Banzai
Active Member
I recently added a third RAD Power Bike to my collection. This time it was a white Mini and although each bike is completely different in design, all provide excellent service as a means of transportation. As with the other bikes the Mini got its break-in run in a nearby off-road section of the Mojave Desert where I live just to see how it would behave in a variety of situations. Glancing over its design and components revealed that everything about the Mini was built tough and would endure well over the long haul. The Mini is now equipped with front suspension forks and offers a smoother ride, and little touches like the folding pedals make it easier to park in tight places. I would like to eventually list the differences shown by each, but overall found the RAD Power Bikes are a much better investment than throwing away money on gasoline.
This Mini was the quickest to set up for operation now that I'm becoming an expert at assembling e-bikes, and the best thing is that I also now have a spare battery to use with two of the bikes if ever necessary. Purchased by itself, a battery will cost $550. A nice benefit having an extra battery available is that at the same time I get another bike for just $850. The bike was delivered by UPS and it obviously had a rough trip because exactly what we all fear happened and the left fork was protruding from the box. The upper part of that same fork appears to have been dragged with the box on its side scraping a section of paint down to the aluminum. Otherwise everything looks straight and there wasn't any difficulty installing the front wheel and the shocks are working perfectly. Placing the battery on charge before completing assembly revealed that it already had a full charge, and I took the Mini for its initial test run with mostly successful results.
The derailleur assembly was set perfectly at the factory and shifting up and down thru all gears didn't require adjustment. The front brake needed some adjustment and I pumped 30 pounds of air into each tire. On the following day I switched to Sunlite Northroad Touring Handlebars made of aluminum alloy that I purchased previously from Amazon. Mounting required a set of 25.4 to 31.8MM handle bar shims and 1.1/8 outer diameter rubber spacers for 3/4 diameter pipe on either side of the stem for mounting the readout screen. Noticing the mountain bike handlebars originally equipped on the Mini had me leaning forward to reach the grips, these new handlebars sit at the perfect height and place the grips higher and closer allowing me to sit upright on my very comfortable Electric Bike Company leather seat and chrome Suntour SP12-NCX suspension seat post borrowed temporarily from my RADCity Step-Thru.
In only two days I had the Mini set up perfectly the way I will be riding it, but I still have a Suntour SP12-NCX and Cloud Nine seat on the way from Amazon intended for my Mini. I mounted a metal basket on the rear rack, and the final touch was adding a Mirrycle mirror. I don't plan on ever folding up the Mini, but not sure how these new cruiser bars will adapt to that if ever necessary. The cable lengths are all adequate for mounting the new handlebars provided the stem extension remains at its lowest position. All the controls and grips transferred perfectly to the new bars. However, when attempting to fold the handlebar stem over it became obvious the front brake cable would need to be disconnected from the lever or need a new extended length cable installed. Otherwise even trying to raise the stem could require all new extended cables and possibly even a new extended controller wire. Fortunately for me, this may never be necessary.
I took the Mini on a little shake-down cruise down my running course and the rear brakes started squeaking so I stopped to adjust them. I used the card trick to get spacing between the pads and rotor and that did the trick. 30 pounds of air in the tires proved to be too much because the steering behaved really squirrely in soft sand. When I returned home I tightened up all the bolts and dropped the tire pressure down to 20 pounds. Subsequent rides had me dropping tire pressure down even further and I finally settled on 10 pounds resolving all the previous issues when hitting patches of soft sand on fast paced downhills. This is where the Rover excels in handling and there is never a thought of hesitation before descending.
Bumps are more noticeable when riding the Mini off-road but the lower height of the frame allows for better control when maneuvering it in difficult situations. At lower pressures the tires will just roll over soft sand and in combination with front shocks and seat suspension, will help absorb a lot of the shock of riding on rough and washboard surfaces. Overall the Rover is better conditioned for off road riding, for instance when turning on soft surfaces the Mini shows a tendency for the front tire to wash out throwing the bike off balance. As such the rider should be prepared to put a foot down to maintain stability.
Pedaling uphill without power assist is more difficult on the Mini compared to the Rover. Pedaling the entire mile up the 10% grade to my house would be a real effort, but of course is still entirely possible with the Mini. Using power assist is similar to riding the RADCity Step-Thru - faster when using pedal assist than when using only the throttle. The Bafang hub on the Mini doesn't currently demonstrate the low end gutsy power of the Rover, but there is enough power to start out from a dead stop in deep soft sand. Like any other avid off-roader there are always those times when having a little more power might eliminate some of those impromptu 5-point surface inspections.
Never actually viewing a Mini until it arrived, the Mini is bigger than I was anticipating. Mini obviously refers to the 20 inch tire size because with 26 inch wheels this bike would stand taller than the typical full size bike. Fortunately the height of the top tube on the Mini frame sits lower and the bike is easier to mount for those of us standing less than 6 feet tall. I would think that even kids from the age of 12 who can belt out Alaska John's RADMini song should be bunny hopping the Mini in no time. One final point is that even though the industry is leading in a direction toward adopting mid-drive power units with automatic shifting, I can't see how any of that would bring any additional precision to this area that is already perfectly suited for using hub units. Time will tell if RAD Power Bikes follows the trend to eventually offer a fully integrated mid-drive commuter or a mountain bike with full suspension to their inventory. Until such a time actually arrives however, I certainly don't need to be concerned at all about how I'll be getting from point A to point B - ever.
