RadPowerBikes RadRover 6 Plus Fat Tire EBike – Test and Review

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Updated April 9th, 2024

Manufacturer and Model: RadPowerBikes RadRover 6 Plus
List Price: $2099

Summary

The RadPowerBikes RadRover 6 Plus is the latest iteration of their popular RadRover design. This was one of the original fat tire e-bikes and it has gotten better with each iteration. The RadRover 6 Plus is one of the quietest fat tire e-bikes available. It has an advanced cadence sensor that lets you fine tune the bike performance from friendly and easy to ride to powerful for going up steep climbs and high speeds. This bike is for people that want a high quality, refined fat tire electric bike with a comfortable upright cruiser riding position.

RadPowerBikes RadRover 6 Plus Review and Test

The RadPowerBikes RadRover was one of the original fat tire electric bikes. They have continued evolving it into the latest RadRover 6 Plus version. The RadRover isn’t just a cookie cutter fat tire bike thrown together with off the shelf components. It has a tight looking integrated battery. It has user friendly controls with 2 displays. It is both fun to ride and capable of off-road riding.

The RadRover 6 just looks and feels a bit more refined than most other similar priced fat tire e-bikes. The motor is quiet. The cadence sensor has very high sensitivity. The power based assist levels give it a feel closer to a torque sensor while still letting you ghost pedal. The frame construction and battery integration look high quality and refined. The 2 LCD displays are bright and easy to read.

The bike has some other nice finishing touches to it like a bolt on protector on the bottom of the frame for the wiring. It also has 2 power takeoffs for adding accessories. One at the handlebars and one behind the crank.

1 – 750 watt geared rear hub motor

A geared 750 watt motor is used with a 5:1 planetary gear ratio. The motor is limited to 750 watts output to stay within the Class 1-3 ebike rules. Most other ebike companies spec a “750 watt motor” but let the bike go much higher than 705 watts under peak loads.

2 – 48 volt 14 ah removable battery

The RadRover 6 has a 672 watt battery. This works out to 14 ah at 48 volts. The battery mounts into the frame with the top of the battery sticking out of the frame. It is a very clean looking battery integration. It allows the charge port on the battery to be used when the battery is in or out of the frame. The battery is easy to lift up out of the frame.

3 – 4 inch wide fat tires and front suspension

26 x 4 inch fatbike tires are used to give the RadRover a cushy feeling and comfortable ride. They give it good traction on offroad surfaces such as sand or mud. You can adjust the ride for more comfort or traction on different surfaces by adjusting the air pressure.

The bike has a coil spring front suspension fork. It has adjustable pre-load so you can tune it to rider weight. It also has a lockout. It’s a basic front suspension fork. It does a good job of taking the edge off of the road and trail. It’s not an air spring fork with a lot of damping. Most of the bike’s suspension on a fat tire bike comes from the wheels and big fat tires.

4 – Cadence Sensor

The RadRover 6 Plus uses a cadence sensor for pedal assist motor activation. The sensor has 12 magnets which comes out to about 30 degrees between magnets. This is the most natural feeling cadence sensor bike I have ridden. It activates the motor with only a little pedal motion. It was much less than the 1/2 turn a lot of cadence sensor bikes need.

When riding the bike, it left me wondering whether it really was a cadence or torque sensor. The only way I really know it’s a cadence sensor is that you can ghost pedal and the motor comes on and accelerates up to whatever speed it hits at the PAS power level.

The Rover has 5 levels of pedal assist. These levels do not have fixed speeds or fixed throttle points like a lot of other cadence sensor bikes. It has fixed power amounts. Level 3 gives you about 380 watts of assist. It gives it from 0mph right up to 20mph where pedal assist cuts out.

What this means is that you don’t get a fixed speed for each pedal assist lever. If you ride in level 3, the bike will go somewhere around 17mph when ghost pedaling on flat ground. If you pedal with a little effort the bike will easily go 18-20mph and you can see from the display your still getting 380 watts of assist right up to 20mph.

The bike gives you 380 watts of assist all the way through the battery. You will get a similar feeling bike down to the last battery bar that rides at the same speed. The speed doesn’t taper off requiring you to switch to a higher level PAS level as the voltage sags later in the charge.

If you hit a hill riding in level 3, you will only get 380 watts of help no matter how steep it is. Your speed can drop very low to under 10mph even if you are pedaling hard. If you want the full 750 watts of help for a steep hill, you need to bump PAS up to level 5.

Where this differs from a lot of other cadence sensor bikes is the amount of power you get at each PAS level. For Himiway, you get a fixed throttle position that is about 16mph for level 3. As soon as you start to pedal, the bike gives you the full 750 watts until it accelerates up to 16mph. The power output drops if you go over that speed. You get the full 750 watts no matter what PAS level you are in up to the fixed speed for the PAS level.

