I am providing this information for anybody that may be considering investing in this model because I recently took the plunge and I figure those interested can sift through the data to find info helpful or applicable to them.
I am 58, 6’4” and weigh 215#. I have been riding bicycles for a long time, and still ride quite a bit. Mostly mountain biking and I try to get to a pretty good level of cycling fitness every year (I live in an area with winter so mtn biking is seasonal).
I bought this bike to commute to my work and back as often as practical. My goal is 2 – 3 times a week. I have commuted to work on a bike for years. But until recently my commutes were in the range of 5-7 miles each way. A few years ago I changed jobs and now my commute is 21-25 miles each way depending on the route. Fortunately, 15 miles of this is along a bike path. I had been taking the train down in the mornings and riding back in the evenings for the last few years. But recently I got to thinking that if I had e-assistance I might be able to ride both ways, shaving enough time off my commute to make it reasonable and taking better advantage of being mostly linked between home and work by a bike path.
Ok, enough background. About the bike and my experience. The bike is AWESOME. It is well designed and the geometry makes it a very fun and sporty bike to ride. Having the ride be fun is great because it will help keep me motivated to ride it to and from my work. This bike is very, very fun to ride and handles great.
I have panniers – Ortlieb back city roller classics. They work great with the EQ equipped rack. I upgraded to these bags from an old set of Novarras. The bike path is pretty lumpy in spots and the Novarras would sometime fly off the rack! The Ortliebs are the bomb and a great upgrade. I carry probably 20 – 30#s in the bags between work clothes and shoes, lunch, a liter of liquid drink, a laptop, tools, tubes, various cycling clothes to account for the cold in the morning, warm in the evening conditions. So it’s a heavy set up – but the bike rides great and I don’t notice the bags or the load at all. This is really the testament to how good this bike is. Even fully loaded, big person and heavy bags, this bike is a cruise and I do not feel the load and it doesn’t diminish the sporty, fun quality of the ride.
On my previous commuter – an Italian steel road bike forced reluctantly into commuting service - it would take me between 1:45 in ideal conditions and 1:55 more often to ride the 21 mile route. I have a pretty good and sustained climb at the end and getting through the urban leg of the journey was painfully long. With the Vado I do the same route in about 1:15 to 1:20. So you can do the avg. speed I get. I would love to shave more time off my pervious non e-bike time, but I don’t think that’s realistic.
I use turbo to get through the urban sections of the ride – the city at the start and the end of my commute between my neighborhood and the bike path. And I use turbo to get up the hills getting to my home. I am on the middle/sport level of assist the rest of the time. That level is plenty to go as fast I want or would like to on the bike path and I don’t feel like I am working hard, but I am definitely pedaling and not free wheeling along. Going to work which is downhill to start I have about 5 battery life indicator bars left, sometimes 4. Coming back I have about 3 bars left. So I charge at work for the ride back, which means I transport the charger – part of the weight in my bags.
If you are going to ride at night in unlighted areas you’ll need a much stronger headlight. This bike lets you reach speeds very easily that are too fast for the amount of light that the stock headlight throws. Not a big deal – having the right lights is something that everyone has to customize for their use.
I’ve read the back and forth on the fenders. If you are a commuter you know the blessing of a good set of fenders that stay in place and do their job. These fenders are great for that purpose. Yes there is the path debris that gets picked up and rubbed through/between tire and fender, but in my experience not significantly more than any other set of fenders, and frankly these work quite well. I always have fenders on my commuters.
In summary I am extremely happy with the bike and hope that things continue as they have started. I didn’t do a lot of test riding e-bikes before I went for this one. I rode a couple – mostly rentals, and I knew I didn’t want a big heavy e-moped type bike. Though very fun and they would make sense for the commute I am doing, I wanted to get more exercise from my commute than I would get by using something like the full Vado 4.0. I also wasn’t sure about committing to such a big vehicle, both for where to put it and for handling. The Vado SL level of e-assist is very good for my needs. There’s no way I could do 42-50 miles a day with the kind of weight I carry on my old bike for any extended period. It’s also very nice to have the e-assist in case of rough conditions like nasty headwinds heading home. All in all – I am super happy with this bike and best of luck to anyone considering taking the plunge!
View attachment 106564
www.biketiresdirect.com
