Happy wife, Happy Life!

Gonna defend them here. The cranks were put on by specialized not the shop. I agree, the shop should have found it and corrected it before it got to me. But if specialized can’t put their own bikes together, at the factory, houston we have a problem.
they gave the bike to you without pedals?
 
they gave the bike to you without pedals?
No, they put the pedals on correct crank arms. But the arms were on the wrong sides. I assume the builder just put the pedals on the sides they threaded to without paying much attention.
 
No, they put the pedals on correct crank arms. But the arms were on the wrong sides. I assume the builder just put the pedals on the sides they threaded to without paying much attention.
and they didn’t mention to you that the cranks were backwards? pretty amazing that they’d be able to get them on, no problem, with the cranks swapped. or that they’d get them on with problems and not mention it to you, or more likely swap them. this strains credibility. any shop worth their salt would a) notice that they were swapped and b) fix it. you can’t put pedals on a bike with the cranks swapped without noticing.

it is visually hard to tell which way a crank is threaded. you pick up the “left” pedal and try and put it on the “left” crank. if it doesn’t work, but the right pedal magically does, who on earth wouldn’t make note and/or fix?

add that those praxis cranks take about 30 seconds to take off….
 
As an I.T. person, do you normally have weird issues with your pc that tech support cannot figure out? I've had a couple of people like this in my career. Starting to think you have that weird juju.

I work in I.T. I am the one that solves weird problems. But, yeah, the specialized experience has been ridiculous. I am the first to admit I am an opinionated customer with high expectations. But crank arms installed on the wrong sides is just crazy. Anyway, that can/will be fixed. But the lack of pedal settings is really weird.
 
and they didn’t mention to you that the cranks were backwards? pretty amazing that they’d be able to get them on, no problem, with the cranks swapped. or that they’d get them on with problems and not mention it to you, or more likely swap them. this strains credibility. any shop worth their salt would a) notice that they were swapped and b) fix it. you can’t put pedals on a bike with the cranks swapped without noticing.

it is visually hard to tell which way a crank is threaded. you pick up the “left” pedal and try and put it on the “left” crank. if it doesn’t work, but the right pedal magically does, who on earth wouldn’t make note and/or fix?
Totally with you. But when I do it I often just grab a pedal and try both ways until it threads. I only noticed because these particular pedals were clearly marked and I have moved these pedals myself several times as they are my favorite pedals. Interestingly, the specialized marking was hard to find and read on the pedal.

I have more sympathy for the guy at the bike shop trying to get through 10 builds than I do for specialized sending stuff built wrong.

The lack of cadence control on the como is more concerning.
 
so you know, frey seems to be hinting at rohloff hubs, current stock will be chain as no belt breaks. you may want to expand your seach. A frey with a m620 will get you a programmable motor currently. A thought. I was interested in the flx blade at a point. But am going with the frey cc.
 
@mschwett why do you think it’d be difficult to put the crank arms on backwards on these? They’re identically splined and not directly connected to the spider.

now a dose of TPS poka-yoke would design them otherwise, but that’s not where we are.
 
this is a good way to strip threads!
Only if you force it. When one way is correct it tends to catch immediately. I also always start on the right pedal so if clockwise doesn’t work immediately and I wasn’t sure of the pedal, I switch.

I thought I was going crazy today as I knew which pedal was which.
 
@mschwett why do you think it’d be difficult to put the crank arms on backwards on these? They’re identically splined and not directly connected to the spider.

now a dose of TPS poka-yoke would design them otherwise, but that’s not where we are.
i didn’t say it was difficult to put them on backwards. i’ve removed and replaced them a couple times, it’s a piece of cake - but it’s also immediately obvious when a “right” pedal won’t go into a “right” crank!
 
Gonna defend them here. The cranks were put on by specialized not the shop. I agree, the shop should have found it and corrected it before it got to me. But if specialized can’t put their own bikes together, at the factory, houston we have a problem.
Don't tell me Specialized sends fully assembled e-bikes to the LBS.
 
i didn’t say it was difficult to put them on backwards. i’ve removed and replaced them a couple times, it’s a piece of cake - but it’s also immediately obvious when a “right” pedal won’t go into a “right” crank!
Sorry, I misunderstood your post.

