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Yep the Rad ones look like great value but as @BrickMan said, the parts on it are quite cheap but you could easily upgrade to decent bits for maybe £200-ish
As a Tern rider they stand out at accessories and better parts, totally depends if you value that or not, they are expensive but not necessarily bad value. Overall its a compelling package.
Also test ride if you can, just test ride a GSD if you cant find Rad anywhere, they look pretty similar.
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Cheers, yeah I value all those things - especially for my wife and kid, but I also can’t magic up vast quantities money out of my ass so I need to be realistic. Looking again at the tern bikes the HSD might actually work better (read ‘be cheaper and still work’) as only one kid needs hauling, would be nice to have the option for two though and the HSD is still 4 grand.
Tern GSD like others are borderline pricing themselves out of their own market.
Mid drives > hub motors.
Have seen quite a few 'Rad' brand bikes now and as a mechanic (a increasingly pessimistic one) been impressed with 'rad' brand bikes vs many of the others.
The actual frame, forks, bars, stem, hubs, etc parts of the bike are fine. Don't expect Phil Wood, but certainly in line or slightly better than you'd get on a £1000 genesis or whyte branded bike (and then add motor, batteries, unusual frame design costs more etc).
The bolt holes, threads and general 'fittings' on them is fine.
The negatives, yeah its a low powered hub drive bike, with a load on, don't expect it to go up hills well from a low speed. Thats their main weakness. Once going > 5 mph they work just fine, not as sophisticated experience as higher end bikes, but you know what, many folk are quite happy with a 7 year old peugeot hatchback. The batteries and their enclosure aren't the best, bit plasticy and fragile, getting spares in 3 years + time might be a challenge.
If you get that one, would budget for replacing mechanical disc brakes and their equally budget cabling that comes from factory (as is any <£2k bike seems to come with rust junk cables) with better levers (need the brake sensor type, Tektro and Magura do some very good ones for not a lot) and calipers, pref hydraulic and the overall experience will be better for sure.