My Rad City 5 Plus (high step) arrived today and I got to take it out for an inaugural ride. I ordered the bike on March 26 and opted for the pro build with Velofix (I'm not that comfortable with assembly). The bike arrived on April 29, just a little over a month later. In terms of accessories, I got the Abus frame lock and chain. I also ordered the $8 battery terminal cover (this should really just be included).
For me, the main use case for this bike is commuting. I have a 25km commute each way to work (total of 50km/day). Ordinarily, I take the subway but I have been looking to replace my transit commute with an all e-bike commute.
For context, I'm based in Toronto (Canada).
After taking it out for a quick 9km ride, here are my first impressions:
The Look
The design and look of the bike is quite nice. Reviewers pointed this out and I can confirm that it's a sharp looking new design. It's nice but not flashy. The charcoal colour with orange accents didn't seem to draw too much attention. I'm riding in Toronto where there are lots of e-bikes on the road (especially among delivery riders) and Rad Bikes aren't uncommon in my area. This made me more comfortable locking up the bike outside while I went into a coffee place for an hour or so.
The frame, as you can tell in pictures, looks like a standard bike and the semi-integrated battery gives the bike an overall coherent look. It doesn't disguise the fact that this thing is an e-bike, but it also doesn't look like an oddity on the road. A friend who doesn't ride e-bikes said that she didn't notice what it was at first and thought it was just a standard bike at a quick glance.
Build Quality
The build quality of the bike feels solid upon first impression. I'll see how it holds up to additional mileage over the long term. Velofix did a great job with assembly. Friendly, knowledgeable, professional. They walked me through all the functions of the bike and helped adjust the seat and handle bar angle to my height and arm length.
Geometry and Ergonomics
I really like the feel of the cockpit and geometry of the bike. This is my first bike with a good, upright seating position. It's extremely comfortable and I can see that helping with my long commute. The seat is also a little wider than other bikes that I've had and it felt good after 9km. The quick release on the seat post is excellent and easy to adjust to your liking. I'm 6' with a 32" inseam. I was able to adjust the seat height to get full leg extension.
The components on the handlebar are all within comfortable and easy reach (pedal assist buttons, shifter, throttle, bell). The middle screen is bright and clear like a little smartphone. I love the inclusion of a clock (why don't all e-bikes have this?). The pedal assist screen is dimmer, as many reviewers have noted, but I didn't find it unreadable at all (it was a very bright, sunny day). Only the head/tail light indicator was hard to read. Otherwise, the dual screens work great.
Lights!
The headlight and tail light are bright and clear in daylight on a sunny day. I haven't tested the headlight at night so I can't say how functional it is for seeing where you're going after dark. I can say, however, that they help make you visible to others on the road. Plus, I love that they are integrated and I love that they automatically turn on when you power up the bike. I always forget to turn on my lights before hitting the road so it's helpful that this is a default setting. Much more safe, in my view.
The tail light optionally blinks (which I prefer), but only if you press a button on the light itself. I wish the blinking option was available from the lefthand controls on the handlebar. The tail light also has a brake light, which is a fantastic feature that comes standard on this bike.
Ride Feel
While riding everything is just solid and smooth. The roads in my area are not perfect so the suspension fork is essential. I think they made the right call with the suspension. It was firm enough that I wasn't bottoming out, but had enough give that I wasn't getting rattled out of my seat by the gritty quality of Toronto's roads.
That smooth feeling is also aided by those tires. They are wider than the tires on my standard bike, which gives them a little more bounce and it seems like the new treads help the wheels roll more freely, making it an easy ride. In fact, while riding on pedal assist 0 or with the power off entirely, it rode surprisingly well as a standard bike. I've tried another model of e-bike and found that riding without power at all was not a feasible option. On the Rad City 5 Plus, I felt like I could realistically ride it for some distance without any power (I went about 2km with no power just to test this out).
The Motor
With power on, you can definitely feel upgraded torque on the new 750W geared hub motor. I've previous used an e-bike with a 350W mid-drive motor and I immediately felt the added power on the Rad City 5 Plus. The motor is relatively quiet, but you can definitely hear it when it's engaged.
