Radwagon 3 Replacement Motor
 

Has anyone replaced their Rad Power Bikes Radwagon 3 motor? I have the Shengyi 750W motor, but it has a bad bearing. I'm not sure it is worth it for me to open the motor up and try to repair it. Preferably, I'd like to minimize the downstream effects of swapping the motor, e.g. avoid having to get a new controller, switching to mid-drive, etc. I have reached out to Rad Power Bikes to see if they sell a replacement or have a list of compatible motors; no response over the last week or so.

It looks like I have a 135mm dropout and the power is left side, 3 pin.

Thanks!

ebikesca, an excellent "e" business, sells Shengyi, but I think their motor is smaller. However, they may be able to help you. I think the most difficult part of the repair is removing and replacing the bearing, but that can usually be accomplished with the proper size socket and a vise. Ask them or take a look at YouTube. I'm surprised that Rad has such poor CS; maybe they're devoting too much manpower to fighting lawsuits.

it's just the simple economics of low price. Customer service is expensive.

doesn't take much to just say "hey buy a new one" Here's a coupon for $200 off.

/markp

This is a company that had $350 million in seed money a couple of years ago as well as opening a few brick and mortar stores. They should be better than run of the mill suppliers.

I replaced a hub bearing on a Shengyi hub for a friend with a Rad Power bike. The job was straight forward; howver it required a complete delacing of the rim from the hub in order to separate the hub shell halves. Had the friend not needed a rim replacement, it's likely that the whole wheel would have been trashed.

Perhaps your wheel has a hub with a detachable side plate, which is the only way a reasonable person would undertake to replace the bearings.

The economics are there for repair.
The wheel does not have to be unlaced to disassemble the motor.
If the bearing in question is on the wire side you will have more work to remove the cable, and install it before assembly of that sides cover.
My personal opinion of Rad at the moment is they will not recover from the pending lawsuits.They laid off a lot of staff and I suspect the only ones left are to sell and ship bikes, and only do that to make some extra money before the doors lock. Dont expect a surprise email saying they are sending you a wheel.

If this kind of work is beyond your skill set you can contact me to have it done. Replacing motor cables is something I do often.

-SP

If Rad doesn't recover there will be some unhappy investors who poured $350 million into the company a couple of years ago. They started seven or so years ago as a crowd fund and grew quickly, and now who knows? This is a cautionary tale for any company.

Stupid Venture (Vulture) Capitalists. They have money to burn. It was a private IPO, If they had gone public, would you have bought stock in an ebike importer?

Update
 

16 days after I contacted Rad, they finally responded, just days after I dropped off the wheel to my LBS to let them see if they could repair it, even if they broke it permanently. Rad replaced the whole wheel, tire included, for $300. I figured it's cheaper than a new bike and not a whole lot more than other motors that size.

I just got the wheel and luckily my LBS hadn't started working on the old one before I got the email from Rad. They were super cool about it and I feel bad wasting their time.

Do what I do: bring homemade chocolate chip cookies at breakfast when they're gulping coffee and trying to stave off their hunger pangs until lunch or give the shop manager a $25 Starbucks card.