As for whomever put the pedals on the bike, I'd wager they just grabbed a pedal and put it on whichever crank it'd thread into without giving any thought as to whether the right pedal was on the right side and threading in the correct direction.

Could be worse, bike coulda shipped with two left crank arms... :D
 
Gonna try and go for the first real ride on the vado today. See if there are any problems there. I hope not. I am done with bike problems for the time being.
 
Well, specialized may be dead to me. They delivered the como and there are two problems. The factory installed the crank arms wrong with the right and left swapped. When I switched pedals (or tried to) I couldn't get the first pedal on. Well, the reason is obvious. I also likely stripped one of the crank arm in the process.

Second, this bike's f2 button does not allow for changing the pedal pace that the vado allows. It's not clear if this is a flaw or something that is removed from the como IGH vs the vado IGH.

Now, my bike, at the very least won't go into the lowest gear (again, this problem happened on the previous vado and is probably just a calibration issue. I hope.).

So, my wife's bike is now in the shop waiting to be fixed. And she is furious. Both these bikes may get returned. My only assumption is specialized is completely incompetent across the board. 4 bikes. 1 order issue. 1 bike that continually had problems. 1 that was delivered (from the factory) with the crank arms installed on the wrong sides. And 1 more that doesn't have enviolo setup correctly. 4 out of 4. Makes my priority current experience look acceptable by comparison.

As of this moment, anyone considering specialized, just don't.
Ah, the ol' reversed crank issue. In my case it was the local shop. I don't recall the original work but I picked up my bike and went for a ride. I have SPD pedals. Hmm. I'm having trouble getting into the clipless pedals. I'm having more trouble getting out. I really have to twist with force to release. "Why would the shop change my release pressure/spring setting?" I loosen the spring. Still really, really hard in and harder out. What the heck (I was a bit more colorful). I hit the basement and check my other SPD pedals. WOW. How the hell did they mount the pedals backwards. I know about threading/reverse-threading on pedals. I call the shop. He says the pedals can't be mounted wrong due to threading issues. Yes, I acknowledge. I drove the bike to the shop. Mechanic: "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" Let me send it upstairs for more review. Fine. Shops calls me later. Cracks were reversed!!!! It appears that the design means that the cranks can be placed on left/right or right/left or WRONG. That is apparently an unusual design "feature!"

I did post that here after it happened with a warning. Apparently, Specialized missed my post! Sorry about your problems with the shop or the brand.

edited to add for clarity: My bike was already used and correctly assembled. Again, not sure why it went in for service. But the pedals were correctly mounted for a year. So when the cranks were removed the with pedals attached they reassembled wrong.
 
Last edited:
Ah, the ol' reversed crank issue. In my case it was the local shop. I don't recall the original work but I picked up my bike and went for a ride. I have SPD pedals. Hmm. I'm having trouble getting into the clipless pedals. I'm having more trouble getting out. I really have to twist with force to release. "Why would the shop change my release pressure/spring setting?" I loosen the spring. Still really, really hard in and harder out. What the heck (I was a bit more colorful). I hit the basement and check my other SPD pedals. WOW. How the hell did they mount the pedals backwards. I know about threading/reverse-threading on pedals. I call the shop. He says the pedals can't be mounted wrong due to threading issues. Yes, I acknowledge. I drove the bike to the shop. Mechanic: "Hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm" Let me send it upstairs for more review. Fine. Shops calls me later. Cracks were reversed!!!! It appears that the design means that the cranks can be placed on left/right or right/left or WRONG. That is apparently an unusual design "feature!"

I did post that here after it happened with a warning. Apparently, Specialized missed my post! Sorry about your problems with the shop or the brand.

edited to add for clarity: My bike was already used and correctly assembled. Again, not sure why it went in for service. But the pedals were correctly mounted for a year. So when the cranks were removed the with pedals attached they reassembled wrong.
Yeah, it’s just silly. In my case the factory installed the cranks wrong. The shop just added to it by also reversing the pedals. These were the included platform pedals, so no clip issues. Although, my wife was complaining about grip on them. Maybe they aren’t symmetrical.
 
Back