hi all. New to the forum. I voted No. Annoying issues but resolved.
Bought two Rad City 5 plus bikes for myself and my wife in March of 2022, have about 150-200 miles on each bike. Both have had issues that RAD addressed as quickly as possible but there were hold ups due to parts stock.
I had a pedal unscrew and stripped out the threads in the pedal crank. Thankfully, RAD paid for that replacement part but i had to pay someone to install the new one. Then, my wife's rear tire suddenly had two cracks appear between the tread and the sidewall. RAD send us a new tire but we had to pay for it. I had to pay someone to install it and then the controller failed.
My wife is waiting for a new controller to show up and has decided she's selling her bike as soon as it's working again. Her main issue being that the bike is too big (even though it's a step-thru). She's 5'3" tall.
My feeling is that RAD can't keep up with how fast they've grown. It's super frustrating because we spent a lot of time researching different brands and felt pretty good about the RADs but I feel like I wish I'd saved my money and found a more reliable brand.
Thankful that we have another 10 months on our warranty in case any other parts fail.
As you can see from my post right above I feel pretty much the same. I did want to add that the part's that seem to be having problems are pretty much the same stuff you can buy on line, granted some are made for RAD and they could be specifying lesser quality but I doubt it as retooling and redesign are just expensive and problematic (I posted in other threads I work for a mfg. in mfg. operations so I speak from experience). I just joined a generic bike forum to see if other mfg. are having the same issues. I strongly suspect anyone nearing the volume of RAD is about the same. I am happy with the things RAD does claim to make and or design such as the frame, it's sturdy and the bike handles pretty well considering it's size.
I'll add this but please note I know everyone's experience is different and I'm am only trying to be encouraging. My wife too was very concerned and had some difficulty at first, same issue the bike is big and pretty heavy AND goes fast. I would strongly encourage her to give it more time or very quickly sell and rebuy with something that fits better (you will get near the full price from what I've seen). Our experience with having an e-bike has probably been the best thing we ever did, for sure the best thing to date. Don't give up.
I have the RAD City 5 Plus HS and she has the step thru.
One thing I did for both our bike that helped MIGHTITLY with the handling was replace the tires. I went with the:
https://amzn.to/3bL59KUThe tires that come on that came on these are not great, heavy and are terrible on shell, gravel or grass all of which you will be riding on (intentional or not). This was a MAJOR improvement. You have to modify the front fender by cutting the bar any buying about a foot of aquarium tube. Mount 6 inches on each fender (where the bar used to be) and shove the cut off ends in, works perfect and is adjustable.
Also make sure her seat is super low, I have to admit at 5-3 it's going to be close. One thing we did that helped a lot was forced ourselves to pedal only quite a bit (we have around 400 miles on them now).