Questions from a new Rad Rover 6 Plus Owner

[cmoses]

I have been looking at E-Bikes and have a neighbor that purchased two Rad Rover 6 Pluses last year around Thanksgiving.  They have been very pleased with theirs so I have been watching the prices.  When I saw the summer sale and the price drop I decide to pull the trigger.  I ordered my Rad Rover 6 Plus on Monday 06/19 and received it via FedEx today 06/23.  The box was a little beat up, but everything inside seemed fine.  I put the bike together this afternoon along with the instructional video on YouTube.  I haven't ridden a bike in a while so I don't have any recent experiences to compare to.  Here are my questions.

1. Before riding I tested everything as per the setup video.  I am not familiar with hydraulic brakes, but am under the impression that they should be better than regular brakes.  While testing it just walking along side the bike and braking the rear brakes felt a bit weak to me.  The front brakes seemed fine.  I went to the end of my street which is a cul-de-sac and did some test riding on a flat area.  I had the same experience while riding.  The rear brakes were working but felt very weak.  Even pulling the brake lever all the way would slow me but not fully stop me very quickly.  I had to use the front brakes to assist.  The fronts seem to be working just fine and are much stronger.  As I recall from riding bikes when younger, the rear should be able to stop you efficiently on flat level ground.  This is not the case.  Is there an adjustment or something I should be looking for on the brakes, the rotor or the hand brake mechanism to try and adjust it?  The rotor looks like it is centered right between the brake mechanism.  I can see it clamping on when I pull the brake lever.  It just does not seem very powerful. 

2. I mounted the light per the instruction video.  When I was riding and it got dark I turned the light on.  I could see it was shining partially on the front tire.  I adjust it, so it wasn't hitting the tire, but then it also didn't appear to really shine on the road.  Is this just the quirks of the standard light?  Do other people have this issue with the stock light?  I have the light mounted as high as it can go in the standard mounting position. 

3.  When riding with even Pedal Assist on level 1.  The bike would sometimes switch gears without me clicking the gear changer.  Is this normal?  Does it automatically compensate for going up and down hills?

Any help or assistance with the above questions will be greatly appreciated.

Thanks 

[JimInPT]

It seems like your bike needs a little newly-assembled tweaking and adjusting.  I assume you're not too experienced with bike maintenance?  If so, find a local bike shop to go over it and test/adjust everything not only to get it running right but to make sure it's solidly and safely assembled.  You never know not only what you, but the Rad factory as well, might have missed.  I was away from bicycles for decades before buying my MiniST2, and my decades of motorcycles didn't help much, so I carted my unopened Rad box over to my local shop to have them assemble, mount the Rad rear rack I'd bought and fully-tune it up for $150, money well spent.  They aren't an e-bike shop, but had assembled 3 Rads within the past week and were happy to have the business.  It was and is running like a Swiss watch two years on, even after hundreds of miles and my own addition of hybrid-hydraulic brakes and a 35A controller upgrade along with other miscellany to make it mine.

In fact, see if you can get ahold of Rad service while you're still under their 14-day trial period and explain to them what you've written here (as you may have noticed, getting ahold of Rad service these days can be a pain in the butt, but if you happen to live near one of their stores, call to let them know you want to bring it in) and see if they have a local dealer certified to work on Rads - at a minimum their warranty should cover brake fixing and shifter alignment.

Even if there's no Rad-certified dealer locally, any bike shop should be capable of working on all the "bikey" mechanical parts of the bike (and Rad should either pay the bill or reimburse you) - you may have to talk them into it if they're afraid of e-bikes, but e-bikes are a big part of the future of bike shops too, so they're going to have to learn and like I said the "bikey" stuff should be no sweat to them.  No, your derailleur should NOT change gears 'automatically' - that sounds like a simple adjustment a bike shop could do blindfolded if you don't want to learn how yourself.  Same for the brakes, which just may be a little low on fluid.

Most non-ebike-certified shops seem to be very reluctant to touch the electrics, but setting up your headlight properly should be no sweat, although I regard Rad lights (any of them, including the post-sale "premium" lights) to be mostly decorative and so poorly designed and lensed to be still on my bike only as an emergency backup to my main light ( https://amzn.to/44kmCQy ) which is a fantastic light I highly recommend, although I almost never ride at night, the slow-strobe is phenomenal for visibility to others during daylight hours and lasts a long time on a charge by strobing instead of staying on).

Good luck and have fun!

[Bigboom338]

Another option is YouTube. A friend of mine bought a SOB bike and I had to do some tuning on it, YouTube has videos for adjusting everything but your light issue. LED lights are more like flood lights than spot lights,  meaning they don't project very far out in front of you. I have determined that the factory Rad lights are more like daytime driving lights.