I recall a thread years ago where a guy wanted to climb hills faster. He bought an Optibike for 15K or so and knew he had the best there was. Then he went on a ride with some other folks and was totally blown away by a DIY direct drive hubmotor bike that didn't even have a pedal chain. Putting some mods on a bike can far exceed what the manufacturers are allowed to sell, unless you buy something that is essentially already a modded "offroad only" type ebike.
It is also interesting that folks who haven't bought their first ebike feel the need to advise others who have built many ebikes that they bought the wrong one.
Anyway thanks for all the comments and best of luck in shopping. I was quite interested in a Juiced ODK U500 folding fatbike, then the VeeGo 750 looked even better but haven't followed it lately. I don't have a fat tire bike yet... But back to the son's commuter..
In this case we chose the RadCity as a good starting point expecting that it might need some help (hacking). We've spent less than 2K with upgrades and it is doing pretty well. It has a number of features that would have been hard or expensive to add to his DIY ebike, and it looks nicer, and it is a new bike. It is also good that he has two ebikes because sometimes one is not ready for use for some reason, and he has a backup to get him to work.
The wife is a bit frustrated that the RadCity isn't perfect from the showroom. But I know that 2K+ up front would have been a show stopper. Even if we end up over that in total, it is a path that works for us.
Each of us has different requirements and goals, as well as different interests, experience and expertise. So each journey is unique.
In any case, as we mentioned in the first posting this thread is about our experience with the RadCity, and making it useful for the purpose of commuting. If we decide to try a different bike, as was pointed out, it would end up in a different thread. I generally make one thread about each bike, and that thread reflects the history and life cycle of that bike as it is transformed. Some folks make a new thread frequently about this or that little piece, and then the whole story is fragmented.
We've been busy lately and haven't added to this thread. My son has made more commutes with it. He forgot to charge it one day and had to take the old bike, so that was good to have. One goal would be to have interchangeable batteries. Unfortunately that's pretty expensive.
I've been thinking about having a small range extender or extra small capacity battery. It is easy on the 52V Canyon Express. It's not so easy on the 48V RadCity. Perhaps selling the RadPower 48V battery and converting the RadCity to 52V would be worth doing. Have to think about that. I have two mounting plates for the 52V 14AH shark already. And I have a 52V 6AH mighty mini battery that will do as a range extender. I don't know what we could get for a nearly new RadPower battery and controller, but I've heard they are not hard to sell. Something to consider. That would give the RadCity a small boost in speed, but remember we were not as concerned about top speed as about slowing down while climbing, and 52V would help that even more with the new controller.
My son has complained that the throttle has a lot of dead motion at the low end. I don't recall a controller setting that would affect that. He thinks the throttle itself is bad, but I have my doubts about that. I haven't looked at it closely.
