Rad Power Bikes Owners Forum

Rad Power Bikes is now listing the premium headlight which was first announced with the 2020 RadRunner Plus. Looks like for now you can only put your email in to get notified. See below, it's $49:

not compatible with the front rack accessory

Unfortunately the Notes state that "not compatible with the front rack accessory".
I was hoping it would be compatible. Hoping someone comes up with adapter/bracket.

Quote from: johndforney on April 10, 2020, 10:24:25 PM
Unfortunately the Notes state that "not compatible with the front rack accessory".
I was hoping it would be compatible. Hoping someone comes up with adapter/bracket.

I bet you could do something custom to make it work. Just need to make sure you have enough cord length and then find a good mounting point with a custom bracket.

There are two mounts that are feasible. The one that came with the original light that was to mount on the post behind the rack or the one that came with the rack modification.

I ponder if it is not the size of the light regarding tire clearance. On the RadWagon that I just got, the clearances could be the deciding factor.

Does anyone have any comparison photos of the light patterns of the premium headlight vs. the standard Rover or mini light?

Quote from: jshill on May 19, 2020, 10:58:38 AM
Does anyone have any comparison photos of the light patterns of the premium headlight vs. the standard Rover or mini light?

I have not seen this yet - I plan to buy the light as soon as it is available and will definitely compare the two. I imagine they won't be available until we see the RadRunner Plus start to ship.

Does anyone know of any alternative headlights that one could use for our Rad bikes?

I guess the wire connection is fairly standard in the Ebike world, so was curious if there were any alternative makes of LED headlights?

I guess how you mounted it would be a limiting factor though...

Hi all, FYI Rad just made the Premium Headlight available for purchase: https://bit.ly/2xql0uM (https://bit.ly/2xql0uM)

I picked one up so I'll have a video out on it ASAP. Use the link above to support the site - thanks!

Thanks Ryan. Sadly not on the EU website yet.  :(

Still waiting for that and the fenders for the RadRunner to become available.

I will probably have to get that and throw it on the Mini lol

For those of you curious about the premium headlight here is my video on it:

https://youtu.be/up_J5PmKHbU (https://youtu.be/up_J5PmKHbU)

Ordered last week and it arrived yesterday.

After seeing Ryan's excellent video, I have to say that I think the Rad Premium headlight is a WASTE OF MONEY. It is, in fact, an improvement on the headlight that came with my 2020 Radmini4, but if I ride at night, it is NEARLY USELESS for lighting up the road. I have numerous after-market bar-mounted lights, all purchased for well under $50, that give MUCH BETTER LIGHTING. All are rechargeable, and although they do not have the CONVENIENCE of running off the Rad's battery, they have multiple lighting modes. In particular they have excellent FLASHING modes for daytime visibility. I usually do NOT even turn my mini's lights on any more.

By searching on Amazon or eBay, you can find MUCH BETTER LIGHTS for less money. The trade-off is you will need to recharge them.

Having run the new headlight on a RadMini 4 for about a week, I too agree it sucks, but a little less than the standard Rad headlight, and the jury's still out on whether it's worth $60 shipped.

HOWEVER, it does appear to be  StVZO compliant (or at least attempts to be), and ALL of those suck in terms of how much of the ground ahead of a cycle they illuminate compared to the traditional wall of light approach. Same thing with cars, they've all gone to projector and other shaped beams, flat on top to avoid blinding oncoming traffic. The aftermarket is full of things for both cycles and cars that will give you the ability to see as if in daylight (it's not rocket science, just stupid brute force), but they will also blind oncoming traffic to varying degrees. Cycle paths are worse than roads because opposing traffic passes within a few feet of a blinding sun cycle light, whereas there is usually a traffic lane worth of additional separation on a road. There's no doubt in my mind (well maybe a little) that thousands of nighttime head on  collisions have been caused by blinded drivers running into people with aftermarket/non-compliant lights, but nobody knows this because all the evidence is destroyed in the resulting horrific collisions.

So for now, I'm going to try to be a responsible citizen and try to get used to StVZO bike headlights, just like I have with the flat top beams of my car lights that don't reach down the road like in the days of yore (but I might add a supplemental light with a convenient handlebar switch, maybe even with momentary button).

