Has anyone had problems with the Creo motor going up hills in turbo mode? Does it need a specific cadence? What happens when you aren't pedaling that fast up the hill and want to rely on turbo to help? I have a Vado SL 5.0, which has the same motor, but when I use the turbo mode to go up hills, the motor will pause, then kick in again, and do this on and off up the hill. I find it very annoying. Someone suggested that maybe my cadence or my pedaling wasn't strong enough, but I thought there were sensors to compensate for that.
Specialized Turbo Creo 28mph Electric Road Bike
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I recently purchased my Creo. I've pedaled slowly in low cadence up hills. But I haven't experienced what you're suggesting. Sounds like something is wrong with yours.
I really fined Creo to be one of my best purchases, even if I'm not that slow on the flat only on climbs. I test the bike in all sorts of scenarios. Have riden the bike with amater riders whitch are on top level in our country.
This is for example the ride with my friend, who had a training day "only" 200W on the flat and around 300-400W on the short climbs. I have Eco set to 25% and Sport to 50%. I have to use 50% on the climbs just to keep up as he is 66kg rider vs my 80kg fat ass. On the flat I could turn off the assistance most of the time, as I was drafting almost the whole ride. Even with his moderate 200W we were doing around 38-40km/h most of the time. I got about 75% battery left when the ride was finished.
Interesting I did a small test with other even stronger friend, who is the best amater rider in the country and even with my 100% and assistance on 100% he could keep up with me no problem on a fairly steady climb of 6-8%. I calculated as I don't putt much power, only around 3.2W/kg (calculating the bike weight difference) on short 6km climb, I can putt out around 260W+240W(Creo)=500W With 80kg+5kg, that aquants to 5.88W/kg. On one climb, when fresh, he could putt out almost the same power as pro rider around 400W with 67kg= 6W/kg.
That is still not enough for a pro rider...., that could do this efforts for weeks on daily basis.
Winner and runner up at our Time Trial nationals, No.1 in the world and No.1 in the world under 23, Roglic and Pogacar, did an average around 412W with 66kg on 17km cours with 7km climb. That is 6.24W/kg, insane...
Yes funny the are all skinny duds around 66kg...
This is for example the ride with my friend, who had a training day "only" 200W on the flat and around 300-400W on the short climbs. I have Eco set to 25% and Sport to 50%. I have to use 50% on the climbs just to keep up as he is 66kg rider vs my 80kg fat ass. On the flat I could turn off the assistance most of the time, as I was drafting almost the whole ride. Even with his moderate 200W we were doing around 38-40km/h most of the time. I got about 75% battery left when the ride was finished.
Interesting I did a small test with other even stronger friend, who is the best amater rider in the country and even with my 100% and assistance on 100% he could keep up with me no problem on a fairly steady climb of 6-8%. I calculated as I don't putt much power, only around 3.2W/kg (calculating the bike weight difference) on short 6km climb, I can putt out around 260W+240W(Creo)=500W With 80kg+5kg, that aquants to 5.88W/kg. On one climb, when fresh, he could putt out almost the same power as pro rider around 400W with 67kg= 6W/kg.
That is still not enough for a pro rider...., that could do this efforts for weeks on daily basis.
Winner and runner up at our Time Trial nationals, No.1 in the world and No.1 in the world under 23, Roglic and Pogacar, did an average around 412W with 66kg on 17km cours with 7km climb. That is 6.24W/kg, insane...
Yes funny the are all skinny duds around 66kg...
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FlatSix911
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I really fined Creo to be one of my best purchases, even if I'm not that slow on the flat only on climbs. I test the bike in all sorts of scenarios. Have riden the bike with amater riders whitch are on top level in our country. This is for example the ride with my friend, who had a training day "only" 200W on the flat and around 300-400W on the short climbs. I have Eco set to 25% and Sport to 50%. I have to use 50% on the climbs just to keep up as he is 66kg rider vs my 80kg fat ass. On the flat I could turn off the assistance most of the time, as I was drafting almost the whole ride. Even with his moderate 200W we were doing around 38-40km/h most of the time. I got about 75% battery left when the ride was finished.
