Cramer, I cannot swing my leg. (Inadequate blood supply to my lower parts of legs due to arteriosclerosis). There is a practice: You lift your leg and support it by the heel on a table. You're trying to stand that way as long as you can. That was the only practice I needed to make my legs cooperate with me.
I will continue to practice it . Never hurts to have an alternative option . I'm impressed you can do it . I'm sure MTB riding has attributed to that as well . Thanks .
I’ve tried the other day. I can do it this new, to me, way but the top bar on my SL is a bit tall for me. (I’m a bit short for the M I own and tall for the S size frame.) I like your stretching suggestion and will work on it. Being able to mount the bike with a loaded rear rack can be a very useful skill.
I look at it this way . Our hip socket is capable of moving farther lifting it sideways then it is Straight out . My concern with stepping over the bar is getting my leg off and not falling over . Lifting My leg over the back has on occasion gotten it hung up on the trunk bag. But I can balance and get it off without fear of falling . Just saying For me I am far more coordinated swinging . But I can see where Stephan's method would work better for others .
We are all different . I get my heel snagged doing it your way . When healthy I can stand on one peddle and start the bike Moving and swing my leg over . Guess that ability is one thing I haven't lost as I have gotten older . Say are you going to put a suspension seat post on your Sl ?
Not at all! It is a fitness (not comfort) e-bike. It is surprisingly comfy anyway. No point in making it any heavier.
I had to put a suspension seat post on mine. My butt needed it.Not at all! It is a fitness (not comfort) e-bike. It is surprisingly comfy anyway. No point in making it any heavier.
@rochrunner: I didn't even notice I had Smart Sams on my shopping ride not long time ago
This is your choice! Especially if Vado SL is your only (or main) e-bike, you have the right for more comfort! I'm surprised I have no issues with my rigid SL. But we all are different as Cramer said.
Thanks Stefan! I have Strava, in the beginning I’ll stick with that and my Apple Watch. I need something very simple to start with to record the rides so I won’t forget. Advanced analysis can come later I think.
That's OK!
I am short at just 5"5" tall, so I got the small frame size on my Vado 3. However, even with the small frame, it can still be a challenge getting on and off, and I am unable to use a trunk bag as I will hit it trying to mount and dismount. I usually use a curb or lean the bike a bit to the side, but as already noted here by others, the bike is a bit heavy and you need to be sure you have solid footing before trying it so you don't lose your balance and fall on the ground with your expensive e-bike. That almost happened to me when I first tried to get on my bike, so I learned that lesson right away.I am lucky though, because although I am older (63) and overweight, I have full range of motion in both of my legs. I will give your method a try, so thanks for the tip and thanks for the taking the time to make this video.
And by the way, your new SL looks great. I hope you have a long and happy experience with it!
That's true! SL is a surprisingly small bike. I would have never guessed that by looking at the geometry data. When I mounted the frame L of the demo bike successfully, it made me really thinking, and it expedited my decision of buying the Step-Over SL to be able to ride it in this warm season.
I encourage you to do that. You'd be delighted with the most lightweight version available, and you'll save time and some money, too. There's only the matter of the tail-light that is located under the saddle. If I were in the position of buying the non-EQ, I would have probably kept the Bridge saddle (it is not hopeless), or bought a large Specialized saddle with the padding level of 6 (maximum); Specialized claim all their saddles are compatible. I need to re-iterate that I don't need to replace the seat-post with any Kinekt etc. as the bike is shockingly comfortable without such modifications.
I very much agree. The 35/35 default setting is too modest. I’m using 40/65 for Eco. More power throughout my natural power range, less usage of Trail which I set to 65/85.
Yes that sounds like same idea I use on the hills. Factory settings on Eco was too low for any hills here so after trial and error I have my SL set up Eco 25/45 Sport 45/70 Turbo 70/100. Not sure why I set Eco Support so low @ 25% might tweak that up to 35% and see if it makes much of a difference. Anyway this way I use Eco for 'OK' hills up to say 12-15% gradient, Sport for most other hills up to around 20% gradient and save Turbo for anything steeper or the days when my legs go on strike!
What I have observed with women mounting women's bikes . The get on sideways . Standing sorta paralel . Kinda like they'd mount you@Stefan Mikes I must just have very limited hip flexibility. Like others here, I have always mounted and dismounted a bike by standing on one pedal and swinging my leg around while moving slowly. I've been doing this all my life and have never fallen while doing it, but recently some doubt was put into my mind about whether that was safe "at my age" (74) even though I ride with guys in their 80s that do the leg swing.
Anyway, I tried your method yesterday on my Vado 4 and can get my foot over if I really kick my leg (not simply lift it), but I can see that I could lose my balance that way if anything catches. In fact, my Crosstrail is similar in geometry to the SL and this morning when my group of guys were going on a ride, I went to get on using that method, lost my balance a bit, and looked like an idiot as I tried not to fall or drop the bike. I didn't do either, but this is not something to practice in front of a group of your friends who start asking what you are trying to do!
The other thing is that on yesterday's ride I went out to the dealer to talk about getting an SL (5.0 ST), which they don't have and probably won't get for a couple of months. While there, I saw that they had a regular Vado ST so I went to it to see how easy a step-thru might be. To my surprise, it was not much easier than doing it on my non-ST bike! The top tube slants up from the seat tube at a steep angle, so most of it is not nearly as low as it looks from the side. When I got home, I even tried mounting my wife's Trek Verve+ step-thru and that too was not as easy as I expected. The next time we ride together, I'm going to ask her to show me how she gets on and off, but I think it's much easier for her since women are generally more flexible and she also does more stretching exercises than I do (and is 10 years younger).
Anyway, I'm now rethinking the whole SL-ST thing again and might just change my order to the regular SL frame version. That way I can also order the non-EQ instead of having to pay extra for an EQ and then removing parts. I'm going to post a new thread in the forum to get some comments by ST owners, but it sure seems like if a non-ST bike has always worked for me, why try to "fix something that's not broken"?
They startle the bike . Naturally they step thru getting on and off. But it's a sideways move . Not one facing the Bike like Stephan does in his video. Stephan's way works . But swinging the leg over as you describe is easier. Because that's how our hips were designed to work. Look at little kids that can bring their leg all the way up and grab it . They do that sideways . Like you'd climb a fence . My guess is very few people would do well using Stephan's Method . Although it was an interesting Video . Which also made him seem more human. Especially hearing his version of english
There's a rumor around that he actually IS human, but then again it's just a rumor.Although it was an interesting Video . Which also made him seem more human. Especially hearing his version of english
There's a rumor around that he actually IS human, but then again it's just a rumor.
Well he did say most people get on a bike by swing-ink the leg. So the rumors are likely partly true .There's a rumor around that he actually IS human, but then again it's just a rumor.
