Noisy Vado motor

[modelaero]

Hi - I have a Dec 2020 Vado 3 with 1400 miles on the clock. The motor has become very noisy at low powers/torque levels. I think this is backlash in the internal gear(s). With no assist, there is no transmission noise at all - no chain or other noises. When pulling (accelerating or climbing), there is just the normal low level motor whine but when the power is backed off, the motor sounds like there is a bag of nails shaking loose in there somewhere. It’s driving me nuts. The local Specialized Concept Store claim they can’t hear it, but my wife can, when she is riding alongside me.
I have made recordings with a contact mike to eliminate wind noise but they are now reluctant to engage with me and listen to the recordings.
Does anyone else have this problem? My wife has the same bike and hers is not at all noisy.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Hi - I have a 2021 Vado 3 with 1400 miles on the clock. The motor has become very noisy at low powers/torque levels. I think this is backlash in the internal gear(s). With no assist, there is no transmission noise at all - no chain or other noses. When pulling (accelerating or climbing), there is just the normal low level motor whine but when the power is backed off, the motor sounds like there is a bag of nails shaking loose in there somewhere. It’s driving me nuts. The local Specialized Concept Store claim they can’t hear it, but my wife can, when she is riding alongside me.
I have made recordings with a contact mike to eliminate wind noise but they are now reluctant to engage with me and listen to the recordings.
Does anyone else have this problem? My wife has the same bike and hers is not at all noisy.

Is the Vado still on the warranty? The Specialized store should take the bike in for the diagnosis. What if the motor is just breaking or the frame near to the motor cracked?

 

[modelaero]

Yes, it is. The mechanic takes it out for a short ride, brings it back, says it sounds like an ebike then reports to Specialized he can find nothing wrong.

 

[modelaero]

Yes, it is. The mechanic takes it out for a short ride, brings it back, says it sounds like an ebike then reports to Specialized he can find nothing wrong.

Audio file and graphical depiction of the spectrum. There is a (very) short clip that shows the background, or natural, noise of the bike with no assist for a few seconds, then power on for a few more seconds and finally the torque on the pedals is backed off. The noise of the motor running at light loads is pretty obvious. I ave more and longer files, but they need to be explained...

 

[ElevenAD]

Yes, it is. The mechanic takes it out for a short ride, brings it back, says it sounds like an ebike then reports to Specialized he can find nothing wrong.

The fact that you have another bike of the same model and it does not sound noisy should be enough info for the mechanic to figure out that something is wrong, unreal!
LBS service at its finest yet again!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Audio file and graphical depiction of the spectrum. There is a (very) short clip that shows the background, or natural, noise of the bike with no assist for a few seconds, then power on for a few more seconds and finally the torque on the pedals is backed off. The noise of the motor running at light loads is pretty obvious. I ave more and longer files, but they need to be explained...

It does not sound right to me!

 

[modelaero]

I have been doing more work with this bike. I have recorded several different scenarios and used the same Audacity audio edit/analysis program to display the spectrograms. I have also recorded short (~1min) videos of the program scanning a marker through the audio and there are explanations of the situation during the recordings. They will be unclear in the attached pics but (hopefully) they will have full resolution and .mp3 files will be attached in the recordings file. The videos are quite big and these cannot be attached as .zip files, but all files may be seen and examined separately in my Google Drive folder; link is here:

Vado WSBC002106440P - Google Drive

drive.google.com

This info has been presented to the LBS and Specialized Customer Care. LBS are maintaining they can hear nothing, but will ride it again with several folks from the store tomorrow. Specialized CC have listened to the recordings and say they think it might be a worn belt but unless the LBS can identify the noise and identify it as a faulty motor, they will not replace it. I've been complaining about this to the LBS for ages and I'm only a few weeks inside warranty now...

Steve.