Specialized Turbo Vado SL: An Incredible E-Bike (User Club)

Steve Brown said:
Please - even if it’s just to make Ras squirm!
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😃😃😃
 
Heads-up on the oft-recommended Pathfinder Pro tubelss tire: Emergency stops on smooth pavement are not its forte.

Love everything else about these tires, on road and off. But 2 recent emergency stops on clean smooth pavement ended in short skids — both tires. And brake levers weren't even fully engaged.

So far, these small skids have been controllable, but certainly not a reassuring sign.

Never had this happen with any other tire — including the smooth-centered hybrids on my hub-drive. Thinking that the Pathfinder's narrow raised center slick should be lower, wider, or both to put more rubber on the road when not leaned over.
 
Jeremy, I cannot fully agree with you. Bike tyres are allowed to skid on emergency braking; the whole point is you retain the control, so neither tyre skids sidewise. The tyre skid is the indication how powerful the Vado SL brakes are. You have probably never experienced this on another bike or tyres as I think the braking distance on another bike/tyres was a way longer than you experienced on your Vado SL Pathfinders.

Had you an e-MTB with the active front suspension fork and 203 mm brake rotors, your emergency stop would have probably ended with the Over-The-Bars. (I and other wretches happened to experience such a "pleasure"). Nobody has ABS on their e-bike, so the skid is to be expected with fully blocked wheels.

An interesting fact about an MTB is violent braking also results in an extremely short braking distance. If that happens, you are guaranteed to fall on the side at zero speed, and that is very dangerous (ask me how I know...)

I had many different tyres on my both e-bikes, and had to do emergency stops often. It has always ended with a short controllable skid but the braking distance was as short as I once managed to save a kid's life when the boy ran straight into the front of my e-bike on a bike path.

1729815328195.png

This was not an emergency braking but just wrong tyres for the terrain ridden. As I was riding over the little puddle on a fire road (high speed), the rear wheel skidded sideways. A longitudinal skid is allowed and expected. The lateral skid is the indication of wrong tyres used.

Moreover, the tyre design is focused on maintaining the lateral traction (cornering).
 
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Hello all - Just a heads up in case any of you have experienced same? My TVSL5 with about 600 miles on it developed a high-pitched whine with the MOTOR OFF when pedaling. Specialized warranty is great and a new motor is being sent to dealer to replace the existing one.
 
GX Eagle AXS upgrade day!

🤔 maybe a waste of 400 english pounds as it does not feel like an upgrade at all so far.

Quieter? definitely not, in fact dropping the rear wheel from stationary from about 4 inches off the ground produces alarming drivetrain rattles when previously all I heard was tire bounce.

Smoother cog transitions? nope, not at the moment, I will check it over tomorrow and spend some more time with adjustments but as it stands it seems a bit clunkier than the original cabled setup.

More positive controls? again no, I am not convinced by the pod controller, this feels quite foreign, the controller itself feels a bit cheap as well and the action does not give the impression of quality at all.
 
As suspected the derailleur had not been adjusted at all on setup.

I went to my local bike shop to do the fitting as I hate doing anything mechanical these days. Sadly, they are just not very good. I vowed to stop using them earlier this year but I could not find anyone else that could schedule in the job. I try to support local businesses but I really, really will have to stop using them now.

So I reluctantly got out the spanners this morning. The kit came with an Eagle chain gap adjustment tool and when I checked it out my pulley was a full 17mm out of whack :eek:, I adjusted this and I now get much smoother gear changes straight away - I can now micro adjust through the app and hopefully get it perfect.

As for the pod controller, I am not sure if I will ever get used to it but we will see.
 
They should have also checked the derailleur hanger to make sure it's aligned. I've been riding with dI2 for the last few years and I've been impressed with the Rival Eagle AXS once it's all adjusted.
 
Or, when you look at your tubeless tyre:
  • At night, and you have an impression the tyre tread got torn off and you see the inner rubber layer through the tread;
  • In daylight, and you think you had punctures, and the sealant fixed the holes...
1730377389127.png

But you had actually ridden into some chewing gum :)

Good day to everyone!
 
mogulman said:
Here is the photo. I looked at some stock photos and I don't see this on the internet photos. It's loose in the bracket. No way to tighten it, as far as I can tell. Maybe it's a new thing that someone decided we needed for safety?
ItsView attachment 122527
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My wife recently purchased a Turbo Vado SL 4.0 and it also has the front reflector mounted on top of the light. It didn't make sense to have a reflector on top of a light and went to remove it.
It appears if I remove the reflector the mount will not hold the light tight. Decided to leave it. With a hex key I did snug up the light and reflector. Both were loose.
I'm new to the site and working my way through this thread before doing a Introduction post.
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Allan47.7339 said:
Some US states still require reflectors on bicycles. The Specialized support site is a good reference in particular the Turbo Vado SL and All About Turbo sections.
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California's one of them. And after shelling out $750 for the EQ package on the SL 5.0, I still have no rear reflector. Yes, got a small tail light out of it, but the lens doesn't reflect. Bizarre.

