Quote from: Omidia Ramin on September 11, 2023, 03:37:07 AM
So after also finding the premium headlight ridiculous, I bought this one (it?s plug and play and doesn?t draw Too much power) on my rover step thru?. It?s great. I?m glad I went with the yellow? it?s fine and less blinding to others.

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

Thanks for the tip; I'll give it a try as well to have a wired headlight that actually works at night.

Thanks very much for the info and pics - you really wore those out!  My Big Boats on the MiniST2 have around 700 miles on them and look just slightly used with fully-intact tread, from a combo of about 80% pavement and 20% hardpacked trails and tree roots - I'm no bike acrobat, but handling on all surfaces is fine although I don't ride in the rain.  Also very happy with handling in turns/corners and how quiet they are compared to fat-tire knobbies.  I bought spare tubes and finally tracked down a couple spare tires (these haven't been easy to find), so should be good for quite some time; used Slime the first time but have FlatOut to try next go-around.

No problems with flats or leaks and they only lose about 1 psi of pressure at most over 2-3 weeks - I like the CST Big Boats quite a lot.

Quote from: oldtexasdog on September 09, 2023, 03:22:46 AM
Looks like what I was after. Did it mount up to the RAD or did you have to get some other gear to get it on?

As Inoxa mentioned, they (and most) come with hardware to mount to either seatpost or rails - my Redshift post uses rails, which are nice for the small amount of fore/aft travel they offer for adjustment.  I was amazed at how much different a half-inch or inch forward/backward made in the ride feel, because it changes the angle of your spine as well as the amount of weight on your palms.

So, a seat order should supply everything you need to fit it to your bike but BYOT (bring your own tools).

P.S.  You can't go by looks alone to judge a seat - a couple that looked big and plush actually hurt my butt more than the flatter cushion version from the same company.

Very nice; good job.

Bike seats are sort of like shoes; you have to try different ones until you find a good fit.  I went through five of them, including two from Cloud 9, before finding the right fit - Amazon's easy return makes it pretty painless to do.

I can recommend Cloud 9's quality and variety; they make many different styles and sizes.  This is mine; I don't like the extra-long nose but can live with it otherwise: 
https://amzn.to/3RphA1a

Velmia and Bikeroo brands are also well-made, but didn't work for my butt.  I also added a Redshift suspension seatpost to my MiniST2; that also made a large difference in feel and handling.

Good luck; be patient and you'll find the right one.  Might even get lucky on the first try!

Quote from: RadPaco on September 06, 2023, 11:47:52 AM
hey there. anyone has upgraded from the regular headlight to this Premium headlight which is rated at twice the brightness of the standard? Just curious if upgrading would drain a lot more energy from the battery...I know LED technology is efficient.Just wondering...I also wish there was a larger capacity battery in the future! But the cost may be prohibitive!
anyways...the headlight...maybe too bright?

If you're referring to Rad's own "premium" optional headlight, I found it to be better-looking than the stock unit, but otherwise absolutely useless to the point of being dangerous on our rural roads where a moonless night means you're in dark-dark with only your headlight.  The beam pattern is a tiny postage-stamp piece-of-crap rectangle that won't find potholes or critters until you're on them and maybe too late to slow or stop.  So I kept mine on the bike to use occasionally as a daylight running light or emergency night light, but long ago switched to this for both day and night - it's pretty amazing and with internal rechargeable battery won't affect your bike's circuits.  Plus, it has several modes including a daylight slow-stobe that is highly visible to oncoming traffic and easily removes to use as a pocket flashlight.

https://amzn.to/46CyM84

Quote from: Naranja_CT5+ on September 06, 2023, 08:58:24 AMTherefore my initial thought was just to unlock as soon as warranty expires. I know better now that it?s not that simple.

My motivation to get an electric bike was to help me on hills. I think I will be content in having a 500w without modifications. Unfortunately I won?t know until I have my bike.

If it works on your bike, the simple unlocking of top speed via a 'secret' menu on the stock controller won't hurt anything, so do that first.  It simply unlocks the bike to achieve the top speed the stock controller/motor can achieve - stock bikes are artificially crippled to whatever top speed some bureaucrat who hasn't been on a bike in 40 years figured was all you could handle.  So, if available, unlock it!  You can always reverse and re-lock if if necessary (like for a new rider or child).

A higher-wattage controller will provide more torque, but not more top speed; Altema here on the forum has demonstrated that stock motors can handle quite a bit - he was unable to burn one out even when trying to kill a spare stock motor with a 1,600w upgrade.    Your City will have larger wheels than my 20" MiniST, which means it requires more torque to have the same hill-climbing ability as mine, so you may find a controller upgrade is worth trying if there's one available for your model. 

My controller upgrade turned my Mini into a real stealthy little pocket-rocket that now easily climbs the two steep hills in town that were impossible previously.  Top wattage I've seen on the display is about 1,575, but it mostly runs in stock ranges of 100-600w or so unless I'm on a steep incline and therefore still gets about the same range on a charge as it did before.  Like SemperVee, I pedal as much as I can for the exercise, but the motor is a big help to an old guy when necessary.

