America has a motorcycle problem. Whereas the rest of the world views two-wheeled motorized transportation as transportation, the US sees motorcycles and scooters as toys. They're not something you use to commute to work or run errands. Instead, they're for riding to the coffee shop on weekends. This is a flawed line of thinking, and I'll tell you why, using two motorcycles as examples.

But first, hear me out. I live in Los Angeles, which is famous for its hellacious traffic. For motorcyclists, it's also famous because you get the ability to legally split lanes (i.e., ride between cars on the lane-dividing lines) and filter (i.e., ride between vehicles at a stoplight to get to the front), as well as its consistently gorgeous climate with a 365-day riding season. These factors aren't the case in every major city, but many of the benefits of motorcycling still apply elsewhere with the right gear and a can-do attitude.

The Italian

First, the 2025 Ducati Monster SP. This Italian beauty seemingly has everything you'd want in a fun motorcycle. It's lightweight, at just 412 lbs (187 kg) fueled. It's powerful, with a 937cc L-twin that produces 111 hp (83 kW)  and 69 ft-lb (94 Nm) of torque. It features an upright and comfortable riding position, along with very good suspension and brakes courtesy of Ohlins and Brembo, respectively.

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With e-bike manufacturing in China having expanded considerably, the number of companies offering affordable e-bikes over the last five years has exploded. But the market for cycles with an electric assist has existed for considerably longer, and a number of companies predate the recent surge. One of them, Rad Power, has been around long enough that it was already an established presence when we first reviewed its hardware four years ago.

The company offers a mix of cargo, folding, and commuter bikes, all with electric assists. Having looked at a cargo version last time around, we decided to try out one of the commuter bikes this time. The Radster comes in road and trail versions (we tried the road). It's an incredibly solidly made bike with equally solid components, and it has very good implementations of a few things that other manufacturers haven't handled all that well. It also can switch among the three classes of e-bikes using a menu option; unfortunately, nothing else about the bike's performance seems to change with the switch.

The Radster is priced a bit higher than a lot of its budget competitors. So, if you're shopping, you'll have to think a bit about whether some of these features matter to you.

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