Rad Power Bikes Owners Forum

Safety Notice regarding your RadWagon 4. Do not ride until further notice.ride Rad. We are so glad that you purchased a RadWagon 4 ebike from us to integrate into your daily life. We?re sorry to interrupt your ride, but we have an important update about your ebike:

Some RadWagon 4?s are not performing to our quality and reliability standards. Our Quality Assurance Team is investigating a potential assembly issue where the rim strip may be misaligned (see figure 1 below). Tubes may pop, sometimes resulting in damage to the tire. If the tube puncture occurs while the ebike is being ridden, it could cause the rider to lose control and fall. For your safety, please do not ride your RadWagon 4 ebike until we confirm the issue and solution.

Our investigation indicates that if your RadWagon 4 has this issue, it likely will occur in the first 60 days of riding the bike. In an abundance of caution, we are notifying any customer who has purchased a RadWagon 4 after June 1, 2022.

Within the next 2 weeks, we will provide a solution and then work with you to coordinate complimentary service with an ebike mechanic to have it resolved. Since we are still investigating the root cause, please do not try to fix this on your own. We understand that you may rely on your ebike for transportation and we are sorry for this inconvenience. Your safety is our top priority and we are committed to getting you riding Rad again as soon as possible.

While we do not have any further information to share at this time, our teams are here to support you. If you have any questions about this email please visit our FAQ page, or contact Rad Customer Service at RadFix@radpowerbikes.com or 1-844-406-2703.

Thanks for your understanding and for being a loyal Rad customer and ebike advocate.

Well, that stinks.  Hope nobody took their "Replace Your Car with an e-Bike!" ads seriously and sold the car.

And I think it is going to get worse than better with Rad products in the near future, I am a huge fan of my Radrover 5 bought 16 months ago, BUT, Since Covid really took hold, Things have not been the same with Rad Products. Sad to say.
  By the way, I still have a glitch with my Radrover 5, The team couldn't come up with a solution to fix in the warranty period, So I am living with it, Not a huge glitch, But A Pain in the A** at times.

an update from last night. I called rad customer service twice and learned that there will be a return option available supposed compensation and a list of local bike mechanics that will repair this safety concern at this time they do not know if it is the front the back rim or both. If you have to return your radwagon try to keep the box and rad is supposedly accepting returns on Radwagon 4 purchased after June 1st 2022. When I ask the customer service rep why they didn't repair the safety concern already since June 1st she had no intelligent answer. I'll post again here after they reach out to us within 2 weeks any thoughts? :-X

Quote from: RadMig on September 01, 2022, 03:51:29 AMI'll post again here after they reach out to us within 2 weeks any thoughts? :-X

Sure, but not helpful ones.   :P   I think Rad had to scramble over the last couple of years, attempting to fix supply-chain problems for current models, current customers and the new bikes that were in final stages of development.  Given the number of brand-swaps seen in shifters, brakes and other components I think they may have picked some alternate suppliers (to save money perhaps, or just to get something at all to finish builds) without a firm grip on quality-control.

This acknowledged issue with the RW, plus apparent controller failures, inept battery-killing designs in the new bikes and all the reports of decaying customer-support horror stories are probably driving them nuts at the moment, possibly compounded by pressure from the new big-money investors who'd prefer they both remain profitable and in existence.  Having worked for, managed and owned companies over the years, I can sympathize with the pressures of the times and would just hate to have to hire and manage employees in the current economic and social environments.

I still love my hotrodded MiniST2, so happy to have chosen it when I had the opportunity, have memories of stellar-and-beyond CSRs and am just sad to see a rocketship company seemingly losing steam.  And then there's the inexcusable Contract5 model and pricing.......

That being said, I hope Rad makes it and returns to previous glory, but not anticipating that anytime soon.

 Thank you for that in-depth analysis on the State of affairs with the company. I can tell you that as a customer service representative for gigantic online retailer I am well equipped to judge customer service calls and those responses for concerns with the company. This is why I commented on the lack of intelligent response of the customer service of this company but apparently this safety notice just hit yesterday and is being prorated back to June 1st that's more than 60 days ago so if People's tires were blowing for the last 2 months there would be numerous reports on this forum YouTube videos crying out for exploding tires and such. This could be a company knee jerk reaction to the lawsuit they recently encountered and maybe there was one or two reports of the strip on the inside of the rim causing a blowout. When I assemble my rw4 the back tube was pinched when I first inflated the tire but then I deflated it and then re-inflated it and the pinch went away. I would say I put 15 or 20 miles on the Rw4 since it was delivered here at the beginning of August and I don't find any problems with it per se but I'm definitely confused with their response they don't want you to ride the bike for at least 2 weeks but they can't tell you what they're going to do about it. I do plan on seeing this through however because I really enjoy this bike and there are a lot of certified bike mechanics here in the Tampa Bay region so it shouldn't be a problem once they figure out what they're going to do. I'm almost inclined to bring it up to David's cycle and have them do a maintenance check tune up which I was going to do anyway and ask them to inspect the inner rim to see if the strip protecting the spokes has been compromised. But now that I got this safety email I'll probably just wait because it sounds like they're going to pay for certified bike mechanics to make this whole.

