Rad Power Bikes Radster Road Review: Final Takeaway
Overall Rating: 4.9 / 5.0
(Ratings are based on both performance and price)
Rad’s Class 3 commuter packs an impressive motor and a slew of safety features.
Rad Power Bikes Radster Road – What We Liked
- Powerful 750W hub motor can propel you to Class 3 speeds
- Comes with a full array of commuter accessories
- 8-speed drivetrain has a gear range big enough to help on hills
- Handles well at speed thanks to 29-in. wheels
Rad Power Bikes Radster Road E-Bike Pro’s
- 750W brushless, geared hub motor produces 100Nm of torque
- Safe Shield battery is one of the safest batteries on the market
- 8-speed Shimano Acera drivetrain
- 29-in. wheels roll quickly and offer terrific efficiency
- Comes in two sizes and features a mid-step frame design
- Security fob locks and unlocks display
- Very well packed; it went together easily and quickly
Rad Power Bikes Radster Road E-Bike Con’s
- We would really like to see battery life expressed as a percentage of capacity
My Experience Riding The Rad Power Bikes Radster Road E-Bike
Ride Quality Rating: 4.8
If I’m commuting to or from work, what I want from an e-bike is different than if I’m riding for leisure. No one wants to turn their morning or evening commute into a recreational tour—at least no one I know. I want to get up to speed quickly and I want to keep up with the flow of traffic. I also want my e-bike to be responsive to my riding style.
The Rad Power Bikes Radster Road is pretty much everything I want in a commuter. It’s not just fast, but it accelerates quickly, and that’s important if you’re trying to stay with the flow of traffic and stay out of the way of drivers. It responds more naturally to rider input thanks to the torque sensor’s engagement.
The Rad Power Bikes Radster Road is pretty much everything I want in a commuter. It’s not just fast, but it accelerates quickly, and that’s important if you’re trying to stay with the flow of traffic and stay out of the way of drivers. With its big wheels, it’s very stable at speed; the more relaxed the e-bike is, the more relaxed I am. It has a big battery so that I can commute for multiple days before needing to charge it and the drivetrain offers enough gears to cover the hills and it shifts smoothly.
This is incredibly fast and fun to ride. The Radster Road is fun enough to make my morning commute not just enjoyable, but an adventure.
Range
Range Rating: 4.8
Estimated Range (from Rad Power Bikes): up to 65 mi.
Real World Range Test Results (from ElectricBikeReport): 53.3 mi.
We have some ‘splaining to do with regard to the Rad Power Bikes Radster Road’s range testing. With the Radster Road, our colleagues at Electric Bike Report performed their long-range test in PAS 2, not PAS 1. As a result, the range test result we show here falls short of the 65 mi. range they estimate. Our friends’ 53.3-mi. result shouldn’t be viewed as the Radster Road falling short. To cover more than 50 mi. in PAS 2 is a real achievement. To back that up, we offer the Radster Trail’s range test result, which was performed in PAS 1. It covered a whopping 75.5 mi. Experiences on lower PAS should be falling somewhere in that range.
Worth noting is that the Radster Trail rolls on 27.5-in wheels with 3-in.-wide knobby tires, where the Radster Road rolls on 29-in. wheels with 2.2-in.-wide low-profile tires. What does that matter? Well, here’s the thing: Bigger wheels require a bit more energy to get up to speed, but once there, they offer more momentum and greater stability for the e-bike due to greater gyroscopic force generated by the wheels. And that’s not all: The smooth tread of the Radster Road’s tires will also offer greater efficiency. Were they to perform the same test again in PAS 1, we expect that the Radster Road would cover at least 80 mi. To do that on a 720Wh battery and 750W hub motor would be an impressive achievement.
I’m a fan of those 29-in. wheels and 2.2-in. Kenda Kwick tires. They feel very fast and nimble.
Power (Motor & Battery)
Power Rating: 750W, 100Nm torque
Rad Power Bikes last wave of e-bike models were strictly class 2. With the Radster Road and Radster Trail, Rad Power Bikes now offers e-bikes that can be ridden as Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes.
Rad Power Bikes has resisted the urge to offer Class 3 e-bikes until now. The company has placed an emphasis on e-bikes that can only be operated as Class 1 or 2 e-bikes, making them less likely to run afoul of local ordinances. With the Radster Road and Radster Trail, Rad Power Bikes now offers e-bikes that can be ridden as Class 1, 2 or 3 e-bikes.
The Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC) has a rule that says e-bikes can only produce a maximum of 750W—anything over that isn’t an e-bike, technically, to them. As a result, Rad Power Bikes limits their hub motors to a maximum power output of 750W, but the hub motor in the Radster Road produces 100Nm of torque. It makes a huge difference. That’s a 54 percent increase in torque over their existing motors. Put another way, based on the increase in torque alone, riders could be forgiven for thinking that the motor was producing more than 750W.
No one is ever going to complain about this motor lacking power.
Rad Power Bikes also gave the Radster Road a torque sensor, to make the motor more responsive. Now, instead of having to switch PAS levels to adjust the motor’s output, the motor will respond to the rider’s pedalling input. Push harder and go faster. The combination of a torque sensor, the 100Nm of torque and Class 3 speeds makes this a very peppy e-bike.
