RadRover - $1000 Fat eBike .. why spend any more than this?

[Jan]

I gave you a "Like" for this one line! Anyone that can give me a laugh deserves a LIKE! Very funny especially the rehab bit. I know nothing about fat bikes, but removing money from the equation, I wouldn't let a season slip away without getting what I wanted or needed. As long as I could afford it....

Thanks. I love making people laugh, and I share your philosophy!

 

[Jan]

Jan, it seems like the key question you need answered is if a fat tire e bike will be able to allow you to negotiate that 1/2 mile path. While carrying your surfboard also. Either the TT or the RR have enough wattage and battery capacity to do the job and are probably close to apples to apples and the throttle is not a big deal and easy enough to work with, and probably easier actually in really loose sandy terrain. Is there any way that you can get the Pedego shop to let you take it and try it out? Even without your board you should be able to get a feel for if a fat bike is up to the task. If it works just get it. If it doesn't then the RR probably won't either.

Thank you JRA,
Excellent info. I did test drive the TT: fantastic on the street, tons of power and super comfortable. Unfortunately the shop is far from the sand area, but I could ask. I did "pull the trigger" on the RR. . . couldn't resist, but, oh, the wait: since I have never penetrated the emotional bubble of being perpetually 12 years old, delayed gratification is a true oxy-moron. Thus I will probably purchase the TT once I sell my carbon fiber cyclo-cross. The bike has been sitting in my office this whole winter and I finally rode it home to get it 'ready' for the auction block. It's hard to imagine that this bike used to be my "dream" machine. When I was pedaling it home, I felt so miserable: gone was the s%^$-eating grin that is glued to my pie-hole while gliding on my ebike. My vocalized profanity carried a more elevated tone and it flowed like hot air from a bar patron. Every motorist was a victim; even those parked. How did I ride that anorexic, 17lb piece of crap for so long?

 

[Mike Smith]

I heard from Radpower that the Radrover will have a Hengtai motor which wasn't listed in their description
This means nothing to me but perhaps others have more knowledge of Hengtai. I am really considering this bike, just wish I didn't have to wait until Aug for delivery.

 

[pxpaulx]

I heard from Radpower that the Radrover will have a Hengtai motor which wasn't listed in their description
This means nothing to me but perhaps others have more knowledge of Hengtai. I am really considering this bike, just wish I didn't have to wait until Aug for delivery.

They just updated the campaign. The first 60 bikes (already sold) are headed to production now and will arrive the end of June. If they reach $100k in total sales by next Monday they will place the 2nd container order to arrive the first week of July. If you get in now you won't be waiting as long as you might think!

 

[Mike Smith]

They just updated the campaign. The first 60 bikes (already sold) are headed to production now and will arrive the end of June. If they reach $100k in total sales by next Monday they will place the 2nd container order to arrive the first week of July. If you get in now you won't be waiting as long as you might think!

Any reason not to buy this bike? Any comments are welcome. Fat guy on a fat bike to exercise and lose some weight. Not as cool or stealth as I wanted but great features for the price. Would have a lot of extra cash to upgrade at this price if needed. Thanks in advance.

Mike
Towson, MD

 

[pxpaulx]

Any reason not to buy this bike? Any comments are welcome. Fat guy on a fat bike to exercise and lose some weight. Not as cool or stealth as I wanted but great features for the price. Would have a lot of extra cash to upgrade at this price if needed. Thanks in advance.

Mike
Towson, MD

I'm a fat guy on a fat bike (will exceed the weight limit on this one...). I already have a non-electric fat bike and I love it - the fat tires make for a very comfortable ride, my current bike has no suspension and it is much nicer riding than my Easy Motion Neo Xtrem e-bike (which I'm going to be selling).

