Happy with my 2015/16 base Turbo...

[Douglas Ruby]

Despite losing 2 months of riding due to crappy weather (Jan/Feb) and one month due to surgeries (May), I am really enjoying my base 2016 Turbo. Just finished my second service where we replaced the Clean Cockpit joystick control and updated the battery firmware.

I now have 763 miles on the bike and try to ride at least 3 times a week. I expect to reach 1500+ miles this summer. My longest ride to date has been 45 miles. I am comfortable that I can get 50 miles at ECO40. I have gone through 23 battery cycles and the health rating is 100%. Most of the time I ride at ECO40 with judicious use of the Turbo mode on hills. I have lost 17 lbs since I bought the bike. I also can ride much more comfortably and longer distances on my regular road bike now.

I've done 2 organized fund raisers and find other riders interested in the bike and quite friendly. Lots of interest expressed by older riders like me.

I have been able to mod the bike to make it perform better for me and be more comfortable and useful. Summary of mods with approx prices follows:

1. Updated gearing. - PG-1050 11-36t rear and 44t front. (20% lower 1st gear. Top speed is around 35 mph at cadence of 110 rpm.) - $150
2. Michelin Energy 700 x 37c tires (lower rolling resistance) - $100
3. Shimano SPD pedals. - $40
4. Carbon fiber stem and 620mm carbon handlebars - $70
5. Separated right brake lever fom joystick control. - NC
6. Kool Stop KS-D330K organic brake pads (quiet, stops great!) - $60
7. Thudbuster ST 30.9 mm seatpost - $145
8. Specialized fender/rack kit - $300
9. Wing light turn signals - $25
10. Racktime City bag. - $80
11. Ergon GP5 grips/bar ends. - $50
12. Garmin Edge 1000 (b-day gift from wife and daughter)

I always charge the battery off the bike and have had no issues whatsoever. My two issues to date have been a broken spoke on the rear wheel and gradual failure of the joystick control. One other piece of advice...If you update the battery firmware, make sure to reset your odometer to its previous setting (in km) and max speed to 45km/h. If you replace the control panel, you have to reset the readout to mph.

Doug

 

[John Dombrowski]

I wish I knew how many miles were on my 2016 Turbo S.....

 

[Douglas Ruby]

By the way, please note: 45 kmh = 28 mph. All of the settings on the Turbo are metric. To get the odometer to read 762 miles, we had to set it to 1226.32 km

 

[John Dombrowski]

At least when I sell my Turbo S it will have low if not zero miles on it.....

 

[Douglas Ruby]

Pictures of the bike with the modifications as noted:

 

[Rich Reano]

hmm... are you sure about "Top speed is around 35mph at cadence of 100 rpm" with the 44t chainring and 11t in the back? When I use the gear calculator, I get around 29 mph.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

Rich Reano,

I stand corrected. Using Sheldon Brown's Gear Calculator I get 32.3 mph (not 35 mph) at 100 rpm in 10th gear. I max the e-assist at 100 rpm in 9th gear (27.4 mph). The 10th gear of 44 x 11 with 700-35c tires is 108.7 inch gear. 9th gear with 44 x 13 is 92 inches.

On a road near Nashua, NH there is a pretty good descent where I have been able to maintain 110 rpm in 10th gear which is 35.5 mph.

Doug

 

[Tonqin]

Bike looks nice and clean, not like mine with all the winter commuting here.
How do you find the turn signals? Is it a light tap on the ends to activate/deactivate them or is it a more aggressive push?
Considering these or waiting for the Lumos bike helmet with turn signals.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

How do you find the turn signals? Is it a light tap on the ends to activate/deactivate them or is it a more aggressive push? Considering these or waiting for the Lumos bike helmet with turn signals.

The Winglights are a bit of a gimmick but certainly work well. You just tap the end to turn one on and tap again to turn it off. It will automatically turn off after 45 seconds as well. It uses 2 x CR2032 batteries each. I often use the turn signal AND hand signals. I also have three tail; lights, the seat light, the rack light, and a flashing strap on light. I WANT to be seen since often traffic overtakes at a pretty fair pace on narrow country roads.

 

[PGT]

What was the original gearing on your bike? I can definitely outpedal the gearing on my Turbo X and was looking at options.

 

[Douglas Ruby]

The Turbo comes with 700x45c tires, an 11-32 rear cluster, and 48T front sprocket. I found the gearing too high and changed to 700x35c tires, 11-36 cluster, and 44T sprocket. Over the years I have found that 100 rpm is my maximum sustainable cadence, and that I normally ride between 80-90 rpm. Check out the following URL and see how it shows the difference in gear range and speeds at a maximum cadence of 100 rpm for my Specialized Turbo; both before and after I made gearing and tire changes.

http://ritzelrechner.de/?GR=DERS&KB...44&RZ2=11,13,15,17,19,22,25,28,32,36&UF2=2185

Note that at 100 rpm, with my current gearing, I am going 32.5 mph vs. 36.5 mph in the original setup, yet I now have a 21% lower 1st gear for climbing. Given that the pedal assist cutout is around 42km/h (26.3 mph), this is pretty near ideal for cruising in 8th or 9th and using 10th for downhill.