I almost bought one. With such a light driver, I could gear my bike to outrun the cops. With so little weight, I'll bet it could roll over stop sticks without a puncture, and the robot could hop off and chase K9 units. I put one in my cart, but then they wanted me to click an "agree" box for their terms and conditions. It took 45 minutes to read their terms. One line was a deal breaker: "Must be used in compliance with the law."

I wonder if there's an AI robot company with a "wink and a nod" policy.

Quote from: John Rose on December 25, 2023, 07:13:26 PM
Oh, hey, I got "Bikes On Bridge" pix today.
We put them in the back of the CRV and drove 32 km to Baie Verte. Parked the car and rode the bikes up to Port Elgin and back. All of 12.33 km round trip. Sadly, the rail-to-trail trail was icy and rutted by ATVs, so we stayed on the paved side roads. Except for the part of the trail that went over a river. Had to go on that for the photo op.

AI would have made it easier to get those photos. Instead of packing your bikes in the car, ask them to meet you at Baie Verte. When you come to the icy part, dismount and use your smart phone to direct them up the trail. They'll still be learning, so remind them to put their kick stands down when they park on the bridge.

I'll have to email Customer Support and ask if it's available for the Radrunner 1.

Those photos are pretty sobering. If you'd been wearing a cowboy hat instead of a helmet and faceplate, maybe you would have seen the train. 

Quote from: inoxa on December 24, 2023, 08:45:06 AM

Thanks for the suggestion though there is nothing wrong with the lights, both front and rear turn off at the same time also they're both reasonably new.  It's a system issue - but what?

Are the lights new to the bike or came with your newer bike?  Some aftermarket lights have been known to have problems on RADS.
[/quote]

I think you're onto something. When he said it had never done this before, I imagined the lights weren't "reasonably new."

When I wanted a brighter headlight, I got a USB rechargeable one to avoid a possible overload. It gives me many nights on a charge and tells me what percent is left.

That happened to my Radrunner. Having no tool to take the freewheel off, I laid the wheel level on a work table  and noticed a crack between the center part, that screws on, and the sprocket wheel. I used a cotton swap to spread 5W motor oil on the crack. I'd spin it, make sure there was oil on the crack, walk away to give it time to wick in, and do it again.

I'd repeat the process any time I had the wheel off. I never had any more trouble with it. Automatic transmission fluid or 0W motor oil or 3-in-1 might have worked better, but 5W did the trick. Oil would wick in better at a warm ambient temperature.

A couple of years later I bought a wrench and replaced the freewheel because I noticed about 1mm of runout on the sprocket wheel if it was stationary and the wheel was spinning. The replacement also had runout. Then I read that it's common on single-speed freewheels. It's not the fault of the freewheel but the threaded pipe it screws onto. It's hard for a manufacturer to mount that pipe stub perfectly straight.

Here's my replacement:
https://amzn.to/3HoAdNd

I guess the two important measurements are the diameter and pitch it threads onto and the number of teeth. (I could have changed gearing.)

Do both front and rear lights go out? Do they fade out? I think there could be a break in the wiring. Maybe it would respond to wiggling.

I believe it rolled against the tire. Rims weren't smooth and even enough for caliper brakes.

Starting in the 1870s, Augustus Pope had his lawyers buy up any patents that might apply to bicycles. He also purchased bikes from England in order to patent what he saw. It was bogus, but fear of costly litigation inhibited American producers from making better stuff. In fact, the big factories paid Pope a license fee of $10 ( a week's wages ) for each bike they produced.

Starting about 1900, some American bikes had coaster brakes. Litigation couldn't stop them because there were different ways of implementing them. A rear brake couldn't stop you nearly as fast as a front brake, and on a hill, a coaster brake could overheat and leave you on your own. In their catalog, the Wright Brothers claimed to manufacture bikes from scratch. In fact, their shop wasn't equipped to make anything but coaster brakes. They were smugglers, bringing stuff in through Toronto.

