Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
Bosch E-Bike can be compared to a huge and extremely bureaucratic dinosaur; any signal sent within the organization is processed and verified inside the company for months if not years. (Can you remember a big corporation once known as IBM?) The German organization is close-minded and makes a system that is closed to the outer world; everything in the Bosch system is focused on the hardware. For instance, it took Bosch E-Bike several years to implement the new Smart System and then make the e-bike manufacturers embrace it, requiring the OEMs to design brand new e-bikes for the Smart System.
The Smart System is even not complete yet! For instance, only now in 2024, Gazelle has announced its first Smart System Class 3 e-bike! (Bosch still does not even have a dual battery Class 3 hardware yet!)
Specialized had their new Mastermind e-bikes released (Sep 2021) when Bosch only announced the Smart System but no Smart System e-bikes existed yet.
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Any OEM embracing the Bosch system is kept hostage by the German organization. To make the cash flow better, OEMs typically choose the least expensive components from the Bosch pallette. For instance, that would be the laughable Purion display or the 2 A charger. You want more? Buy it yourself (for example the Nyon display) and pay for installing it. Or, buy a 4 A charger.
Meanwhile, you get everything same of the electronics from Specialized, is it the cheapest or the most expensive e-bike of a model line. Specialized owns its solutions and infrastructure,
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- Want a system lock? Pay subscription (Free at Specialized)
- Wanna be able to tune the assistance levels? Pay another subscription. (Free at Specialized)
- Navigation on the Nyon? Decidedly not a Garmin or Wahoo or Komoot or RideWithGPS. The maps are hardly even updated on Nyon! Hopefully, you do not need to pay a subscription on that
(Specialized does not compete with the GPS navigation giants, see below).
Would you like to connect another device such as a Garmin or a Wahoo or a Hammerhead to your e-bike, be it a GPS bike computer or a sports watch? Not doable with Bosch closed architecture. You can connect any ANT+ device to any Specialized Turbo e-bike.
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Would you like to adjust the assistance as you ride for a higher speed or a longer range? Bosch does not have it. Specialized has the MicroTune, just a click on the remote.
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Warranty. A warranty dispute must be carried by a Bosch OEM with Bosch E-Bike. A warranty dispute for Specialized is just handled by Specialized. My Vado 5.0 was built in 2017, bought in 2019, upgraded free by Specialized with new electronics in 2020, and rebuilt from the scratch by Specialized to Vado 6.0 for free under the "lifetime frame warranty" in 2023. The Specialized warranty is transferable (but not the "lifetime frame warranty"). I am sure a Bosch OEM does not have such a warranty.
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Each and every Bosch motor made is locked to a specific world region. Specialized motors are made for the whole world; these are only adjusted to the region's laws by software.
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Motor noise...
Do I need to say more?
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