New Radrunner owneron,

B

Baddog2018

New Member
I charged the bike for three days before I got the bike lights to come on, the charger lights were always red, green when I looked. Day 4 and I rode less than a mile when cut off, plug in the charger, red, green lights came only. About two hours later I checked now I have red, red light, as alway charging overnight. Day five rode bike about three miles, plug in charger red red lights, charging overnight. Day 6 rode bike about 3 miles battery cut off I’m a block from home. I walk it home, plug it and red, green lights. charged overnight. Day 7 I ride about 7 miles the battery cuts out again, I pushed it home , and plug in the charger red, green lights, I check the charger lights 3 or 4 times before red, red lights on the charger. Day 8 short ride everything went well. Day 9 went for a longer ride, battery cut out at about 6 or 7 miles, l pushed, pedaled, the 2 miles home, plug in the charger red, green lights. I think the battery needs to be replaced, what do you think? Don
 
Several things could be at play. Controller, charger and/or battery. Is the bike new or used when purchased? I have experience good customer service from Rad in the past. Hopefully they can help you sort it out.
 
If you don't already have a volt meter, I think you're going to need one.

When you are riding, are you pushing it? Like riding wide open or in PAS5? Or are you cooling it, Riding in PAS1 while contibuting with a little help of your own?
 
I agree with Codydog, would contact Rad also. Too many parameters.
 
I have been emailing Rad every day, seem to think the battery will some how balance out by it’s self. The bike is new. The charger voltage is always 54.5. I’m 72 and ride in pas 1 and 2, mostly. I live in Florida, biggest hill is 55 feet. When the battery is in it’s locked out state it has 0 volts, when not locked and fully charged 54.2 volts. Don
 
What is the voltage as measured right after it quits?
 
How long does it take for the charger to go from red/red to red/green? "Overnight" could mean 15 minutes, or the full 7-8 hours for a fully discharged battery.

Guessing here, but either you've got a loose cable connection that is creating the symptoms of a nearly discharged battery, or you've got a short circuit somewhere in the system that is emptying the battery very rapidly. On another thread someone was having a problem with a short in the tail light dropping the battery apparent voltage causing what looked like unrelated problems. You can disconnect the tail light by just disconnecting one cable.
 
Pretty sure a short able to discharge a fully charged battery as described here would be generating smoke...

Second the thought regarding a bad/erratic connection. That might be confirmed with a voltage reading over 50v or so when it quits....

A voltage reading somewhere in the low to mid 40's might point at a charger or a battery issue....
 
AHicks said:
Pretty sure a short able to discharge a fully charged battery as described here would be generating smoke...
Click to expand...
You would be wrong, because that scenario would blow the 40A fuse. And if you will read what I actually wrote, you'll notice that I asked the OP to tell us the battery charging time, which would differentiate an apparent voltage drop situation from an actually discharged battery. Another possibility is a defective battery, where only a subset of the cell packs are actually hooked up, thus while showing 54 v charged, the nominal 14.8Ah is a much lower number. THAT could be discharged quickly without cooking it off.
 
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Don, one other thing to look at. Your battery has a crude built in meter. Near the front of the nose there is a push button that lights up to 4 built in LEDs. With the battery key in the ON position, push that button and see how many LEDs light up. Do this before charging, then after charging, and again when the bike shuts off due to low voltage. A fully charged battery will show one red and three green LEDs (confusing, I know). A signficiantly less than full battery will show one red and 0 to 2 green LEDs.
 
legsofbeer said:
How long does it take for the charger to go from red/red to red/green? "Overnight" could mean 15 minutes, or the full 7-8 hours for a fully discharged battery.

