Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 Review 2024 | THE Utility E-Bike: Versatile & Comfortable
This is the rad power bikes rad Runner 2 we like the new color of this utility ebike so much that we wanted to do a fresh review and show off what the bike can do so what makes the red Runner 2 stand out let’s take a ride and find [Applause] out Hey everyone I’m John with electric bike report we’ll get started here in just a sec but before we do please make sure to hit that subscribe button and turn on notifications so you can see our content as soon as it drops so you might be aware that we reviewed the newest
Version of the rad Runner that’s the rad Runner 3 plus earlier this year so why are we coming back to this one first we absolutely love the new pool shark blue paint job that uses crystal glass pigments to make the bike stand out a little better at night but the bottom
Line is just that it is a really versatile and affordable bike we really liked the upgrades on the rad Runner 3 but for what the rad Runner 2 can do you really can’t beat the price its list price is around $1,500 and we think that’s pretty much unbeatable for a bike
That you can use for commuting picking up groceries taking the kids out for an evening or just going for a long weekend ride as a utility ebike the rad Runner is able to do all of those things because of its design the integ gred rear rack here has a capacity of up to
120 lb and it has a lot of the same functionality as what you’d get with a dedicated cargo bike just without all the bulk of a huge extended frame it’s also compatible with a really big range of accessories rad currently offers over 50 different items in their store and
Those include cargo baskets bins and bags passenger seating pet carriers and also quality of life upgrade raids like side mirrors phone mounts and lots more one more big aspect that we liked about the red Runner 2 is just the bike’s overall Comfort level it has a super relaxed upright riding position with
Ergonomic grips and high-rise handlebars and it just feels really natural and comfortable to ride there are a couple of upgrades we’d recommend but the foundation here is awesome and we’ll save those details for a little bit later in the review but let’s run through the bike’s list of specs and
Components to show you what comes with it this is an ebike after all so the motor and Battery are essential the bike uses a 750 W rear hub motor with a Cadence Sensor and a 48volt 672 battery which is behind the seat post there are a few trade-offs with the
Rad Runner 2 that help to keep its cost so low but we didn’t feel like they were sacrifices and in fact they have some advantages first there’s a single speed Drive train with a 53 to chain ring and a 16 to Cog on the free wheeel so you
Don’t have to worry about shifting there are tekro md300 or Aries mechanical disc brakes with 180 mm rotors which are easier to maintain than a hydraulic system and lastly there’s no display on the bike but the control panel on the left handle bar uses LED indicator lights to show battery charge your
Current pedal assist setting and if the light system is activated the bike comes with basic accessories like the headlight a tail light with brake light functionality a small bell integrated into the front brake lever on the left bar a half twist throttle lever on the right and the bike even has a chain
Guard which we always appreciate but then both the moped style saddle and the 20in X 3.3in fat tires are custom the tires are made in Partnership with Kenda and they have this cool chunky checkerboard texture but that about covers all the basics so let’s dive into our testing and see how
The red Runner 2 Stacks Up the rad Runner 2 is a Class 2 ebike with both its throttle and pedal assist system limited to 20 mph so for our brake test we brought the bike up to that limit and then hit the brakes and then measured how long the bike took to
Stop the red Runner 2’s average stopping distance after three of those same tests was 19 F 8 in which first of all is a great result but there’s more than just one reason why utility ebikes with a similar design to this are usually some of our best performers in this test but
The rad Runner 2 beat out most of the competition our average for all of the ebikes we’ve tested in this category is 20′ 99 in so the rad Runner 2 was 13 in is better than average we usually prefer hydraulic disc brakes because of their improved responsiveness and at least
Usually overall better stopping power but here we were really happy with the Tetro Aries system the rad Runner 2 weighs 65 lbs including its battery which is 10 to 20 lbs less than almost all of those other utility ebikes we’ve tested so this bike is easier to stop and ultimately doesn’t need that
Hydraulic system so we give it two thumbs up in this Test I took the rad Runner 2 out for a speed test to see how fast it could go in each pedal assist setting and also to find out how quickly its throttle could reach top speed let’s take a look at how the bike performed all right we are here on the