Interesting I did a small test with other even stronger friend, who is the best amater rider in the country and even with my 100% and assistance on 100% he could keep up with me no problem on a fairly steady climb of 6-8%. I calculated as I don't putt much power, only around 3.2W/kg (calculating the bike weight difference) on short 6km climb, I can putt out around 260W+240W(Creo)=500W With 80kg+5kg, that aquants to 5.88W/kg. On one climb, when fresh, he could putt out almost the same power as pro rider around 400W with 67kg= 6W/kg.
That is still not enough for a pro rider...., that could do this efforts for weeks on daily basis.
Winner and runner up at our Time Trial nationals, No.1 in the world and No.1 in the world under 23, Roglic and Pogacar, did an average around 412W with 66kg on 17km cours with 7km climb. That is 6.24W/kg, insane...
Yes funny the are all skinny duds around 66kg...
Nice ride... be sure to change your ride type category to EBike on Strava.
Yes i Know, but if I don't get any KOM-s I really don't want to bother with that, as I also ride 50% of the time with normal road bike.Nice ride... be sure to change your ride type category to EBike on Strava.
Some top 10 results here or there on some sessions will not kill anyone.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
I had another great ride on my Creo this past weekend. The ride was 97 miles (156km) and 4200ft vert (1280m) with an average speed of 21.4mph (34.5km/h). Many times on flat ground we were above the 28mph cutoff for the Creole which was challenging. I was riding with a small group of fast amateurs and ended up with about 33% of my battery left. The bike could have gone on without me… but I was more interested in a burrito at that point. Really loving this bike! And the burrito.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
It was with the range extender (sorry, I should have noted that). However, I used 343w/hrs, meaning I just barely dipped into the range extender battery. At a slightly slower speed, I could have finished the ride with just the main battery. As easily as this bike pedals with the motor off, it would have been pretty easy to finish without any battery. My experiences tell me that Specialized has actually underestimated the range on this bike ... which seems the opposite of many other eBike manufacturers.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
Question: Is anyone else having trouble getting the Creo to show actual 'rider power' on their Garmin? (I'm using the Garmin 830)
I've tried using the Fake Channel on the app, set to Rider Power. I either get one of two readings: a static power that doesn't change, like 100w --- or I get the combined motor+rider power reading. I've not been able to to just isolate my actual power input. Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated!
I've tried using the Fake Channel on the app, set to Rider Power. I either get one of two readings: a static power that doesn't change, like 100w --- or I get the combined motor+rider power reading. I've not been able to to just isolate my actual power input. Any thoughts or tips would be appreciated!
Interesting. I have the Vado SL 5.0, which has the same motor. I did a 26 mile ride with 2000 feet of climbing and only had 38% of the battery left. Yes the bike is about 7 lbs heavier than the Creo, but is that the reason for the difference in efficiency? I did use sport and turbo modes quite a bit, and I assume you did not use a lot of assist on your ride.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
Interesting. Were you riding alone? Since your bike has flat bars, you are likely sitting more upright than you might on a curly bar bike. Coming from a road racing background, I may ride in a more aero position. Aero is everything at speed.
I suppose I should be giving more credit to the people I was riding with. I was tucked into a small group of really strong riders, so I gained a lot of efficiency there. Other the other hand, we were doing between 25-28mph for long stretches so I was still working hard. I kept the bike in Eco mode for all but a few tough sections (about 15-20 miles of the ride was on gravel). My Eco is set to 30%-30%.
My heart rate data indicates that I spent 53 minutes at Threshold and 2:33 minutes at Tempo... so it was a pretty strenuous ride.
This bike is still new enough to me (about 1 month) that I'm still figuring out all the factors that go into best utilizing this motor/battery combo Specialized has built.
