RadRover does not track straight

[Jon Hirschfeld]

I am looking for suggestions... I recently purchase a RadRover bike and it requires very little assembly is required, which is great, but the problem I am having baffles me because the bike pulls hard to the right if you would take your hands off the handle bars. Has anyone expierenced this before? I have no accessories, back packs or anything not standard on the bike. I have had other expiereced rider ride it and they agree that it turns right. I have removed the front tire and reassembled serveral times and still to the right. It seems like the front brake disc rubs the front fork very lightly. RadRover customer service had no suggestions or provided any real help. Any ideas?

 

[emco5]

Check that both front and rear axles are fully seated into the drops. If you still get wandering to the right it's time to press for warranty support.

 

[Doug Devine]

Mine does the same thing. When I go hands free--which is surprisingly often--I have to lean to the left to counteract the right-tracking tendency. I wouldn't classify it as a hard pull...enough to be conspicuous and rather annoying. Mine isn't a brake pad rubbing thing because I have those tuned like a boss. Funny thing is, yesterday I was riding with a pretty heavy backpack on and I noticed the tracking issue didn't exist then. But it resumes without the backpack.

I will add that my battery cage isn't properly on the centerline. It's slightly askew to the left. That also annoys me. Somehow, I convinced myself those two were related even though, logically, I don't see how.

 

[Barkme Wolf]

Radwagon- Pulls hard the right. Have had everything fixed on it at least once, no change.

 

[mrgold35]

The larger tires of the RR and RW remind me of the high school experiment of how a gyroscope works when you spin a bike wheel in a swivel chair and tilt it left or right to go in a circle. I'm thinking the same thing is happening a little bit with our ebikes with plus and fat tires.

You could try the process of elimination like:

- Spokes: a few of my spokes were loose out the box and I re-tighten them after I ordered a spoke tool from Amazon.
- PSI: my old Kenda felt consistent from 12-22 PSI. Switch to Vee8 a few months ago and experimented with PSI from the 15 to 25 range. The Vee8 pull harder to the right the lower the PSI. I have to keep the PSI above 20 to lessen/eliminate the feeling. I would play with the PSI in the upper range to see if that helps.
- Fork damage: my disk brakes were out of true from shipping damage and other Rad Power Bike owners had bent forks on their Radwagons replaced under warranty. Hard to figure this one out unless you take to a shop or have another Radrover to compare. I was lucky to have my wife's RR as a reference. I wasn't able to bend the brake disk back 100% true; but, zero rubbing after I switched front tires between the two RR.
- Tires: maybe the tires are mounted backwards or an issue with the tires itself? I would try and switch the front and rear tires to see if that makes a difference. Might have to upgrade your tires to Hookworms or Vee8?
- Too light on front end?: The Radrover is already tail heavy and a very upright riding position. My wife commented on how the Radrover doesn't feel as stable at +22 mph when pedaling in top gear to her (4'11" 125lbs). I've gone as fast as 25 mph in top gear downhill and Radrover still feels good to me (6'3" 270lbs). It could be just the amount of weight on the front wheels making the RR feel more or less stable? I now add the extra gear in the rack bag on her bike when we are riding together (water, locks, spare battery, etc...).
- Balance out the bike: maybe having more weight up front (using both bottle cages for water/locks) or even on the left side might help (always filling the left pannier first with the heaviest stuff).

 

[The Annoyed Man]

I don't know if it will help or not, but I noticed the other day that Rad Power Bikes has a relationship with Velofix. If you have Rad Power ship the bike to your local Velofix, they will set the bike up for you and deliver it to your door. You can check their website at https://www.velofix.com/locations/ to see if they have a service provider in your area. If there is one, maybe give them a call and see if they can sort out the problem. Even if Rad won't warranty it, at least you'll have some pros who are familiar with the Rad brand to try and chase down the problem and fix it for you.

Just an thought.

 

[Jon Hirschfeld]

Thes are all good suggestions. I will inspect closely and try these suggestions... I'll post back results.

 

[Doug Devine]

I think I figured my issue out. Today, the pull was abnormally noticeable, but so was some lateral movement in my front tire when I braked. Turns out the quick release--at least on mine--sucks big time. It loosens over time. And under severely *tame* riding conditions. Almost all paved roads and bike paths. The slacker the quick release, the harder the pull to the right. When I tightened the QR, no tracking ensued.

From day 1, I have been significantly unimpressed with the quick release on this thing as I need to tighten it way tighter than any normal quick release should ever be tightened. I'm going to chalk it up to cheap parts (the reason this bike is so affordable) and upgrade the skewer. Perhaps ditch QR altogether and go bolted like the rear. I never take off the front wheel anyway like I do with my road and touring bikes.

 

[Barkme Wolf]

I think I figured my issue out. Today, the pull was abnormally noticeable, but so was some lateral movement in my front tire when I braked. Turns out the quick release--at least on mine--sucks big time. It loosens over time. And under severely *tame* riding conditions. Almost all paved roads and bike paths. The slacker the quick release, the harder the pull to the right. When I tightened the QR, no tracking ensued.

From day 1, I have been significantly unimpressed with the quick release on this thing as I need to tighten it way tighter than any normal quick release should ever be tightened. I'm going to chalk it up to cheap parts (the reason this bike is so affordable) and upgrade the skewer. Perhaps ditch QR altogether and go bolted like the rear. I never take off the front wheel anyway like I do with my road and touring bikes.

Well, that is one of the only things I haven't tried.

 

[Jon Hirschfeld]

Issue resolved...With some help from a few expierenced riders it was determined that the fork tube was off axis with the fork. This caused the fork to be 1 - 2 degrees off which made for the hard right turn. It appeared that the tube was welded wrong onto the fork rather than bent or damaged in shipping but with the attached photo the RadRover Customer Service rep sent out a new fork and the bike has a drastically different ride.... it rides great and tracks straight!

 

[Barkme Wolf]

New spokes, front and back trued. Seems to be pulling even harder.

 

[mrgold35]

Looks like another issue caused by poor packaging during shipping.

 

[Sonoboy]

View attachment 17718 Issue resolved...With some help from a few expierenced riders it was determined that the fork tube was off axis with the fork. This caused the fork to be 1 - 2 degrees off which made for the hard right turn. It appeared that the tube was welded wrong onto the fork rather than bent or damaged in shipping but with the attached photo the RadRover Customer Service rep sent out a new fork and the bike has a drastically different ride.... it rides great and tracks straight!

Jon, could you explain the procedure taken to determine the off-axis fork? It could be useful to some others, as 1-2 degrees is hard to spot visually.

 

[Jon Hirschfeld]

Jon, could you explain the procedure taken to determine the off-axis fork? It could be useful to some others, as 1-2 degrees is hard to spot visually.

With help we put at old fashioned yard stick on the top and bottom of the tire and it would accentuate the angle enough that you could visually see it at the steering tube. I can see it in the picture above. The bike rides great now.

 

[Brayden is RAD]

View attachment 17853
With help we put at old fashioned yard stick on the top and bottom of the tire and it would accentuate the angle enough that you could visually see it at the steering tube. I can see it in the picture above. The bike rides great now.

So was it just a front fork replacement mine does the same thing and can a bike shop do it?