![]() “It’s the Volkswagen Beetle of e-bikes,” Mr. The chunky aluminum frame comes in two colors, black or forest green, and precisely one size, with an adjustable seat post making it adaptable to riders of nearly all heights. Squeeze the hand brakes to engage the 180-millimeter Tektro disc brakes, cutting off the motor and illuminating a rear red brake light. The detachable battery can be brought inside to charge. The LED controller mounted on the handlebars is basic, but it’s user-friendly and gets the job done. The rear hub motor is simpler and more cost-effective than what is known as a pedal-assist mid-drive. The RadRunner has extra-fat tires to absorb bumps rather than an expensive front suspension. What’s most impressive about the RadRunner is its use of smart design, wringing value from clever choices. For the other 1 percent, he says, “you can overcome it with pedaling or by planning your approach to a hill.” “Ninety-nine percent of your riding is blissfully electric. It took some pedaling to propel the 65-pound bike up the steepest Berkeley hills. There’s always a chance to pedal, but it’s not obligatory. It’s irresistible to launch with the flick of the wrist. Rad equips all its e-bikes with a half-twist hand throttle. The road manners and the ability to cut through back alleyways are like any other bicycle - except my legs had reserves of backup power. On my first few trips, I wasn’t so much as riding as zooming. On a mostly flat surface, and with light pedaling, the pack provides 30 to 40 miles of range. It takes about six hours to fully charge from a household outlet. Its battery pack, about the size of a loaf of bread, is 48 volts and 672 watt-hours. Like most Rad Power Bikes, it’s equipped with a 750-watt motor that’s the legal limit for a Class 2 bicycle and provides electric assist up to 20 miles an hour. I went with the $1,199 RadRunner, one of the company’s top sellers. The company sells 11 models: city, cargo, folding and all-terrain options. Deluxe models climb to $15,000 and higher. Brick-and-mortar stores also offer e-bikes from the likes of Specialized, Trek and Giant - although commonly selling for $2,500 to $5,000. Citron cautions that Rad, which sells direct to consumers, might lose customers who want to take a test ride before buying. ![]() That’s the sweet spot,” said Ryan Citron, a senior research analyst at Guidehouse Insights. ![]() “For years we’ve been saying that the market needs a decent, good-quality, relatively high-performing e-bike for $1,000 to $1,500. Guidehouse Insights, a market research firm, conservatively forecasts that electric bike sales in the United States will grow to nearly a million by 2023, up from 650,000 this year. What had been a niche product for Humboldt’s aging hippies heading to Burning Man has become a mainstream option for Everyman. Many models now have a three-month wait for delivery. Throughout spring 2020, Rad’s sales tripled compared with the year before. Sixteen years later, Rad Power Bikes is sticking to its formula: comfort, power and simplicity.Īnd that was before a pandemic sent the whole country searching for a socially distanced way to get around. This was in contrast to the few light and low-powered European and Japanese e-bikes available a decade and a half ago. In other words, a blend of a bicycle, moped, scooter and motorcycle. “They wanted high handlebars, comfortable seats, powerful motors and long range,” he said. When he was starting out in Humboldt County - home to back-to-the-landers and backwoods pot farmers - Mr. Numbers aren’t well reported for this young industry, but Rad Power Bikes is widely considered the largest e-bike seller in the United States. Now based in Seattle, his company approached $100 million in sales in 2019. I quickly became known as the kooky e-bike guy in my little hometown.”īy his junior year, he’d founded Rad Power Bikes. “All of a sudden, I’d be riding into town passing slow cars. Radenbaugh had a semi-reliable electric bike. But after six months of experimentation, Mr. “I needed to find a solution where I had freedom as a young person without a lot of dollars,” he said.īefore long, he was making his 16-mile school commute on his electric Frankenbike. Radenbaugh started tricking them out with old motorcycle-starter batteries, moped motors mail-ordered from Japan and crude powertrains held together with bungee cords, pipe clamps and thick layers of electrical tape. He seemed to defy gravity as he ascended the region’s steep winding roads lined with 300-foot redwoods.Īs the captain of the school’s mountain-bike racing team, he had collected a heap of spare frames and parts. It was 2005, the home-brew era for electric vehicles, and there he was, a high school freshman zooming by at up to 35 miles an hour, not even pedaling. The residents of Garberville, Calif., didn’t know what to make of 15-year-old Mike Radenbaugh and the odd motorized bikes he was concocting in his family’s garage.
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