Badders
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- Edinburgh
Great - thanks.
Specialized Turbo Vado SL: An Incredible E-Bike (User Club)
- Thread starter Stefan Mikes
- Start date
Well I've had my Vado SL for about a week now and I was out on the silver comet trail yesterday, had ridden about 15 miles, and suddenly lost power and the display went blank. Tried turning it back on, which worked for about 5 seconds then it turned itself off again. That happenned about 3 times before it became "unresponsive." Each time the battery level light went up to about where it had been, I got a second or two or power, then went back to 0 and off. Took it back to Specialized Atlanta and they swapped out the on/offswitch battery monitor thing with another one and still couldn't get the bike to power up. They put my on/off switch thing on another bike and the switch did seem to work, so they think its the battery and are going to swap it out for a new one. Minor annoyance. I've been TOTALLY enjoying this bike. It provides just enough power and I find that if I keep it on ECO I have just enough boost to keep me going longer distances. I think I'm actually getting about the same exercise as before (on my Sirrus) but just riding longer and enjoying it more. Its also REALLY nice having the power to get up the 3 or 4 hills between my house and the trail. Totally loving it.
So Specialized Atlanta (company owned stored/experience center) told me that it seems my bike which was dead after a ride (prevous post above) kind of resurrected itself without much intervention. No battery replacement was necessary. The two items that were suspect for it failing to power up were either (1) mud or something on the speed sensor on the rear wheel or (2) a bit of moisture entering the charging outlet. (1) seems more likely then number (2) to me. Kind of puzzling. According to specialized either one of those situations would render the bike unable to "turn on." ANOTHER UPDATE. I purchased the bike about 2 weeks ago and when I went back I asked them if they would honor the further price reduction that posted Friday. They DID honor it, and refunded me the further $500 price reduction + tax. Thanks!
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Te. S
Active Member
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- USA
let us know what you think and if any issues with running them thanks
Badders
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- Edinburgh
Hi. What have you done with the front light? Looks like you’ve dropped it down to allow a handlebar bag to be fitted?
Yeah. I did that last year. The original plastic bracket broke. So I got a metal bracket and arm from Amazon so my bag wouldn't interfere. I posted pics and part # on here somewhere.
Stefan Mikes
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- Mazovia, Poland
Howie7
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- United Kingdom
Finally got my wife‘s Turbo Vado SL4.0 set up comfortable for her to ride. With her back problems the reach was to great and handlebars to wide. LBS reduced width of handlebars from 27inches to 24, and added riser stem but that didn’t do it, so we removed riser stem and replaced it with a 35mm, short stem - success! She’s now really happy on the bike. Light now installed lower down on metal bracket. There was no need to change any wires or brake/gear cables.
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So my Vado 4.0 SL went for a 30 mile ride again yesterday and about 12 miles in, the power AGAIN started just cutting off, like the whole bike would shut itself off. It was doing this before, went in for service, presumably was fixed (NOT). It would power back up for 3-5 minutes and shut off again. Numerous times. Finally it powered back up and I had no assist no matter what assist level the bike thought it was giving me. So anyway, I'm contemplating just having them give me a new bike. Diagnostics show motor error but they thought whatever problem there was resolved(?) I dunno. I'll probably get more info on what they actually did the first time it went back, but long story short, they thought it was fine. SO I'VE BEEN WONDERING. I am coming from a Sirrus full carbon frame, and the only thing I'm not crazy about is that the SL is a vibration monster. Most of the time it doesn't make all that much difference. I bike mostly on a rail trail nearby, but the "connector" trail about 2 miles long to the rail trail its all broken concrete and its pretty brutal on that. The whole bikes shakes. No rattles or nothing much "wrong" really except that the whole frame takes all that vibration and sends it up to me. SO MY QUESTION is....would the future shock eliminate that? I.E. maybe I should order a 5.0 instead of a 4.0? I dunno. Not that I'm obsessed or anything. Even with sale pricing its a $1250 difference. WHAT DO YOU THINK? Any ridden them both? Does the carbon fork and future shock help enough to warrant the expense? I actually do like the brushed aluminum color of that model unless there are maintenance reasons that ended up being a bad idea. ANYONE?
