In your circumstance, parked outside a restaurant on a busy road, an alarm like this might have been a deterrent:

https://amzn.to/3RnqRXC

I was pleasantly surprised to find that it's much better made than you'd think for the price, and after two years on the bike it's still doing fine.  I have it strapped under the rear basket just above the rear fender, where it's invisible to potential thieves.  Great range on the remote and is quite sensitive - nobody moves my bike even a little bit without first a warning blurt, then an ear-splitting siren if they're dumb enough to proceed.  It's also possible to manually blurt it with the remote if you have eyes-on and don't want people too close.  You can adjust the volume, sensitivity and the type of alarm sound, as I recall.

The only downside is that the batteries in the alarm itself only last one riding season.  They're easy and cheap to replace in the spring, but I have to cut and then reinstall zipties - not a huge deal.  The remote takes a bit of getting used to, as you arm/disarm with two separate buttons.

I use this alarm in addition to my Abus folding and/or U-lock when parking it out of my sight.  Recommended, even if belatedly in your case.

Quote from: John Rose on October 25, 2023, 09:00:08 PM Wait . . . what?
What constitutes "using their key absent-mindedly"?

In the cases I've run across, mostly here on this forum, people have inserted the tip of the key into the battery-charging input port instead of the keyway, since they're on the same side and I suppose relatively close to each other (?) - not sure about the latter, don't have one to look at in person. 

Instantly, the key shorts out positive to negative in the battery, a spark or twenty ensue and the internal fuse (at a minimum) blows, rendering the battery 4-paws-up.  At that point, the fuse changeout varies from one internal design to another but a big hassle at a minimum.

I don't know how one would stick the key into the charging port if the protective weather cover is in place - maybe they get loose, pop out, or fall off.  Also, since the key no longer provides a useful service like disconnecting battery power from the bike, I'm not sure why one would even need the key to ride (or steal) the bike unless installing or removing the battery itself.

As a recovering mechanical engineer, I consider this the user's fault with a heavy contributing percentage the fault of idiot designers for even making such an egregious error possible from simple absentmindedness.

So, be careful out there if you have one of the new semi-submerged battery designs on your bike.

I'm a firm believer that seats are like shoes; the one that fits you best, that you can afford, is the best one for you.  In my case, I settled on the second Cloud-9 model I tried, after four others before those.

However, I think Corbin makes magnificent products, based only on my purchase of one in '93 for my Honda ST-1100 motorcycle.  Incredibly comfortable for me, great materials and workmanship, fold-away passenger backrest.  Thirty years on, it's still in better condition than the bike.

Yours looks great; glad to hear they make good bike seats as well.  I just might try one in lieu of my Cloud-9 next season if they allow returns.  I'll check it out; the gal in the video also rides a MiniST like mine, so that might help.

Quote from: mrgold35 on October 16, 2023, 06:53:25 AMI ended up changing my max cut-off speed to around 21 mph because:<snip>

You make some very valid points that I agree with, and I'm too old to really push it at 25mph on a regular basis, although I occasionally hit that, or even up to about 32 mph briefly, going downhill while slightly riding the brakes.  Plus, my MiniST2's steering geometry gets a little squirrelly at speeds above about 20 mph anyway, requiring two hands on the bars - I'd hate to be doing 25 and have to suddenly try to avoid something crossing my path.  I'm not particularly afraid of speed per se (and still own the motorcycle I took up to 137 mph) but like Clint Eastwood said "A man's got to know his limitations."

However, I didn't reduce my top speed limiter from 24/25mph for one reason - sometimes speed saves.  If I ever find myself having to dart across an intersection or get out of the way of a tailgater about to hit me, I don't want to have any speed limits.  I realize the 1600 watts mainly provide torque for acceleration and hill-climbing but it would annoy me to hit the wall at an arbitrary 20 mph if I don't have to and could use a bit more in the moment.

It's there if I need it, is the TL;DR I suppose.

Are you sure it's a bearing squeak?  Might be the same problem I had a couple years ago on my MiniST2's front wheel and if so, it's an easy fix.  Here's a link to a recent post and photo I made about it for another forum user:

https://www.radowners.com/index.php/topic,9569.msg23491.html#msg23491

If it turns out this isn't your problem, no harm done and it just takes a couple of minutes to try.

Quote from: John Rose on October 13, 2023, 05:27:25 PM
I'm on the lookout for a front & rear set of lights, but in the meantime I bought these Husqvarna "Classic Work Gloves" to make my hand signals more visible. The grey logo and wavy wrist stripe are retro-reflective. They're quite comfortable with a decent grip and a breathable fabric.

I'm afraid your link (embedded as an image) is all biffed up and even after extracting the good bits, it doesn't work.  Could you retry, please?  (you can click Modify to edit instead of creating a new post)

These are the sorts of petty nuisances that come to mind every time I'm instructed how idyllic Europe is, sadly. 

I imagine The Crown would not look with favor (favour?) upon my 1,600-watt MiniST2, although I don't quite understand why a hat would care.

Quote from: FL-GK on October 12, 2023, 09:49:53 AMLastly I don't think Ryan is the "sales arm" of RAD, I mean I could be wrong, since I first started watching he's always come across as very enthusiastic and sincere.

I believe the reference was to the guys who do the Electric Bike Review page, not Ryan.