Which brings us to some addition problems with the new Rad Premium Headlight:

It's heavy and tailheavy, with a relatively small pivot, so on bumpy surfaces the beam tends to tilt up unless the  pivot bolt its tightened to a force beyond what I think is normal/safe for a bolt of that size. I'm considering putting something like Park Tool Supergrip Carbon and Alloy Assembly Compound SAC-2 on the pivot faces to try to provide some stiction (there are other similar anti-slip compounds out there made for use with carbon frames/seatposts, that's just one I happen to have).

IF you have an mri-Denver bottle dual cage mount on your RadMini 4 (and maybe other Rads?), when you turn the fork, the back of the new Premium headlight can hit the bottle cages (at lest that's what happens with my Topeak Modula Cage IIs). This can be sorta kinda good if your headlight has tilted up as mentioned above, but it then usually pushes it too far down, which can also be a bummer. I'm going to make a spacer to move the headlight about an inch (~25.4 mm for those still using the metric system) further forward/out.     

Well I guess I will not be purchasing the new light for my rad Mini 4.
Most of my riding is done at night commuting backwards and forwards to work. I do need a better light. Are there any suggestions?

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

Quote from: Veggyhed on July 21, 2020, 07:21:35 AM
Well I guess I will not be purchasing the new light for my rad Mini 4.
Most of my riding is done at night commuting backwards and forwards to work. I do need a better light. Are there any suggestions?

Sent from my Pixel 3a using Tapatalk

I really like the Blaze from Planet Bike linked in this article. I use it all the time during the day now on flashing mode. In my video I compared it to the Rad Premium Headlight and it is awesome. https://ebikeescape.com/rad-power-bikes-premium-headlight-review/

I'm done with no-name bike lights. They just don't last over the long term.

Check out my front rack solution for the light on my RadRunner Plus.  Youtube clip here...https://youtu.be/kJjPonetvus

That is a nice solution Ironman! Very nice!

I agree that this "premium" headlight is utterly useless after dark (I tried one) but does anybody know the wattage draw of this light?  I've attached an aftermarket light that draws about 10 watts and Area 13 warns that their controller upgrade (which I also have) does not support this light and runs a risk of burning out.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 24, 2023, 07:59:14 AM
I agree that this "premium" headlight is utterly useless after dark (I tried one) but does anybody know the wattage draw of this light?  I've attached an aftermarket light that draws about 10 watts and Area 13 warns that their controller upgrade (which I also have) does not support this light and runs a risk of burning out.

Back in the day, carbon-zinc would light a dim bulb. A dynamo would light a bright bulb until you forgot to ride the brakes down a hill to prevent a blowout. Even with a working bulb, you'd be in the dark at a stop sign.

Rechargeable batteries were heavy and leaked sulphuric acid.

I bought a carbide lamp. I bought the kind with a striker so I wouldn't have to light it with wet matches. If you buy one, make sure it's not a tungsten carbide lamp. They're impossible to light.

WARNING - I just got a reply from Area 13 saying the 35A controller upgrade is limited to 5w headlight power and can only handle the stock 5w headlight, not even the "Premium" Rad headlight.

I checked with them after reading this:

Will only work with stock 200 lumen headlight, will not work with the 500 Lumen headlights. THE 500 will burn up your controller.

from here:  https://area13ebikes.com/products/radkit (https://area13ebikes.com/products/radkit)

I assume this applies to the upgrades sold by ElectroBikeWorld and other vendors as well.  This seems like a ridiculous design spec on an "upgrade" controller, but Area13 is adamant about this.

I haven't had a problem, but I almost never ride after dark, so my use so far was limited to a few minutes after installation of this 10w unit to get it aligned to the road:

https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234738995390 (https://www.ebay.ca/itm/234738995390)

So it looks like I'll be removing this one and leaving both it and the Rad "Premium" headlight in my spare-parts box.

Sigh.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 25, 2023, 08:43:21 AM

Will only work with stock 200 lumen headlight, will not work with the 500 Lumen headlights. THE 500 will burn up your controller.

Sigh.

My rechargeable has a 5.8 AH, 3.7 V battery, or about 21.46 watt hours. The manufacturer says it will run 4 hours on high. That would be more than 5 watts. I think a modern Cree bulb will typically produce 100 lumens per watt, so it's probably about 500 lumens. I can adjust the beam height as I ride, and unlike a carbide lamp, it won't burn my fingers.