Thank goodness I opted for a firm payment program just in case I have to send it back I don't have a lot invested in it one or two payments of $50 I'll get back but the customer service rep also noted that a return refund would not be processed until they received the returned bike back in Seattle. Knowing what I know about customer service this could turn into a real nightmare and as a general rule I like the bike and a shop for a year before pulling the trigger on this one but my plan is to see it through and keep the bike I don't think there's a problem with mine

This is just a guess, but Rad's a plenty big-enough company that I expect if this is a potentially-real problem, it's probably being ping-ponged back and forth among engineering, procurement, finance, logistics and legal departments, so they probably have ideas about what to do, but not a decision yet.  Not a headache I'd like to have, certainly.

Glad you're not having any problems; waiting to hear from them is the only realistic thing you can do.

Forums like this are sort of self-selecting, in that a large percentage of members probably sign up to ask about problems and rarely to say "everything's fine", but as an owner-observer I'm getting a bit concerned for their sake about all the seeming problems with defective controllers.  The frequency of those reports here has been growing, I think, but maybe it's just growing along with their sales volume - only Rad knows if the reported failure rate is within expected range.

Thanks Jim in Portland!

FWIW, the issue mentioned in the Safety Notice (a misaligned rim strip) caused my front tube to be punctured two weeks ago (one week after delivery) apparently by one of the spoke screw heads (see photos). Luckily, it only slowly flattened the tube.

I sent the following support ticket to RPB on August 19:
"Hi,
after 4 days of riding the new Radwagon 4 the front wheel flattened, which prevented me from getting home from work. I had to take a Lyft for $25.
Upon closer inspection, it turns out that the tube was punctured "internally" by the rim itself. Specifically, the liner that apparently is supposed to cover the spoke screw holes was not properly centered, thus exposing some of the screw heads, one of which punctured the tube.
Since the whole tire came pre-assembled, and I only inflated it to the recommended 50 PSI, the problem causing the flat tire existing already at time of shipment. So could you provide me a matching replacement tube?
Thanks,
Timo"

Their reply on Aug 24 only contained:
"Hello,
I have ordered you a replacement tube 906896"

The tube arrived this week.

Wow thank you very much for posting. Thank goodness it sounds like you're okay albeit a little later $25 less for that Uber. And if I read this correctly all they did was send you a replacement tube? Well you are definitely part of that percentage of people that have triggered the safety notice. Well if they're going to have to do a quite a bit more than just send you a tube now. Did you get that safety notice email like we did? If you haven't done so already make sure you call them back and make sure you're on the list of bikes affected by the safety notice. They're going to have to do a lot more than just replace your tube in my opinion. Thank you very much for being part of this forum and for contributing your content. Hope all is well it looks like you may have voted in my poll that you're going to keep the bike anyway. Be well my fellow RW Rider!

Hey Timo just a quick question did you or bike mechanic repair the strip inside the rim? Was it the front tire or the back tire? And did you check both tires if you repair the one?

Yep, all they did was sending a replacement tube.

It was the front tire. Luckily my tube had only a small hole, which I patched. After making sure the rim strip is centered and covers all the holes properly, I carefully threaded the deflated tube in, making sure it's centered too and the strip stayed in place everywhere. Then inflated it to 50 psi and was a happy e-bike commuter (7 miles one way) for two weeks until I also got the safety notice e-mail.

At the time I didn't anticipate the risk of this causing the tube to rupture or flatten quickly, and my rear tire hadn't deflated at all, so I didn't check it. Will do that next.

I've never seen a rim with a loose rim strip. Looking forward to their solution...

Quote from: JimInPT on September 01, 2022, 02:00:14 PM
Forums like this are sort of self-selecting, in that a large percentage of members probably sign up to ask about problems and rarely to say "everything's fine"

That's a very true point about negative bias in forums. I bought a Radwagon in early June and I can say (fingers crossed, knocking on wood) that so far this defect hasn't occurred with my bike. Probably just tempted fate by typing that. But I am here to follow along any news about the problem.