To me this bike ticks every right box except that it is not a mid-drive. Thing is though, the out of the box mid drive fat bikes are going to run $3K to $6K, and DIY will be pretty close to $3K once you'be bought the battery and bike to go with the 2 or 3 options that are available. So, while a mid-drive would be ideal, the price on this is just too good to pass up. Heck, maybe in a year or two from now fat mid drive DIY options will be cheap enough that you could swap one in onto this bike, take the rear motor off and you'll already also have a great battery.

In the meantime this bike should be pretty upgrade-able. I received the full bike specs via email - the rear dropout is 187mm (call it 190 which is becoming the standard for fat bikes), I am sure it would accept an 8, 9 maybe even 10 speed rear freewheel cassette (em3ev has all 3 sizes with an extra low gearing tailored to e-bikes). I am thinking about swapping the fork out (I've read this fork is about 7lbs) for a carbon one - even a steel or aluminum one would save 4-5lbs on the front end. Swap in standard mtb tubes to save another 1.5lbs (or go tubeless for a little more weight savings), and I'm sure there are a few other places some weight can drop off to make this a 50lb bike instead of 60.

As another aside, I was ready to build up my current fat bike - the cost of doing that, with the same size battery from em3ev, was going to about $50 shy of the cost of this entire bike. At this price it just seems like a no-brainer with everything you're getting, imho.

 

[J.R.]

my carbon fiber cyclo-cross. The bike has been sitting in my office this whole winter and I finally rode it home to get it 'ready' for the auction block. It's hard to imagine that this bike used to be my "dream" machine. When I was pedaling it home, I felt so miserable: gone was the s%^$-eating grin that is glued to my pie-hole while gliding on my ebike. My vocalized profanity carried a more elevated tone and it flowed like hot air from a bar patron. Every motorist was a victim; even those parked. How did I ride that anorexic, 17lb piece of crap for so long?

So Jan, is this your sales pitch for Craigslist? If so I'll take three!

 

[Brambor]

I have not really looked at the specs but how does it compare to the Surface fat bike that also runs a little over $1000 ?

I'm a fat guy on a fat bike (will exceed the weight limit on this one...). I already have a non-electric fat bike and I love it - the fat tires make for a very comfortable ride, my current bike has no suspension and it is much nicer riding than my Easy Motion Neo Xtrem e-bike (which I'm going to be selling).

To me this bike ticks every right box except that it is not a mid-drive. Thing is though, the out of the box mid drive fat bikes are going to run $3K to $6K, and DIY will be pretty close to $3K once you'be bought the battery and bike to go with the 2 or 3 options that are available. So, while a mid-drive would be ideal, the price on this is just too good to pass up. Heck, maybe in a year or two from now fat mid drive DIY options will be cheap enough that you could swap one in onto this bike, take the rear motor off and you'll already also have a great battery.

In the meantime this bike should be pretty upgrade-able. I received the full bike specs via email - the rear dropout is 187mm (call it 190 which is becoming the standard for fat bikes), I am sure it would accept an 8, 9 maybe even 10 speed rear freewheel cassette (em3ev has all 3 sizes with an extra low gearing tailored to e-bikes). I am thinking about swapping the fork out (I've read this fork is about 7lbs) for a carbon one - even a steel or aluminum one would save 4-5lbs on the front end. Swap in standard mtb tubes to save another 1.5lbs (or go tubeless for a little more weight savings), and I'm sure there are a few other places some weight can drop off to make this a 50lb bike instead of 60.

As another aside, I was ready to build up my current fat bike - the cost of doing that, with the same size battery from em3ev, was going to about $50 shy of the cost of this entire bike. At this price it just seems like a no-brainer with everything you're getting, imho.

 

[pxpaulx]

I have not really looked at the specs but how does it compare to the Surface fat bike that also runs a little over $1000 ?

The only Con for the Radrover is...having to wait for it. Otherwise, Specs are all Pros:

- Front fork (generic, but a nice addition - easily replaced on the cheap if you want to - plenty of fat forks on ebay that are take-offs or new $100 or less)
- 750w vs 350w motor (said to be geared for more torque in the campaign anyway)
- 48v 11.6ah battery (stated by campaign owner to be quality samsung 29e cells) vs 36v 10ah - or - 360wh vs 557wh = approx 55% increase in available power/distance
- better tires the kenda juggernauts are newer, but pretty favorable reviews vs the no-name spider tread junk that is on the surface.

