Gadgetory

we've covered a handful of small electric vehicles on this channel so far some have been pretty cool and somewhat practical others have been cool and completely impractical and others have just been terrible but none of them are nearly as practical as a common garden-variety bicycle and that's because bicycles are fast efficient reliable easy to repair and cheap that's why I've been riding bikes for over 20 years and that's why I've been so anxious to try the rad wagon and the electric cargo bike from rad power bikes it's got most of the advantages that come from being a bicycle but it's also got a 750 watt motor Corsair boasts unrivaled comfort and universal compatibility on its void surround headset featuring a genuine Dolby 7.1 headphone USB adapter like the link in the video description to learn more the red wagon has a 21 speed gearing system wide all-terrain tires no shocks mechanical disc brakes and LCD display with lots of information and plastic fenders mud flaps and clear wheel guards for the cargo area it's a long tail bike and it's heavy at 75 pounds so you won't be doing any tight maneuvers there's a rear light powered by double a's but the front light runs off the main battery the beam is pretty narrow and not super bright but it will always shine even if you run out of power for the motor assembly of the rad wagon is pretty easy if you have a decent set of tools the ones in the box are just okay and there's a YouTube video to help you out just don't put the handlebars on backwards like I did and you'll be fine and while you're at it please read the manuals among the other very useful information you'll find safety warnings like the one about not putting the seat post too high which I didn't read and accidentally bent part of the frame and needed our neighbor Steve to help fix it again be sure to read both manuals cover to cover or you won't get the best experience I guarantee it at the heart of the rad wagon is a 7 pound lithium-ion battery with a whopping 566 watt hour capacity it even has an onboard 5 volt USB port so you could recharge an iphone about 70 times but this battery's true purpose is to power the direct drive hub motor it's gearless brushless very quiet and runs at 48 volts with a peak output of 750 watts the maximum allowed by law in the United States that's a lot of torque and let me tell you this thing tips but only to a point out of the box the rad wagon has a factory set speed limit of 20 miles an hour that's as fast as you can legally go on an electric bike using a bottle only before US law classifies your vehicle as a No pet for which you would require a license according to Strava great app by the way I average about 12 miles an hour on my Cannondale road bike compare that to 18 miles an hour average on the rad wagon 50% faster that's respectable especially considering that the rad wegen wasn't even built for speed it's a cargo bike one that's capable of hauling a whopping 350 pounds that's what this huge amount of rack space is for there's enough room for four standard panier bike bags or two of red wagons Ballard bags though I did not like the Ballard bags for several reasons worst of which is the pathetic attachment mechanism that has me fumbling with the clips like I'm in an infomercial fortunately you can use any bike bag compatible with the racks 3/4 inch tubing and there's even more room on the wooden deck and running boards you can carry groceries boxes lumber and even people as long as they weigh less than 120 pounds but don't tell that to your girlfriend so that's great but just how much range can you get on a single charge well that depends rad powered bikes says you can expect a range from anywhere between 20 and 40 miles depending upon factors like speed weight terrain and how hard you're pedaling I've ridden this bike for more than 200 miles over the past two months with a mix of long and short trips but I've never gotten farther than 30 miles on a single charge even on perfectly flat terrain to test the lower boundary I loaded up the rad wagon with 350 pounds and biked around on pedal assist mode 3 until the battery depleted I expected to go about 10 miles but the bike didn't make 10 miles it made 20 and shockingly it didn't give up much performance either easily reaching above 15 miles an hour throughout my torture test and it even handled a very steep downhill without losing stability at 30 miles an hour you can't do that on a boosted board this absolutely blew me away and so did the results of my new real-world tests the office to Costco benchmark where the rad wagon turned in the best performance of a non gas-powered vehicle losing to a car by only two and a half minutes and this bike gets a lot of tension from people I get stares compliments and questions about the rad wagon all the time of that color man but it's not all good news the red wagon does have a few problems and odd quirks in addition to the mechanical disc brakes the bike also has a regenerative brake which is fantastic but it does not always engage even though it is supposed to however I've found that I can force it to engage by twisting the throttle and then depressing the brake lever there's also another USB port on the LCD display but it doesn't always work I really like pedal assist mode for long journeys but it's not great for stop and go travel because it requires about a half to a three-quarter turn of the pedals before it kicks in and it takes almost a second to disengage after you stop pedaling that's more of a delay than I would like out of the box the rear derailleur was not properly aligned and the disc brakes also rubbed quite a bit also the back wheel went pretty far out of true during my 350 pound torture test I got the derailleur brakes and wheel fixed at my local bike shop where the mechanic told me that every single spoke on the back wheel was loose so make sure you check for that before you do any riding but when the rad wegen was in the shop I really missed having it around riding this ebike helped me remember why I love biking in the first place and I went on much longer trips that I would otherwise have done by car I forgot I even had a car and that's really what the rad wagon is all about it's a vehicle somewhere between a car and a bike and considering that about half of all car trips are less than five miles owning a bike or an e bike for those longer heavier trips makes a lot of sense now if you don't know much about electric bikes it may surprise you to learn that it's $1,700 the red wagon is a value option at this price with these features I could not find a better cargo ebike seriously if you know of one leave it in the comments below but the main deciding factor for a purchase like this should be one of practicality don't buy something like this unless you know you're going to use it make sure that biking is already a part of your life and then you can take it to the next level with an e bike like the rad wagon by the way if you don't want this much cargo space they also have the Red Rover and the rad mini the rad wagon is fun fast practical versatile and it's a great value you could even call it rad it's not perfect but honestly my biggest concern is that it might get stolen great job red power bikes for setting the bar so high I'll be riding this bike for a very long time I fix it calm is your complete DIY electronics repair solution from their 19,000 free step-by-step repair guides to their huge inventory of replacement parts and tools with lifetime warranty iFixit has got your repair needs covered today we're talking about their latest and greatest the all-new pro tech tool kit the design has been completely reimagined but it's just as rugged and portable as before it includes the new 64-bit driver kit which replaces the former 54 bit driver kit this one's got a more durable case and magnets to hold all your little screws and stuff in place the 64 bit kit itself is held to the tool role 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purchase of $10 or more thanks for watching everybody and give us a like or a diss like depending on how you feel there's a subscribe button somewhere that you should press if you haven't pressed it already and check out one of my other electric vehicle reviews the fly Kleiss smart pad which is well it was super disappointing and terrible and I'm glad that there are good electric vehicles that exist it's pretty much it you can buy stuff on Amazon but not the rad wagon you got to order it directly from power bikes and see you next time