Rad power bike’s rad Runner 2 to do a speed test and riding here with no help from the motor kind of going you know 10 and 1 half 11 milph with uh no pedal assistance whatsoever so let’s go up to pas1 see what happens and you know I’m feeling a
Little bit of a difference here but definitely the power level is pretty minimal not anything huge uh you know getting a little bit of a boost looks like uh kind of around 11 maybe up to uh 11 and 1/2 miles hour or so so let’s go up to P2 and see what
Happens definitely more noticeable power here for sure I’m actually going to kind of start relaxing into into ghost pedaling at this point and uh just kind of let the motor build in power and speed here we are yeah still going I mean uh the ride is very smooth
And easy that’s all I’ll say here looks like we’re Landing kind of around 15 1/2 mph so let’s go up to pas3 and see what happens there get around this Bend but we’re still building a little bit and looks like we kind of hit 20 there but we’re kind of backing down a
Little bit under that for uh you know a more a more steady speed so right around 19 1 12 or so let’s go up to pas4 and see if that does anything Different no kind of about the same uh 19 and A2 yeah for sure so all right let us uh call that our speed test on the rad power bikes rad Runner 2 and let’s see how that throttle does now okay we are here on the rad power bikes
Rad Runner 2 to do a throttle acceleration test from 0 to 20 so we’ll start in 3 2 1 go all right building nice and steadily he picking up and and 19.9 was the max so with a Cadence Sensor I didn’t have to keep my pedaling active so I
Spent most of the test just soft pedaling to show off what the motor could do but there was one exception to that when I had the pedal assist system deactivated I got the bike up to 10.9 mph there which took some serious effort as that big 53 tooth chain ring is not
Super easy to move without the motor in pas1 I felt a slight bit of power that kind of counteracted the Big Chain ring so pedaling became really easy but not super fast I hit 11.5 mph there P2 felt really comfortable and easy with a Max
Of 15.4 mph and then pas3 and 4 both had a max speed of 19.5 mph we really like it when bikes use fewer than five Pas settings which is sort of standard in the industry especially if they’re class 2s it usually just makes spikes like that
Easier to use in our opinion it might seem odd that both pas3 and 4 hit the same Max Speed with the rad Runner 2 but we actually really like the power distribution here pas1 felt more like a regular bike and then the power level increased consistently up to pas2 and again up to
Pas3 we found that pas4 made a difference on Hills but for riding on flat ground there are really just three practical Pas settings which simplifies things even more factor in the fact that you don’t have to shift gears with this bike and it just feels really natural
And intuitive to use from our point of view this is an absolutely fantastic setup and we think rad totally nailed It rad power bikes states that the rad Runner 2 has a range of 25 to 45 plus miles with its 672 battery so we did two range tests to make sure that was accurate we pedal the bike until its battery died in pas4 and pas2 to establish a similar bracket and
We ended up with between 32.7 and 42.7 M range now we chose pas2 for our low power test just because we think most Riders will use that setting over the very small amount of assistance in pas1 so if you do use that lowest setting you
Might do a little better than we did but overall we’re really happy with these results the bike did quite a bit better than its specs suggested it would we usually prefer to see the wat hour rating of the battery meet or exceed the nominal wattage of the motor so with the
672 wat hours here the rad Runner 2 was a bit short the bike’s range in pas2 definitely ended up on the lower end of things when compared to many of the similar ebikes we’ve tested but it also had a smaller battery capacity than most of those other ones so that’s not a huge
Surprise based on the motor and battery specs we expected our pas4 test to last around 55 minutes and give us about 17 1 12 miles but obviously the bike did way better and we got a little over double the expected amount of time on the bike
Bottom line the rad Runner 2 might not be a range test Champion but it still did a solid job and it definitely has the range to make it practical for all of the things it can do 33 is Miles with max power is still plenty for a serious
Commute and if you’re taking the kids out for short rides you’ll probably get quite a few rides in before needing to Recharge to see how the rad Runner 2 did in our Hill test I’m going to pass you off to Justin he did two separate test tests at the infamous hellhole Trail to see if the bike could conquer a super Steep Hill so I’ll let him share his
Experience we are now on the rad Runner 2 throttle test this is their new I believe it’s shark blue color got to say I’m a big fan of the color not that that has anything to do with the hill test but just a big fan um so climbing right