All of that said, it looks like there are some new surface bikes arriving shortly (their site has basically been taken down with a teaser soft focus image and email sign up for news) - some might want to wait, but I would expect they'll be more expensive as they appear to be a unique design (maybe ground up instead of China sourced like the original surface was?).

Edit:

Apparently you can see the new surface bikes at (Link Removed - No Longer Exists) - not sure why they haven't updated the north american site since they are from Vancouver I believe - the Europe spec'd bikes are 250w motor, 36v13ah battery (about 460wh, pretty nice improvement, still not as good a combo as the radrover), SRAM x5 10 speed (definitely an upgrade - something I am planning to do myself to the Radrover), a much nicer tire set...for the surface bike (same tires as the Radrover) and an optional bluto fork. New pricing to match the upgrades though, $2,800 to $3,400...Euros. New Surface weight is 30kg or 66lbs too.

 

[George S.]

It's interesting how quickly the Chinese are moving. It's seems like some of these factories would be fine, state of the art, really:

http://electricbikereport.com/factories-china-giant-golden-wheel-yadea/

 

[pxpaulx]

It's interesting how quickly the Chinese are moving. It's seems like some of these factories would be fine, state of the art, really:

http://electricbikereport.com/factories-china-giant-golden-wheel-yadea/

Interesting article! It is fascinating to see their progress and ability to change at such a large scale. I particularly liked that small battery that you would exchange say at a vending machine and that could be used for multiple purposes beyond just a bike - novel idea for sure.

 

[Mike Smith]

Here's a link to a lower end mid-motor mounted 750W fat bike that you may have already seen: http://www.bat-bike.com[/QUOTE]

 

[pxpaulx]

Here's a link to a lower end mid-motor mounted 750W fat bike that you may have already seen: http://www.bat-bike.com

[/QUOTE]

That bike was actually offered cheaper by biktrix (company in Canada, owner is a member here) - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/205514134/biktrix-juggernaut-the-ultimate-electric-fat-bike

I want to say their price started at $1,500 but it might have been a little higher (or lower - prices are no longer on the kickstarter page) - I gave it some serious thought at their price, but in the end if was a little too high for me to jump. One key factor is that even though it is a fat bike, it is using a smaller frame than most fat bikes - the bbs02 isn't a modified one, but rather a stock one and the fat bike has a smaller than normal 73mm bottom bracket (standard bike size, fat standard is 100mm). What that means is the likelihood of adding additional gears or going to a larger tire is most likely not possible (fat bike tires are getting up to 5 inches now - the larger the more float you get in soft terrain). Not that I know for sure I can do that with the Radrover either, but it is a standard 100mm bottom bracket, and the rear dropout spacing is 187mm - meaning if I want to go big with the tires or change to a higher number of gears it could possibly (or more likely) be done.

 

[Mike Smith]

I figure at about $1200 with shipping over 3 years is less than $1.50 a day. If it helps me lose some fat man weight in the mean time it is well worth the price and it should be worth something if I decide to change bikes. Sorry folks I'm just trying to convince myself. My only issue is fat man on a fat bike 170 lb 6'1" at 50 years old doesn't look as cool as something like the Easy Motion 27.5 (but only 350W to move my fat ass). 750w will definitely get me moving, but will the lycra lizards be laughing at me? I'm just thinking out loud here folks, sorry for the diversion.

 

[George S.]

