Stefan Mikes
Gravel e-biker
- Region
- Europe
- City
- Mazovia, PL
I start coming to the same conclusion. The Vado 5.0 IGH might be an interesting city commuter e-bike.A colleague has just got the Vado 5.0 IGH and I warned him of problems mentioned in this forum. He has had the bike a couple of weeks and is blown away and would not go back to chain. He said there was a learning curve and getting the settings correct was critical. I have a feeling issues raised on this forum are more user error / laziness then anything actually fundamentally wrong with the IGH bikes.
I have given a second thought to whether I would be happy with the IGH and now I would say: "It's not for me". I've realized I mostly ride mixed terrain (it is called "gravel cycling"). However fantastic the IGH might be, it cannot do the single important thing: the IGH cannot predict the type of terrain ahead. It often happens I am confronted with a sudden hill on my forest rides. With the derailleur/chain, I simply dramatically downshift in advance and often go into Turbo mode to negotiate the hill. Were it the automatic IGH, it would only start working during the climb; and I would lose the momentum. Or, I could be just riding into the sand: the same action with the derailleur: a dramatic downshift before I rode into the sand. The automatic IGH would make me suddenly stop, and that might mean a crash.
Horses for courses. The IGH might be a perfect commuter e-bike but not an all-rounder!