Rad Power RadTrike: Everything You Need to Know

The Rad Power RadTrike is a Class 2 electric tricycle, not a 20 mph bike and not a folding commuter with an extra wheel. Rad caps the motor at 14 mph. The motor is a 750-watt geared hub in the front wheel, with a 5:1 planetary reduction. The pack is 48 volts, 10 amp-hours, 480 watt-hours. Pedal assist is a cadence sensor, five levels, plus a half-twist throttle and a reverse. Electric Bike Report’s loops on that pack were about 25 miles at maximum assist and about 59 miles in the slow loop. Rad’s product card lists it at $1,699 and out of stock. Rider limit is 325 pounds. Total payload is 415.

The sheet

Forty-eight times ten is 480. That is a small tank next to a Lectric XP Trike 2 624 or 840 watt-hour pack. It is also why the slow loop looks miraculous. 480 divided by 59 miles is about 8 watt-hours a mile. 480 divided by 25 is about 19. Same battery. Assist level did the work. Rad’s product card prints “55+ miles.” That number lives next to the slow test, not next to the throttle. A collection blurb on the same site has also said “20+ miles.” When one brand prints both, believe the named loop.

Fourteen on purpose

Electric Bike Report’s written review, updated 2 January 2025, calls it Class 2: throttle and pedal assist up to 14 mph. Their video of the same bike is older, 23 December 2022, and the price in that video is not the price on the card now. The speed cap is the part that did not move. A RadRover at the same 750 watts is a 20 mph Class 2. Rad kept the watts and cut the speed. EBR’s PAS speed table on the comparison with the first XP Trike is the proof it is a cap, not a weak motor: PAS 0 is 5.0 mph with no help, PAS 4 is 10.6, PAS 5 is 14.0. It does not creep past 14 because you pedal harder.

That 14 sits under a lot of path signs. New York City’s street cap for e-bikes is 15. A 14 mph trike is already under it. Pinellas at 20 is not the constraint. A 15 mph riverwalk still is, if you are at the cap the whole way. It is a bicycle-class machine: pedals, under 750 watts nominal, motor-only under 20. It is not Class 3. It will not live with a Level 4 on a 28 mph road, and it should not be unlocked to try.

How it stops, and how it backs up

One mechanical disc, 180 mm, on the front wheel, with a cutoff that kills the motor when you pull the lever. The rear is a coaster: pedal backward. An orange parking brake lives on the lever because a trike on a slope rolls, and EBR’s spec block lists no kickstand. Their brake test from 14 mph, using both brakes, averaged 10 feet 5 inches. That is a short stop at a short speed. It is not a reason to skip pads. Disc pads on an e-bike wear faster than on a bicycle; the owner’s manual says so.

Reverse is a button and the throttle, not a gear. Rad’s trike page says hold the pedal-assist button, then twist the throttle, and the trike creeps backward. That is for a driveway and a grocery load, not for traffic. The same page is proud of a width that fits most front doors. The owner’s manual puts the trike at about 33 inches wide. Measure the door. Thirty-three inches of trike does not fit a narrow 30-inch opening, and it is a negotiation in a 32.

Fifty-nine miles is a slow loop on a small pack. Twenty-five is what maximum assist did to the same 480 watt-hours.

Front hub, cadence, one gear

The motor is in the wheel you steer. A rear hub pushes. A front hub pulls. On a trike that is the wheel that also points. Rad’s 5:1 gear reduction is there so the motor can make torque at a walking pace instead of spinning out. The sensor is cadence: the cranks are turning, so the motor applies a level. It does not scale to how hard you push. That feeling is the whole torque versus cadence page. On a 14 mph trike the jerk is smaller than on a 20 mph folder. It is still a step, not a bicycle.

There is one chain speed. Above a walking pace with the motor off, you are mashing. Hills are the motor’s job. EBR’s pedal hill against the first Lectric XP Trike was 1 minute 33 seconds at 11.3 mph. Throttle only was 1 minute 54 at 9.5. The November 2025 trike roundup on the same channel put the hill at 1:33 pedaling and the brake at the same 10 feet 5 inches. A mid-drive would use gears here. This trike does not have them.

The other trike, and the company

The XP Trike 2 is the one this desk already wrote up: rear hub, 20-inch wheels, a differential, hydraulic discs, 14 mph on the 500-watt or 17 on the 750, and a larger pack. Lectric prints the differential because a locked axle scrubs in a U-turn. This desk did not see Rad call out a differential on the RadTrike sheet. Do not assume the sidewalk turn is the same machine. The RadTrike’s case is the lower speed, the front hub, the 18-inch wheels, the 13.4-inch standover, and a claimed 82 pounds against the Lectric’s low 90s.

Rad Power Bikes sold to Life EV on 6 March 2026. The launch note has the filing and the $13.2 million price. The owner’s manual in circulation still describes a one-year limited warranty on the trike and its covered parts, and it says the warranty terms can change. Ask, before you buy a used one, whether that year is still the year Life EV will honor. The product card being out of stock is a separate fact from the company sale. Out of stock is not a recall. It is also not a delivery date.

Who it is for

Buy it if you will not balance a two-wheeler, you want the motor to stop at 14, and the doorway is actually wider than 33 inches. The 325-pound rider limit and the 60-pound rear rack are groceries and a person, not two children in a longtail box. The manual says not to hang a trailer on that rack. EBR’s comfort notes are the adjustable backrest, the saddle, and high-rise bars. Their complaint that still matters: the display shows assist level and a battery bar, not a speed. If you need mph, it is a phone.

Do not buy it if you wanted 20 or 28. Do not buy it if the bike has to fold into a trunk the way a 20-inch Lectric claims to. EBR says the bars fold and the seatpost comes off. A later roundup says the frame splits for a truck bed. That is transport, not a briefcase. Do not read 55+ miles as a throttle commute. The number that matches maximum assist is about 25. The number on the card, when the card has one, has been $1,699. Confirm it is actually in stock, and confirm the warranty, before you send the money.