Will check your links.
 
Lee F said:
Thanks, I saved the site.
I'm up to page 77 now on this thread :)
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Are you planning to install a rear rack or fenders on your SL?

P.S. Is your CatEye bike computer ANT+ capable? Does it connect to your Vado SL? (What model is it? Does it provide GPS navigation? Asking for a friend)
 
Stefan Mikes said:
Are you planning to install a rear rack or fenders on your SL?

P.S. Is your CatEye bike computer ANT+ capable? Does it connect to your Vado SL? (What model is it? Does it provide GPS navigation? Asking for a friend)
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No fenders because of our bike rack.
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I put one of our old rear racks on. I could not find the correct size seat post clamp with rack attachment so the forward mount is just a zip tie for now.
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This is what I had hoped to use.
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Plan B is to use one of the metal straps and use the existing fender mount point
for the forward mounting point of the rack. I noticed the manual mentioned this option to mount a rack.

The Cat Eye is just a basic computer. She mainly wants to see speed and distance.
When buying the bike I did not realize the Specialized unit integrated with the bike.
This is one question I had planned to ask. Is the Specialized Wireless unit worth buying if she only wants to track basic info?
At the very least it would be nice to get rid of the sensor on the front fork and the spoke magnet.

Here's Debbie last week on her first ride on the High Trestle Bridge Trail near Madrid Iowa.
She's not a strong rider so the first ride I thought we would do 26 miles on a Rails to Trails path.
The 13 miles headed back to the car we had a 20 to 25 mph headwind. She switched to Turbo for the last 13 miles and I was working hard to keep up on my hybrid which sits me up in the wind.
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Debbie has a very lite weight carbon fiber Trek Road bike she does not ride because she does not like the riding position.
She likes her Trek hybrid but she is not a strong rider. Last year we started to think about a E Bike for her but she wanted something that was possible to ride at times without assist and I wanted something that was easy to carry up stairs because most of the time our bicycles are kept in the basement.
The Turbo Vado SL 4.0 is only 4 or 5 pounds heavier than her Trek hybrid and for me it does not feel any harder to ride compared to her Trek.
 
This may work for the seat post clamp with rack attachment. This is the Specialized seatpost clamp that works on the Creo 2 E5 with aluminum frame: S184700001 STC MY18 DIVERGE SEAT CLAMP WITH RACK MOUNT 30.6. Measure the outer diameter of the seat tube to double check. It does not work on the Vado SL models with the internal clamp.
 
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Allan47.7339 said:
This may work for the seat post clamp with rack attachment. This is the Specialized seatpost clamp that works on the Creo 2 E5 with aluminum frame: S184700001 STC MY18 DIVERGE SEAT CLAMP WITH RACK MOUNT 30.6. Measure the outer diameter of the seat tube to double check. It does not work on the Vado SL models with the internal clamp.
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I saw that last week when I was searching online. I guess this does not replace the seat post clamp but slides below the OEM clamp?
When I measured the seat post collar it was appox 31 mm. The OEM existing clamp is labeled as 30.8.

https://www.specialized.com/us/en/s...yD4IwoIArK3nJyOKVCH7C0XKmC14zomxoCZHcQAvD_BwE
 
Lee F said:
The Cat Eye is just a basic computer. She mainly wants to see speed and distance.
When buying the bike I did not realize the Specialized unit integrated with the bike.
This is one question I had planned to ask. Is the Specialized Wireless unit worth buying if she only wants to track basic info?
At the very least it would be nice to get rid of the sensor on the front fork and the spoke magnet.
Click to expand...
The proper simple unit is the Specialized TCD (wireless):

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www.specialized.com

Specialized Turbo Connect Display (TCD)

The Turbo Connect Display (TCD) puts all of your key ride and bike data in one convenient location on the handlebars. Some of these metrics include: Spe...
www.specialized.com www.specialized.com

You install the Turbo Connect Display in a Garmin handlebar (or stem) mount. It is a button battery operated device. You get the Speed, Distance Ridden, Odometer, Rider's Power, Cadence, Battery %, assistance mode and other parameters directly from the e-bike (no external sensors are necessary).

GPS bike computers such as Garmin Edge or Wahoo ELEMNT also connect to Specialized e-bikes, and ensure e-bike display, GPS navigation and ride recording but are a way more expensive.

(Specialized Wireless is an outdated device for non e-bikes).
 
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