Ride1Up Roadster V3 review: A lightweight commuter e-bike built for speed and value

The Ride1Up Roadster V3 is a follow-up to one of our favorite electric bikes. The ebike market has grown rapidly since I tested the V2 back in the winter of 2021 and 2022, and the Roadster V3 is the beneficiary of these advancements.

It is not only a more equipped commuter but also boasts tech, like a torque sensor, that make it a more natural ride for anyone coming to an ebike for the first time.

Yet it still has plenty of power to put down for speedsters. With a $1,395 price tag, the Roadster V3 is a competitive option on the market.

Ride1Up Roadster V3 review

Price and availability

The Roadster V3 comes in three sizes, two colors and two configurations. There's a step-through, a small, and a large model, and the bike offers a carbon belt drive or a nine-speed drivetrain. All sizes and drivetrain options have the same price: $1,395. it's available now at Ride1Up.

Design and build quality

Following the lead of the V2 before it, the Roadster V3 proves itself a slick and elegant ebike designed to go under the radar while still surprising with its electric pep. The Roaster V3 isn't quite the same bike as its predecessor.

Where the Roadster V2 was a slim e-bike analog to fixie bikes with a fully integrated downtube battery, a single-speed belt drive, and minimal accessories, the V3 pushes further into general commuter territory with lots of extras and a wider handlebar and saddle. That makes it a bit heavier, but it’s still on the light side for ebikes at about 40 pounds.

The Roadster V3 tacks on a host of everyday conveniences. First off, the V3 now includes metal fenders to keep muck from the road off of you. The headset has an integrated headlight, and the rear fender has an integrated taillight (not a brake light, sadly). The bike also gets hydraulic disc brakes as a standard feature.

Each handle is wrapped with a somewhat ergonomic handgrip. The included pedals are plastic with grip tape on the surfaces. And the right side of the handlebar has a low-profile bell included — though it’s no match for the sharpness or convenience of the bell that was integrated into the brake lever on the V2. A kickstand is also a stock accessory.

The bike includes a few braze-ons for mounting accessories, like a rear rack or water bottle cage, but it’s not quite as impressively kitted out as the Velotric T1, for example, which could have easily been set up for bikepacking.

Rather than riding on skinny road tires, the Roadster V3 now opts for 700x45c tires that add more tread, more girth, and more cushion. The road version gets Schwalbe G-One RS tires while the gravel model gets Pirelli Cinturato tires.

Another large convenience shift is the removable battery pack, which is also UL2271 Certified. It did make the downtube on this model larger and more square, so it doesn’t get to go as far under the radar as the Roadster V2. But it’s still on the smaller side for ebikes.

The battery sits in a keyed compartment, keeping it secure, and it uses a small latch to prevent it from falling out when you turn the key to remove it. This lets you remove the battery for charging, though you can still plug the charger directly into the bike and charge that way if you prefer.

While you can still snag a model with a simple, single-speed belt drive much like the Roadster V2 offered, Ride1Up also offers a 9-speed drivetrain with a traditional cassette and rear derailleur.

For the electronics, Ride1Up has a few more upgrades in store. The display is similar to what was on the V2. It’s super compact and helps further hide the fact that this is an ebike. It’s colorful and displays useful data on power levels, speed, range, and more. It also has a small, integrated thumb throttle, though this isn’t a very nuanced throttle. The Roadster V3 has a 500W rear hub motor controlled by a torque sensor.

All told, the V3’s shift away from stealth does make it a bit more mundane, but it’s still an elegantly put-together bike with a lot to like onboard. And Ride1Up has done a great job keeping the cable runs tidy, largely tucking them away into the frame of the bike where possible.

Even the motor power cable is hidden away on a track on the inner side of the chainstay. Some of this can make maintenance a bigger chore — replacing the rear tire after catching a flat took much more time than it would on a normal bike, for instance — but that’s par for the course with ebikes.

Setup

The Roadster V3 comes mostly reassembled. You will need to attach the front handlebar, front wheel, and front fender. The pedals also need to be attached. The seatpost needs to be inserted. And the front headlight has to be attached and positioned. The setup is fairly simple, though removing all of the packaging can take some time.

