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

[jodi2]

I guess my needs may differ from yours.

I don't think so. Imagine your Vado SL motor turning of always at 14mph. What would happen? You would mostly ride at 14mph with little own effort but rarely go up to 15 or 16mph.
Honestly spoken, my complaint is not against the Vado SL, it's about our stupid 25km/h limit here. The Creo suffers the same restrictions here but due to it's faster character as a racing bike you feel it a lot less.
I'll describe it positive. The Creo has the potential to let you forget the 25km/h limit completely, the Vado SL not for most riders as it's too slow.

 

[ronaan]

I'll describe it positive. The Creo has the potential to let you forget the 25km/h limit completely, the Vado SL not for most riders as it's too slow.

I think it‘s situational. The 20km ride to work yesterday, I used 17% battery. Motor was off for 78% of the time. The way home has more uphill, but I had strong headwind too, so that used 52% battery. Usually it only takes 25% but I needed the full assist (70% of the ride) to beat the wind and have some legs left for the ascent (towards the end of a 20km ride).

On other days (with no wind) it‘s easy to hit 30km/h in both directions.

I‘d not complain if the limit got raised though.

 

[BEC111]

I don't think so. Imagine your Vado SL motor turning of always at 14mph. What would happen? You would mostly ride at 14mph with little own effort but rarely go up to 15 or 16mph.
Honestly spoken, my complaint is not against the Vado SL, it's about our stupid 25km/h limit here. The Creo suffers the same restrictions here but due to it's faster character as a racing bike you feel it a lot less.
I'll describe it positive. The Creo has the potential to let you forget the 25km/h limit completely, the Vado SL not for most riders as it's too slow.

I hadn’t looked at it that way. 25 km/h is essentially my cruising speed here in Virginia. Not much effort required. The 45 km/h assist limit on cycling trails here in the USA does make more sense since most local road bike riders appear to easily ride at least that fast. I’m only faster up hill. Sometimes. For me, my Vado SL is plenty fast.

 

[jodi2]

I think it‘s situational. The 20km ride to work yesterday, I used 17% battery. Motor was off for 78% of the time. The way home has more uphill, but I had strong headwind too, so that used 52% battery. Usually it only takes 25% but I needed the full assist (70% of the ride) to beat the wind and have some legs left for the ascent (towards the end of a 20km ride).

On other days (with no wind) it‘s easy to hit 30km/h in both directions.

Maybe you're right and I'm too impatient. If I ride my Vado SL for a longer period and in different areas there my apperar more use cases or situations where it's great.
On the other hand, as my allday bike it has to serve me mostly in our (flat) area here. And with the Creo I never had the "25km/h wall problem" in more than two years, no matter if it's flat or hilly, head or tail winds.

So you're as well under the 25km/h limit?

 

[ronaan]

.

So you're as well under the 25km/h limit?

Yeah, Germany. Though I don‘t mind going under 25 with motor off.

 

[jodi2]

You are right, the Vado SL still rides great completely without motor...
But with motor, well just see post 1679... ;-)

 

[Stefan Mikes]

My 40 year old friend rode my Vado SL with the 25 km/h limiter on and averaged 27 km/h on a 61 km trip. He has no problem to ride above 25 km/h unassisted as he's a good traditional gravel cyclist.

 

[mschwett]

My 40 year old friend rode my Vado SL with the 25 km/h limiter on and averaged 27 km/h on a 61 km trip. He has no problem to ride above 25 km/h unassisted as he's a good traditional gravel cyclist.

very few of my rides average significantly less than 25kph - the range is 24-29 for the vast majority, no motor at all… but the interesting thing is that even if a bike was limited to 25, that average would still go way up as long as the bike rode well with the motor off (like your vado sL, or a creo sl) since the motor would essentially raise the MINIMUM speed to 25kph!!

what hills!

 

[Seasider]

Enjoying the last days of Aug and of summer 2022. TBH, it was nice to ride in the 27oC zone as opposed to the avg of 32oC of late!

 

[ispookie666]

Finally swapped the tyres on my bike to 700x32c Gatorskins. Absolute b***h to get them on. Had to get smaller tubes, luckily had a few spares. The Gatorskins are a lot better than the native tyre - 700x38c (forgot to actually measure the width using calipers). I have heard some specialized tyres are wider than advertised.

The distance measurement error was 2.5%, I think I can live with it. Hopefully the puncture protection will be ok.

speed
I echo the sentiments of fellow riders, I'm mostly on the speed limit and can feel it cut in and out. I am slowly adapting my cycling style, especially using more assist when going uphill

 

[Flannel Guy]

The 45 km/h assist limit on cycling trails here in the USA does make more sense since most local road bike riders appear to easily ride at least that fast. I’m only faster up hill.