Guessing here, but either you've got a loose cable connection that is creating the symptoms of a nearly discharged battery, or you've got a short circuit somewhere in the system that is emptying the battery very rapidly. On another thread someone was having a problem with a short in the tail light dropping the battery apparent voltage causing what looked like unrelated problems. You can disconnect the tail light by just disconnecting one cable.
Click to expand...
This would create the smoke I'm thinking of. As far as the 40a fuse is concerned, the wire size required to blow that would have to be considerable - thinking quite a bit bigger than a tail light wire for instance - but maybe not. In any case, I think it safe to eliminate the potential of our issue being a "short" pulling the battery down. That's my opinion though. You are welcome to your own, of course! -Al
 
When the battery is charged and not locked out the lights on battery light up when I push the switch. When the battery is not working or locked out the lights do nothing. At that point if I take the battery off the bike the voltage is 0, plug in the charger now 54.2. The charger are red, green. The fuses are both good. As to how long the charger is plugged in 12 to 14 hours every night, as to both red lights on I don’t know. I check often but I have only seen both red lights a few times, and the charger is warm at that time. I don’t think it charges more than a hour when the battery charges. Don
 
It's probably not a bad idea to read the manual for the Rad Runner...
  • Remove the charger from the battery within one hour of the green light indicating a complete charge. The charger is designed to automatically stop charging when the battery is full, but unnecessary wear of the charging components could occur if the charger is left attached to the battery and a power source for longer than 12 hours. Detach the charger as soon as possible once the green light indicates a complete charge to avoid unnecessary wear of charging components.
  • Never charge a battery for more than 12 hours at a time.
Click to expand...
 
Yes I read the owners manual. I mapped out a 7 mile ride with my car. The Radrunner began great, 25psi in both tires, mostly pas 1&2. Three blocks short of the house the bike power cut out again. No warning. No lights on battery or bike. I plug in the charger red green lights only. 30 minutes later, the charger red green still and charger cool to the touch. No lights on bike or battery.
 
Warm charger not unusual. Not in my experience anyway.

The rest of it, I think you'll need to be patient and let RAD deal with it. They're a good company, even if they are taking their time to get back with you.

I think the warning regarding not letting the charger run for more than 12 hours may have something to do with the fact your original note indicated you had charged it for 3 days....
 
AHicks said:
Warm charger not unusual. Not in my experience anyway.

The rest of it, I think you'll need to be patient and let RAD deal with it. They're a good company, even if they are taking their time to get back with you.

I think the warning regarding not letting the charger run for more than 12 hours may have something to do with the fact your original note indicated you had charged it for 3 days....
Click to expand...
Yes and this line... "As to how long the charger is plugged in 12 to 14 hours every night," just pointing out what Rad says. It apparently doesn't apply here but in general I'm surprised by the amount of people who buy a Rad but don't read the manual. I know of several people who didn't bother to read about the battery balancing when theirs was new.
 
After today’s ride I checked the charger red and green lights every 15 minutes, at the 2 hour and 15 minutes mark the went red red as I was standing next to the bike, the charger lights went back to red and green before the 45 minute mark, but the charger was still warm. Don
 
Baddog2018 said:
Yes I read the owners manual. I mapped out a 7 mile ride with my car. The Radrunner began great, 25psi in both tires, mostly pas 1&2. Three blocks short of the house the bike power cut out again. No warning. No lights on battery or bike. I plug in the charger red green lights only. 30 minutes later, the charger red green still and charger cool to the touch. No lights on bike or battery.
Click to expand...
Sorry, I may have missed this, how many bars show on the display right before your power cuts out? Do you start with 5 bars and do the bars disappear over the course of your 7 mile ride, until they are all gone? (I have to really try to lose one bar in 7 miles.) If so, you have a problem beyond my ken. Probably a bad battery, if you start with 5 bars.

If you have multiple bars left when the power cuts out, you could have a controller problem, but my guess would be a connectivity issue somewhere. Pull apart every connection, spray a little dielectric spray on the contacts, something like ACF-50 Anti-Corrosion Spray, and put them back together. Pay attention to the battery/battery tray contacts. For those a dab of dielectric grease is best, in my opinion, although ACF-50 is fine for the short term.

I've had similar problems that were resolved this way.

Good news is that if this is a new bike you bought from Rad, they will get you back up and running.

TT
 
Tars- I don't think the 'Runners come with a display.

Agree Rad will have his back.....
 
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