I'm 6'3" and 270 lbs and I've had my two his/her Radrovers since Sept/2016. I have around 3600 miles between both bikes. The wife doesn't ride hers as much as I do and I end up using both for work/fun rides (keep wear/tear/mileage the same for both). When I was looking last year, it was only a choice between Sondors, Volt, and Rad in the same price range. It was my first ebike after getting back into biking a few years ago after a +20 year break.
You will get use to how a fat tire bike rides and there are a lot of benefits with the extra size like instant conversation starter, smoother ride on rough surfaces at any speed, easy to transition for smooth roads to rough dirt trails with a minimal drop in ride quality or speed, can handle sandy conditions that would stop thinner tires, and you can make your own trail if you need to ride around obstacles.
A lot of these fat tire ebikes are very similar in style and features to almost in the same way trying to pick from a Accord, Camry, or Altima sedans. I dug a little deeper to see if there were any features that might be useful for daily commuting and trail riding (my list from a year ago).
I went with a 2016 model Radrover (in black and white) because:
- looked like a more upright riding position compared to Volt, less stress on arms and shoulders, I could go for longer rides.
- ergo hand grips, lessen the effects of "numb hands"
- the Rad had adjustable forks with lock out
- the Rad had 180mm front/rear brakes, extra size brakes comes in handy for emergency stops at +270lbs and +20 mph
- easy to adjust the motor cut off speed from the standard 20 mph down to 7 mph or up to a little under 25 mph with a few presses in the set-up screen.
- narrower handle bars, helps keep less stress on upper body, narrow handle bars help with obstacles on narrow single track trails.
- three bottle cage connections (either side of upper top tube near handle bars, one on down tube facing the ground)
- throttle has a red on/off switch, you can turn it on when needed
- throttle power is available at full 750w power in PAS 0-5. Very handy for getting across busy intersections, short inclines to boost your speed, if you need to push you Rad up a hill, or riding around obstacles that would hit the pedals in PAS. I even used the throttle to help push my Rad up a flight of stairs.
- the Radrover is a 4" fat tire bike with ebike components added. I can remove all ebike components and add to another fat tire bike, upgrade components like the battery/controller/hub motor, convert the rad into a mid-drive, or just remove all ebike components and turn the rover into a regular fat tire bike. A little harder to do all those things with a ebike with an integrated battery in the frame.
- customer service, communications, and warranty claims has been 100% in my book
I did have to make some mods to my Rover to fit me a little better like adding:
- Sunlite 0-60 degree adjustable stem
- Sunlite 11.5X12.5 Cloud-9 cruiser seat
- Suntour SP-12 NCX 400mm suspension seatpost
- 1859 Northwest ebike throttle attachment
- BM Works Speed Extender for the handlebar for my cell iphone 6S Plus and headlight (rover handlebars too crowded and curved too much to add directly there)
