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

jason.flood said:
Sorry if this has already been answered but if you login to your Specialized account - assuming you registered you bike online.

Goto: Account -> Registered Bikes

It will show a picture of your bike, model and serial number and purchase date.
At the bottom there is a link "View Model Details"
This takes you to the technical spec page of you bike.
In my case it is the archive page for the 2022 model year.

View attachment 187016
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Thanks. I missed this when you posted it. Been very busy. Just was able to look under the top tube. For those interested, my bike was made in Vietnam in late September 2022.

Where is the other place they are made? Taiwan? Any differences between them based on where they are manufactured?
 
DaDitka said:
Thanks. I missed this when you posted it. Been very busy. Just was able to look under the top tube. For those interested, my bike was made in Vietnam in late September 2022.

Where is the other place they are made? Taiwan? Any differences between them based on where they are manufactured?
Click to expand...
Specialized e-bikes are primarily manufactured in Taiwan. You should not be worried though. First of all, the e-bike premium components are of a global origin:
  • The motor is German
  • The battery and electronics are made in China
  • The brakes are Taiwanese
  • The drivetrain is either Japanese (Shimano) or American (SRAM)
  • The frames are welded either in Taiwan or Vietnam
  • The design is Swiss
Specialized maintains high quality control standards regardless the place where the e-bike was built. Most importantly, you bought the best warranty in the world with your e-bike!

RRCV said:
No, not Tasmania. Close.
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Any island? :) I've checked where it was raining in Australia during the Summer. Not many options! :) Besides, how does your SL behave? You should turn the motor on once in a while just for its health! :)
 
I ended up returning the SL. It was a very nice bike but just provide enough assistance to justify owning it. I guess I’m of the opinion that if I’m going to have an e-bike it probably should be full power. The SL at just above stock Sport setting seemed to provide enough support to eliminate the weight when compared to a normal light fitness style bike. The issue there is that it went through the battery pretty quickly. Turbo definitely assisted more than I’m capable of on my Sirrus, but again went through the battery very fast.

When I returned the SL the shop had a Creo 2 Comp in my size. I could definitely tell the difference between the motors. This tells me that if I want a lighter weight e-bike it will need to be the Vado 2 or Creo 2. I haven’t ridden drop bars that much in quite some time so I don’t want to go ahead and buy a Creo. So instead I bought a 2022 Diverge Sport Carbon for an extremely good price. I’ll ride it for awhile and see how I get on with the drops. I doubt I spring for the carbon Creo but it seems to be a great bike.
 
I respect your decision. I only wonder how you think no assistance whatsoever is better that an electrically assisted e-bike :)
Perhaps you should consider the full power Vado 5.0?
 
Stefan Mikes said:
I respect your decision. I only wonder how you think no assistance whatsoever is better that an electrically assisted e-bike :)
Perhaps you should consider the full power Vado 5.0?
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It comes down to the fact that I would need to keep it Sport mode to perform similar to my Sirrus in terms of effort required, which is due to the difference in weight and relatively low powered motor. Being that I like longer rides the battery would deplete for too soon and while it pedals well for an e-bike without assistance, it still isn’t that fun to ride without the motor and nowhere near as easy as the Sirrus. Since I own a Tero X5 and the SL provides a similar performance to my Sirrus, it just doesn’t have a place in my collection. I really like the full power Vado 4 and 5 but again, with already owing the extremely versatile and comfortable Tero X, the big Vado would have no place. I suppose like many I’m looking for a unicorn, a light weight full power e-bike. The Vado 2 looks to be the closest to what I’m looking for and I may go in that direction once the alloy version comes out, if I don’t get a Creo.
 
Ebikelife72 said:
It comes down to the fact that I would need to keep it Sport mode to perform similar to my Sirrus in terms of effort required, which is due to the difference in weight and relatively low powered motor. Being that I like longer rides the battery would deplete for too soon and while it pedals well for an e-bike without assistance, it still isn’t that fun to ride without the motor and nowhere near as easy as the Sirrus. Since I own a Tero X5 and the SL provides a similar performance to my Sirrus, it just doesn’t have a place in my collection. I really like the full power Vado 4 and 5 but again, with already owing the extremely versatile and comfortable Tero X, the big Vado would have no place. I suppose like many I’m looking for a unicorn, a light weight full power e-bike. The Vado 2 looks to be the closest to what I’m looking for and I may go in that direction once the alloy version comes out, if I don’t get a Creo.
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I can't fathom factory sport setting not blowing away riding a Sirrus straight-up. I was riding a Cannondale Synapse with flat bar setup(21lbs) and went to an VadoSL (35nm) motor. Night and day (to me) when running Sport even with the C'dale being a lot lighter. Riding E has me feeling pretty young. :) I guess if I lived in a flat world they'd be more the same. But - biking treats us all differently and good for you Ebikelife. Hope you find that light full-power bike you want. Or maybe go for S-Works Epic World Cup and have your forever bike that's so light you will float down the street. :)
 
You guys are making me question my decision 😉 I do wonder if there may have been something wrong with the motor. It made intermittent clicking noises while the motor was engaged. Maybe I wasn't getting the full power of that particular motor. I let the guys at the shop know about it. I would've likely just returned the bike as opposed to going through the warranty process. Specialized is great with their warranty, I should know as they had to replace my Tero motor after 12 miles.
 