That bike was actually offered cheaper by biktrix (company in Canada, owner is a member here) - https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/205514134/biktrix-juggernaut-the-ultimate-electric-fat-bike

I want to say their price started at $1,500 but it might have been a little higher (or lower - prices are no longer on the kickstarter page) - I gave it some serious thought at their price, but in the end if was a little too high for me to jump. One key factor is that even though it is a fat bike, it is using a smaller frame than most fat bikes - the bbs02 isn't a modified one, but rather a stock one and the fat bike has a smaller than normal 73mm bottom bracket (standard bike size, fat standard is 100mm). What that means is the likelihood of adding additional gears or going to a larger tire is most likely not possible (fat bike tires are getting up to 5 inches now - the larger the more float you get in soft terrain). Not that I know for sure I can do that with the Radrover either, but it is a standard 100mm bottom bracket, and the rear dropout spacing is 187mm - meaning if I want to go big with the tires or change to a higher number of gears it could possibly (or more likely) be done.[/QUOTE]

Yes, there's a reference here:

(Link Removed - No Longer Exists)

So the Juggernaut was $1500. They teased the "Stunner", an $800 version. There's a thread about the Stunner. Instead Biktrix have gone with a much more powerful bike that is not really an ebike, just because of the power of the motor.

The Stunner is still on their Facebook page.

https://www.facebook.com/biktrixbikes

Given the mid-drive, the $800 price seems 'too low'.

 

[pxpaulx]

I would've purchased the stunner for $800 no questions asked - they already delivered on the juggernaut so I wouldn't have doubted their credibility - I'm sure the $800 would've been limited to maybe 10 and then pricing moving up to $1K - also probably would've went the separate shipping charge route which would've brought it close to $1K (still would've been a good deal!). I saw the video of the other bike they have been working on - definitely beyond an e-bike and into electric motorbike territory. Alas, my money has been spent elsewhere!

 

[Mike Smith]

The RadRover is listed at 77" from the front of front tire to end of rear tire. This seems like a very wide bike to carry on a rear rack. My current hybrid is about 69" and I think it almost stick out to far on the side of our Volvo wagon. I guess you could take the front tire off, but that's a pain when only going short distances to ride.

 

[pxpaulx]

Were you thinking of a trunk rack or a hitch type platform? You are right fat bikes have a long wheelbase in general. Not sure I would want a 55lb (without battery) bike on a trunk rack! There are fat bike tire solutions for the trailer hitch type racks that should be fine, so long as you're mindful when driving the extra length of the bike shouldn't be an issue.

 

[stevenast]

Any reason not to buy this bike?

The very real possibility that it will be either: 1) junk or 2) vapor.

Edit: I noticed on another thread where you bought the Diamondback. I'll leave my comment here in case someone else is considering the vaporware! (or at best, a bike where finding service and parts is...questionable.)

 

[Fluxlasers]

The very real possibility that it will be either: 1) junk or 2) vapor.

Edit: I noticed on another thread where you bought the Diamondback. I'll leave my comment here in case someone else is considering the vaporware! (or at best, a bike where finding service and parts is...questionable.)

Yes, there is a real possibility that this is junk or vapourware, but the probability is negligible.
They give pretty detailed specifications on their product, so you can decide whether it's junk or not.
They have photos and videos of the actual products and not computer generated images, so it's highly unlikely to be vapourware.
I've ordered one of the RadRovers and I'm confident that the bike will arrive as described on their web site. They answer questions quickly and they're willing to meet customers face to face.
I didn't order one because it was cheap, I ordered because I wanted to support a group of passionate individuals that are trying to do something exciting, rather than giving my money to some big company that are only interested in providing profit for their shareholders (who probably have zero interest in bikes and have never ridden one since their childhood).
The biggest risk for me is that I live in the UK, so I'm not going to be able to send it back if there are any problems. Even so, I'm happy to take that risk. I was considering buying a HaiBike Fat Six from a UK shop, but the nearest supplier is over 100 miles away, so even if I took the low risk and expensive option, it would still be a huge hassle if there was any problems.
Life is full of risks, you can be boring and play safe, or you can take the risk and feel the excitement when it pays off!
Can't wait for my RadRover to arrive