Though the bike will ship largely tuned-up, there's no guarantee that it'll be in perfect condition when it arrives. In my case, the front brake rotor wasn't perfectly centered with the brake caliper, and even after correcting the alignment, the rotor wasn't perfectly true and dragged ever so slightly along the brake pads. A number of bikes I've tested have also shipped with derailleurs that weren't perfectly indexed, though the Roadster arrived with clean shifting.

Performance

The changes to the Roadster V3 aren’t just cosmetic. The bigger tires and the wider handlebars make a huge difference in how the bike rides. The bike still feels somewhat aggressive to ride with its forward leaning riding position, but the big wheels and ergonomic handle grips really kind of cushion the ride. With the wider handlebars, I don't feel quite as locked in, nor do I need to be, as I don't have to dodge every little divot in the road.

When I initially began riding the Roadster V3, I had set it into its second power level, and I promptly realized how unnecessary that was. By using the correct gearing for the situation, it was very easy to accelerate up to speed even in just the first power level without putting in much effort on my own.

In that low setting, I still managed to find myself ripping up to 20mph, at which point the bike lets me do the rest of the work. Given how effective the assistance is, I'm really not surprised that the Roadster V3 can switch up to a Class 3 mode and would go all the way up to 28 miles an hour (25 for the belt-drive model).

Even better than the motor power the bike has available to it is how smoothly it applies that motor power. The torque sensor really works to make sure that the motor comes on smoothly and applies the assist gradually, so it never feels jerky. Riding along, I definitely got to get a little workout in, but not nearly as much as I would if I were riding an analoge bike, and I always got to go a little bit faster than I would have without the motor.

Even though the Roadster V3 is a little bit more casual than the V2, it's still nimble and fun to ride. The disc brakes also supply a bunch of stopping power that the Roadster V2 didn't quite have with its rim brakes.

One shift from the Roadster V2 with this model was the introduction of a thumb throttle. This isn’t the most nuanced thumb throttle, though, so modulating power is tricky. Not that it matters much, though, as the motor isn’t very torque so it’s quite slow to accelerate. This is less of an alternative to pedaling and more of an option to take a break from time to time.

I did find the gear shifting a little slow at times. When going through some of the gears, there’d be a bit of lag before the gear shifted and the rear hub engaged again, letting the pedals spin a bit more than I’d like. It was never dramatic, but it did prevent super smooth acceleration. It’s likely a little extra work indexing the gears better could improve this aspect.

The battery is another key upgrade over the Roadster V2. It's considerably bigger and, therefore, provides a longer range. I took the Roadster V3 on several rides totaling over 45 miles on a single battery charge.

After 42.5 miles, I noticed the power dwindling, and the last 8% of charge didn’t seem to provide any tangible assistance. It was good to see the lights remain on even as I pushed the bike to lower and lower levels of charge, as I’d rather have no motor power and be visible during a night ride than cruise along invisibly.

While this performance doesn't quite make it the absolute most efficient bike I've ever tested at 12.2Wh/mile (the Priority Current Plus used 10.9Wh/mile), it's definitely a very efficient bike to ride on motor power.

It’s worth noting that the display shows a battery percentage, but it’s unreliable. Riding the bike from a full charge, the first 50% off the battery seems to diminish incredibly slowly. But the last 50% goes by much more quickly.

As a battery drains, its voltage drops, so it ends up pulling higher amps to achieve the same power, and the battery meter doesn’t appear to account for this. Thankfully, the Roadster V3 is still a pretty easy ride even without motor power.

Verdict

The Roadster V3 may not fit the same niche as the V2, but it’s still an excellent ebike. It loads up on rider conveniences and comfort, and packs that all onto very solid ebike fundamentals.

The Roadster V3 is a smooth ride with ample motor power and a long-lasting battery, thanks to efficient application of that power through a very natural torque sensor that never made for a jerky ride.

Some of the changes aren’t so delightful, like the battery design making for a less stylish downtube and the beefy kickstand adding weight.

But none of these is enough to hold the Roadster V3 back from being a brilliant choice for anyone looking to grab an almost normal bike with the extra oomph of an electric motor, and Ride1Up’s competitive pricing while providing quality components doesn’t hurt one bit.