Great review Omar! I completely agree with your assessments. Having also ridden (and repaired) these bikes, I'd add 4 additional points... 1) The gearing on the Rad and Flyer is quite different. The Rad has an 11-34 rear freewheel (appropriately geared in my opinion), while the Flyer has an 14-28 (under geared in my opinion). While riding the Flyer, it stops allowing my pedal inputs at about 14/15 mph and I end up "ghost pedaling" (not so good for battery range). This was rectified by purchasing a replacement 11-28 freewheel for the Flyer (something Flyer should consider changing). Now I can pedal up to the 20mph class II motor cutoff. 2) The Flyer can be ordered in 3 sizes, which is nice for those on the larger or smaller side of the median. 3) The Flyer rear "Kid/Cargo Carrier" can be one or the other and switching between the 2 is easy. Kid-hauler one minute, grocery-getter the next. With Rad's system their "Caboose" is just a kid hauler. It's nice to have options with one accessory. 4) Flyer's rear brake light illuminates in daylight when the brakes are actuated. That's an improved safety feature for vehicles as well as other riders! And I guess a 5th point is that either bike's ride quality can easily be improved with a suspension seat post. I like Suntour for its price and effectiveness. So, just like you Omar, I would say the bike that's best depends on who's riding it and where it's being ridden. If the Flyer had a larger motor, then for me, the answer would be obvious.
Thanks for feedback and the great comment Bryan (I'm going to pin this comment) ! If you're thinking about these two cargo ebikes some of the points you added are ones that could determine which one they should buy. Also, for those of you in the Santa Barbara area @energizedbikes offers guided ebike tours in Santa Barbara. energizedbikes.com/
Fair assessment. Thanks for the breakdown. The “back to school” special on the Flyer sold me. Approaching 200 miles on it in a hilly area with no regrets. Need for speed is fulfilled on the downhills. Looks wise…Flyer all day.
Short rider who lives in a mostly flat area. Step over height is a huge deal. When there is a load, especially kids, on the bike you don’t want any difficulty getting on and off. Having to tilt the bike at all to get on could easily cause it to fall over. Good review.
I was just thinking about that the other day. I'm not at home right now but when I get back I'll measure both of the baskets from the ground and report back.
It's a Nutcase VIO and it's great...it's comfortable, has MIPS and provides a ton of visibility at night. Here is a link in case you're interested in more details www.avantlink.com/click.php?tt=ml&ti=897353&pw=287213&ctc=Nutcase_yt