Quote from: JimInPT on December 20, 2023, 08:12:57 AM

Nice display spoiler-fin there, man.  I betcha get another 1-2 mph on the top end as a result.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charles_Terront

How about the bottom photo, Charles Terront winning the 1891 Paris-Brest-Paris race, 8 hours ahead of second place, riding for Humber and Michelin. Most credit his pneumatic tires. Others credit the bike, with the seating pioneered by the Rover 6 years earlier, which allowed him to pedal 743 miles in overdrive. I'm sure you saw immediately that it was the pneumatic device under his top tube. I tried mounting mine that way, but taking my feet off the pedals to honk with my knees meant that there was no net gain from honking. I need a bigger horn!

One morning in 1969, I rode my motorcycle to herd some dairy cattle. My face shield was blindingly scratchy riding into the rising sun. I got hung up in three strands of electrified barbed wire stretched across the dirt road.

I switched to aviator goggles with laminated, tempered glass. They quit selling them, so I was back to plastic on my ebike. After a year I ditched the helmet. For nearly a century after the introduction of the Rover safety bicycle, bicyclists didn't wear helmets because they never seemed to fall on their head. Then bicycling became a sport of zipping through traffic with your head down and forward. Of those rushed away in ambulances, only half as many helmet wearers had head injuries. I'd rather avoid neck and other injuries besides reducing concussions. Where cities set up roads to keep cars from sharing bicycle lanes, injuries went down more than 90%. So the best plan is not to tangle with traffic. Hence my big mirror: situation awareness.

On foot, I've worn the same brown felt Stetson for 40 years. The brim protects my eyes and face from things like sun, wind, and bugs. A few years ago I supplemented it with a heavier white plastic hat for windy and rainy days. In hot weather, the air circulation under the crown helps.

It became my riding hat two years ago. The most dangerous part of bicycling had been looking into a low sun, more to spot oncoming cars than electrified barbed wire. This brim helps a lot. It also deflects cold wind and bugs away from my face. It's highly visible.

I wear a scarf in winter because it would take a bigger brim to keep my neck warm.

Both my Rads had throttle always available. With two other brands, you have to have PAS 1 or higher to have throttle available. With my aftermarket controllers, I could set it either way or other ways. (The settings manual is 40 pages.)

With the aftermarket controllers, I can set how fast the throttle gives me power from a stop. With the stock Rads, it built a little slowly. That's what I would want if I were using the throttle to walk a bike up a ramp.

That was me honking at a darned pedestrian in the next aisle. With all the shoppers I've accidentally knocked down in that store, I wonder why the management hasn't put rear view mirrors on shopping carts. I wouldn't ride in that store without a mirror to be sure no hornless cart is passing me when I turn left. Safety first, I say. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3k_Y-cgNKKQ
A couple of years ago, Ryan, who runs the forum, put an upgraded controller on his Radwagon 4.

I put upgrades on two Radpower bikes because they weren't giving me the rated motor output. They also offer more user settings, such as whether I can start with throttle only and how briskly the throttle will give a stopped bike power.

If your hydraulic brake levers were made for ebikes, I think they must have places to insert cutoff switches if the switches aren't included.

I've ridden daily for three years. I have a Radrunner, a Radmission, and an Aventon Abound. I've never bothered to dry them. A Radrunner controller gets any water picked up by the front tire, and I did have trouble with an aftermarket controller until I sealed it with RTV.

The only rust I recall were spots on maybe 4 outboard rails of the Radrunner chain. I would wipe the chain after applying Finish Line dry lube, and I think I'd wiped the protection off come links. After that, I made it a point not to wipe until the vehicle had evaporated. I haven't seen any more rust.

Aventon is so confident that they say parking in the rain is fine.

If you raise the back wheel, won't you be going downhill? 

Some models of the Radcity and the Radwagon would be dandy.
https://radpowerbikes.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360045171734-Riding-Rad-with-Regenerative-Braking

Aventon's competitor for the Rover, the Adventure 2, has it. There seems to be a mistake because you don't need to touch a brake lever. Any time you switch to PAS 0 and pedal, you get significant resistance that gets worse with speed.

It looks as if regenerative braking would be great for stationary exercise, but it doesn't work if the battery is charged.

I don't know your friend, but I assume she told the truth. It sounds like company policy based on statistics. Class I bikes may be less appealing to a thief because he doesn't know where he could get a quick buck for something that looks like an unfamiliar model of a push bike.