Well, not to piss on anyone's parade...but since mid-July, to now I've got a little over 1,900 miles on the Specialized TurboVado with flawless performance, zero issues (oh wait a loose screw on the front fender), and a handful of mods that made it the most enjoyable e-bike of the 4 that I have ever owned and I'm blown away by not own the extensive problems I had with my Allant bike one after another and another and it just never seemed to end, regardless of the LBS providing me a loaner, my bike was in the shop for longer than I had the loaner. One thing then the next, the very best thing is that I now have nothing to do but ride and enjoy, no stomach grumbling or subconscious fears of another issue to have to worry about. And, it was/is not only me, a lot of you fellow owners of the Allant have expressed your own concerns and stories.
It is my hope that eventually Trek will get their crap together and resolve the deficiencies, make available the desirable extras so as not to void warranties, and truly make the bike what it should have been out the gate.
Not to spend $6k and dump another $5k retrofitting to make it what it should have been as an optional configuration (as in a better bike), as the 'plain Jane' out-the-door bike was lacking the sophistication it needed.
Those of you who have held on and rode the wave, grit your teeth, parted with some extra funds, I am sure you are extremely happy, however, the base product is the culprit, and the discussions that are here in the forums by me, as well as others, validate the manufacturing defects, poor choices of vendors/partners/suppliers. Much like getting a Real nice Cadillac Allante and then finding out later, you got a white elephant.
Look, ANYONE with a load of disposable income can take ANY product, car, bike, boat, heck, even a woman, throw all the money in the world at it and make it better to suit their needs, requirements, and desires of what YOU want it to be. To me, if I wanted to buy a "Build-A-Bike", have the dealer have a checklist must have the optional add this, that, etc., and so on, I too would surely consider building it correctly. But to sell it, find out all the problems and then have all the crap to get solutions...to me, that's not how I want to enjoy my bike.
Oh, and just a follow-up, if I did not make any previous reference as to why Trek & I have gone our separate ways, I'll summarize.
The bottom line is the Trek Store in Stirling told me they updated the firmware on another new Allant 7+ I bought in late June and after reading the paperwork and seeing it was not done (diagnostic report), it was the last straw. I contacted Bosch, they informed me the Trek HAS NO BOSCH CERTIFIED OR TRAINED MECHANICS IN New Jersey EXCEPT ONE (Felix Bikes in Florham Park). So the double-talking BS that Stirling Bike kept selling was just that BS. I was annoyed that I got lied to, they played dumb, Jason Schumacher of Trek suggested we part ways, I got all my money back, and Trek and I were done, forever. Kind of them, good for me, and now I'm happy.
Not that I want to pop anyone's jubilees bubble of joy about their Allant happiness, if you are happy and content fantastic, have no problem with the fixing of this, the changing of that, etc, etc, (like I said it's all documented) enjoy.
I know I am and unless Trek has earth-shattering changes forthcoming, I see no need to revise that brand,
For example, put on a Supernova light, void the warranty.
Change the rear hub, OEM poor design.
You guys are truly building an individual Unicorn with the items to make it personalized, but the mechanical shifting, design of the battery latch, and on drove me away.
Stay happy, stay safe, see you on the road, may do a NJ to Florida or a NJ to California with the Vado this year or next, hope to see many of you as I travel the roads.