You don't need to be an 'investor' to invest in Singletrack: 6 days left: 95% of target - Find out more
I like the idea of a cargo bike for general errands but my budget won’t stretch to a Tern GSD. Looking at a Radpower Radwagon
Some reviews suggest that it’s underpowered and my question is for users who’ve used one on a big hill - can it easily cope? I live at the top of a hill and the village centre is down a 1km, 10% incline - can you ride up a big hill without blowing a proverbial gasket? It’ll only be a rider and a few bags of shopping.
Sorry I can’t comment on the bike you have linked to.
As an alternative, depending if you want something nice off the shelf or not, but at that price you could buy an ex Royal Mail bike / elephant bike, and stick a bafang mid drive motor on it, and have a lot of money left over.
whats the lowest gear on it? that bike plus a few bags of shopping will add a fairly insignificant amount to the system weight of you plus a normal bike - how much does your shopping weigh? 20kg? so maybe 25% more weight all in. you could probably just ride up the hill on a non-electric bike (albeit slowly) - assuming you put out 200w when idly riding along this will double your power output. should be plenty of power.
ive not ridden a rad wagon, but ive got a hub motored Yuba myself, and know plenty of people with Rads, carrying a 20kg ish 6yr old AND a 15kg ish 4 yr old, AND the shopping up similar hills, over greater distances with no complaints.
hubs motors are great if they are on a rigid frame and so being unsprung mass is irrelivant, and have the advantage of not eating drivechains, like a mid motor might.
The Rads are cheaper, and you can see where they are cheaper if youre a "bike guy", but youre not buying it to be a nice bike, youre buying it as a pickup truck.
Treat it mean, put it away dirty.
Everyone should have a cargo bike.
We live on a 10-13% hill which is only short, but I ride our Danish style (3 wheeler front box type) up it and its probably 10kg+ heavier than the RadWagon but has a similar hub motor - it does fine with shopping and 1 child. If I have both kids in it (3 and 7) it can't quite drive the motor at the lower cadence about 3/4 way up so I just hop off and use walk mode up the last bit and leave the kids in it. I think I could probably adjust the gearing a little on the rear cassette and it would spin up fine. Being a 3 wheeler it doesn't really suit standing up to climb.
Number 8 on this list is the only one local to me where the radwagon really bogs down. If I’m in a hurry I can still get up it without breaking a sweat if I get the pace just right, but I’d take the gentler/longer unmade road option most of the time.
That’s without much more weight than me on it. I suspect with a bit more (a *big* shop) you’d start to have to put some real effort in.
Looking at some local hills, I reckon 10% should be fine with shopping to not turn up a sweaty mess
Wasn't there a quick piece on here about another budget-esque cargo bike recently?
I'll have a look...
I've used the Urban Arrows, they cope pretty well loaded (with broken roofing slates, tools, bags of plaster etc). That's with a Bosch motor. I think the Bosch active line motor has a torque sensor to assist up to 400% of the rider input, so that would be the kind of thing you want.
Number 8 on this list is the only one local to me where the radwagon really bogs down
I know the Surrey Hills pretty intimately having lived in the area for 30-odd years, even completing a 200km circuit on a fixed gear a couple of times.
I should have added, I’ve no problem riding up the hill, but Mrs DB probably will as she’s not a cyclist but does see the benefit of having an e-bike to pop down to the village as parking in summer can be tricky.
the Bosch boost is actually up to 250% of your input:
https://www.bosch-ebike.com/en/products/active-line/
I would spend more on a good motor than battery life, you can always get a bigger battery later.
(TLDR: In short you should have no problems whatsoever with an ebike)
I don’t own either of those but I did used to own a Kona longtail 2x and could get it up t’ill with legs. Hateful flexy thing!
As of now I tow all the shopping (and the odd domestic plants i.e. vacuum cleaner microwave things like that) a one wheel trailer to the top of the big hill where I live. Most everywhere that I shop is downhill to the shops and I cycle up the hill with the trailer no problem. Must remember to get an ebike one-day 😉
Before I got the trailer on the back of a tourer (3x) I was using a 55lb Dutch bike with massive panniers, and although I had to have a ridiculous gear I could still winch up the hill sans motor and I’m an old biffer.
I have a radwagon and it does struggle on a short 20+% incline. 10% is doable. I got a eggrider to slightly increase the wattage for that reason rather than increase top end.