This Mini was the quickest to set up for operation now that I'm becoming an expert at assembling e-bikes, and the best thing is that I also now have a spare battery to use with two of the bikes if ever necessary. Purchased by itself, a battery will cost $550. A nice benefit having an extra battery available is that at the same time I get another bike for just $850. The bike was delivered by UPS and it obviously had a rough trip because exactly what we all fear happened and the left fork was protruding from the box. The upper part of that same fork appears to have been dragged with the box on its side scraping a section of paint down to the aluminum. Otherwise everything looks straight and there wasn't any difficulty installing the front wheel and the shocks are working perfectly. Placing the battery on charge before completing assembly revealed that it already had a full charge, and I took the Mini for its initial test run with mostly successful results.
The derailleur assembly was set perfectly at the factory and shifting up and down thru all gears didn't require adjustment. The front brake needed some adjustment and I pumped 30 pounds of air into each tire. On the following day I switched to Sunlite Northroad Touring Handlebars made of aluminum alloy that I purchased previously from Amazon. Mounting required a set of 25.4 to 31.8MM handle bar shims and 1.1/8 outer diameter rubber spacers for 3/4 diameter pipe on either side of the stem for mounting the readout screen. Noticing the mountain bike handlebars originally equipped on the Mini had me leaning forward to reach the grips, these new handlebars sit at the perfect height and place the grips higher and closer allowing me to sit upright on my very comfortable Electric Bike Company leather seat and chrome Suntour SP12-NCX suspension seat post borrowed temporarily from my RADCity Step-Thru.
In only two days I had the Mini set up perfectly the way I will be riding it, but I still have a Suntour SP12-NCX and Cloud Nine seat on the way from Amazon intended for my Mini. I mounted a metal basket on the rear rack, and the final touch was adding a Mirrycle mirror. I don't plan on ever folding up the Mini, but not sure how these new cruiser bars will adapt to that if ever necessary. The cable lengths are all adequate for mounting the new handlebars provided the stem extension remains at its lowest position. All the controls and grips transferred perfectly to the new bars. However, when attempting to fold the handlebar stem over it became obvious the front brake cable would need to be disconnected from the lever or need a new extended length cable installed. Otherwise even trying to raise the stem could require all new extended cables and possibly even a new extended controller wire. Fortunately for me, this may never be necessary.
I took the Mini on a little shake-down cruise down my running course and the rear brakes started squeaking so I stopped to adjust them. I used the card trick to get spacing between the pads and rotor and that did the trick. 30 pounds of air in the tires proved to be too much because the steering behaved really squirrely in soft sand. When I returned home I tightened up all the bolts and dropped the tire pressure down to 20 pounds. Subsequent rides had me dropping tire pressure down even further and I finally settled on 10 pounds resolving all the previous issues when hitting patches of soft sand on fast paced downhills. This is where the Rover excels in handling and there is never a thought of hesitation before descending.
Bumps are more noticeable when riding the Mini off-road but the lower height of the frame allows for better control when maneuvering it in difficult situations. At lower pressures the tires will just roll over soft sand and in combination with front shocks and seat suspension, will help absorb a lot of the shock of riding on rough and washboard surfaces. Overall the Rover is better conditioned for off road riding, for instance when turning on soft surfaces the Mini shows a tendency for the front tire to wash out throwing the bike off balance. As such the rider should be prepared to put a foot down to maintain stability.
Pedaling uphill without power assist is more difficult on the Mini compared to the Rover. Pedaling the entire mile up the 10% grade to my house would be a real effort, but of course is still entirely possible with the Mini. Using power assist is similar to riding the RADCity Step-Thru - faster when using pedal assist than when using only the throttle. The Bafang hub on the Mini doesn't currently demonstrate the low end gutsy power of the Rover, but there is enough power to start out from a dead stop in deep soft sand. Like any other avid off-roader there are always those times when having a little more power might eliminate some of those impromptu 5-point surface inspections.
Never actually viewing a Mini until it arrived, the Mini is bigger than I was anticipating. Mini obviously refers to the 20 inch tire size because with 26 inch wheels this bike would stand taller than the typical full size bike. Fortunately the height of the top tube on the Mini frame sits lower and the bike is easier to mount for those of us standing less than 6 feet tall. I would think that even kids from the age of 12 who can belt out Alaska John's RADMini song should be bunny hopping the Mini in no time. One final point is that even though the industry is leading in a direction toward adopting mid-drive power units with automatic shifting, I can't see how any of that would bring any additional precision to this area that is already perfectly suited for using hub units. Time will tell if RAD Power Bikes follows the trend to eventually offer a fully integrated mid-drive commuter or a mountain bike with full suspension to their inventory. Until such a time actually arrives however, I certainly don't need to be concerned at all about how I'll be getting from point A to point B - ever.
