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

[Stefan Mikes]

Thanks @mschwett and @Stefan Mikes I rode somewhat conservatively and came home with 2 bars of battery still! Interesting (black images are from Specialized app) and (white ones are from it being shared to Strava)

You’ll note 50km/h + max speed which isn’t in the ride app… strange…. Max speed on ride app is 36.7!

Either way great news is I made it home! Battery still with capacity and turbo used for the hills I needed it on!

Bike is currently on charge

Kris, it is so good you made it! I'm setting off for one of my shopping rides soon. I will use the standard SL Sport mode (60/60%) and will precisely measure energy consumption on the route similar to yours.

Strava tells you lies regarding the max speed. The system is re-analysing your trip and doing own calculations. The max speed I'm getting in Strava is always wrong regardless of how the Vado SL data had been collected. Funnily enough, it never happens for my big Vado...

 

[Kris Mason]

Kris, it is so good you made it! I'm setting off for one of my shopping rides soon. I will use the standard SL Sport mode (60/60%) and will precisely measure energy consumption on the route similar to yours.

Strava tells you lies regarding the max speed. The system is re-analysing your trip and doing own calculations. The max speed I'm getting in Strava is always wrong regardless of how the Vado SL data had been collected. Funnily enough, it never happens for my big Vado...

Safe ride - I want to see how the ride goes if I can use 100/100 turbo for all of my 17.5 x 2 = 35km ride - although I suspect the battery won’t last even though for much of the ride it will cut out as I naturally hit 25.
Plan is to ride as I like one way, then hopefully on the battery on the way home have a high % and try it or take my charger in my bag until I get one to keep at work

 

[mschwett]

Safe ride - I want to see how the ride goes if I can use 100/100 turbo for all of my 17.5 x 2 = 25km ride - although I suspect the battery won’t last even though for much of the ride it will cut out as I naturally hit 25.
Plan is to ride as I like one way, then hopefully on the battery on the way home have a high % and try it or take my charger in my bag until I get one to keep at work

it actually should just about last - the SL battery is 320wh, which is 320 watts for an hour… the motor can draw a max of 300w (it provides around 240w of useful energy after losses to heat and noise.) the battery won’t go to zero, but 320wh and 300w is close enough to an hour. let’s say 20-25% of your ride ian’t quite at full power (because you’re not pedaling hard enough, or the speed is over 25), so it’s more like an hour and 15 minutes. if you average 20 kph for an hour and 15 minutes on turbo, pedaling hard enough to max the motor out 75% of the time, you’ll go 25km in that time while using most of the battery.

where this doesn’t align with your ride is the 240w of the motor for that time plus your own 120w of human input is 360w, which is way more than is needed to go 25kph, even up a 1% slope. so in reality the motor will cut out a lot more than my estimate above!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Mark,
I've just emulated a ride similar to what Kris had before. At 60/60% SL assistance (default for Sport on Vado SL) and with my sub 100 W legs as well as with the 25 km/h limiter, the motor used 4.19 Wh/km.

The useful charge in Kris' battery was (0.4 - 0.05) x 320 = 112 Wh. With the factor of 4.19 Wh/h he could have made a 112 / 4.19 = 26 km ride. No worries mate, she'll be right!

@mschwett: According to the precise speedometer of Wahoo and judging by lack of the motor noise, Vado SL (EU) cuts off at some 26 km/h.

 

[mschwett]

Mark,
I've just emulated a ride similar to what Kris had before. At 60/60% SL assistance (default for Sport on Vado SL) and with my sub 100 W legs as well as with the 25 km/h limiter, the motor used 4.19 Wh/km.

The useful charge in Kris' battery was (0.4 - 0.05) x 320 = 112 Wh. With the factor of 4.19 Wh/h he could have made a 112 / 4.19 = 26 km ride. No worries mate, she'll be right!

View attachment 130881

View attachment 130883
@mschwett: According to the precise speedometer of Wahoo and judging by lack of the motor noise, Vado SL (EU) cuts off at some 26 km/h.

of course, keep in mind that if one were pedaling harder, say 150-175w, the motor would also be working harder! more speed, more wh/km! although in this case the limiter will hold it to a reasonable consumption.

on a class 3 SL bike, pedaling at 150w human power in turbo on flat ground will extinguish the battery in a little over an hour, with a speed of about 40-45kph depending on aero factors.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

of course, keep in mind that if one were pedaling harder, say 150-175w, the motor would also be working harder! more speed, more wh/km! although in this case the limiter will hold it to a reasonable consumption.

Realistically, pedalling harder would just mean going past the speed limiter and pedalling without power. Of course, the strong cyclist would then switch to 35/35% Eco... to get improbable range at the cost of lower speed.

The EU speed restrictor is a game changer.