The RadRover feels a lot more like a torque sensor bike in that it gives you fixed assist power levels instead of speeds. It still lets you ghost pedal up to full speed in PAS 5. Torque sensor bikes require you to be pushing on the pedals to get assist and won’t let you freewheel the crank around to turn the motor on.

5 – Power (8.0/10)

The RadPower RadRover6Plus is limited to 750 watts of power output. Other similar class E-bikes have a “750 watt motor”. They refer to the nominal motor power and the motor can have a peak power much higher. The RadRover sticks to the letter of the law with Class 1-3 bikes and caps power output at 750 watts. There is no way I can find to remove this limit or adjust it.

The RadRover has a more gentle feel to motor takeoff than bikes from Himiway which are very aggressive. It has a more refined feel. The motor is much more quiet as well. At higher PAS levels, the bike doesn’t feel like it takes off overly fast. The power is there for short steep hills when you need it. The RadRover is trying to be a comfortable cruiser and not trying to be an over powered beast feeling bike.

Top Speed

The RadRover 6 Plus has a published top speed of 20mph. It’s got a Class 2 label on the frame which indicates a top speed of 20mph and max power of 750 watts. I took the bike to a long straight flat path and used a GPS to measure the maximum speed. I did this for throttle only and maximum pedal assist.

• Throttle – Max Speed GPS – 20.1 mph
• Throttle – Max speed shown on display – 20 mph

• Pedal Assist – Max Speed GPS – 19.7 mph
• Pedal Assist – Max speed shown on display – 20.0 mph

The top speed can be adjusted in the settings menu. It does not show how to do this or mention it in the included manual. This Youtube video shows how to do it. The adjustment works for both throttle and pedal assist.

After increasing the top speed, I tested it again with a GPS and got the following.

• Throttle – Max Speed GPS – 23.0 mph
• Throttle – Max speed shown on display – 23 mph

• Pedal Assist – Max Speed GPS – 22.9 mph
• Pedal Assist – Max speed shown on display – 23 mph

Hill climbing

I took the RadRover to my standard hill climbing test hill. This is a 1/2 mile hill with grades up to 10%. I use a 250 lb rider. I repeat the test twice. Once with throttle only and once with maximum pedal assist.

• Throttle Only – 2 min and 8 seconds. Average speed 14.8 mph
• Pedal Assist – 1 min and 54 seconds. Average speed 16.6 mph

This was one of the slower 750 watt bikes we have tested with throttle only mode. The Aventon Aventure 2 completed the climb in 1 minute and 53 seconds. The Himiway Cruiser completed it in 1 minute and 48 seconds. I suspect both of those bikes are putting out more than 750 watts of power while climbing. The RadRover completed the climb much faster than a 250 watt bike we tested which took 2 minutes and 58 seconds.

Acceleration

The RadRover 6 Plus has a nice friendly feeling not overly fast acceleration. It gets up to speed quick enough. It doesn’t feel intimidating to people who haven’t ridden an ebike before. The motor is still quiet during 750 watts of max power acceleration.

6 – Range (8.0/10)

We take every bike here on a standard range test for both pedal assist and throttle only modes. We ride the bike as close to 15mph as possible. The route we use has some long steep climbs along the way. We use a 250 lb rider.

Pedal assist

For the PAS test I did the entire ride at PAS level 3. This gives you about 18mph speed on level ground. PAS 2 only goes about 12-13mph on level ground. It needs significant rider effort to go faster and gives very little help on hills. We did the range test on PAS 3.

I was able to get the RadRover 6 Plus to go 35.95 miles with 882 feet of climbing as measured by a GPS. This is a bit below the “up to 45 miles” that RadPowerBikes publishes for the RadRover 6 Plus. If you want more mileage you could be more active with switching PAS levels for terrain. Flat ground may only need PAS 2. A steep hill would be a lot easier at level 4 or 5. Riding at Level 3 made the bike go a bit faster than I usually ride for range tests on flat ground. I expected some range reduction because of that.

The RadRover 6 Plus has a 14 ah battery according to the specs and what is written on the battery. The Aventon Aventure 2 has a 15 ah battery. Consequently the range of the Aventure 2 was 44 miles. The RadRover battery is about 7% smaller. The range is about 19% less. This is to be expected because of the smaller size battery. The cadence sensor will be less efficient than the torque sensor which can better match the power needs.

Throttle Only

I took the RadRover out for another ride on the same route using only throttle. I tried to ride as close to 16mph as I could for the entire ride. The bike went 30.82 miles with 597 feet of climbing.

7 – Ride and Handling (9.5/10)

The RadRover 6 Plus is a quiet, solid feeling bike. It makes much less motor noise than other fat tire electric bikes we have reviewed. There are no rattles or other weird squeaks with the bike. The Aventon Aventure 2 we reviewed was one of the loudest bikes we have ever ridden. If you want a nice quiet, comfy, cushy bike, the RadRover 6 Plus is your bike.

