standard Rover or mini light?

I have not seen this yet - I plan to buy the light as soon as it is available and will definitely compare the two. I imagine they won't be available until we see the RadRunner Plus start to ship.

[yellowdirt]

Does anyone know of any alternative headlights that one could use for our Rad bikes?

I guess the wire connection is fairly standard in the Ebike world, so was curious if there were any alternative makes of LED headlights?

I guess how you mounted it would be a limiting factor though...

[Ryan]

Hi all, FYI Rad just made the Premium Headlight available for purchase: https://radpowerbikes.pxf.io/q4Jxnq

I picked one up so I'll have a video out on it ASAP. Use the link above to support the site - thanks!

[yellowdirt]

Thanks Ryan. Sadly not on the EU website yet. 

Still waiting for that and the fenders for the RadRunner to become available.

[Cru Jones 33]

I will probably have to get that and throw it on the Mini lol

[Ryan]

For those of you curious about the premium headlight here is my video on it:

https://youtu.be/up_J5PmKHbU

Ordered last week and it arrived yesterday.

[jshill]

After seeing Ryan's excellent video, I have to say that I think the Rad Premium headlight is a WASTE OF MONEY. It is, in fact, an improvement on the headlight that came with my 2020 Radmini4, but if I ride at night, it is NEARLY USELESS for lighting up the road. I have numerous after-market bar-mounted lights, all purchased for well under $50, that give MUCH BETTER LIGHTING. All are rechargeable, and although they do not have the CONVENIENCE of running off the Rad's battery, they have multiple lighting modes. In particular they have excellent FLASHING modes for daytime visibility. I usually do NOT even turn my mini's lights on any more.

By searching on Amazon or eBay, you can find MUCH BETTER LIGHTS for less money. The trade-off is you will need to recharge them.

[RadJohn]

Having run the new headlight on a RadMini 4 for about a week, I too agree it sucks, but a little less than the standard Rad headlight, and the jury's still out on whether it's worth $60 shipped.

HOWEVER, it does appear to be  StVZO compliant (or at least attempts to be), and ALL of those suck in terms of how much of the ground ahead of a cycle they illuminate compared to the traditional wall of light approach. Same thing with cars, they've all gone to projector and other shaped beams, flat on top to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. The aftermarket is full of things for both cycles and cars that will give you the ability to see as if in daylight (it's not rocket science, just stupid brute force), but they will also blind oncoming traffic to varying degrees. Cycle paths are worse than roads because opposing traffic passes within a few feet of a blinding sun cycle light, whereas there is usually a traffic lane worth of additional separation on a road. There's no doubt in my mind (well maybe a little) that thousands of nighttime head on  collisions have been caused by blinded drivers running into people with aftermarket/non-compliant lights, but nobody knows this because all the evidence is destroyed in the resulting horrific collisions.

So for now, I'm going to try to be a responsible citizen and try to get used to StVZO bike headlights, just like I have with the flat top beams of my car lights that don't reach down the road like in the days of yore (but I might add a supplemental light with a convenient handlebar switch, maybe even with momentary button).

Which brings us to some addition problems with the new Rad Premium Headlight:

It's heavy and tailheavy, with a relatively small pivot, so on bumpy surfaces the beam tends to tilt up unless the  pivot bolt its tightened to a force beyond what I think is normal/safe for a bolt of that size. I'm considering putting something like Park Tool Supergrip Carbon and Alloy Assembly Compound SAC-2 on the pivot faces to try to provide some stiction (there are other similar anti-slip compounds out there made for use with carbon frames/seatposts, that's just one I happen to have).

IF you have an mri-Denver bottle dual cage mount on your RadMini 4 (and maybe other Rads?), when you turn the fork, the back of the new Premium headlight can hit the bottle cages (at lest that's what happens with my Topeak Modula Cage IIs). This can be sorta kinda good if your headlight has tilted up as mentioned above, but it then usually pushes it too far down, which can also be a bummer. I'm going to make a spacer to move the headlight about an inch (~25.4 mm for those still using the metric system) further forward/out.     

[Veggyhed]

Well I guess I will not be purchasing the new light for my rad Mini 4.
Most of my riding is done at night commuting backwards and forwards to work. I do need a better light. Are there any suggestions?

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

[Ryan]

Well I guess I will not be purchasing the new light for my rad Mini 4.
Most of my riding is done at night commuting backwards and forwards to work. I do need a better light. Are there any suggestions?

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

I really like the Blaze from Planet Bike linked in this article. I use it all the time during the day now on flashing mode. In my video I compared it to the Rad Premium Headlight and it is awesome. https://ebikeescape.com/rad-power-bikes-premium-headlight-review/

I'm done with no-name bike lights. They just don't last over the long term.