1000 mile RadCity review

Valdis

New Member
This forum was helpful when I was picking an e-bike, so I thought I'd post my experiences for others after 1000 miles on the RadCity I bought.

I'm a heavier rider ( ~300 lbs when starting), and I use the bike on a commute of a few hilly, suburban miles to work a few times a week. Its taken 18 months to go 1000 miles due to a rainy year, winters and, at about 800 miles, a broken elbow from skidding on wet leaves that kept me off the bike for 2 months. The RadCity has been great for commuting, I can get to work in almost the same amount of time as in a car without being overly sweaty, and then I can turn the motor to a lower setting for the ride home for more exercise. I am in the best health I have been in since I was in college.

I have the shorter RadCity, but even at 6' 2", its still a good fit for both me and my wife who's almost a foot shorter. I usually ride the bike on setting 1, using 2 or 3 for busier roads to keep at 20 mph and 5 only for the bigger hills here.

I have had to have some repairs done. The pedal post rounded at one point and the pedal fell off. I had a bike shop install the replacement hub that Rad Power sent me under warranty. There's been a couple of flat tires as well as a broken spoke that I replaced myself. When the bike first arrived the gear protector was bent keeping the shifter from going past 5th gear, Rad Power sent me a replacement. Currently I can't get the bike to shift to 7th gear again, but I haven't had time to sort out why.

The most annoying thing about the bike is adjusting the brakes. There are a lot of stop signs where I live and so a lot of stop-go. I have to adjust them every few weeks and that rear one is particularly annoying because to adjust it you have to remove it completely. I need to upgrade to hydraulics, but Covid's delayed that plan. A smaller annoyance is that sometimes the hand throttle won't respond. You have to cycle the button to get it to work again. I can never be sure when its going to work, but its probably a bad habit to rely on it anyway.

The battery is starting to show signs of losing capacity, but still rarely goes lower than 4 bars out of 5. Getting a car rack for the bike was expensive, but unavoidable - a rack for such a heavy bike is going to be expensive. The medical bills for the elbow cost more than anything else anyway.

I don't regret getting the RadCity at all. I'm not the most gentle or lightest owner, and yet its had just the one significant problem. Looking forward to another 1000 miles.
 
Regarding the rear brake adjustment, you need to buy or make one of these (Allen wrench nub tool):




It makes a 15 minute PITA job into a 10 second simple task.

I have a lot of stop and go riding where I live also. I set the pads far enough apart that I can squeeze the brake levers just a bit to activate the regen function to slow me down without actually using the pads. I don’t think I’ll ever have to buy new pads as they almost never get used, except in the very rare emergency stop.

RangerDave
 

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That “skidding on wet leaves” is a winner. The last time I did that I was driving a police car maybe 20 years ago and as the car and I headed into the trees I still remember thinking “this is gonna hurt!”
 
Its time to post an update. This week I made it to 2000 miles on my RadCity. The second 1000 miles has been smoother than the first - no more falls. I finally got around to replacing the stock brakes with hydraulic ones this spring, and what a difference it makes. No more constant brake adjustment and decent gripping power. The installation wasn't hard at all. The other thing I learned was that I have to buy tubes for my wheels from RadPower. I tried tubes from the local bike shop and Amazon and they all split within weeks. The tubes from Radpower last much, much longer. I don't know if the problem is the bike is heavy, I'm heavy, or just rotten luck. I tried different brands, but nothing else works as well as the stock ones. Not sure what the secret is. I've also had to tighten the spokes a few times, I think the original tube punctured because of a loose spoke poking into it. The battery range continues to slowly decline, but its nowhere near a problem yet. Sometimes the bike gets down to 3 bars when going uphill on setting 5 on the way home. Finally, I replaced the back tire. Its tread was getting pretty worn, and the new tire has the white reflective ring on the side, so that's a nice improvement. The front tire still has plenty of wear left.

So the second 1000 was better than the first.
 
What tire pressure are you running? Should be no less than 55 and preferably 60 in your rear tire. The front can be 50 to 60. This is mainly to prevent flats and spoke stress. I have close to 5k on my 2019 city and have had almost every problem imaginable. Fixed them all myself.
 
That “skidding on wet leaves” is a winner. The last time I did that I was driving a police car maybe 20 years ago and as the car and I headed into the trees I still remember thinking “this is gonna hurt!”
Did the same during a massive caddis fly hatch that turned to road to grease.
 
Yesterday I reached 3000 miles on my RadCity. It continues to serve me well, the loss of battery life is noticeable but still not an issue given my short commute (around 10 miles/day).

RadPower continues to provide great support for the bike. Sometimes their response times can be a little long (one response earlier this summer took weeks), but they've always been very helpful. The major repairs this summer were replacing the chain and the derailleur hanger. The first job was no problem, but doing the adjustments after the second took a lot of trial and error. The hanger had gotten bent at some point and I thought I might as well do that when replacing the chain. The chain turned out to be the easier job. The chain was starting to slip when trying to peddle hard. The bike shop nearby said I had to replace the hub gears as well as the chain, but I only replaced the chain and it's been fine since then.

Using the tubes from RadPower continues to be a wise choice, flats have been much less of an issue this past year. I haven't adjusted my breaks since installing the hydraulics. They just work without all the fiddling. Also, no falls, I keep well away from leaves. My township put in a new multimodal path I can use too, so that's been a plus.
 
Sounds good!
The front wheel bearings only retain enough grease for 1k miles. I overlooked that and had to buy a rim/axle/cone nut assembly. The wear items are the rim and cone nuts. Getting it adjusted just right (no play and no drag) on the bearings takes experience. Better to have micro play than any friction.
A good way to see if gears are adjusted right is when stationary and off the bike, turn the pedals by hand backwards slowly. If there is any jumping or dragging sounds it’s out of adjustment and will kill the gears and chain soon. 7k miles on mine and 5k on wife’s so I’ve done lots of repairs and maintenance.
 
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