The Ride Radiant Carbon Review 2024

When it comes to battery life, The Ride Radiant Carbon put up some of the best numbers of any bike we’ve reviewed at Electric Bike Report.

The bike comes stock equipped with a 36V, 17.5Ah (630Wh) internal frame battery, which is the largest Shimano produces. To get an idea of how far that battery can go in the real world, we put the Radiant Carbon through two range tests. One in Eco mode, the bike’s lowest assist setting, and the other in High mode, its highest assist setting.

On High mode, the Radiant Carbon pedaled an impressive 43.89 miles before the battery gave out. In Eco mode, it carried our test rider for 77.05 miles and could have gone further had we not halted the test to give our tester a break over the Thanksgiving holiday.

The 43.89 mile result is the furthest max PAS range test we’ve ever conducted, and it’s likely the Radiant Carbon would have put up the furthest low PAS range test had we not stopped. Based on the amount of battery remaining we expect the Radiant Carbon would have gone another 10 miles before dying in Eco mode, putting the final result in the ballpark of 80 miles to 90 miles — an astonishingly long range.

These are stellar results from this bike that really speak volumes to the efficiency of premium mid-drive systems like Shimano STEPS. The Ride claims this bike can go 100 miles on a single charge, and I bet with the right rider and right conditions you can probably get close.

Two final things worth noting, one good and one gripe: Let’s start with the gripe.

The STEPS drive system gives you a real-time estimation of the number of miles you have remaining in a given PAS level before the battery dies, but both I and our long-range tester found these numbers to be quite high compared to our real world results. Fully charged, the bike estimates its range at north of 60 miles in high mode and north of 130 in Eco mode. I doubt you’d realistically see a range that long, but this is an issue that really only arises when the battery is very low or you’re trying to ride very far.

And, ending on a high note, our test rider Josh, who has spent more hours and more miles on an e-bike than arguably anyone out there, couldn’t stop raving about how fun the Radiant Carbon is to ride in Eco mode, the lowest setting.

On paper, The Ride Radiant Carbon put up a so-so time up our test hill, Hell Hole.

But like so many e-bikes we put to the test on that hill, I’d argue it’s time only reveals a small amount of information about its overall climbing ability.

Our test hill Hell Hole is a one-third of a mile section of bike path with a 12 percent grade on average and several pitches much steeper than that. It’s no small hill, and I’ll go blue in the face before I stop repeating that just clearing the hill is quite an impressive feat for your typical e-bike.

In “High” mode, the bike’s highest pedal assist setting, The Radiant Carbon climbed Hell Hole in 2:11.00 with an average speed of 8.3 mph. Compared to the other e-bikes we’ve tested on the hill, that’s one of the slower times we’ve recorded.

But here’s the context that I’d argue paints that time in a little brighter light: On a hill this long and steep, time doesn’t matter as much as simply getting to the top. Never once did the Radiant Carbon act like it was going to fail our test or make me feel out of breath. It simply chugged its way up the hill at a pleasant and consistent, albeit a little slow, pace.

That’s a success in my book.

I do have one question about the Radiant Carbon’s performance: I’m wondering if we would have seen a quicker time had the bike been equipped with a traditional manual drivetrain instead of the auto-shifting Enviolo hub. One of the big pros of mid-drive motors is that they transfer their power through the drivetrain, giving the rider the ability to manipulate the motor’s power and torque by manually changing the gear ratio.

The Enviolo AutomatIQ system at least partially removes this advantage from the equation, limiting the rider’s ability to lower the gear ratio, pedal a little quicker than normal and take advantage of a torquier powerband.

How much does this affect hill climbing performance? I can’t say. If anything, this is food for thought on automatic drivetrains, as I’m sure we’re going to see more and more of them in the near future.

The Magura MT-30 quad-piston hydraulic disk brakes that come stock on the Radiant Carbon are very, very good.

So good, in fact, that they are among the top performers of all the bikes we’ve reviewed at Electric Bike Report. In our brake test, where we take the average braking distance of five full-power stops from 20 mph, the Radiant Carbon came to a stop in 13-feet and 7-inches, nearly three feet better than our current average of all the bikes we’ve tested, which is 16-feet and 4-inches.