I also am here to see if anyone has figured out where to get replacement tubes. After hearing about this safety recall issue, I really dislike having no replacement tubes. I rely on this bike every day and am without a car. I'm wondering if a 24 x 3 tube would work since those are available online. Seems like a couple inches difference over the diameter might still work. I've put slightly off size tire tubes in mountain bike tires and not had issues.

jbroehl there is a guy under the Red wagon forum who recommends all the alternative tubes that fit this bike there's a few Michelin motorcycle tire tubes that fit this radwagon

found a close match to the spec at a very reasonable price (25?): CST C-916 3.00-18 TT 47P

TT stands for TubeType, as opposed to TubeLess, so it's designed to work with a inner tube.

The speed rating and weight rating are both higher (175kg - 150kmph/93mph), so I expect the tire to

See Rad Power Bikes Owners Forum ?Discussions by Rad Model ?RadWagon ?Inner tube & tire alternatives for RW4

RW 4 now suddenly out of stock. It looks like they're not going to sell anymore rw4s until they fix this issue. All of a sudden they're out of stock

I'm just thinking right now did we all just get one of the last rw-4s? Here's why.....

 I have a post in the rw-4 forum titled safety notice do not ride your bicycle. I just got it two weeks ago and was getting into the habit of riding it each morning after my wake up. So basically I've called customer service a number of times over the last 3 days since the safety notice went out. Yesterday they sent me a second copy of the same notice and I called customer service for the 5th time in 3 days. As a customer service representative for a super large online retailer I can tell you what good customer service is because I get 100% csat scores. Also after 2 years with said super large online retailer I just happened to apply to this company for a customer service remote role out of Tampa Florida. That was 3 weeks ago the day before I ordered my RW for. Of course like all of us I've been shopping over a year pining over which bike to buy continually coming back to the rw-4 for my needs. To confirm your point they are uninformed and sound bewildered.. of course they know who I am the second I call in because they are customer service software automatically sees who's calling in and brings up the order on the screen. I'll make one important point that I think has to be stressed being in customer service. They do no sort of customer verification. In fact I'm required to perform three types of verification before I can give any sense of information about that customers order. While I'm one of the maybes on the return poll I posted I don't want to lean on the side of yes returning this bike. Here's another important note they just launched a minimum of two new lines and retired one or two others and there's a big media push on this now. But they are out of stock on the rw-4 now! Coincidence or Prediction? i think not.Did we all  just get one of the last RW4s? And now my first payment is due in 3 days! Any thoughts?

 Last RW4?

Looks like the safety notice was updated to include all tires with ribs near the rim:

QuoteAfter further investigation, we identified another tire quality issue on some RadWagon 4 ebikes purchased which may lead to an increased risk of flats. Depending on the results of the inspection we ask you to conduct below, your RadWagon 4 may require replacement parts before it is safe to ride the bike again. We will be providing complimentary parts and service by a local ebike mechanic to repair both issues.

Please stop riding your RadWagon 4 and inspect the tires on your RadWagon 4 according to the instructions below.

The company just sent an email with an update on the safety notice those that have smooth side walls on their tires are exempt from the safety notice and can continue to ride their bikes those who have a ribbed sidewall on their rw4 will have to accept new tires parts and a local bike mechanic to do the repair work hope this helps

Dear William
Thank you for choosing to ride Rad. We are so happy to have you as a part of our amazing community of ebike advocates. We?re sorry to interrupt your ride, but we have an important update about your ebike.

Last week we sent a notice to customers who recently purchased a RadWagon 4 ebike on or after June 1, 2022. Out of an abundance of caution, we asked them to stop riding while we investigated a potential assembly issue where the rim strip may be misaligned on some RadWagon 4 ebikes. This misalignment could cause the tube to pop early and damage the tire.

After further investigation, we identified another tire quality issue on some RadWagon 4 ebikes purchased which may lead to an increased risk of flats. Depending on the results of the inspection we ask you to conduct below, your RadWagon 4 may require replacement parts before it is safe to ride the bike again. We will be providing complimentary parts and service by a local ebike mechanic to repair both issues.

Please stop riding your RadWagon 4 and inspect the tires on your RadWagon 4 according to the instructions below.

Tire Identification Process and Next Steps:

Since the release of the RadWagon 4 in 2020, different tire types have been used. Please review Figure 1 below to identify which tires are on your RadWagon 4.

Smooth:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 with a Smooth sidewall, as indicated by the Green Check Mark, your RadWagon 4 is not affected by this notice. You can continue riding your RadWagon 4 ebike. As always, you should conduct a pre-ride safety check and you should never ride on any tire that has damage or defects (cracks, tears, rips, holes).