Comfort

The RadRover has an upright cruiser riding position with cruiser shaped handlebars. The handlebars grips have wrist supports that help you avoid getting numb hands while riding. It just feels good to ride and cruise around on.

My biggest complaint about the RadRover6 Plus is the seat. After an hour of riding, It feels like I am sitting on the bare seat rails in the middle of the seat between a lump of foam at the front and back of the seat. I highly recommend getting one of the “comfort seat” options available for the bike over the standard seat.

Cornering

The RadRover 6 Plus just feels tight and solid. With 25 psi in the tires it feels confident going around corners at speeds over 20mph. It does not feel wobbly in any way. It never feels like you are going too fast for the bike. If you lower tire pressure down to 10-15psi for offroading it will feel a little soft and wobbly on pavement at higher speeds. Correct tire pressure on fat tire bikes has a huge effect on how they handle and feel on different surfaces.

8 – Offroading with the RadRover 6 Plus

The RadRover is great for riding on fire roads, dirt roads, or jeep trails. If you reduce tire pressure down to 10-15 psi, the bike becomes very cushy with good traction on offroad surfaces. If you want to ride on sand or mud you can go even lower with PSI.

The RadRover is more of a cruiser and not a tight twisty nimble bike. This is true for most fat tire e-bikes. The cadence sensor that is power based makes it a little more friendly in tight spaces. You can get a slow motor start on lower PAS levels. Bikes with cadence sensors that are speed or throttle based can have a very aggressive motor start that makes them jump ahead too much for tight trails. The RadRover has a definite advantage there.

The bike has plenty of power for climbing short steep hills. You’ll need to up the PAS level to 4 or 5 at the bottom of the climb to get enough assistance. I find that offroading in places with lots of short climbs, it helps to keep adjusting the PAS level for hills or flats. I use PAS 3 for flats which has a comfortable speed for rough jeep trail kind of terrain. I bump it up to 4 or 5 for climbing until the top of the hill. PAS 5 has too much acceleration for flat rough offroad terrain.

9 – Braking (9.5/10)

This is the first bike I have seen with Nutt brand hydraulic disc brakes. I’ve now ridden 2 bikes with them and put a good amount of miles on them. So far I have been impressed. They have not started to squeal or screech after the pads wear in. They have good stopping power for a big fat tire bike. The cheap Tektro brakes I have on a few other bikes all make a lot of noise once they have some miles on them. The Nutt brakes have been a pleasant surprise so far.

10 – Controls (9.5/10)

The RadRover 6 Plus has 2 LCD displays with a 4 button set on the left handlebar with the smaller display. It has a Shimano 7 speed Tourney shifter on the right handlebar. There is a small bell under the left handlebar.

LCD Display

The bike has 2 LCD displays. One with the 4 button controller on the left handlebar. One in the center of the handlebars. The smaller left handlebar display shows battery remaining and what PAS level you are in. It also has a small indicator for lights on or off. The center display shows you speed along with how much motor output you are getting. It shows the assist amount with both an easy to see bar and a text output for how many watts are being used.

Both displays are black with very bright and easy to read outputs. No trouble reading them in light or dark conditions.

Control buttons

The left handlebar display has 4 buttons for controlling all the electronics. They are big enough to be easy to press. The up and down buttons for changing PAS level are easy to use while riding. There is a dedicated button for turning on and off the lights.

Pedal Assist and Throttle

A twist throttle on the right handlebar is used to control the motor. There are 5 levels of pedal assist available. The twist throttle has a good feel. It has a bit lighter spring tension than some other twist throttles we’ve tried. This is welcome on long rides where your hand can get tired holding the throttle down for long periods of time.

The bike operates at the following power levels for each PAS level. As mentioned earlier, it is not a typical cadence sensor that operates at fixed throttle levels. Below is how many watts of assist you get at each level.

• Level 1 – 50-60 watts
• Level 2 – 155-165 watts
• Level 3 – 375-385 watts
• Level 4 – 500-520 watts
• Level 5 – 750 watts

7 speed pedal driveline

The RadRover 6 Plus uses a Shimano Altus derailleur and Tourney shifter. Tourney shifters are common on $2000 and under fat tire e-bikes. They shouldn’t be. We would prefer to see a higher lever shifter on any bike meant for off-road use. The Tourney shifter works. It’s not the smoothest shifter. You won’t mistake the feel for Shimano XT or SRAM Eagle. It at least has a gear indicator to see what gear you are in.

In the back, the cassette has a larger low gear to make climbing hills easier. This is a welcome addition. One thing fat tire e-bikes are not good at is riiding after the battery dies. The RadRover makes this a bit more pleasant with an extra large low gear.

