Like thousands of parents, Sarah Bruce Courtney turns to the RadWagon to get things done.
Whether it’s dropping off kids, commuting to work, or running some last-minute errands, she knows her electric cargo bike is the unrelenting taskmaster that’ll make everything a little bit easier.
But Sarah isn’t just a diehard RadWagon fan — she also helped design it.
"As a mom, the RadWagon's always been a lifesaver," Sara said. "With the RadWagon 5, our team took it to the next level. Even if I didn't work on this one, it'd still be my daily go-to."
Sarah came to Rad Power Bikes four years ago with a background in mechanical engineering and wide-ranging experience in the outdoor industry, and rose to be Rad’s Director of Product Development.
She leads the creation of all things Rad, from the earliest sketches to the countless rounds of testing. And through out it all, the RadWagon has remained a constant presence, both on and off the clock.
“Rad gives their employees a free ebike when they sign on, and the RadWagon was immediately my top choice,” Sarah explained. “I loved the idea of being able to take my kids around on a bike, and traffic has become a bigger and bigger issue where I live.”
“Being able to avoid sitting in traffic, especially when the weather's nice, is so much more enjoyable when you’re doing pick-ups, drop-offs, and things like that. It became fun instead of torture.”
Unsurprisingly, her kids loved it too — especially when their classmates started to notice how they were getting to school each day.
“Anytime their friends are passing by, they want a chance to ride it,” Sarah said. “My kids feel really cool whenever that happens.”
Zipping across town on her daily trips also meant Sarah was constantly running into fellow RadWagon parents, and as any Rad rider can tell you, folks are always eager to wave you down and chat about the bikes.
“I live out in the burbs, and there’s a lot of RadWagons floating around. I won’t tell them what I do, but I’ll ask how they’re enjoying the bike, and keep track of what they like and what they’d like to see.”
Sarah drew from these on-the-go interactions when it came time to design the RadWagon 5.
Some parents said they struggled with making it to the office in time after drop-off, so the team boosted the top speed to 28 mph. Others said that they live around big hills, so Rad packed in extra torque to make it easier to climb them, and hydraulic disc brakes for smoother downhill stops.
“One of the things we identified early on was that we wanted to help make the riding experience more accessible for a wider swath of people,” Sarah said. “So that meant tweaking the geometry to make it easier for just about anyone to hop on and start riding.”
And since safety is always at the top of mind for every mom and dad, Sarah and her team made sure it was equipped with a slew of new features, like turn signals and the Safe Shield Battery.
But it’s not just parents, Sarah said, who will notice the difference.
“I took my kids in to test out a prototype, and they loved it,” she said. “We rode around the Rad Lab, and they really picked up on how smooth the ride felt, even when they were fighting in the back.”
Sarah will be the first to tell you that not every product chief gets a chance to work on something that they’ll personally use every single day, and that the experience has given her a unique perspective.
“As you develop your career, it’s easy to fall into a company that creates things you don't feel passionate about,” she explained. “When you have a vested interest in the product for yourself, it’s easier to think through where it could get used, how it could get abused, and what it needs to withstand.”
“It's a lot easier to put yourself in the shoes of a customer — or in our case, a Rad rider,” she added.
Hauling kids? Gear? Groceries? Check out Rad's entire lineup of cargo and utility ebikes!
