Specialized Turbo Vado SL: An Incredible E-Bike (User Club)

[Stefan Mikes]

Can Strava plot selected power metrics over the entire time I've owned the SL a given time period including many rides?

It is technically possible although difficult. There is a whole complicated procedure to export Strava data to Excel (I will recollect how to do it only if I have to). You get the whole history of your Strava rides with the flags denoting the Activity Type or the bike you rode (if you have several bikes and consistently assign one to the related ride (as I do). The stored parameters are, i.a., your Weighted Average Power, Average Power, Maximum Power as well as several essential parameters such as Cadence, Calories, Average and Max Speed,, Distance, Elevation Gain and more. Then you can filter the spreadsheet and do your charts.

The procedure is as complicated as I went through it only once several years ago to get the list of my rides sorted by Distance to determine the number of my Centuries, Gran Fondos, Metric Centuries etc.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

It is technically possible although difficult. There is a whole complicated procedure to export Strava data to Excel (I will recollect how to do it only if I have to). You get the whole history of your Strava rides with the flags denoting the Activity Type or the bike you rode (if you have several bikes and consistently assign one to the related ride (as I do). The stored parameters are, i.a., your Weighted Average Power, Average Power, Maximum Power as well as several essential parameters such as Cadence, Calories, Average and Max Speed,, Distance, Elevation Gain and more. Then you can filter the spreadsheet and do your charts.

The procedure is as complicated as I went through it only once several years ago to get the list of my rides sorted by Distance to determine the number of my Centuries, Gran Fondos, Metric Centuries etc.

Thanks! I actually enjoy spreadsheets. (A character flaw, I know.) But that may be too much of a good thing even for me.

 

[mogulman]

It's actually not that complicated. If you go to your My Account page, there is a place in Strava where you can select to Download or Delete your account. When you do that and select to Download, it will work in the background and then email you a link to export all your Strava data. It takes about 5-10 mins once you make a request for the system to compile your data.

I've used it to export my ski information for the season into Excel.

 

[Herbs]

I also enjoy spreadsheets so it would be interesting to see if that was possible.

If it helps, it's the average motor power figures I'm interested in that you can see in the Specialized app when you click into a ride and click view all data. Screenshot below in case countries have different versions.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

When you do that and select to Download, it will work in the background and then email you a link to export all your Strava data. It takes about 5-10 mins once you make a request for the system to compile your data.

What is the data file format...?

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I also enjoy spreadsheets so it would be interesting to see if that was possible.

If it helps, it's the average motor power figures I'm interested in that you can see in the Specialized app when you click into a ride and click view all data. Screenshot below in case countries have different versions. View attachment 196250

Yes, that's the average motor power (AMP) I was referring to as well. Problem is, I have 171 SL rides recorded now, and I'm not going to open rides in the app and type the AMPs into Excel one by one just to see the trend. If there is a trend, it's not clear from spot checks.

Curious, why the interest in AMP? Having only rare bouts of range anxiety, I've been focused entirely on rider power till now. But maybe there's useful info in AMP as well.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

OK, I caved and loaded the Android Strava app. Then I connected the Specialized app to the Strava app. Appears to have worked.

But I see no way to export past rides to Strava — not one at a time, but in batches.

Distinctly recall reading somewhere, maybe on EBR, that there's a way to tranfer past rides to Strava in batches of 25. That'd work for my purposes. But nothing useful found on the web so far.

 

[mogulman]

OK, I caved and loaded the Android Strava app. Then I connected the Specialized app to the Strava app. Appears to have worked.

But I see no way to export past rides to Strava — not one at a time, but in batches.

Distinctly recall reading somewhere, maybe on EBR, that there's a way to tranfer past rides to Strava in batches of 25. That'd work for my purposes. But nothing useful found on the web so far.

Yeah. You can only import one at a time. I had to do that when I had a watch that wasn't uploading.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

There is an Android app SyncMyTracks that allows batch transfer of rides from say RWGPS to Strava. A couple of bucks.

I recommend setting small batches, perhaps 3 months for one go.

When Endomondo collapsed, I transferred all my rides since 2013 to Strava, RWGPS and Komoot from Endomondo using that app.

 

[stompandgo]

No, but a real athletic analysis tool like Training Peaks or Golden Cheetah can, as long as your (human) power data is exportable from your bike.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

There is an Android app SyncMyTracks that allows batch transfer of rides from say RWGPS to Strava. A couple of bucks.

I recommend setting small batches, perhaps 3 months for one go.

When Endomondo collapsed, I transferred all my rides since 2013 to Strava, RWGPS and Komoot from Endomondo using that app.

Thanks! If that doesn't work, the Strava app's not long for this phone.

Meanwhile, how do I turn off all that silly cheerleader crap — trophies, congrats, etc. Unwelcome distractions. No obvious way in the settings. I have the free version for now.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Meanwhile, how do I turn off all that silly cheerleader crap — trophies, congrats, etc. Unwelcome distractions. No obvious way in the settings. I have the free version for now.

I think it is the usual newcomer stuff My Strava is pretty clean but I have used it for years. I'm on the free version now again.

 

[Herbs]

Yes, that's the average motor power (AMP) I was referring to as well. Problem is, I have 171 SL rides recorded now, and I'm not going to open rides in the app and type the AMPs into Excel one by one just to see the trend. If there is a trend, it's not clear from spot checks.