This checks out. I followed off the back of a pack of middle aged roadies on nice road bikes the other day just to see what pace they ride at. 20-25mph on undulating terrain- 35mph downhill. I had to put my Hydra in Eco 2 to keep up.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I could make an interesting test today. Went on a 35 km ride, and I needed to make it fast, so I rode in SL Turbo. The main battery was at 60% and the Range Extender was 100% charged (total charge in Specialized terms: 110%). The bike was set to discharge both batteries. Vado SL was first using the RE, and when the RE charge was some 10% higher than the main battery, both batteries were discharged by approximately the same percentage. At the end of the ride, the combined charge was 15% (8% for the main battery and 14% for the RE).

It looks that the system to discharge both batteries in a balanced way works very well. If we talk the absolute charge of both batteries, the amount of Wh left in each battery was almost equal!

 

[Borelij]

Did anybody ever saw a frame bag which could be attached to bolts on bottom of top tube?

https://imgur.com/a/fwVvMGT

 

[mogulman]

I use one of these with my tools, spare tube. https://www.salsacycles.com/gear/anything_bracket_mini

 

[Stefan Mikes]

So, I was on a Saturday ride on my Vado SL, 125 km. The main battery and a Range Extender still held 20% of the charge overall after 115 km with average assistance of 60/60%. However, when riding on such a low battery level (it is 12% of the main battery and 16% of the RE remaining), the assistance becomes very low. So I had to swap the RE for a fresh one. How fast the SL started riding afterwards!

 

[Igor M]

Hi,
I follow topics, but due to lack of time I rarely comment.
However, to contribute to the community with my experience. Namely, I own two Vado SL & 6.0 and below I have put two identical routes with the stated parameters of STRAVA.
Data is collected by Apple Watch.
It's interesting to see that the heart rate is higher on the SL (and it feels like I'm using more effort), while the 6.0 burns more calories.
By the way, with the mentioned support, I pull it out of the battery; - SL 90 KM - 6.0 80KM

 

[mschwett]

Hi,
I follow topics, but due to lack of time I rarely comment.
However, to contribute to the community with my experience. Namely, I own two Vado SL & 6.0 and below I have put two identical routes with the stated parameters of STRAVA.
Data is collected by Apple Watch.
It's interesting to see that the heart rate is higher on the SL (and it feels like I'm using more effort), while the 6.0 burns more calories.
By the way, with the mentioned support, I pull it out of the battery; - SL 90 KM - 6.0 80KM

that’s because strava is primarily using speed to determine the amount of work you’re doing - and riding faster takes much more energy. what strava doesn’t realize is that the bike is actually providing that extra energy.

unless you use the built-in power meter on the bike (which actually measures your energy contribution to the ride!) the calories figure in strava is completely meaningless!

 

[Igor M]

to je zato što Strava prvenstveno koristi brzinu kako bi odredila količinu posla koji radite - a za bržu vožnju je potrebno puno više energije. Ono što Strava ne shvaća je da bicikl zapravo pruža tu dodatnu energiju.

osim ako na biciklu ne koristite ugrađeni mjerač snage (koji zapravo mjeri vaš energetski doprinos vožnji!) brojka kalorija u stravi potpuno je besmislena!

.... but I think all data is transferred from the Apple Watch. ?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Hi,
I follow topics, but due to lack of time I rarely comment.
However, to contribute to the community with my experience. Namely, I own two Vado SL & 6.0 and below I have put two identical routes with the stated parameters of STRAVA.
Data is collected by Apple Watch.
It's interesting to see that the heart rate is higher on the SL (and it feels like I'm using more effort), while the 6.0 burns more calories.
By the way, with the mentioned support, I pull it out of the battery; - SL 90 KM - 6.0 80KM

that’s because strava is primarily using speed to determine the amount of work you’re doing - and riding faster takes much more energy. what strava doesn’t realize is that the bike is actually providing that extra energy.

unless you use the built-in power meter on the bike (which actually measures your energy contribution to the ride!) the calories figure in strava is completely meaningless!

.... but I think all data is transferred from the Apple Watch. ?

Igor: First of all -- long time no see, friend! It's good to have you back!

Now: You are relying on Apple Watch. If you had your data transferred from the e-bikes to Strava (for example, by the BLEvo app), and you had this support set for your e-bikes:

• 30/30% for Vado 6.0
• 60/60% for Vado SL

(The above give about the same assistance expressed in Watts)

Then you would have noticed your own leg power, heart rate and calories would be about the same. Note: Both Specialized e-bikes have a leg power meter and calculate calories based on the energy you have input by pedalling.

If the assistance is 35/35% for Vado 6.0 and it is 45/45% for Vado SL, then Vado 6.0 has as much power as Vado SL would have at 70/70%. So your Vado 6.0:

• Is faster than Vado SL
• You heart rate is slower on Vado 6.0
• You burn less calories on Vado 6.0.

The factor that made your data misleading was the Apple Watch, as it has no idea how much of energy you actually input by pedalling. Your e-bikes know that precisely.

 

[Borelij]

In order to use handlebar bag I successfully relocated light from stem to fork. I used mount piece from cheap ali expres light.
Vado 4 SL has alu fork with front facing mount with thred, so I needed just regular screw and 5 minutes work.

https://imgur.com/a/fkDHGm4