There’s eight gears, five levels of assistance, a twist throttle, and also a zero assist mode. Rad now has a new torque sensor which makes it feel infinitely better and so much more natural to pedal. It’s also much quieter. I previously put Lectric’s bikes in a similar category of affordable direct-to-consumers, but my husband rides a Lectric and became angry when he realized how smoothly and quietly I was pedaling, while he buzzed along.
It also has hydraulic disc brakes, front suspension with 80 millimeters of travel (feels great! feels comfy!), and a ton of features that make it seem way more expensive than it is. For example, you may have noticed I did not mention what class of ebike it is. While it ships as a Class 2 ebike, you can scroll through the menu and change which class it’s in, and thus what the legal top speed is, depending on whether you’re in the city or the country. It is very cool. In the menu, you can also do things like wipe trip data or set a passcode to lock the display.
Photograph: Adrienne So
It also has a bell! And signal buttons! What people I know have reported is that I often turn the signal on and forget to turn it off, or accidentally turn it on when I’m switching the assistance, and then my hand flies up to the point where I’m going automatically because I’ve been signaling with my arms for 30 years. That’s fun. Rather than turn signals, I would’ve preferred a brighter front headlight. Two hundred lumens is brighter than forgetting your front light, but I would really prefer 400 or even 1,000 when biking at night in the rain, which I often do.
A big reason why people often buy direct-to-consumer bikes is the proprietary accessories. Cars don’t ship without lights or storage options, so car substitutes have to have them too. The Radster Road does ship with fenders, a chain guard, and a rear rack with a 55-pound payload. It fit my Po Campo backpack pannier without issue. As compared to other direct-to-consumers, Rad Power Bikes has a whopping array of accessories; I would be remiss if I did not admit that as I was biking around with my children and spouse, I did think about attaching some locking storage and a pet trailer so that my elderly dog could come along too.
I do think $2,000 is the sweet spot for electric commuter bikes. It’s enough to cover some very solid components, but not so expensive that it deters you from biking because you’re worried about it getting stolen or damaged. It slots nicely into regular bike racks, and I can use a regular U-lock on the head tube, although I did feel more comfortable double-locking it on multiple parts of the frame. Unlike the Santa Cruz Skitch (9/10, WIRED Recommends), I did grab the Radster Road and hop on it when I had to run to the Grocery Outlet. Not every ride needs to be so dazzlingly fun that you can’t stop giggling—sometimes you just need to get somewhere, and you hate parking your car, and you’re super late.
I was wary of Rad Power Bikes for many years—it’s hard for a gear tester to set things aside like a bike arcing on you, or multiple lawsuits. However, it is clear that very many lessons have been learned over the past few years. The Radster Road does that well, for miles and miles.