Your Opinions Please

[jimboesq]

I am a male, age 70, 6' 4", 270#, active, looking to purchase my first e-bike. I would like the option to buy a dog carrier and take my 65# Lab with me occasionally. I plan to ride mostly on the streets or smooth dirt paths. I am more interested in reliability, comfort, safety, and power than speed, or distance or performance. Some of the Rad models suggest that 6'2" is the maximum, and 2 models are recommended up to 6'4''. Your thoughts and opinions are appreciated!   

[Rover]

Probably a good idea to do a test ride if possible. And know too you can get a longer seat post if needed and for some RAD models you can get a handle bar extender to raise it too. Both those things might affect your ability to have one of these great bikes.

[JimInPT]

I assume your doggo would go in a trailer?  That's a lot of weight and a very high C.G. if doggo was in a rack basket.

Since it would be your first, see if you can find somebody knowledgeable to assist you - what I'm thinking is a recent used Rover 5 that either already has or you could add the 35A controller upgrade onto for enough power to haul all that weight spiffily up hills.  It's an easy upgrade and a used bike would be a good deal, but if you're new to ebikes you might not have a good feel for what you're looking at. 

My sister had that problem; she rode my MiniST and later decided she wanted an ebike.  Found a very clean and low-mile Lectric XP for a great price, got it home and it had serious problems that she didn't know how to look for or negotiate about because she didn't know enough about them.  Turns out she didn't even fully understand the relationship between pedal-assist and throttle and thought the broken system was the way it was supposed to be.  If I wasn't 200 miles away and unaware she was about to buy, I would have helped.

Since you can't upgrade the new Rover series (yet), I'm recommending a Rover 5 stepthrough in good condition with (at least eventually) the 35A upgrade and a dog trailer.  Easy-peasy, but not for a newbie so I hope you can find somebody to look prospects over.  Good luck finding the right setup!

[James5v]

I just ordered a RAD city 4.  From everything I saw from my research this is the best value being $600 cheaper than the RAD city 5.  I like the specs on the 5 but just felt the 4 was a much better value and was all I need.  I am 71 y/o male and plan to ride almost exclusively on pavement.

[Hugh]

I just took a test ride using a trailer, and my 75 pound dog.  Trailer is outfitted with 100 psi 700c tires.    Mandatory use of  the pedal assist on any hill.  Throttle seems to provide slightly less power than the pedal assist on hills.  Must be due to my added human sourced energy input.  Speed ranges between 7, an 14 mph uphill.  Better to forget the affordable price, and get a category 3 e bike for towing a large dog in a trailer.  I have to wait for a Bolton controller to increase the motor torque which should help.  Meantime I will use my cat 3 e bike for towing.  Much faster uphill.