Specialized Turbo Vado/Como/Tero/Tero X User Club

About 170 Wh.



@Marcela: the front wheel of my Vado SL 4.0 with Smart Sam 37-622 weighs 580 grams. The front wheel of my Vado 5.0 with Smart Sam 47-622 is 750 grams. Please do the unit conversion yourself! (Note: wheel weight depends on a specific rim, tyre, inner tube, brake rotor, etc).
Well, something is not right in kingstown. The front wheel assy off my Vado 5 with the european Electrak 2.0 700 x 51 weighs an even 5 lbs. or 2268 g.

The Como 5 with smaller rim and fat tire came in at a little less weight, 4.6 lbs. or 2087 g.
 
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Next time someone takes the wheel off one of their SL bikes weigh it, I'd like to compare it to a wheel off my Como or Vado. My wondering is how much of the lightness feel is attributable to the wheel set.

given the weights above … a lot ! even the low end aluminum wheels on a creo comp or e5 are only around 1,350g with tubes. the higher end carbon ones are more like 1,100g. add in heavier rear cassettes and between the two wheels at the extremes, there’s at least 2kg of difference of rotating mass. it adds up.
 
given the weights above … a lot ! even the low end aluminum wheels on a creo comp or e5 are only around 1,350g with tubes. the higher end carbon ones are more like 1,100g. add in heavier rear cassettes and between the two wheels at the extremes, there’s at least 2kg of difference of rotating mass. it adds up.
Ah, that explains why you are faster than I am and need less power for those SF hills! :p o_O
 
Friends who see me on Vado SL for the first time say that the bike looks very small, and wonder if I should not ride size L, Marcela. Yet you cannot cheat on the standover height of the high-step frame. Everything in Specialized design tells me a serious weight-shaving work was done on SL e-bikes. Interestingly, I could ride an L (with some care), too. I feel perfectly on the M though.
 
2 updates today. First, I cracked 1000 miles on my Vado 4.0. I've had it since April and couldn't be happier with it. Im on track for 2000 miles in its first year. 2nd is that I got my panniers that @Stefan Mikes recommended and.. WOW. The quality and attention to detail on them is phenomenal. Thank you again for the recommendation.
 

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The quality and attention to detail on them is phenomenal.
There's a small but important thing I completely forgot to tell you about. A small glitch of any Ortlieb pannier is the screws that connect the harness to the pannier body tend to become loose because of vibration after every couple hundred of miles. Ortlieb recommends occasional check-up and re-tightening the screws. While that would be so natural to just apply a threadlocker such as Loctite Blue on all the screws. I happened to overlook the Ortlieb advice, and finally solved the issue by thread-locking all screws in my panniers after, say, two unpleasant incidents on my travels.

There are two additional warnings:
  • Never try to overload the pannier; use two panniers if you need to carry a lot of weight.
  • If you are riding over any rough terrain (e.g., a lot of road bumps) and carry fragile/expensive items in the pannier, try securing the pannier with, say, bungee rope or whatever comes to your mind. In normal operation, the QL2.1 system holds the pannier to the rack in steadfast manner. If you are out of luck though, strong vertical shock might unload the pannier from the rack!
I know the above sounds like bashing Ortlieb products but it is not. Just practical remarks resulting from riding thousands of kilometres with different Ortlieb panniers, which are otherwise excellent.
 
Practical Road Bike Mimimum: 1000g
Creo Comp Carbon (DT470 al rim) GatorHardShell: 1429
Vado SL Smart Sam: 1680
Vado Smart Sam: 2172
Vado ElectraK: 2268

I’m looking forward to a wheel and tire upgrade :)

641722E9-24B0-4905-BEAC-58F35589E2A7.jpeg
 
There are two additional warnings:
  • Never try to overload the pannier; use two panniers if you need to carry a lot of weight.
  • If you are riding over any rough terrain (e.g., a lot of road bumps) and carry fragile/expensive items in the pannier, try securing the pannier with, say, bungee rope or whatever comes to your mind. In normal operation, the QL2.1 system holds the pannier to the rack in steadfast manner. If you are out of luck though, strong vertical shock might unload the pannier from the rack!
The rack attachment of an Ortlieb is really great and very secure but when you are using them for commuting, sometimes after a long day you may not take the time to properly attach the pannier. I always used an additional velcro loop strap if I was carrying my laptop. A couple of times I felt the load shift and when I checked it was hanging by one of the attachments and the loop. It was always because I had been in a hurry and not closed the attachment to the rack. I had visions of my company laptop getting run over by a truck in an intersection.
 
The rack attachment of an Ortlieb is really great and very secure but when you are using them for commuting, sometimes after a long day you may not take the time to properly attach the pannier. I always used an additional velcro loop strap if I was carrying my laptop. A couple of times I felt the load shift and when I checked it was hanging by one of the attachments and the loop. It was always because I had been in a hurry and not closed the attachment to the rack. I had visions of my company laptop getting run over by a truck in an intersection.
I had at least two occurrences under which a properly attached Ortlieb pannier shot up and detached during the ride. Sudden vertical force is "understood" by the rack attachment as a human trying to remove the pannier! For that reason, securing the pannier with (as you Allan said) velcro straps makes big sense.

Both situations occurred while riding off-road (rocks).
 
Looking for a weather proof milk crate looking thing to haul groceries and attach to the top of the carrier on the Como or even Vado. To fit two grocery sacks need something like 14" x 14". Anybody run across anything, looking to repurpose something maybe.
 
Hi,
I haven't been active on the forum for a while, but I follow some topics like this and the new Vado bikes ... too much work.

I ride my Vado 6.0 whenever I have time, so I have covered about 2,400 km since the beginning of the year. I have no problems except that the stop light at high heat> 32C was on as if braking, however with a drop in temp. everything works properly.
I replaced the chain and cassette at the beginning of the year, I think it’s time for a change. What do you say after these 2,400km?
Most or almost 100% of the time I ride 30% support on routes of 20-30km (flat terrain) where I develop an average speed of about 28km / h.

Maybe the bigger problem is to find a new chain with 138 links, so if anyone knows of any web shop in the EU to have in stock I would appreciate it.
 
Igor, I'm on a ride now but will answer in the evening. Look for Shimano CN-E8000, 11 speed chain.
 
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