Quote from: inoxa on October 08, 2023, 02:57:38 PMWhat light do you have?  Some lights can burn a controller out.  I think even one of the stock lights have been doing that to upgraded controllers.  Hopefully not but if you get a replacement I would try it without hooking up the light. 

That's very good advice for those with a 35A controller upgrade, which includes me.  Both Area13 and ElectroBikeWorld have confirmed that any headlight upgrade (including the optional Rad "premium" headlight) can, and eventually will, burn out the upgraded controller, by trying to draw more power than the controller can deliver on that circuit.  Neither could supply me with a wattage rating for the upgrade controller's headlight circuit, but I believe the stock light is 5w and the "premium" around 8-10w.

I only carry the wired headlight as a backup to the wonderful Planet Bike rechargeable light up on the handlebar, but I'm still pretty peeved about this - why would these controllers be worse than stock in that respect?  Sounds like the designers screwed up and didn't consider we might upgrade our headlights as well as our motor-power delivery.  So I had to revert all the way back to the original crappy headlight shipped with my MiniST2 to protect my 35A controller.  Grrrrr......   

Quote from: John Rose on October 06, 2023, 03:47:07 PMWhat about "May or may not contain nuts"? 

If you read Ryan's ToS carefully, you'll find that's a blanket disclaimer for the entire forum.   

Quote from: handlebar on October 05, 2023, 05:12:13 AM
The CST tires on my Radmission state maximum and minimum pressures. Do your sidewalls show that?

No range; it just says "Inflate to 30 psi" and I keep them there because I mostly ride on dry packed dirt and dry pavement, so the lower rolling resistance is great, they grip fine with good handling and are very quiet.  If I regularly rode soft surfaces I might drop it a few psi, but I'm sure there are others here with more experience to judge that.

Quote from: inoxa on October 04, 2023, 03:12:28 PMDid you upgrade your headlight?  That can burn controllers out if they have too much current.

Both Area13 and Electrobikeworld have not only confirmed this to me when I asked, but they also said the 35A controllers will burn out eventually with just the Rad "premium" headlight in place - they can't even handle that.  This is the first truly-negative bit of data I've ever heard about these controllers, and love mine, but I almost never turn on the headlight or ride after dark; I use a Planet Bike 800-lumen on the handlebars, mostly in slow-strobe mode for daytime visibility.  It's also great after dark, with a wide and bright beam pattern   So I think I may have dodged a fried-controller bullet unknowingly.

Even the Rad "premium" headlight sucks hard, so I replace it with one of these, but now I have to remove it and go back to the truly-shitty stock light to have in case of emergency need.  That sucks.
https://www.ebay.com/itm/234738995390

Apparently these are fine with the stock controller; that's the ONLY reason to recommend not upgrading to 35A IMHO.

Quote from: handlebar on October 03, 2023, 07:18:19 AMI've read here about CST Big Boats. Are they the only other option? How are they for puncture resistance?

I can't speak definitively, but the Big Boats that came from the factory for my 2021 MiniST2 have never had a flat and after 700 or so miles still have a lot of tread left.  I like the durability and handling so much that I tracked down a spare set this summer, because they're not easy to find, at least in my 20" size.  I keep them right at 30 psi and check/top them up about every 2-3 weeks; they're usually down only to about 29 or so at most.  I hit both front and rear with Slime shortly after purchase and although I've never seen any sign of green weeping that plugged a hole, I can't say for sure they've never been attacked and punctured.  Have some FlatOut for next time, but so far there's been no next time.

However, I also ride a lot of hard-packed woods and dirt trails with occasional blackberry thorns but nothing truly vicious, about 30%, in addition to pavement riding on occasionally bombed-out rutted streets, so they're not being babied either.

Quote from: handlebar on October 02, 2023, 07:13:22 AM
Thirty years ago on a narrow country road, premonition suddenly slowed me down. A hundred yards ahead, where I would have been, an oncoming pickup veered over the centerline and I veered onto the shoulder. In my mirror I saw an arm come out the window and wave. I guess that was an apology. I guess he was momentarily distracted.

About 15 years ago, a raccoon probably saved my life in a similar fashion.  I was leaving my restaurant around midnight, following my standard route home, which was at the same pace every time because there's essentially zero traffic in our rural town at that hour and only six traffic lights in our entire county with none on my route, so it was always the same.  A mile or so on the journey, I had to come to a full stop in the road to let a very fat and lazy looking raccoon amble across.  A mile or so after that, a large pickup truck blew right through a cross-street intersection stop sign at a very high speed in my headlights - right where I'd have been if I hadn't stopped for the raccoon, with no stop sign in my direction to prevent it.  I might have spotted him, because in our rural area we're always watching for deer and other critters especially at night, but this was a fairly blind intersection so I wouldn't have been able to stop in time.  Probably would have been t-boned right in my door if I wasn't running just a few seconds late.  After that, I called a truce with raccoons, no matter how much they pissed me off at times.

Quote from: Sommermann on September 27, 2023, 09:26:20 AM
Our Sena helmets arrived on Monday and we were able to try them out yesterday. Just what I was looking for and better. They work so good and are comfortable.

Glad to hear it was the right solution for you.  I don't use mine for intercom, but love it for podcasts and the occasional phone call.