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

Stefan Mikes said:
@TS25: That might be of interest for you since our countries are not that different. I hear you have to possess the driving license to ride an L1e-B in Germany. In Poland, driving license for a Speed-Pedelec is only pertaining to people younger than 27 (it is because the law never acts backwards, etc.)
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C&P of my PM 05.08.20 to you (didn't know up to now that your secretary reads aloud your mails to you 😅):

Driving licence or not for S-pedelecs in Germany is very complicated stuff, even the policeman aren't shure about it. Why is this so?

Until 2017 a lot of S-pedelecs were classified as L1e-A bbH 20 km/h (like a "Mofa"), please don't ask me why ;-).
So if you were born before 01.04.1965 you don't need a driving licence for those S-pedelecs, and if you were born after 01.04.1965 you need a simple ´'Mofa-Prüfbescheinigung' (I wouldn't call that a driving licence but you had to pass a short official test to get it).

Since 2018 S-pedelecs are classified as L1e-B KKR (like a "Moped") and you do need a driving licence class AM for them in Germany.
This class AM is always included in your car or motorbike or small motorbike driving licence. If you're heading for the class AM solely you have to be at least 16 years old but there might be exemptions for 15 year old people in some parts of Germany.
 
As I said before, our both countries were similar to each other @TS25. The rules related to L1e-B in Poland are similar to German ones, with one major distinction. Any person who was 18 years old before the Law on Vehicle Drivers was announced (5th of January 2011) can ride a L1e-B without any license. That means, no license needed for 27-yo or older in Poland. Youngsters can make the AM license. The old "moped card" is replaced with the AM license, anyone holding a motorbike or car driving license is OK with that, too.

For instance, the younger of Jacek's sons holds the AM license.

Note: Insurance is another thing. My Third-Party policy explicitly doesn't allow riding my Vado any person younger than 25 years of age, or who holds the driving license for less than 36 months.
 
I rode to a local hardware store of Mr. Kazimierz today to see if he had any replacement for Loctite (not; I would have to drive or ride to Warsaw for the fluid). In front of the store, I was approached by two guys stunned by the fact they could see a bike with the number plate... I had to explain it again!
 
In case anyone's interested...

Worn TRP Q20.11 brake pad.jpg

Completely worn out TRP Q20.11 front brake pad. It lasted for over 4000 km (2500 mi) only because I mostly ride in the plains :)
 
Marcela said:
Nice thing about the stock organic pads vs the metallic they don’t tear up the rotors.
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I understand that Marcela. There must, however, be a reason why the Q20.11 TRP brake pads used with TRP Zurich brakes are semi-metallic. I'm not an expert. Don't know. Perhaps it is something about their performance.
 
Stefan Mikes said:
I understand that Marcela. There must, however, be a reason why the Q20.11 TRP brake pads used with TRP Zurich brakes are semi-metallic. I'm not an expert. Don't know. Perhaps it is something about their performance.
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Metallic usually do have better braking performance, at a price of tearing up rotors. And it might be a fix for smaller rotors or mechanical brakes, or heavier bikes, cheaper brake components, etc. Better to call it matching components for performance or compensating.

With my 200mm rotors front and back on the 5’s with otherwise stock components i am not wanting for brake performance.
 
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Marcela said:
With my 200mm rotors front and back on the 5’s with otherwise stock components i am not wanting for brake performance.
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Actually, the 203 mm brakes in my Trance E+ seem to be hyperactive :) Had several crashes because of too strong braking!
(The TRP Zurich are top-end brakes and I'm sure Tektro Racing Products have used the semi-metallic brake pads for performance on 180 mm rotors).

P.S. My Vado rides like a dream after the complete yearly maintenance I gave it. Noticeably, the chainring bolts do hold!
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
I understand that Marcela. There must, however, be a reason why the Q20.11 TRP brake pads used with TRP Zurich brakes are semi-metallic. I'm not an expert. Don't know. Perhaps it is something about their performance.
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This is a nice short ARTICLE that discusses pros & cons for the organic, semi-metallic and metallic brake pad compounds. Semi-metallic pads are a middle ground between the faster wearing but quieter organic pads and the long wearing, potentially noisey, and highly fade resistant metallic pads. I'm running semi-metallic pads on my Vado with 203mm(f) and 180mm(r) rotors with very good wear and braking performance as I detailed at Post in thread 'Disc Brakes and Pads' https://electricbikereview.com/forums/threads/disc-brakes-and-pads.33304/post-351178. So far it looks like I'll also be getting around 2,500 miles on these semi-metallic pads, about the same as @Stefan Mikes reports. I ride steeper terrain but my pads have aggressive heat sink fins potentailly keeping them cooler.

I was curious re rotor wear using the semi-metallic pads so I measured the front rotor thickness this AM (Shimano SM-RT76-L 203mm rotor). This corresponds to the faster wearing brake pad pair. The average rotor thickness in the braking area was 1.74mm compared to the new rotor spec thickness of 1.80mm. This corresponds to a wear rate of 0.049mm per thousand miles. Shimano specs the rotors as worn out at 1.5mm so this wear rate corresponds to 20% of the rotor life after 1,215 miles yielding a projected rotor life of ~6,000 miles under my riding conditions. This is consistent with what my sons report for their mech MTBs on steeper terrain and is more than acceptable to me for the longer life and anti-fade braking characteristics of the semi-metallic pads.

I'm sure I'd get longer rotor life using organic pads, but they just don't last long enough for my local riding conditions, ~500 miles for my first set.
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
Completely worn out TRP Q20.11 front brake pad. It lasted for over 4000 km (2500 mi) only because I mostly ride in the plains :)
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Your brake pad should be changed if it reaches 2.5mm including the backing metal.
In case you're intending to change your brake pads in due time ;) next time, here's the TRP guideline (for bedding in as well):
 

Attachments

  • Pad-and-Rotor-Bedding.pdf
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  • eZurich-manual_print-ready.pdf
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That is an inexpensive rental rate for an ebike (in the USA anyway). An inexpensive and fun day out even with a beer stop if you can still do that.
 
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