Quote from: handlebar on September 25, 2023, 12:28:48 PMMy rechargeable has a 5.8 AH, 3.7 V battery, or about 21.46 watt hours. The manufacturer says it will run 4 hours on high. That would be more than 5 watts. I think a modern Cree bulb will typically produce 100 lumens per watt, so it's probably about 500 lumens. I can adjust the beam height as I ride, and unlike a carbide lamp, it won't burn my fingers.

My main headlight is a Planet Bike 800 rechargeable, almost exclusively used in slow-strobe mode for daytime visibility.  Highly recommended.  I was hoping that yellow one would be a good backup for nighttime use just in case, because where I live, if the moon's not up after dark, it's farkin' DARK outside.  The stock (and "Premium"... hah) headlights are actually dangerous in that condition, where you'd be in the pothole, or critter, before you spotted it.

And somewhere I still have an honest-to-God brass carbide miner's headlamp that's around a hundred years old or so, used by my grandfather when he was a kid.  It's a beautifully-crafted jewel and I can't imagine mining amidst coal dust with an open-flame lantern like that.  Brass ballz, they had.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 25, 2023, 08:43:21 AM
So it looks like I'll be removing this one and leaving both it and the Rad "Premium" headlight in my spare-parts box.

Sigh.

It does not look like you need to remove it. Your headlight says you can use 12v "Designed to work on 12v 48v 52v and 60v ebike electrical systems"
You just need to power it externally. I have seen a 12v system powered by 18650 batteries on Amazon

Quote from: JimInPT on September 25, 2023, 02:37:53 PM


My main headlight is a Planet Bike 800 rechargeable, almost exclusively used in slow-strobe mode for daytime visibility.  Highly recommended.  I was hoping that yellow one would be a good backup for nighttime use just in case, because where I live, if the moon's not up after dark, it's farkin' DARK outside.  The stock (and "Premium"... hah) headlights are actually dangerous in that condition, where you'd be in the pothole, or critter, before you spotted it.

You may be unaware of the law. Unless on rails, a locomotive must have somebody with a lantern walk at least 60 yards ahead. That should allow ample braking distance if he spots a critter or a pothole and flags you down. It was repealed when motor vehicles came along, but an ebike is not a motor vehicle.

Quote from: Naranja_CT5+ on September 25, 2023, 03:20:28 PMIt does not look like you need to remove it. Your headlight says you can use 12v "Designed to work on 12v 48v 52v and 60v ebike electrical systems" You just need to power it externally. I have seen a 12v system powered by 18650 batteries on Amazon

Yes, I getcha, but I rarely ride after dark, or really anytime a headlight would even be visible on the road surface - I was just trying to replace the stock headlight with one that had a useful beam pattern, for emergencies (like my Planet Bike rechargeable not working) or the very-rare need to ride after dark.

I don't want to carry around more batteries and have more hassle just for that.  So far, I've been unable to find a 5-watt headlight that could be a drop-in replacement like the 10-watter I have, but with a better beam than stock. 

Also still sort of pissed off that an "upgrade" controller can't even handle 10 watts whereas apparently the stock controller can (I asked Rad how many watts the "premium" headlight draws and their response was "500 lumens") - does nobody attend even high-school STEM classes anymore?  WTF is that about?

Quote from: handlebar on September 25, 2023, 07:16:49 PMYou may be unaware of the law. Unless on rails, a locomotive must have somebody with a lantern walk at least 60 yards ahead. That should allow ample braking distance if he spots a critter or a pothole and flags you down. It was repealed when motor vehicles came along, but an ebike is not a motor vehicle.

Oh, I'm aware of the law, all right.  I always comply with any arbitrary law, excreted by somebody who could only get a government "job" that comes along, to the letter.  You betcha.

Anyway, everything was fine until my lantern guy was run down by a locomotive sneaking up from behind.  Nailed the lantern too, so I'm scrooed.

Quote from: JimInPT on September 26, 2023, 11:18:07 AM

Anyway, everything was fine until my lantern guy was run down by a locomotive sneaking up from behind.  Nailed the lantern too, so I'm scrooed.

Ride around the golf course and chat with caddies. With shorter playing hours, most of them will jump at a chance to moonlight and gladly purchase a lantern.