Now this actually doesn’t have a speedometer on it so I can’t necessarily tell you the speed but my guess is I’m probably down around around 7 8 mph through here um as far as the feel of the motor it has a good steady feel to it where it’s not like super jerky um
And just feels nice and consistent I can kind of modulate it that with the with this twist throttle on the right hand side um and so we’ll kind of see how that how that plays out on the results soundwise the motor is a little bit quieter than some of the rear hubs I’ve
Kind of noticed that with rad um just a nice sound it’s definitely there but you kind of forget it in the background I’ll let you listen to it through this last Punchy climb section so yeah again you hear it a little more as speed picks up um but overall pretty good sounding motor
Pretty solid feeling motor doesn’t feel like a rock ship um and I think for a lot of people that actually ride these bikes that’s probably a good thing um the fact that I’m able to throttle up hell hole is more impressive than you you probably realize
If you watch a lot of our videos so we’ll go to the tape and see how it Compares now on to the pedal test with r Runner 2 and you know as a single gear bike won’t be any shifting so we’ll see how this does it’s kind of that tight
Balance where you want to be able to make it so people go up a hill but you don’t ghost pedal on the flats um so I’m not going to be pushing too hard on this I’m going to kind of treat it like that soft pedal like I do most rear hubs that
Have Cadence Cadence Sensor Motors um and see how it does so far through that first really steep section it’s been fine I did not have to P push much at all so if you’re someone you know who hasn’t rain in 50 years and you’re worried about climbing a hill I can
Already tell you I mean this is going to get up even if you want to Pedal um I’ll let you listen through this next section so you can hear the motor as I pedal kind of a lower decel wine to it um as you kind of get in the lower gears
Then that gets a little higher pitches you get moving the pedals a little bit faster and we’ll see how this kind of compar compares to the other rad bikes and other kind of utility style bikes for me it feels pretty measured and controlled but consistent on the power
Side not like I mentioned before not a rocket ship but I think it’s going to be pretty respectable and definitely easy to climb Hill hole with so the bike made it up the hill without struggling both times and that’s really important to point out because it’s definitely on the slower side when
Going just by the numbers Justin’s throttle time was 1 minute and 41 seconds with an average speed of 10.7 miles per hour and in the pedal test he made it to the top in a minute 30 at 12.1 mph interestingly with the throttle the rad Runner 2 here actually did better
Than the rad Runner 3 plus which I did not expect but the three did beat the two by a little bit on the pedal side there were a few things that Justin mentioned in passing during his clip that I kind of want to focus on here because Rad’s bikes aren’t the fastest
In general but the company does really put a big focus on safety and reliability Justin used the words steady and consistent and those are the same things that came to my mind before he and I even talked about the bike rad keeps their power levels a bit more
Conservative but they’re no less capable because of that and clearly the rad Runner 2 can handle just about anything you want to throw at it like the story of The Tortoise and the hair sometimes slow and steady wins the Race let’s take the rad Runner 2 out for one more spin before we wrap things up we’ll go over the main elements of its ride quality and then go over a few more details back here okay so we are here on the rad power bikes rad Runner 2 to show
You what it’s like to ride and this is a utility ebike from r that uh you know has a really nice upright riding position so number one that’s really comfortable and number two it gives you really good visibility uh there’s just a single frame size here but the bike actually
Fits a really nice range of riders uh down to 4’11 and up to 6’2 and that’s basically just because of uh all of the points of adjustment here so you get about 13 in of uh saddle height adjustment with the SE seat post and then um with the standard style stem
Here you know you can’t really adjust your handlebar height but uh just because of the BMX style Riser bars here you can loosen up the stem with an allen wrench and then rotate those handlebars to adjust your reach which is you know how far your arms are are outstretched
Uh right now I have it set very comfortably where there’s a nice little Bend in my elbows uh just feels very natural so there is no suspension here it’s a rigid frame but uh you do get some cushioning from the tires those are made in partnership with Kenda they are
Custom 20in X 3.3in fat tires uh so those help to absorb some bumps they give you a solid traction uh and then if you you know want a little bit of additional cushioning you can air them down just a little bit so that they’re even even softer but let’s talk about that motor