The Radster Road is also equipped with Rad Power Bikes’ new Safe Shield battery, arguably the safest battery available for e-bikes. With the Safe Shield battery, the cells are “potted,” which is to say they are surrounded with a thermal resin that will absorb any heat the cells produce. Typically, as cells discharge their electricity, they will produce a bit of heat. The thermal resin will absorb that and it also prevents corrosion from forming, which can be another issue for lithium-ion batteries; it de-escalates serious issues by isolating cells so there isn’t a domino effect should one heat up. The “potted” design makes the Rad Power Bikes Safe Shield battery the safest, most reliable battery we’ve reviewed.
The Safe Shield battery is certified to UL 2271 and the entire electronics system is certified to UL 2849.
Components
As much as we love the reliability of Shimano’s 7-speed drivetrains, they don’t always offer a wide enough gear selection for someone who lives in a hilly place. The 8-speed Shimano Acera drivetrain gives us a few benefits over the typical 7-speed drivetrains we see.
The 8-speed Shimano Acera drivetrain features an 11-34t freewheel (310 percent range), which both gives a low enough gear to pedal easily up hills and reach Class 3 speeds. The Acera drivetrain also comes with an under-the-bar trigger shifter that I find easier to use than the thumb shifter on most 7-speed e-bikes. And because there are 8 cogs in back, even though the freewheel covers a wider range than we see with 7-speed e-bikes, the steps between the gears are roughly the same. One other selling point for the Acera drivetrain is that the rear cogs are shaped in ways to ease shifting, making it smoother and more reliable.
The Tektro hydraulic brakes are paired with 180mm rotors front and rear and I have to say the braking performance was great. They offer plenty of power even with a light touch.
The Radster Road is equipped with an SR Suntour suspension fork with 80mm of travel. This is a hydraulically dampened fork with a coil spring. It features both lockout and preload adjustment. It softens the ride enough that anyone who might worry about the 2.2-in.-wide tires not being comfortable enough will be put at ease.
The headlight is bright; it produces 200 lumens and the brake light also acts as a turn signal. It’s not a replacement for hand signals, but it’s really nice that they included this.
One thing Rad Power Bikes deserves some recognition for is spec’ing nothing but name-brand components. It looks like the supply chain issues that forced many brands to scramble and find alternate sources for components may finally be behind us.
The handlebar is 710mm and features some backsweep. The bar is wide enough to be comfortable and offer good leverage for confident cornering, but it’s not so wide as a downhill bike. And we liked the ergonomic rubber grips that lock-on.
The Radster Road includes a half-twist throttle, but this one is a new version, updated from the previous model. I’m a thumb-button guy, myself, but I like this one much better; they have improved control.
Screen / User Interface / App
The Rad Power Bikes Radster Road comes equipped with a new display. This is a large, color LED display that is easy to read. One of its best functions is to act as security for the e-bike. It comes with a security fob that unlocks the display so that the Radster Road can be turned on.
One of my only criticisms of the Radster Road is that the battery life indicator is just four bars in a battery-shaped icon. Sure, it’s prominent, but displaying the battery capacity as a percentage would eliminate a lot of guesswork.
The controller unit on the left includes the two buttons to control PAS levels as well as the left and right buttons for the turn signals. A fifth button toggles through the bike computer functions such as total odometer, and allows you to go into the controls to choose between Class 1, 2 and 3 performance. Rad Power Bikes also created a sort of mid-point between the 20 mph top assist speed of Classes 1 and 2, and the 28 mph max of Class 3. Riders can choose Class 3 with a max of 25 mph.
Is the Rad Power Bikes Radster Road Worth It?
Taken on their own, each of the major features—750W motor, 720Wh battery, 8-speed drivetrain, hydraulic disc brakes, 80mm suspension fork—would be considered premium features on any e-bike in this range, but what they deliver is far greater than those basics.
One thing that is easy to forget about is that this e-bike comes in two sizes, covering a much broader swath of the population than if it came in one size. And while it’s easy to talk about how good the motor and the battery are, it’s harder to get across how good the handling is on the Radster Road. As our mechanic, Ben, put it, the through axle on the fork really helps to stiffen the front end of the bike and give riders a very confidence-inspiring ride.
At roughly $2000, the Rad Power Bikes Radster Road costs more than is absolutely necessary to spend on a reliable commuter. You can spend hundreds less and have a nice e-bike. However, if you want a Class 3 commuter that really can go 28 mph, has the safest battery on the market, includes an 8-speed drivetrain and hydraulic disc brakes, it would be hard to find a better value than the Rad Power Bikes Radster Road.
Trevor
2 months agoGreat review! Are there other ebikes like the Radster that let you switch between class 1, 2 and 3? Most bike shops where I live won’t service Radbikes because of the proprietary/non-name brand components so I’d love to find another option.
ReplyMike East
1 week agoHey Trevor, thanks! Yes there are a few now that can be switched from Class 1, 2 or 3. But, id also look into the Rad Power Service centers, they have a TON, check out the map for the one in your location: https://www.radpowerbikes.com/pages/locations?
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