11 – Assembly Ease (9.5/10)

Assembly of the RadRover 6 Plus was easy. No extra tools were needed. A mix of cardboard and foam packaging was used for shipping. Packaging is about 80% cardboard and recyclable. They still used a couple of foam blocks. We prefer seeing all recyclable packaging which some brands now use.

Assembly Time – 1.0 hours

Assembly took me about an hour. Steps are typical for most fat tire e-bikes. Mount the handlebars. Put the front wheel on. Mount the front light and fenders. Put the pedals on.

Extra tools required

RadPowerBikes gives a nice little tool kit with the bike in a carry bag. It has a few hex wrenches, a few regular wrenches, a screwdriver, and a brake caliper spreading tool. I did not need to use any tools outside of the toolkit during assembly. I think I only used about half of what was included.

Adjustments needed

The RadRover 6 Plus was one of the few e-bikes we have received that had a correctly adjusted rear derailleur out of the box. Ours shifts smoothly through all 7 gears.

If your bike doesn’t shift smooth, Parktool has a great tutorial for adjusting rear derailleurs.

Our bike was assembled well at the factory. I didn’t find any loose fasteners or routings that needed any adjustment.

12 – Accessories

The RadRover 6 Plus comes from the factory with front and rear lights and also front and rear fenders. They have a number of accessory options on their website that you can package with the bike. These include racks, baskets, and a variety of bags. The bike also has electrical takeoffs to use with other accessories that need power. There is one at the front and one at the rear of the bike.

Lights

The bike comes with a headlight and tail light. They are bright enough for street riding and dirt roads. If you ride a lot at night we always recommend getting a helmet mounted light to supplement the lights that come with a bike.

Fenders

The bike comes with front and rear fenders. They are typical heavy plastic fenders with wire supports. The front fender has plastic clamps so no fittings are needed on the fork. This is helpful if you ever need to replace the front shock or want to upgrade the front shock and keep the fenders.

Optional Front and Rear rack

We got a front and rear rack to use with our RadRover. If you want to go off on an adventure, you need to be able to bring some gear along. Both racks are very heavy duty feeling. They took about 30 minutes each to install. The front rack took a bit longer than the rear rack since you also have to move the headlight from the fork to the rack.

13 – Size and Fit

RadPowerBikes specifies a rider size range of 5’7″ to 6’2″ for the step over RadRover 6 Plus. They specifiy 5’2″ to 6’2″ for the step through frame. I would say the size range is correct for the stepover. I am just under 6′ and the bike feels just about right to me. I’m sitting upright and not stretching for the handlebars at all. My wife is 5’6″ and can comfortably ride the step-over frame bike. She has the seat almost all the way down so anyone shorter may not have enough adjustment.

14 – RadRover 6 Plus vs the Aventon Aventure 1 and 2

The Avenon Aventure 1 and 2 are the most popular fat tire electric bikes out there today. Why would you choose the RadPowerBikes RadRover 6 Plus over them? Let’s talk about some of the differences.

Basic Specs

They are both fat tire electric bikes with 26 inch by 4 inch tires. They both have 750 watt rear hub motors.

Bike Noise

The RadRover 6 Plus is the most quiet fat tire e-bike we have tested. The Aventon Aventure 2 is a noisy bike with lots of motor noise, some resonance humming at certain speeds, and some rattles. The RadRover just has a more quiet, smoother feel to it when riding.

Bike Design

The RadRover has a bit more refined design. The frame and battery are much lower profile than the giant downtube of the Aventure. It has little details like the extra power takeoffs and 2nd LCD display with the control buttons that give it a more finished feel.

Pedal Assist Sensor

The RadRover has a more refined cadence sensor that lets you give the bike a more mild feel or aggressive feel depending on the level. The Aventure 2 torque sensor does a better job of this but also makes the bike difficult to ride at higher speeds and makes you work harder for climbs. The Aventure 1 cadence sensor has a more aggressive feel to it even at lower speeds. If you want a more relaxed bike but also want easy high speed pedalling and hill climbing then the RadRover is a good choice.

Frames Styles and Sizes

Both bikes come in a step-over and step-through version. The Aventures also have a regular and large size frame for each version. The regular frame is similar in size to the RadRover 6 frame. The large size lets it work for riders up to 6’4″. If you’re in the big and tall category and need the large frame then you may need to look at the Aventure.

Accessories

The RadRover 6 Plus has a better assortment of available accessories. The customizer on their website will let you see how your bike will look with them. It also shows which accessories are not compatible and can’t be installed on the bike at the same time.

Recommendation – Buy or No Buy?

The RadRover 6 Plus is a high quality, fun to ride, fat tire electric bike. It is quiet and feels more refined than most other bikes in its class. It has an intelligent cadence sensor that lets you tune the bike’s performance. We recommend it for anyone looking for a quiet, offroad ready bike with lots of available accessories.

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