Well, after months of research, much of it at this awesome site, I took the plunge and bought a 2020 Specialized Turbo Vado 3.0. Picked it up over the weekend. And wow - this is the beginning of a beautiful friendship.
All I want to do is ride this bike. Two rides this weekend, 17 miles , and it was COLD in New Jersey, and it's the most exercise I've had in an embarrassingly long time. But I felt great afterwards, a serious energy boost, and it was so much fun, I could live on the thing.
A few early observations, which may be helpful to others:
First off, this is probably the most comfortable BICYCLE I’ve ever ridden. Granted, I’ve been puttering around my neighborhood on an old Schwinn Walmart Special for ten years. But this bike is smooth and comfortable, shifts great, very solid and I feel totally in command, and most surprisingly - I can hardly hear the motor. I went through the park, past lots of people, needed to use the bell as I approached, nobody looked up or even noticed. All I heard was the regular sound of a bicycle. At least as far as I could tell.Even turned off the support at one point on a flat surface, doing about 15 MPH - no difference in sound. I'd read about this from others, and it's totally true in my experience.
It does not feel heavy at all. It FEELS like you're on a lightweight bike. But this is deceptive - heavy is heavy. I came to a rolling stop once and turned onto a sidewalk, and being unused to hydraulic brakes, I hit them hard and I almost went down. So it takes a little while to get the feel of things, especially if you're an amateur like me.
I also did the brake "bed in" process, which basically means you slow the bike down from higher speed down to walking speed about 10 or 20 times until they break in. It's all over YouTube, here's one:
I pretty much stayed in Eco, which was plenty of support for flat and slight inclines - most of the ride in my neighborhood. Just enough to take the "edge" off. Which bodes well in terms of mileage.
Then I hit the hill that always makes me regret going for a bike ride. I popped it into Level 3 - and I was the bionic man. I mean I just spun right up the thing. So I went out to the other hill-of-misery in my neighborhood, which I used to avoid if I could but that really limits the ride - same thing. Just an absolute and complete blast. So I went out LOOKING for hills. I hit the biggest rise in the park, which forces most people off their bikes - I spun up that thing like it was flat ground.
But let me add this - to anyone who thinks ebikes are "cheating" or just a walk in the park, let me tell you, I was TIRED when I got home. Breathing hard. This was a work out. Now, I'm in lousy shape, I admit it. I'm 53, and do very little in terms of exercise - mostly I walk around my building at work, and I play the drums. Otherwise, couch potato and it's been bugging me. And I'm tired a lot and clearly need some exercise. So the reason I bought this bike was to get into aerobic shape. I’ve never found an exercise that I look forward to. Every time I join a gym, I go for a few weeks, and then I just don't.
But I think I’m going to love riding this bike. Like I say, it's a workout. But it is an absolute friggin' joy to ride. I've been trying to find the words to explain what's so compelling. I will say that every time I get on a bicycle, those first few spins have always been spectacular. Then I hit the first hill and I regret it. But riding this bike feels almost like...flying. That's as close to the description I can come up with. When you feel that motor gently support you, it feels like taking off in the air. I think this is why people get hooked so quickly on ebikes.
As for accessories, at the moment I've done the following:
That Mirrcycle took some effort to install on the Vado handlebar, but it works. I can share the process if anyone's interested.
A few additional surprises:
- The Vado 3.0 has a Quick Release front wheel. All the pics I've seen show a Thru-Axle. Apparently only the 3.0 has QR. Not an issue, just pointing this out
- I was able to get the bike into my Mazda 3 hatchback - but this is not sustainable. It just barely fits if you push the passenger seat all the way forward, but it messes up the fenders and it's really too heavy and awkward to do this regularly. It's fine to the LBS, I guess. Ultimately, I'm going to have U-Haul install a Class 1 hitch and pick up a Saris Freedom 2 bike rack. More cash. Needs to be done. I'm going to run out of roads in the neighborhood very quickly!
- I was able to connect it the Mission Control app with a breeze. But the app's a little buggy. For instance, I was not able to change from metric to imperial.There’s an option for it, but it doesn’t seem to take. Instead there’s a manual process which you have to do and it took some digging around Google to figure it out. Basically, you hold the left button on the display for five seconds until it enters a kind of edit mode. Then you click them both at the same time to cycle through the different options until you get to the metric or imperial section. Then you use the right button to choose between the two. This works.
- I've not been able to hit 28 MPH, or even close. Maybe 23 or so. Not a big deal - the important part for me is that there's no cuttoff at 20, which I found annoying on my test ride of the Como 3.0 (seems the Como 4.0 is a Class 3, but more $$). Need to figure this out a bit.
- I used about 40% of the battery on my two rides, not bad. I will say the 2 Amp charger is slow - took about two and half hours to get it back to 100% (actually did not time that, so I could be wrong, though the point is that it was not quick)
Well, these are my first impressions. This site has been so helpful with information, it's nice to finally have something of my own to share back. Any questions, just ask. And I'll share some more info as I get moving.
