Rad Power Bikes releases an upgraded version of its best electric bike

Final 12 months, Rad Energy Bikes launched the RadRunner, a fat-tire electrical utility bike with a beguiling look, a simplified-but-not-underpowered drivetrain, and an inexpensive price ticket. The response was so nice that the Seattle-based firm needed to construct on the thrill with an upgraded model, which it dubbed the RadRunner Plus. And it appears to be like nice.

The unique RadRunner was the corporate’s most inexpensive mannequin (solely $1,299) as a result of Rad Energy Bikes disregarded lots of the options that sometimes make for a costlier price ticket. Now, with the RadRunner Plus, a lot of these options have been added again in to make for a extra comfy, adaptable, and costly expertise.

Initially, the RadRunner Plus (which can solely have a restricted run) will retail for $1,699. That makes it Rad Energy Bikes’ costliest mannequin, but it surely’s nonetheless extra inexpensive than a number of e-bikes in the marketplace at the moment. What do you get for that further $400? A seven-gear shifter, entrance suspension fork, LCD show, entrance and rear fender, and a entrance LED rock-resistant halo mild. The Plus can even come commonplace with the equipment for a rear passenger seat, together with a padded seat, rear pegs, and skirt guard. (These value further with the unique RadRunner.)

There’s additionally a brand new silver paint job and leather-based “espresso”-colored handlebar grips and seat. However the core look and motor stay the identical. The RadRunner Plus is accessible for preorder within the US, Canada, and Europe beginning on March twenty sixth, although deliveries received’t begin till July for North America and August for Europe. Within the meantime, the corporate says it’ll decrease the value of the unique RadRunner for North American prospects to $1,199.

The RadRunner Plus can “cross a number of use instances and buyer classes,” Rad Energy Bikes CEO Mike Radenbaugh informed The Verge. He recalled that the purchasers that come to choose up their bikes at his firm’s retail retailers arrive in all kinds of autos, from costly Ford F-350s and Teslas to 30-year-old Subarus with 1,000,000 bumper stickers to Uber and Lyft autos. The RadRunner Plus is a motorbike that “touches everybody,” he stated.

Radenbaugh says he envisions the RadRunner — and now, the RadRunner Plus — as the last word e-bike for city-dwellers. It’s lighter weight than the corporate’s different fashions, with a drop-frame and rear rack that make it extra versatile. And whereas the corporate is pulling again on a few of its growth plans in response to the coronavirus pandemic, Rad Energy Bikes’ amenities have been deemed “important companies” and can stay open to answer buyer orders for the period.

“Folks wish to get out of the home,” he stated. “They should social distance, too.”

In different phrases: there’s no higher time to purchase an e-bike.