This is a very expected result from a bike spec’d with the quad-piston German braking system. Magura brakes are known to be powerful, and the MT-30’s are continuing to prove this rule.

In fact these brakes are so powerful I found myself actually using less brake in our test to prevent the rear tire from immediately skidding. I instead used the system’s excellent lever modulation to control the skid and make sure the Schwalbe Super Moto-X rear tire gripped the ground as best it could.

Handling wise, the Radiant Carbon is supremely stable. It corners nicely and you feel very balanced on the bike. If there were a no-hands bike riding world championship, this bike would be a great choice.

Though its frame looks beefy, the Radiant Carbon is fairly light at a claimed weight of just 52 lbs. It’s a remarkably stable e-bike. Once you’re rolling, it really doesn’t need you to hold the bars to stay upright.

The cockpit is very clean, with a central Shimano STEPS display in the center of the handlebars and a remote on the left side that allows you to toggle power settings and cycle through information on the display. On the right is another remote that allows you to adjust the cadence setting on the Enviolo hub.

The display is fairly elaborate, with arguably the coolest feature being the battery real-time battery readout that estimated your remaining range in miles. While this feature is a big plus, we did find that it often overestimated the bike’s range by 10 miles or more. That’s not a huge issue for a bike with a range between 50 and 100 miles, depending on PAS level, but it is something to keep in mind should you plan a very long ride.

The Radiant Carbon’s geometry is where things start to get very interesting. Without diving too much into the weeds, this geometry balances a comfortable upright riding position with efficient pedaling and stable handling, all while maintaining a rider’s ability to place their feet on the ground while seated. It makes for a ride experience that’s an interesting crossover between a more comfortable cruiser and a sportier fitness bike.

I was first introduced to this bike at this year’s Sea Otter Classic in California, where I got to do a lengthy interview with Tony Ellsworth and ride the Radiant Carbon for the first time. In that interview, I kept referring to the bike as a beach cruiser. Ellsworth got a little peeved at this and corrected me — it’s not a beach cruiser, he said, but it’s also not not a beach cruiser.

Now that I’ve spent so much time on the Radiant Carbon, I have to say I agree with him.

It’s a bike using the carbon fiber frame material of a high performance e-bike; with the general shape of a beach cruiser; with the upright geometry of a comfort bike; with the ride feel of a sportier fitness bike; and the drivetrain and componentry of a high-end commuter.

The Radiant Carbon is a bit of an enigma — it doesn’t fit neatly into any one category, but somehow it does a pretty good job of dabbling in all of them.

Like so many e-bikes being designed nowadays, I’m not sure a bike like the Radiant Carbon would have ever been built had it not been for its motor and battery. Not because its design is so heavy and clunky it can’t be pedaled without assistance, but because the demographic of cyclists who would be interested in a do-it-all jack-of-all-trades bicycle like this didn’t really exist before the past several years.

Before e-bikes, cycling felt very siloed. You were either a mountain bike or a road cyclist; a commuter or beach cruiser. There really wasn’t a good way to build one bike that could do it all. Instead, cyclists just bought multiple bikes for multiple uses. E-bikes have begun to change that narrative, and the Radiant Carbon is one of the first e-bikes I’ve ridden that genuinely seems like it could be used for just about anything.

I’m not saying it’s the perfect e-bike, because it definitely has its limitations. But if you wanted one bike that would be just as good for a 20 mile fitness ride as it would for a cozy sunset cruise, I’d say it should be this one.

Word on the street is that this limited edition version of the Radiant Carbon is just the beginning. In our conversation at this year’s Sea Otter Classic, Ellsworth talked of plans to release a more affordable version likely made of aluminum and with a more conventional drivetrain. For The Ride, it appears this is just the beginning.

You can buy The Ride Radiant Carbon online and have it delivered to your door fully assembled.

‘Happy Riding, make sure to let us know if you have any questions down in our comments section or if you think we left anything out in this review of the The Ride Radiant Carbon E-Bike.