Context: I ride 4-7 days a week across Road, Gravel and MTB disciplines. In a given year, I ride >3,000 miles. A lot of my life revolves around bikes. This is my first e-bike, and in researching bikes I found that there was very little content about the Roadster from the POV of a more experienced cyclist. Most reviews felt very surface-level and overly promotional. Almost like propaganda. So, I'm writing up my first impressions in the hopes that they help someone like me.
TL;DR, I'm pretty happy!
Due to a change in commute patterns, I now have a substantial hill to tackle on my daily commute. I have other bikes that I could ride up this hill, but the commuter I've had for (gulp) 19 years is a fixie because, you know, those were the hot thing in 2007. The hill is about 0.5 miles but has a stretch that is 15%+ grade for 200m or so. Given that, I decided I should check out the ebike scene. I found that most ebikes are, from my POV, horrendously ugly. Or very expensive. I work on bikes a lot and usually build my bikes from a bare frameset into whatever I want. I take pride in building great bikes, but the downside is I end up caring about them a lot, and I don't want them to get stolen (I live in Oakland, CA so... that's a challenge). For my first foray into a commuter ebike I wanted to prioritize the following attributes:
- Lightweight
- Affordable
- Aesthetically pleasing. For me that meant something that looked more like a traditional bike
- Simplicity
- Something I wouldn't be overly broken up about if it got stolen, and that I wouldn't be tempted to modify or upgrade from stock
I didn't particularly care about carrying capacity, offroad capability, or integration. I would have loved to buy from an LBS if a bike met my needs.
This led to a short list of two: the Aventon Soltera 3 ADV and the Ride1Up Roadster V3. I test rode a Soltera 2.5 (the 3 wasn't in stock at my LBS), and I was pretty underwhelmed. I found the geometry a bit off for me, the tire clearance lower than I wanted, and the LED interface was hard to read. I was also annoyed that the shop confirmed they had the 3 available before I came in, but when I arrived, that was not actually the case.
So, despite wanting something from a LBS, I took a risk on the fit and finish of the Ride1UP Roadster V3
Unboxing + Build:
The bike was well packaged from the factory. I had to fiddle around to get it out of the box due to how some of the padding was attached to the side of the box, but overall, I was happy with how it was bundled up. One cool aspect is the platform they use for the front fork, which lets the bike balance on the ground as you cut the countless heavy duty zip ties holding everything together.
The build was straightforward. The bike was 90% put together. Other than dealing with all the zip ties, you just need to put on the handlebars, seat post, front fender, front wheel, and pedals.
I had one minor gripe and one major gripe with the build.
Minor: the quality of the fasteners is pretty low. Even with high-quality tools ( PB Swiss, Park Tool and PrestaCycle), I felt like I was on the edge of camming out of the boltheads. The thread quality was also pretty low and I felt like I should go in and chase a lot of the threads with a tap and die set. In general, all the hardware feels low quality. But, I call this minor because it's a bike built to a price point. I'd gladly pay $50 more for higher-quality hardware, but I know not everyone would.
Major: The derailleur hanger was totally borked on the bike. Like, the most bent I've ever seen one without it being broken. It was so bent that it was contacting the chain on the cassette. Luckily, I have a Hanger Alignment Gauge (HAG tool). I was able to work it back into place with about 10 minutes of fine-tuning. But most buyers who built the bike themselves would have been stuck at this point and had to bring the bike to a shop or wait for a new part to arrive. On the plus side, I emailed support, and they replied within 20 minutes saying they'd send a new hanger to me free of charge.
Other notes on the build: I had to fiddle around with the front fender for a bit to get it looking right and not rubbing the tire. Also, getting the handlebars centered was annoying because there was no center mark on them, as you get with higher-quality bike components. I also had to align the stem with the front wheel... I have no idea why the stem wasn't aligned from the factory- easy to do and wouldn't have affected how it was packaged.
After that, I was good to go!
Ride impressions
My test ride route was 15 miles and 1600 ft of climbing, including a 5+ mile climb. I got some flats, lots of climbing and descending, as well as a mix of quiet roads and traffic. Overall, I was very impressed with the bike. The shifting was crisp, the power delivery smooth, and the handling was exemplary. The bike felt planted while remaining agile through corners. The tires suit the bike well; they roll nicely and have a good amount of grip on different surfaces. I rode on both new and utterly destroyed pavement (Oakland!), and on a little bit of dirt. The Schwalbe G-One RS Pro tires were really good.
I was particularly happy with how composed the ride was, feeling firm and planted. A lot of people mention suspension seatposts or stems or forks, but I don't really think it's necessary. I ran 40 psi in the tires, and everything felt just right to me.
What would I change?
Saddle: I'm not sure about the saddle. I rode with bike shorts on, and the saddle felt way too wide and cushioned for me. I'll need to do some commuter reps in my jeans to see how it works, but I expect I'll switch to one of my preferred saddles in the near future.
Bell: It's nice that they include a bell on the bike, but it is CHEAP and flimsy. I'll replace it with a Spurcycle bell. For now I just took it off the bike.
Pedals: The pedals are fine but not the greatest. I will likely swap them out for something of higher quality.
Conclusion
I'm satisfied with my purchase. Of course, the jury is out on reliability long term, but Day 1 is really positive. I got exactly what I was looking for and hoping for. I'd love to see higher quality hardware on the bike, and the derailleur hanger damage was a BIG bummer, but beyond that, Ride1Up really delivered. Good on them.
If anyone has specific questions to ask, just let me know, happy to expand on my experience.