The Rad Power RadWagon 4 electric bike is the direct-to-consumer brand’s popular take on the longtail cargo bike design, with an overbuilt frame that integrates a supersized rack that provides support for almost anything you might want to carry, from double-length panniers to a pair of child seats to an adult passenger. A longtail can easily hold a full week’s worth of groceries plus extra heavy items you might want to pick up along the way, say a couple of 5-gallon jugs of water (we did this a few times), a few chairs, a kid’s bike — whatever you can imagine.
If you’re motivated, a cargo bike really can replace a car for a whole lot of things, and it’s one of the disciplines of cycling where an electric bike makes the most sense, making the huge carrying capacity far more practical for riders who don’t have thighs like tree trunks. We put the RadWagon 4 into rotation for several months to figure out if it was up to the task.
A longtail electric cargo bike with a 350-pound capacity, the RadWagon 4 can replace a car for most trips. It's big and heavy and uses an odd wheel size, but it's fun to ride and handled everything we threw at it with ease.
What we liked about the RadWagon 4
A 750-watt motor gives you plenty of oomph to carry loads up to the bike’s 350-pound cargo-and-passenger limit. The bike only comes in a single size, but the mid-step design can accommodate riders from 5 feet 1 inch up to 6 foot 4 inches (we tried it with riders between 5 feet 3 inches and 6 feet even), which is great because a one-size-fits all approach makes a ton of sense with cargo bikes, which — given their expense and large size, meaning you need to devote a fair amount of space to storage — are likely to be shared among members of a household.
Like other bikes we’ve enjoyed riding from the brand, for example the RadRunner 2, the RadWagon 4 is well built and nicely spec’d, with tons of available accessories to fit any need.
The supplied charger is fast, the battery holds plenty of charge for a day’s worth of commuting and errands, and the bike is surprisingly sprightly under power, whether in pedal assist mode or using the throttle (it’s a Class 2 e-bike, with a 20 mph limit on the motor in either mode).
The bike works well for its intended tasks, and fitted with the appropriate front basket, footrests and other accessories is capable of hauling bulky objects or willing passengers. It rides pretty well, and the motor got us around our hilly test course without issue (though when fully loaded and doing a lot of fast loaded climbing we unsurprisingly got a bit less mileage out of a charge, closer to 30 miles than the estimated maximum of around 45 miles. This isn’t out of the ordinary as electric bike mileage is highly dependent on the power requirements imposed by terrain. Based on our experience, on flat ground the bike performs closer to its estimated specs.
What we didn’t like about the RadWagon 4
Our least favorite thing about the RadWagon 4 is the custom 22 inch wheel size — we really wish they’d gone down to the more common 20-inch size, or had found some way to step up to 26-inch or another common size (or pair a 26-inch front with a 20-inch rear as on some competitors’ models.
As things stand, the odd size makes replacement tires difficult to source since local shops are unlikely to carry anything with appropriate dimensions — and indeed when the bike was first released, a manufacturing issue with defective rim strips led to a delay of several months while replacements were obtained, something that would have been a trivial job with a more common wheel size. It’s an unfortunate situation that compromises an otherwise very good bike.
The other oversight is the use of mechanical disc brakes. They work just fine to bring the RadWagon to a stop, but when negotiating hilly terrain I really missed the easy modulation of hydraulics — I think any heavy e-bike should come equipped with hydraulic brakes at this point; the benefits of better modulation and easier lever action are hard to overlook and it’d really improve the RadWagon.
Like most longtails, the RadWagon 4 is a big, heavy bike, and the motor and battery make it more so — you’ll need space to store it so it’s really more suited for suburbanites with garages than it is for apartment dwellers. The other associated downside is that should you run out of battery power, it’s actually quite difficult to get the bike (especially if it’s loaded) uphill unless you’re in the mood for a serious workout. You’ll want to keep up on your charging. Trust me.
While this is common to all longtails, it’s something worth keeping in mind as you make your purchase decision. A smaller, lighter cargo bike like the Tern HSD+ is a lot easier to wrangle in a pinch (and you can even fit it into a car) without sacrificing much in terms of cargo carrying capacity — it’s just considerably more expensive. Alternately, a smaller utility bike like the Co-op Cycles Generation e1.1 makes a lot of sense on s smaller budget.
But considering that these bikes can capably replace cars for many everyday trips, the value proposition is still there, even at the higher end.
Bottom line
Overall the RadWagon 4 is a very solid electric cargo bike offering at an attractive price, especially now that the company has addressed the tire and rim strip issue that marred the original release. Mechanical brakes are a misfire here, but not a dealbreaker. The main thing to be wary of is the oddball 22-inch wheel size, which can pose problems down the road since local shops are unlikely to have replacements in stock and cargo bikes are so heavy and ungainly they’re daunting for novices to work on alone. But if you’re an electric-bike-curious rider with some wrench skills and are willing to sock away some replacements for a rainy day, the RadWagon 4 may well be the cargo bike that wins a place in your garage. Other riders can look at the expanding range of options offered by other direct-to-consumer and legacy bike brands these days, which we’ll keep you updated on as we ride.
