Allan47.7339
Well-Known Member
You can play with the app by inserting slightly shorter/longer measurements to see if you are actually close to the boundary between sizes and to see what the effect of any inaccuracy in your measurements may be.
Your observations are true and interesting. Regarding the rear rack and fender, I have always appreciated them on my full power, fully equipped Vado 5.0. I started with Ortlieb panniers early and have never experienced issues with either the rack or the rear fender. However, I should have protected the rack rails against being rubbed by the pannier hooks. As soon as I bought my Vado SL EQ, I used a lot of strong and soft tape to make my panniers "stick" to the rack without any chance of rubbing the paint off....So back to the Turbo Vado. I put my front fender back on in mid-September to protect the motor housing from wet roads and immediately noticed a most annoying issue. Where I live there are many black walnut trees - thousands of them line roads and trails, all dropping nuts and small twigs branches in the fall that get smashedby autos and create a sticky mess on the roadways. With the stock, stickier SL tires, I noticed when passing under these areas with many trees, I was picking up small branches and leaves that would be thrown up and caught under the long front fender and spin up a bit stay caught between the tire and fender creating a loud buzzing. I had hoped turning the wheel a bit or speeding up would cause the leaves to kick out, but to no avail. It requires stopping and diggin them our with a screwdriver or narrow tire iron. Solution, I remeoved the nylon poly extensin tail off both fenders andd that seemed to help quite a bit. I am looking frward to removign the front fender again next spring.
And one final complaint - The rear racktime rack. Who designed this. I never needed a rear fender in wet season, becuase my old solid racks protected my back. Racktime Racks are open and therefore one still needs a rear fender to avoid a mudstripe. In addition, none of my old panniers fit and i think for long trips i may need to get new gear. {...sigh...} Otherwise, love the bike
What a great post! Thanks so much for sharing with us.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
There should be very little drag when the power is off or in the OFF mode. It think there is slightly less when the bike is on but in the OFF mode but that may just be my perception. I usually ride my Vado SL or Creo with the mode off. Try starting a ride with the mode OFF and then compare. I found that it was easier to start in the OFF mode and then use assist only when necessary instead of starting in ECO and then going to OFF.I'd like to ask a question here before I start hassling my local dealer about this issue. I have a 2021 Vado 4.0 SL EQ. I have noticed that when turning off the assist that there is a huge amount of resistance. It feels the same to me as if when your brake pads touch the rim on an old crappy bike. It's really hard to ascertain whether this is an "illusion" due to me pedalling 99% of the time with assist or an actual issue with the bike. There have been a couple of times where I've turned off assist and it's not felt like this. I do have a fairly cheap old (non-ebike) bike that I ride now and then to areas where I can't lock up securely and I don't notice this at all.
It is an illusion caused by actually huge support the motor gives you, compared to riding unassisted. Please do these experiments:an "illusion"
I found that if riding uphill with assist on, when I reached the brow of the hill and switched off assistance suddenly it felt like I was loaded down with full panniers. Heavy drag in other words. I realised after a while that the road was still going uphill and hadn’t fully flattened and I was experiencing gravity and weight of bike after being assisted greatly.It is an illusion caused by actually huge support the motor gives you, compared to riding unassisted. Please do these experiments:
- Raise the front of the e-bike, turn the wheel. It should spin freely for a long time
- Ditto, with the rear wheel
- Remove the chain from the chainring and rotate the cranks with your hand: power off, then OFF mode. You should feel no resistance whatsoever.
There is a noticeable difference lighting difference between the Vado SL 4.0EQ and Vado SL 5.0EQ headlights. It's an easy upgrade but you need to order the Specialized OEM part because of the upside down mount.
Vado SL 4.0EQ:
Lezyne Ebike Hecto STVZO E65, 210Lumens, 12V
S205800001 LGT MY20 VADO SL 4.0 EQ LEZYNE FRONT LIGHT, HECTO, 1-E001-HCTST-V17WRSP
Vado SL 5.0EQ:
Lezyne Ebike Power STVZO E115, 310Lumens, 12V
S205800002 LGT MY20 VADO SL 5.0 EQ LEZYNE FRONT LIGHT, POWER, 1-E001-PWRST-V17RU
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
This is the link to the support pages. Drill down to the specific model and there should be a page link in "Service and Maintenance" with either a "Replacement Parts" or "Original Parts" heading. Some models will also have a separate link for older versions. They are not consistent across models as to what parts they show. The dealers have access to the complete listings but it saves time if you can go in with a part number for them to look up.Do you have a link to the part on the Spec website? I can't find it.
Stefan, I’m glad the SQ bars work for you! When I first installed them I had the same thoughts that you did. Luckily, I found them to work for me too, especially into a headwind when I’m trying to keep up with a faster road rider.@Calcoaster (and other users who recommended the SQlab Innerbarends 411 to me):
I apologize very much for my earlier bitching. I am aware I could offend some of you and am very sorry for it.
In true gravel cycling situation, the Innerbarends turned out to be very useful grips, closely mimicking hoods of a road bike drop handlebar. I spent most of my Sunday's gravel cycling ride holding the Innerbarends, and I could appreciate their value.
So, sorry for being nasty and big THANK YOU for the recommendation!