I suppose I should be giving more credit to the people I was riding with. I was tucked into a small group of really strong riders, so I gained a lot of efficiency there. Other the other hand, we were doing between 25-28mph for long stretches so I was still working hard. I kept the bike in Eco mode for all but a few tough sections (about 15-20 miles of the ride was on gravel). My Eco is set to 30%-30%.
My heart rate data indicates that I spent 53 minutes at Threshold and 2:33 minutes at Tempo... so it was a pretty strenuous ride.
This bike is still new enough to me (about 1 month) that I'm still figuring out all the factors that go into best utilizing this motor/battery combo Specialized has built.
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
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- Mazovia, PL
I don't think so. The whole idea behind the limiter is to cut the power off above the assistance limit. On Class 1 e-bikes (especially the 25 km/h ones) you "hit the wall" beyond the limiter speed, meaning no support is given to the crank.
Deacon Blues
Well-Known Member
This really depends on which Creo you're talking about. You need to do an aluminum to aluminum comparison. Yes, the top-of-the-line carbon Creo weighs 27/28 pounds, but the aluminum Creo weighs 32 pounds.
The Vado SL 5.0 (without the fender/rack kit) weighs around 33 pounds, so it weighs very close to the same weight as the aluminum Creo.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
I can't speak to other models but I have the Creo Carbon Comp EVO, not the superlight S-Works. My most recent ride I was running Conti 4000's 28mm at about 80psi, rather than the gravel Pathfinder tires spec'd on the bike. I haven't weighed the bike in that setup but I'd guess it weighs about 37+ pounds with my range extender and frame bag. On top of that I had two 20oz water bottles, spare tube, co2, mini pump, multitool, pocket knife and enough food for 5 hours. And I weigh about 200lbs. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I wasn't traveling light, so I doubt the actual bike weight is the primary factor in range here. I'd guess mode-choice, aerodynamics and rider input are the main variables. Additional factors that are less in the rider's control are terrain and windspeed/direction.
I have a Vado SL and noticed the same. The fake channel is used to display the bike's battery level on the garmin using the cadence, power or heart rate slots. What you see as 100 watts is probably the battery level per centage. It should gradually go down as you deplete the battery. As you state, disabling fake channel will restore the proper power display from the SL motor. Unfortunately to get the SL battery disply on the garmin I would have to give up the cadence, power or heart rate displays and I find them more useful than the battery percentage.
Capt MudBuster
New Member
Thanks for the tips regarding rider power on a Garmin. I disabled the Fake Channel and power did indeed show up on my Garmin. I think it's accurate ... but I only rode back and forth in front of my house, so I'll have to do a longer ride to confirm. On a previous ride, I disabled the fake channel and thought it was working correctly, but it started showing me what were clearly rider+motor readings (or I suddenly got hella strong!).
Anyway, I'll give this a go. Thanks again for the help!
Anyway, I'll give this a go. Thanks again for the help!
Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
Ah, you are from Canada, I have forgotten about that and misunderstood you. Of course, you're right, the Class 3 motor draws power in the 37-45 km/h range if you are pedalling (I mean while descending).
What power setting do you use? I use the 3 sec avg and I suspect it is close but not precise. As an example I use both 35/35 Eco and a 30/100 setting to compare. When power indicated is less than 240 W, I believe the 35/35 setting should be providing more assist. At less < 100 W power displayed, I don't really feel a difference. But at around 150 W and up, the 30/100 setting definitiely feels like it is giving more assist. Perhaps the SL is reacting more to instantaneous power levels so tho the avg shows 150, maybe the peak is > 240 and causes the 30/100 setting to feel like it is assisting more?
I have a Garmin 130 and it does not support e-bikes. An earlier post suggested that the Garmin 530 can also display the battery percentage. I suspect the Fenix 5X does as well.
Interestingly enough while googling the Fenix 5X for compatibility with E-bikes, I stumbled across this : https://apps.garmin.com/en-US/apps/1532f0d9-fd19-4b63-b038-435d8fd670a4
It looks like it may add e-bike support to my 130. I've never added any apps to my garmin devices so I don't know how it works. But I will look into it.
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