Ribbed:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 below with a Ribbed sidewall, as indicated with the Red Warning Sign, please stop riding your RadWagon 4 immediately. These tires need to be replaced before it is safe to ride again. Rad will provide the parts and service at no cost to you. If your tires are replaced, we will also inspect and, if necessary, replace your rim strip material. To assist us in providing you with replacement parts and scheduling complimentary service for you, please complete this form on the Rad website.

Next Steps:

We will send the parts to you and work with you to schedule a complimentary service appointment with a local bike shop for a professional ebike mechanic to replace your tires. We are working feverishly to produce new tires and are expediting replacement parts for the impacted RadWagon 4 ebikes. Unfortunately the process to produce, inspect, and air ship these new parts may take 2-3 months to complete.

We understand that you may rely on your RadWagon 4 for transportation and are sorry for this inconvenience. Your safety is our top priority so we felt it was imperative to alert all RadWagon 4 customers right away rather than wait for the new parts to be ready. We are exploring all options to get you riding as soon as possible. We will provide you regular updates on our progress. We appreciate your patience as we work

Dear William
Thank you for choosing to ride Rad. We are so happy to have you as a part of our amazing community of ebike advocates. We?re sorry to interrupt your ride, but we have an important update about your ebike.

Last week we sent a notice to customers who recently purchased a RadWagon 4 ebike on or after June 1, 2022. Out of an abundance of caution, we asked them to stop riding while we investigated a potential assembly issue where the rim strip may be misaligned on some RadWagon 4 ebikes. This misalignment could cause the tube to pop early and damage the tire.

After further investigation, we identified another tire quality issue on some RadWagon 4 ebikes purchased which may lead to an increased risk of flats. Depending on the results of the inspection we ask you to conduct below, your RadWagon 4 may require replacement parts before it is safe to ride the bike again. We will be providing complimentary parts and service by a local ebike mechanic to repair both issues.

Please stop riding your RadWagon 4 and inspect the tires on your RadWagon 4 according to the instructions below.

Tire Identification Process and Next Steps:

Since the release of the RadWagon 4 in 2020, different tire types have been used. Please review Figure 1 below to identify which tires are on your RadWagon 4.

Smooth:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 with a Smooth sidewall, as indicated by the Green Check Mark, your RadWagon 4 is not affected by this notice. You can continue riding your RadWagon 4 ebike. As always, you should conduct a pre-ride safety check and you should never ride on any tire that has damage or defects (cracks, tears, rips, holes).

Ribbed:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 below with a Ribbed sidewall, as indicated with the Red Warning Sign, please stop riding your RadWagon 4 immediately. These tires need to be replaced before it is safe to ride again. Rad will provide the parts and service at no cost to you. If your tires are replaced, we will also inspect and, if necessary, replace your rim strip material. To assist us in providing you with replacement parts and scheduling complimentary service for you, please complete this form on the Rad website.

Dear William
Thank you for choosing to ride Rad. We are so happy to have you as a part of our amazing community of ebike advocates. We?re sorry to interrupt your ride, but we have an important update about your ebike.

Last week we sent a notice to customers who recently purchased a RadWagon 4 ebike on or after June 1, 2022. Out of an abundance of caution, we asked them to stop riding while we investigated a potential assembly issue where the rim strip may be misaligned on some RadWagon 4 ebikes. This misalignment could cause the tube to pop early and damage the tire.

After further investigation, we identified another tire quality issue on some RadWagon 4 ebikes purchased which may lead to an increased risk of flats. Depending on the results of the inspection we ask you to conduct below, your RadWagon 4 may require replacement parts before it is safe to ride the bike again. We will be providing complimentary parts and service by a local ebike mechanic to repair both issues.

Please stop riding your RadWagon 4 and inspect the tires on your RadWagon 4 according to the instructions below.

Tire Identification Process and Next Steps:

Since the release of the RadWagon 4 in 2020, different tire types have been used. Please review Figure 1 below to identify which tires are on your RadWagon 4.

Smooth:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 with a Smooth sidewall, as indicated by the Green Check Mark, your RadWagon 4 is not affected by this notice. You can continue riding your RadWagon 4 ebike. As always, you should conduct a pre-ride safety check and you should never ride on any tire that has damage or defects (cracks, tears, rips, holes).

Ribbed:

If your tire is identified in Figure 1 below with a Ribbed sidewall, as indicated with the Red Warning Sign, please stop riding your RadWagon 4 immediately. These tires need to be replaced before it is safe to ride again. Rad will provide the parts and service at no cost to you. If your tires are replaced, we will also inspect and, if necessary, replace your rim strip material. To assist us in providing you with replacement parts and scheduling complimentary service for you, please complete this form on the Rad website.