Curious, why the interest in AMP? Having only rare bouts of range anxiety, I've been focused entirely on rider power till now. But maybe there's useful info in AMP as well.

I may be wrong focusing on that but as I use my bike for sometimes commuting to work, the rest of the time is spent doing some similar routes and some completely different. I live in Poole, Dorset, England so have access to the Beach, routes round the harbour bay and the hilly Purbecks as well. Weather can be variable as well especially with head winds.

My mindset when I ride is to not be lazy so I will always ride with the lowest possible assist level but due to fitness levels that changes multiple times throughout a ride.

I also look at average rider power but if traffic is heavy, riding with friends or I'm having a chilled ride home after work then this figure will not be representative but the average motor power should in theory also be correspondingly lower.

If we are talking math then its the correlation between rider power and motor power on rides over time i'm interested in, and also how that stacks up against other users of the bike (from a motivation point to keep pushing). Range anxiety doesn't come into it at all for me yet.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

@Jeremy McCreary:
Transferring data from RWGPS to Strava using SyncMyTracks is easy:

1. Select the source service (RWGPS). Enter your login data
2. Similarly, select the target service (Strava). Enter your login data.
3. Set the date range. It might pass in a single go but the transfer is very slow, and it might eventually crash. I recommend 3-month chunks.

Then in Strava:

1. Go to (your profile photo at the top right (only on the computer!). Select Settings, then My Account
2. At the webpage bottom, you will find "Download or Delete Your Account". Click "Get started"
3. Find and place a request to download your data.
4. After some time, a link from Strava reaches your e-mail. Click and start the download.

The downloaded file is a ZIP archive. Open it. The only file you are interested in is activities.csv Double click it to open the file in Excel.

I have sorted the list by Activity ID (descending order) and filtered it by Activity Gear.

The Weighted Average Power is in the column AU.

I made the chart Weighted Average Power = f(Activity ID). It is total garbage

@mogulman thank you for the advice. The process was a way more complicated several years ago. Or, I was doing it wrongly

 

[mogulman]

I may be wrong focusing on that but as I use my bike for sometimes commuting to work, the rest of the time is spent doing some similar routes and some completely different. I live in Poole, Dorset, England so have access to the Beach, routes round the harbour bay and the hilly Purbecks as well. Weather can be variable as well especially with head winds.

My mindset when I ride is to not be lazy so I will always ride with the lowest possible assist level but due to fitness levels that changes multiple times throughout a ride.

I also look at average rider power but if traffic is heavy, riding with friends or I'm having a chilled ride home after work then this figure will not be representative but the average motor power should in theory also be correspondingly lower.

If we are talking math then its the correlation between rider power and motor power on rides over time i'm interested in, and also how that stacks up against other users of the bike (from a motivation point to keep pushing). Range anxiety doesn't come into it at all for me yet.

Here is an interesting thing for me that I discovered using the SL bike. Not sure if other people have experienced this or not.

I mostly ride to increase my heart rate and get cardio while I was riding. I figured that riding in ECO mode 30/30 would be best because it's more of my own effort. So I would get more exercise.

I've ridden similar routes using ECO and sport (60/100). With Sport I end up riding the routing at a faster speed, also my heart rate ends up being faster over the entire trip. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I'm more excited because I feel like I'm riding better. Maybe it's because I can keep up a consistent higher cadence. Maybe it's mental? I tend to get a better workout on Sport though, as long as I'm concentrating on keeping my cadence around 80+.

 

[stompandgo]

In most human beings, increasing your cadence will increase your heart rate. Conversely, lowering your cadence by shifting up to a higher gear will reduce your heart rate, for the same speed and conditions. This can be used to rest during an active ride.

 

[Jeremy McCreary]

I've ridden similar routes using ECO and sport (60/100). With Sport I end up riding the routing at a faster speed, also my heart rate ends up being faster over the entire trip. I'm not exactly sure why. Maybe I'm more excited because I feel like I'm riding better. Maybe it's because I can keep up a consistent higher cadence. Maybe it's mental? I tend to get a better workout on Sport though, as long as I'm concentrating on keeping my cadence around 80+.

You're describing what some of us call the Carrot Effect (CE), wherein ground speed and rider power — or in your case, heart rate — both go up when assist goes up, seemingly on their own. Over a dozen members have reported it.

I think the CE's mostly psychological but don't pretend to understand it. Also think the SL's responsiveness enhances it. Seems pretty strong and reliable. Cadence doesn't appear to be much of a factor in my case.

You and I ride a lot alike. And like you, I get my best workouts in SPORT thanks to the CE. Probably also happens in TURBO, but I don't use it enough to say.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

@mogulman: now walk in the shoes of someone whose HR is controlled by a Beta Blocker I cannot increase my heart rate and thus my leg power is limited unless there are short power bursts.

Jeremy, the Carrot Effect must be true. In recent months, my leg power was at ridiculously low levels. However, racing combined with 80/80% SPORT assistance as well as a presence of a riding companion increased my weighted average leg power to 100 Watts!!! My max cadence was 124 (it was when I was ascending very steep climbs in SL TURBO and in the granny gear; the max leg power was 474 W).

 

[Watana Bob]

max leg power was 474 W

And you keep telling everybody that you have weak legs!!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

And you keep telling everybody that you have weak legs!!

I cannot sustain it.

This is my sustained leg power this year...

This is the Carrot Effect