Stefan Mikes
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- Mazovia, Poland
FutureShock is good. The question is: are you on the light or the heavy side of your body? The FutureShock is installed with a carbon fork, and that is not for heavy people. I installed the Redshift ShockStop stem and seat-post, and it went well below the price difference between the SL 4.0 and 5.0.
The only issue to resolve with RS SS stem is to relocate the headlight but that is doable.
Scott Eakin
Active Member
I have the 5.0 and added a Kinet body float seat post. Plush is all I can say. My sense is that future shock does a pretty good job taking the road buzz out of the bike but won’t eliminate all of it. I run the lowest tire pressure I can but am using Schwalbe Marathons which are pretty stiff. But all in all a very comfortable ride even on Atlanta’s pot hole infested roads
BioWheel
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- Region
- USA
So the other day I was pretty far into a ride on my SL4 when I got a call and had to get back fast. I don't typically use Turbo but switched it on and put as much of my own power to the pedals. Well, after a couple miles of about 600w combined Blevo announced my motor hit 150F (65c). Ambient temp was about 95f (35c) so pretty hot day. I don't have Blevo setup to show motor temp on main screen and didn't have time to investigate but made me really nervous about my motor. I went back to Eco for the remaining miles and never got another warning. I think it was just announcement from Blevo because the bike would still go into Turbo mode. Does anyone know if SL Firmware will shut or slow motor to protect itself and what temperature that might be? I looked around a bit but didn't see anything.
Other thing - I serviced my cassette with the wheel off the other day and forgot to re-engage the derailleur clutch. Well, about 30 miles into my next ride my chain came off and wedged between chainring and frame. Couldn't get it out but finally was able to use plastic tire levers to flex the chainring just enough to pull out chain. Suprised ring flexed that much but learned two lessons that day. Don't forget your to re-engage clutch after wheel svc and it really works.
Other thing - I serviced my cassette with the wheel off the other day and forgot to re-engage the derailleur clutch. Well, about 30 miles into my next ride my chain came off and wedged between chainring and frame. Couldn't get it out but finally was able to use plastic tire levers to flex the chainring just enough to pull out chain. Suprised ring flexed that much but learned two lessons that day. Don't forget your to re-engage clutch after wheel svc and it really works.
Calcoaster
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- USA
That’s a good tip about flexing the chainring to pull the chain free!
In case you haven’t done this, at the bottom of the Blevo screen when you’re reviewing a ride is a ‘send csv file’ tab. If you email it to yourself you’ll see the motor temp (and tons of other data) in a second-by-second spreadsheet format. It shows battery temp too.
BioWheel
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- USA
Thanks Cal - I'll check it out.
Stefan Mikes
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- Europe
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- Mazovia, Poland
Karl, you got a yellow card from Blevo (although it actually was a red card!). It am pretty sure there is a thermal protection for both the motor and the battery but the decision to let the system cool down a little was wise from your side.
Just think of my surprise when it turned out the chain dropping was the outcome of misaligned derailleur... Interesting thing, that chainring flexing to remove the stuck chain!
Yes, it opens in Excel. Just a data-mine! I do not download the CSV often but it let me learn my Vado SL a lot!
Seems like there is a big cut in my tire... Not the inner one but the outer one so im looking to replace and upgrade it. Im seeing a'lot of pathfinder bliss heres but im kind of struc by all the sizes. Can i fit on on the SL version without any wierd mods? what size do i need then when i have a SL eq size L ?
Your existing tires have the size imprinted on the sides.
For a Vado SL EQ it's probably 700x38, and I'd just stick with that if you don't have a particular reason to change to a different size.
Specialized Pathfinder Pro 2Bliss Ready is a good tire - and it supports being used tubeless (2bliss) if you wish to go that way sometime, or you can continue to use a tube. The Pathfinder Sport is also pretty decent, though slightly heavier and doesn't support being used tubeless.
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