A shipping possibility is bikeflights. They shipped my Vado sl from cal. To Colorado when I sold it and didn’t need the battery removed. I have heard they ship internationally but I’m not positive about that.
No international shipping of e-bikes.
Have you considered purchasing one in Europe and reselling it when you leave? There are companies (not sure if I can mention them of these forums) who offer services to sell second-hand high-end bikes. I have seen one with several models and sizes of Creo in stock, but you should be able to find a new one as well. I would not be surprised that it ends up being cheaper than shipping yours and this is certainly far less trouble.
Sure, definitely considered it. to be honest, a big part is I don’t know if I’m going permanently, or for ~1 year. If going permanently, I would sell my Creo and take the loss. But I don’t want to do that if I’m coming back, I would store it if I’m coming back. Hence just wondering if I can take it with me: no worries about sell or store, just use it.
I also think that's the easiest and cheapest way. Vado SL and expecially Creo SL are not that popluar in Europe/Germany and there a lot of (good) offers on ebay. On the other hand it may take a while to sell the bike again there for a good price.
Or just come over here and we swap! ;-)
Removing or installing the battery yourself is not difficult and afaik also not forbidden. Just turn around the Creo and remove 6 screws from the motor, take out the motor, remove the screws from the battery and it slides out.
About changing the Creos firmware, I guess a good dealer should be able to do it. I would write a mail to some Specialized dealers near there area where you're going to live.
Planning to talk to destination Specialized dealer(s) this weekend to see if it can be made legal, at least. Good to know that the work is easy.
I have a Creo in the UK and it is unrestricted. UK laws are the same as EU with bike restricted to 15.5mph or there about. Having unrestricted Creo will depend what EU country you are in. The UK tends to turn a blind eye to this, as long as you are not doing 40mph down the road and causing issues. Most of my unrestricted ride (I can turn mine on and off) tend to be 20 to 25 mph on flat, which is the same speed as a normal bike. Some countries like Switzerland will really hammer you for just having on your bile, so you need to fully check the country you will be riding in. Which country you looking at?
As for batteries, I did manage to find some cheap main batteries on Ebay her in UK, so I now have 3 of them. I got a nearly new one with 8 cycles on for £200 (about $230usd?). Took a punt on another one for £20, which turned out to also be a good battery. The batteries are easy to removed and takes me 10 minutes to swap it over.
Buying a cheap battery in Europe is actually a really good idea, if I can just store the battery at home and fly with the bike. Makes the logistics of the battery easier.
The other thing is, if you are involved in an accident, you may get fined or loose any insurance money. If it’s just for a few days, I wouldn’t care. But for a whole year there’s quite a chance to get involved in something.
But we missed one point: The national rules for 45km/h ebikes are quite different here. The rules fpr 45km/h ebikes are not every that stupid as in Germany, Switzerland for example has quite some good and realistic rules here. I can imagine that you wouldn’t need to change anything there on the Creo, you just need to wear a helmet and subscribe to an extra fast ebike insurance and put a small plate on the Creo (not great but solvable…).
So ask a local Specialized shop in your destination country, if and what your US Creo needs there and if they can help with it!
Destination is Germany, so yeah, it seems pretty strict. I don’t want to risk legal issues.
The question is not if it's 15.5/16.5/17.5mph.
28mph ebikes are allowed in most countries in Europe. But the rules also for the bikes/producers are so strict in some countries (like in Germany), that it's not possible to ride any "foreign" 28mph ebike in any country. A 28mph Creo would not fulfill several german rules/specifications for 28mph ebikes, so I guess a 28mph Creo wouldn't be allowed to be used in Germany, even if it is in the US and it's only a tempory "guest" here and not illegaly tuned by a local on purpose. But this can be different in other European countries, as already mentioned the 28mph ebike rules in Switzerland for example are much softer.
Yeah, location is Germany, which seems like is a real pain.
Is not the speed set in the TCU? I was looking for USA TCU with Class 3 setting to put on my UK bike, but could only find Class 1. Swapping to Class 1 TCU would knock back the speed. There are a few on USA Ebay ay $95
I have no idea if it’s really that easy, that would be nice actually…that would make the speed legal, as long as it could still be proven to be legal if investigated?
This is still a derestriction.
As Jodi and French said it is very important to what country the Creo is to be transported.
I mentioned above, but country is Germany.