I wasn't able to test on a big hill yet, but modest inclines were no trouble at all at pedal assist 1. When I kicked up to pedal assist 2, I was cruising at 25km/h with little effort at all. The throttle is responsive and has variable speed. The pick up is quick from a full stop with the throttle. You can easily use the throttle to quickly pull through an intersection from a full stop. I hit a top speed of 28km/h, but I believe you can reach 32km/h.
Pedalling and Shifting
I prefer to ride with pedal assist (between 1-3) rather than the throttle. The seven gears help and the shifter is easy to reach with clean switches from one gear to the next. My model came with the Shimano Altus derailleur and thumb shifter. I like them a lot. I read that the Shimano shift sat uncomfortably high on the handlebar, but I didn't find this to be any problem at all. Fully reachable and comfortable (although your hand does cross over the throttle so I was careful not to accidentally engage the throttle while shifting). I read that some models have MicroShift components but that they are equivalent in quality to the Shimano components.
Braking
Braking worked great giving me full confidence in the hydraulic brakes. It takes a deep depression of the brake levers, but the stopping power is firm. This should help build my confidence riding at faster speeds out on the road. I'll also need to be mindful of regular maintenance.
Battery and Range
I can't give a full sense of the range just yet, but I do have some initial impressions on the battery experience.
This new model has a semi-integrated 672 Wh battery. It's about double the capacity of the previous e-bike I used and you can feel it in the weight of the thing. It locks on to the bike and easily pops out with a turn of the battery key. I like the battery terminal cover to protect the leads when I store the bike with the battery removed.
The charger is 48V, 2 Amp, but surprisingly compact. I was a bit worried about carrying it back and forth to charge at work during the day, but this charger is light and compact enough to fit in my pannier along with the rest of my stuff for work.
It seems to charge up fast, in my view. I charged from about 50% to full in 2.5-3 hours. It didn't feel especially hot to the touch. I'll see how it goes on a longer charge.
My 9km initial ride dropped the battery from 10/10 indicator lights to 9/10. Not bad. I am really looking forward to seeing how much charge is left on the bike by the time I get to work each day.
Those are my first impressions of the Rad City 5 Plus (high step). I'll be sure to post an updated review once I've put more kms on the bike. If you have questions or you'd like me to test something out, just let me know.
For me, the main use case for this bike is commuting. I have a 25km commute each way to work (total of 50km/day). Ordinarily, I take the subway but I have been looking to replace my transit commute with an all e-bike commute.
For context, I'm based in Toronto (Canada).
After taking it out for a quick 9km ride, here are my first impressions:
The Look
The design and look of the bike is quite nice. Reviewers pointed this out and I can confirm that it's a sharp looking new design. It's nice but not flashy. The charcoal colour with orange accents didn't seem to draw too much attention. I'm riding in Toronto where there are lots of e-bikes on the road (especially among delivery riders) and Rad Bikes aren't uncommon in my area. This made me more comfortable locking up the bike outside while I went into a coffee place for an hour or so.
The frame, as you can tell in pictures, looks like a standard bike and the semi-integrated battery gives the bike an overall coherent look. It doesn't disguise the fact that this thing is an e-bike, but it also doesn't look like an oddity on the road. A friend who doesn't ride e-bikes said that she didn't notice what it was at first and thought it was just a standard bike at a quick glance.
Build Quality
The build quality of the bike feels solid upon first impression. I'll see how it holds up to additional mileage over the long term. Velofix did a great job with assembly. Friendly, knowledgeable, professional. They walked me through all the functions of the bike and helped adjust the seat and handle bar angle to my height and arm length.
Geometry and Ergonomics
I really like the feel of the cockpit and geometry of the bike. This is my first bike with a good, upright seating position. It's extremely comfortable and I can see that helping with my long commute. The seat is also a little wider than other bikes that I've had and it felt good after 9km. The quick release on the seat post is excellent and easy to adjust to your liking. I'm 6' with a 32" inseam. I was able to adjust the seat height to get full leg extension.