As well that is a 750 W rear hub motor that uses a Cadence Sensor so I’m going to sort of demonstrate how quickly that engages here I’m going to bump it up to pas4 and kind of Coast hit the brakes a little bit slow myself down and I’m
Going to move the pedals and show you when that uh motor kicks in so we’ll do that now so I got about a half uh rotation of the the cranks before the uh motor kicked in which you know pretty slight delay took about a second so not too bad but uh
Let’s bounce back to the studio and talk a little bit more so again Comfort is a big thing here although I mentioned earlier that we had some suggestions for a few upgrades we really like the overall geometry positioning and ergonomics of the frame but we definitely recommend
Swapping out the saddle to something a bit less blocky I think this one works fine for short rides and it’s not a deal breaker because it’s easy to replace but it definitely felt a little bit awkward another thing to be aware of is the downside of not having a display on the
Bike I found myself a bit more able to enjoy the scenery since I didn’t have a screen in my face but there’s no way to monitor your speed or track your mileage with the standard setup here again this wasn’t a deal breaker just because of some of Rad’s optional accessories you
Can buy an LCD separately for about 100 bucks and there’s plenty of real estate on the handlebars for a phone mount if you want to go that route we use straa for a lot of our Data Tracking but there are plenty of options that can definitely help you out there
Accessories are something that this bike does really well though rad says that there are over 330 possible combinations and we didn’t fact check them on that but the list is pretty impressive they even have a few kits that can be added checkout to make it easier to outfit the
Bike for passengers or storage so definitely keep that in mind the overall experience of the rad Runner 2 was great the general ride feel is pretty relaxed and Casual here but the bike also has plenty of power if you’re in a hurry it handles really well and it’s really
Maneuverable and we liked how easy it was to operate in general bottom line we give it again two solid thumbs Up after completely re-evaluating the rad Runner 2 our opinion of the bike hasn’t changed at all it’s not perfect but our points of critique are surface level the foundation here is awesome and I think that’s proven by just how many other ebikes out there essentially just copy
And pasted its design this is very solidly A rad power bike it’s meticulously crafted it’s very well thought out and it has that blend of conservative yet powerful very well balanced this is a bike that can do a bit of everything and it embodies Rad’s goal of getting people out of cars and
Onto bikes it did a solid job across the board in our testing and we didn’t expect anything less if you’re looking for an affordable ebike to help encourage a healthier lifestyle without any big sacrifices in terms of functionality we highly recommend the rad Runner 2 we’ll leave a link to Rad’s
Website in in the video description down below if you want to take a closer look at that and we ask that you do use that link if you decide to make a purchase as it lets us know you appreciate our hard work and it also won’t cost you anything
Extra we’ll leave another link to our written review down there that goes into even more detail but until next time thanks for watching again I’m John with electric bike report and this is the rad power bikes rad Runner 2 oh
For current pricing on the Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2, click the link below:
RadRunner Electric Utility Bikes
For a full detailed written review of the Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2, click the link below:
The RadRunner 2 is an oldie but a goodie! We reviewed the bike in 2022 but we did it again with the release of the new Pool Shark Blue color. Find out what we like so much in this Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 review!
One major aspect of the bike is its sheer affordability. Starting at around $1,500, the RadRunner 2 offers a highly functional platform that can be added to and expanded for various purposes. It’s tough to beat that blend of price and functionality!
Rad offers a huge number of optional accessories that can be added to make carrying equipment, groceries, pets, or kids possible and comfortable. They say there are 330 possible combinations of these accessories, so there should definitely be a way to make the RadRunner work for you!
In addition to its functionality, we liked the bike’s overall design and comfort level. Its upright riding position with an ergonomic and natural feel made it possible – and enjoyable – to use for long periods of time.
For more, check out our Rad Power Bikes RadRunner 2 review!
0:00 RadRunner 2 Review
0:51 Overview
4:43 Brake Test
6:02 Speed Test
10:55 Range Test
12:51 Hill Test
17:35 Ride Quality
21:57 RadRunner 2 Conclusion
#radpowerbikes #radrunner2 #electricbikereview
