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

[Stefan Mikes]

Going 32T for the Vado SL chainring: a well-thought-out decision

Most bicycle riders think of the gearing in terms of the climbing capability vs. speed. For my, the cadence is the King (or Queen). The primary decision behind going 12s for my Fearless was to be able to maintain a constant cadence for most of my riding conditions, which had failed miserably for the 36T chainring. As my electronic derailleur reports the current gear number, I realised I was riding mostly in gears 7-10; not only was the setup not utilizing gears 11 and 12 but also I experienced a cadence gap between gears 7 and 8. The point is, the five gears 8 through 12 on the 8200 cassette are equally spaced. There are bigger and bigger gaps starting from 8/7. The new Garbark 32T cassette gives me these benefits:

• Equal gear spacing for gears 8 to 12: 18-16-14-12-10
• These five smallest sprockets are serviceable (replaceable). In case of sprocket wear, I can fix the cassette at a fraction of the full cassette price. Also, I hate throwing out a big chunk of precious metal into the bin!

Someone would certainly ask: how would that Stefan affect your top speed? Oh well, I've done my calcs. In the 32-10 gearing, my speed would be 38 km/h at cadence 90. Whenever I achieve such a high speed, it is either a hurricane blowing in my back or a descent (on which I don't usually need to pedal).

In case someone asked, it is the same gearing as used on a Levo SL (Ah! That tiny ring barely went behind the spider!)

I expect I can now climb a 14% ascent if I can only maintain 7 km/h there