The components on the handlebar are all within comfortable and easy reach (pedal assist buttons, shifter, throttle, bell). The middle screen is bright and clear like a little smartphone. I love the inclusion of a clock (why don't all e-bikes have this?). The pedal assist screen is dimmer, as many reviewers have noted, but I didn't find it unreadable at all (it was a very bright, sunny day). Only the head/tail light indicator was hard to read. Otherwise, the dual screens work great.
Lights!
The headlight and tail light are bright and clear in daylight on a sunny day. I haven't tested the headlight at night so I can't say how functional it is for seeing where you're going after dark. I can say, however, that they help make you visible to others on the road. Plus, I love that they are integrated and I love that they automatically turn on when you power up the bike. I always forget to turn on my lights before hitting the road so it's helpful that this is a default setting. Much more safe, in my view.
The tail light optionally blinks (which I prefer), but only if you press a button on the light itself. I wish the blinking option was available from the lefthand controls on the handlebar. The tail light also has a brake light, which is a fantastic feature that comes standard on this bike.
Ride Feel
While riding everything is just solid and smooth. The roads in my area are not perfect so the suspension fork is essential. I think they made the right call with the suspension. It was firm enough that I wasn't bottoming out, but had enough give that I wasn't getting rattled out of my seat by the gritty quality of Toronto's roads.
That smooth feeling is also aided by those tires. They are wider than the tires on my standard bike, which gives them a little more bounce and it seems like the new treads help the wheels roll more freely, making it an easy ride. In fact, while riding on pedal assist 0 or with the power off entirely, it rode surprisingly well as a standard bike. I've tried another model of e-bike and found that riding without power at all was not a feasible option. On the Rad City 5 Plus, I felt like I could realistically ride it for some distance without any power (I went about 2km with no power just to test this out).
The Motor
With power on, you can definitely feel upgraded torque on the new 750W geared hub motor. I've previous used an e-bike with a 350W mid-drive motor and I immediately felt the added power on the Rad City 5 Plus. The motor is relatively quiet, but you can definitely hear it when it's engaged.
I wasn't able to test on a big hill yet, but modest inclines were no trouble at all at pedal assist 1. When I kicked up to pedal assist 2, I was cruising at 25km/h with little effort at all. The throttle is responsive and has variable speed. The pick up is quick from a full stop with the throttle. You can easily use the throttle to quickly pull through an intersection from a full stop. I hit a top speed of 28km/h, but I believe you can reach 32km/h.
Pedalling and Shifting
I prefer to ride with pedal assist (between 1-3) rather than the throttle. The seven gears help and the shifter is easy to reach with clean switches from one gear to the next. My model came with the Shimano Altus derailleur and thumb shifter. I like them a lot. I read that the Shimano shift sat uncomfortably high on the handlebar, but I didn't find this to be any problem at all. Fully reachable and comfortable (although your hand does cross over the throttle so I was careful not to accidentally engage the throttle while shifting). I read that some models have MicroShift components but that they are equivalent in quality to the Shimano components.
Braking
Braking worked great giving me full confidence in the hydraulic brakes. It takes a deep depression of the brake levers, but the stopping power is firm. This should help build my confidence riding at faster speeds out on the road. I'll also need to be mindful of regular maintenance.
Battery and Range
I can't give a full sense of the range just yet, but I do have some initial impressions on the battery experience.
This new model has a semi-integrated 672 Wh battery. It's about double the capacity of the previous e-bike I used and you can feel it in the weight of the thing. It locks on to the bike and easily pops out with a turn of the battery key. I like the battery terminal cover to protect the leads when I store the bike with the battery removed.
The charger is 48V, 2 Amp, but surprisingly compact. I was a bit worried about carrying it back and forth to charge at work during the day, but this charger is light and compact enough to fit in my pannier along with the rest of my stuff for work.
It seems to charge up fast, in my view. I charged from about 50% to full in 2.5-3 hours. It didn't feel especially hot to the touch. I'll see how it goes on a longer charge.
My 9km initial ride dropped the battery from 10/10 indicator lights to 9/10. Not bad. I am really looking forward to seeing how much charge is left on the bike by the time I get to work each day.
Those are my first impressions of the Rad City 5 Plus (high step). I'll be sure to post an updated review once I've put more kms on the bike. If you have questions or you'd like me to test something out, just let me know.