I know you wrote about the same. Now please tell me what speed would a Vado SL rider get unassisted and inputting 150-175 W himself.

 

[ronaan]

17.5 x 2 is 35 though right?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

17.5 x 2 is 35 though right?

Kris was riding from his work home. Only 17.36 km.
P.S. He's 8 hours ahead of the Central European Time.

 

[ronaan]

Kris was riding from his work home. Only 17.36 km.
P.S. He's 8 hours ahead of the Central European Time.

Yeah I got that part, sorry I was typing on the phone and it's not fun to quote from there. The 2x17.5 is from later on, and the following calculations are based on 25km. Or maybe I misread something, hope I didn't though.

Safe ride - I want to see how the ride goes if I can use 100/100 turbo for all of my 17.5 x 2 = 25km ride - although I suspect the battery won’t last even though for much of the ride it will cut out as I naturally hit 25.
Plan is to ride as I like one way, then hopefully on the battery on the way home have a high % and try it or take my charger in my bag until I get one to keep at work

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Now I understand, Robert! It looks Kris made a typing mistake.
I can assure him: the minimum range on 100% Turbo is 36 km. Kris will get a higher range because he will go past 25 km/h instantly and will be pedalling unpowered. Or, the motor will be "choking" between assisted and unassisted modes. (SL Turbo on 25 km/h e-bikes is only to be used for climbing or against very strong headwind).

 

[Kris Mason]

17.5 x 2 is 35 though right?

I also was typing on my phone yes sorry 2 x 17.5 a round trip of 35kms each day is my to and back home from commute @ronaan ill edit earlier post good pickup

 

[mschwett]

Realistically, pedalling harder would just mean going past the speed limiter and pedalling without power. Of course, the strong cyclist would then switch to 35/35% Eco... to get improbable range at the cost of lower speed.

The EU speed restrictor is a game changer.

I know you wrote about the same. Now please tell me what speed would a Vado SL rider get unassisted and inputting 150-175 W himself.

right, 25kph is really very low. as you probably guessed that’s about what 150w of human power gets you on a vado sl. so the really the motor ends up used for accelerating, climbing, and headwinds, or when the legs are very tired.

 

[Kris Mason]

right, 25kph is really very low. as you probably guessed that’s about what 150w of human power gets you on a vado sl. so the really the motor ends up used for accelerating, climbing, and headwinds, or when the legs are very tired.

@mschwett exactly at the moment my goal is to have commute as fast as possible to maximise time at home with the 3 year old and beat what I could do using public transport! At the moment the kegs are always very tired

 

[kahn]

@mschwett exactly at the moment my goal is to have commute as fast as possible to maximise time at home with the 3 year old and beat what I could do using public transport! At the moment the kegs are always very tired

Then get a new keg and drain it dry!

 

[Kris Mason]

Then get a new keg and drain it dry!

and now you know why the legs are tired! too many kegs!

 

[BioWheel]

Dear Specy - I would like to see a 2023 S-Works VadoSL version. Carbon everything. Including wheelset, bars and post. Elec groupset. I'll go $10k USD and I'm confident I'm not the only one. Maybe offer some custom paint like Project One. The SL is a beast design. Let's get it to it's apex.

 

[kahn]

Dear Specy - I would like to see a 2023 S-Works VadoSL version. Carbon everything. Including wheelset, bars and post. Elec groupset. I'll go $10k USD and I'm confident I'm not the only one. Maybe offer some custom paint like Project One. The SL is a beast design. Let's get it to it's apex.

Why do I think your price suggestion is LOW!

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I cannot fancy myself & brother dismantling a newly bought S-Works Vado SL just to install a derestrictor

 

[mschwett]

Dear Specy - I would like to see a 2023 S-Works VadoSL version. Carbon everything. Including wheelset, bars and post. Elec groupset. I'll go $10k USD and I'm confident I'm not the only one. Maybe offer some custom paint like Project One. The SL is a beast design. Let's get it to it's apex.

just put a flat bar on the $14,500 creo SL! with wireless electronic shifting, not that hard to swap. there are flat bar and drop bar versions of the diverge, would be interesting to see how much the geometry differs and how much can be fixed with the stem.

flat bar eagle shifter will control the XPLR RD.

The Eagle AXS controller is also fully compatible with XPLR eTap AXS rear derailleurs if you are looking to build a flat bar bike with an XPLR geared drivetrain.

 

[ynbniar]

New user here and very happy with Vado SL 5.0.

Using it for 30mile roundtrip commute and it just seems to effortlessly flatten the route out, while still feeling like a normal bicycle.

Battery is fine, down to about 65% on way in, around 35% by time I get home - so far just been letting it sit in Turbo (in UK so assistance limited to 15.5mph)

Ride is a wee bit firm so am considering making some mods (seatpost, innerbarends etc) but will see how it goes.