My Sena helmet has built-in speakers, mic and Bluetooth to enable an intercom mesh network with other riders.  I use it to listen to my podcasts and an occasional incoming phone call.  The tiny speakers are tinny, so probably not great for music, but the setup works well for me and tinniness makes it easier to listen to voice podcasts, so I'm pretty happy with it.

This arrangement also keeps your ears open to the world and its dangers, unlike earbuds that can shut you out from hearing that bus coming up behind you.

The blank you're referring to is:  Ilco HD74 Key Blank for Honda X84  and my guess is it would likely work if you have the "shark" battery that sits on top of the frame tubing and was used on all Rads until a year or two ago.  Below are before/after pics of my battery when I discovered how easy they are to steal.

You might be able to find a blank at a local lock shop or motorcycle-repair shop - I'm sure they deal with lost keys now and then.   Good luck!

P.S.  I only ride with a blank, so I can show and warn other Rad owners who don't believe me when I just tell them.  Showing them is pretty convincing.

Here's what I did; this installs on the front stem bolt pattern for the front rack/basket.  A little pricey but very well made, can hold two bottles and keeps them out of the way of your legs.  The bottle holder(s) are not included - it's just an adapter bracket.

https://amzn.to/3sZHyPE

I had a similar problem a couple years ago on my MiniST2, drove me nuts.  Back then, Rad Support was stellar, and the guy who answered the phone stayed on the line with me until it was fixed; after asking me to make it squeak over the phone, he walked me through it while I was out in the garage.  The good ol' daze.

Anyway, if you're sure it's not brakes, it may be a bearing grease seal.  See attached photo - it's a sort of truncated-cone rubber cover, circled in yellow.  If the lip's edge is dry, it squeaks since it contacts a rotating surface.

The fix is simple, just pull the edge back a bit (gently; use a fingernail, plastic or wooden stick to avoid possible tearing) and put a bit of oil on it.  Use a TINY amount of oil (one drop of 3-in-1 was all I needed) and you shouldn't have to do more than apply it with a fingertip along a half-inch of the rubber edge, if that - spinning the wheel, slowly at first, will distribute the oil.  You are NOT injecting oil; you're just applying it to the outermost lip of that rubber cap.

BE CAREFUL to keep your oil away from that brake disc - I recommend covering it in paper towels or something, just in case, and watch for any seeping out for a little while.

For me, this was an instant fix and two years later it's still silent.

Good luck with it!

Quote from: Robin3654 on August 30, 2023, 05:08:32 AM
I purchased two Rad bikes and live in Pennsylvania. I am finding out that this was a mistake. Their customer support is non existent. I would never recommend that someone purchase a Rad bike.

Yeah, that sucks; my rare experiences with Rad support when I bought my Mini were just stellar; the service was just amazing.  And now it's gone to crap from what I keep reading, so I don't blame you for being disappointed.  It also seems Rad has its hands full with bad tire and controller batches that caused a lot of problems for recent buyers and likely enormous expenses for Rad.

However, this forum is pretty good and has helped me quite a bit with sometimes esoteric stuff that wouldn't be a Rad support issue, so if you wrote up your problems and posted them in the right forum subsection, you might find answers quickly, depending on what problems you're having.

FWIW, after a little more than 2 years I couldn't be happier with my MiniST2, which has had only minor issues like a front wheel squeak (in that case, the guy who answered the phone walked me through the fix immediately on my cordless phone out in the garage and showed me how to kill the squeak in 5 minutes, staying on the line until he was sure I fixed it and was happy).  I upgraded the controller/display, brakes and accessories to turn it into a very nice little bike.  So don't give up too quickly, but I'm also wary of recommending a purchase to others right now as well, mostly because they dropped the Minis (replacing them with the Expand, which I think is quite inferior to the point of sucking) and seem to have been cost-reducing components.

Quote from: handlebar on August 26, 2023, 05:51:59 PMMy Radrunner 1 manual says anything more or less than that pressure, which they don't state, is unsafe.

I think the reason for that is the stated pressure is tire-specific, so if Rad permanently (like with the Minis) or temporarily ships with different tires, they don't have the risk of reprinting the manual if the replacement tire has a different rating. 

Quote from: handlebar on August 20, 2023, 11:34:44 AMI also use the throttle when I have to break wind, which some riders do constantly. Above 15 miles an hour, most of a rider's energy goes into breaking wind, and it increases as the cube of his speed. That's relative speed. Before I had an ebike, in a headwind I might struggle to break wind at 5 mph.

Have you done any test comparisons to determine how much speed you gain on days you've eaten beans?  I struggled to notice any difference until I finally figured out I was facing the wrong way and was just breaking into the wind.

If God had intended for us to be pedestrians, He wouldn't have given us roads.