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“Your brother is it an ebike?” The call came from a man on the side of the road with a piercing and a bicycle chain clip. He wasn’t the only one to ask. The Ride1Up Roadster V3 doesn’t look like a bike, which is why it’s popular with former bike shop repairmen and fitness instructors alike.
Ride1Up’s city commuter Roadster, which was released last year and will be phased out in 2025, is at the forefront of a new generation of smart compact ebikes that look and feel like a bike without engine assistance. Like Aventon Soltera 3 we voted this year as WIRED’s favorite travel bikeThe Roadster V3 is a lightweight bike that’s perfect for around-town gear, weighing in at around 40 pounds depending on the model. Its torque-related assistance can make it feel like any kind of bike, even if its 500-watt motor can reach speeds of up to 28 miles per hour when it starts working like a bike. Class 3 ebike.
This is a motorcycle that is exactly how I like to use a motorcycle: as a fast and versatile bike for pushing around my hometown of Portland, Oregon. I’ve spent months, and hundreds of miles, riding the nine-speed Roadster V3 model to grocery stores and friends’ houses — up hills and across creeks, or down the street — and one-handed up my stairs and into my house. The Roadster rides like an easy pedal bike. This is how I wanted it to feel.
At $1,395, the Ride1Up Roadster is a great value for a high-performance motorcycle with the basic equipment and controls to handle challenging mountain climbs. The 20- or 40-mile range is limited for long-distance touring but more than adequate for daily commuting. The lack of retail stores is associated with concerns about service, a problem that is more common with ebikes aimed at consumers, because many bike shops refuse to even repair a flat bike if they do not sell a certain brand. But the Ride1Up also performs well above its price point in terms of power, features, and flexibility.
Belts and Chains
San Diego-based Ride1Up is a new ebike company, less than ten years old. The company is building its reputation mainly by offering unique and useful baskets at affordable prices. But as someone who generally likes road bikes, I’ll admit that some of them struck me as a bit undersized or over-engineered, too much for riders and the kind of guy who wants to ride the surf to the beach.
Not so Roadster. The Roadster V3 is fun and light and it’s easy to mistake it for a luxury bike even if you ride it. The cables pass through the hole in the frame. The battery, although removable, is also integrated inconspicuously into the chassis.
For its price, it offers a surprising amount of customization. Three frame sizes make the bike accessible to riders from 5’2″ to 6’4″. At over 6 feet and 200 pounds myself, I chose the largest frame, which still weighs only 40 pounds.