BioWheel said:
I can't fathom factory sport setting not blowing away riding a Sirrus straight-up.
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Ditto, something's wrong with this picture. Not sure what, though.

Pretty sure @Ebikelife72 is a much stronger rider than I am, and I've never ridden a bike as light and responsive as the Sirrus must be. So our SL experiences would have to be different, but that different?

Ebikelife72 said:
I do wonder if there may have been something wrong with the motor.
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Keep thinking there's a missing piece to this puzzle. Maybe that's it.
 
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Jeremy McCreary said:
Ditto, something's wrong with this picture. Not sure what, though.

Pretty sure @Ebikelife72 is a much stronger rider than I am, and I've never ridden a bike as light and responsive as the Sirrus must be. So our SL experiences would have to different, but that different?


Keep thinking there's a missing piece to this puzzle. Maybe that's it.
Click to expand...
I agree with you and the others that say a Vado sl in sport mode is a big jump up from a sirrus. I went from an older carbon Roubaix (drop bar road bike) to a Vado sl and the Vado sl in eco mode made the same ride 1-2 mph faster. Then I switched to a creo and tuned eco down to 20/35 and beat my Vado times. From my experience a Vado sl in sport mode will blow away any non powered bike with the same level of exertion. Eco mode probably would as well but to a lesser extent. Now I ride a BMC with the TQ motor and am enjoying the silence - a big change from the SL motors.
 
The more I consider it, the more I believe there was something not right about the motor. It absolutely felt like it introduced drag while in Eco mode, like it was slightly harder to pedal. That's a shame because I otherwise really liked the bike. If Specialized offers another 50% off deal maybe I'll give it another try.
 
Stefan Mikes said:
I totally forgot you owned a Tero X, @Ebikelife72!
Perhaps the perception of how strong a motor should be made you a little biased? Or, you indeed owned a lemon!
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Perhaps there’s some bias but I’ve owned many e-bikes and have ridden many more. The Tero X is excellent. I actually ride it with the motor off, as well. The furthest I’ve ridden it without assistance was 35 miles. It was a pretty leisurely ride on pretty flat ground with an average speed of 13mph. It was actually pretty easy, just slow. But I’d much rather ride it without the motor the motor on, usually in a detuned Eco mode.
 
Ride whatever suits you the best, @Ebikelife72! And yes, perhaps the future SL 2 Alloy would be the best for you! (I'd say Creo 2 has too a small battery for your needs).

Completely off-topic: The man behind Gravel.Love is getting various demo e-bikes from sponsors. Just yesterday, he was on the Warsaw BRIDGES group ride (he organizes). My brother showed up at the start line but resigned from the ride because of bad weather (wet, muddy, windy). Therefore, Kufel went on the ride with a single buddy. He rode... a Canyon Grizl:ON gravel e-bike. I could see his performance data on Strava and was indeed impressed!

Bear in mind e-bikes are restricted to 25 km/h in Europe.
 
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Stefan Mikes said:
Ride whatever suits you the best, @Ebikelife72! And yes, perhaps the future SL 2 Alloy would be the best for you! (I'd say Creo 2 has too a small battery for your needs).

Completely off-topic: The man behind Gravel.Love is getting various demo e-bikes from sponsors. Just yesterday, he was on the Warsaw BRIDGES group ride (he organizes). My brother showed up at the start line but resigned from the ride because of bad weather (wet, muddy, windy). Therefore, Kufel went on the ride with a single buddy. He rode... a Canyon Grizl:ON gravel e-bike. I could see his performance data on Strava and was indeed impressed!

Bear in mind Euro e-bikes are restricted to 25 km/h.
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I very seriously considered the Grizl ON. It’s a great looking bike, has a nice Bosch system. I’m hesitant because I can’t ride one prior and the geometry seems to be a little different than my preference. And again, I need to see how I like drop bars. So far after a couple short rides on my new to me Diverge I like them fine. I agree that the SL2 is likely to fit my needs the best.
 
I would have thought that if you had a Sirrus and a Tero X then you have all bases covered, certainly no need for another bike to fund and maintain.

The 15.5mph limit on the Vado SL does limit things if you are wanting to press on though. My Vado SL in Turbo mode is slower than my old 11kg non-motorised hybrid over a rolling 6 mile circular speed route. The reason is that when I am on maximum attack mode the motor is rarely activated even on the hills - I am however attacking the same hill on a much heavier bike.

Result is I am a full 90 secs faster over the same short route on the non-powered bike vs the SL in Turbo mode. This of course would change on a different route if there was some properly steep hills! The SL would also be faster if I was doing the same route at <70% effort as I would be slap bang in the motor assist zone in that situation.
 
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