Vado 4.0 Sale Price

[mfgrep]

Oh, I sweat plenty on my Vado 4, but I ride fast, and only in ECO...even on hills. That is the beauty of the Vado 4 and Mission Control...you can tune it like you want. For me, 35/35 (ECO) easily gets me 60 miles per ride, and arriving home with 32 to 34% battery left. Plenty of exercise and breaking a sweat .

Good to hear. This will be a big/heavy change from my SL. It will obviously feel strange when I switch back/forth from my SL to the full power Vado over the course of days/weeks. I believe you....but I cannot yet wrap my head around the 'fitness' aspect of riding an ebike that is too heavy to ride without some degree of motor assist.
I am simply unaccustomed to this bike type.

 

[Sefutau2020]

Good to hear. This will be a big/heavy change from my SL. It will obviously feel strange when I switch back/forth from my SL to the full power Vado over the course of days/weeks. I believe you....but I cannot yet wrap my head around the 'fitness' aspect of riding an ebike that is too heavy to ride without some degree of motor assist.
I am simply unaccustomed to this bike type.

I think you will get used to it....it doesn't feel heavy in motion.....I used to own an Vado SL 4, and moved away from it because I needed more support on some really steep hills in my neighborhood.

 

[mfgrep]

I think you will get used to it....it doesn't feel heavy in motion.....I used to own an Vado SL 4, and moved away from it because I needed more support on some really steep hills in my neighborhood.

Understandable. I have a few of those hills in my neighborhood too....but generally speaking....even the steepest climbs in my area can be handled with relative ease on my SL via a bump up into Turbo mode should I choose to do so.

The thing that I really like about the SL....is my ability to decide whether to tackle those hills with relative ease....or whether I prefer to buckle down and (with mild assist) enjoy the pain and grunt it out.

If I am able to do the same +/- on the full power version that would be a surprise to me. On my SL I easily and often am up out of my saddle on the hills grunting through the hills on purpose....and I like it. The full power Vado seating position alone does not lend itself to an out-of-the-saddle type of workout bike.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I will be pleasantly surprised if after riding the incoming new Vado 4.0 I feel like I am able to 'get some exercise'.

If you are pedalling as usual, you would exert the same effort on both e-bikes, only the full power Vado is faster (especially in the U.S. with the 28 mph speed restriction: I have the same restriction on my Vado 6.0). The danger is to become lazy and let the Vado "ride yourself"

I'm usually riding my big Vado at 20 or 25% assistance. The e-bike gets really lively at 35%! @mfgrep: make a simple assumption -- if you are riding your big Vado, simply use half of the assistance of Vado SL. For instance: Vado 4.0 assistance of 50% is exactly 100% Turbo of Vado SL... and so on.

Just recently, I set the Turbo assistance of my Vado 6.0 to 60%: that's where I can ride as fast as my roadie friends when they are trying hard!

Come on! It was only 40 or 50% assistance! Note I was pedalling past the speed limiter on a sprint! (31.7 mph)

What an evening that was!

 

[mfgrep]

- if you are riding your big Vado, simply use half of the assistance of Vado SL. For instance: Vado 4.0 assistance of 50% is exactly 100% Turbo of Vado SL... and so on.

Thanks Stefan. You see this is the part that I cannot understand due to my lack of experience on 'full power' ebikes.
I understand that my SL has a 35nM motor while the incoming full power Vado 4.0 will have a 70nM motor (yes I hear you....75nM lol).

Now all of this said....running the Vado 4.0 at 50% power cannot be the 'same' as running 100% Turbo on my SL because of the massive weight difference between these bikes. Right? Your simple math makes sense to me only if all things are equal....but the SL is nearly 1/2 the weight of the Vado 4.0.

One might even argue that because the SL is half the weight..... And because the SL has half the motor power..... The SL versus the full power bike share an equivalent motor power. I understand that it cannot work this way.... No more than could it work in the way that you imply. At least not precisely.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Thanks Stefan. You see this is the part that I cannot understand due to my lack of experience on 'full power' ebikes.
I understand that my SL has a 35nM motor while the incoming full power Vado 4.0 will have a 70nM motor (yes I hear you....75nM lol).

Now all of this said....running the Vado 4.0 at 50% power cannot be the 'same' as running 100% Turbo on my SL because of the massive weight difference between these bikes. Right? Your simple math makes sense to me only if all things are equal....but the SL is nearly 1/2 the weight of the Vado 4.0.

One might even argue that because the SL is half the weight..... And because the SL has half the motor power..... The SL versus the full power bike share an equivalent motor power. I understand that it cannot work this way.... No more than could it work in the way that you imply. At least not precisely.

The max torque of the SL 1.1 motor actually is 38.2 Nm, hahaha! Let us only talk the mechanical peak power (240 vs 470 W, see?)

Reluctanly, I need to talk pounds instead of kilograms. Not sure how much you weigh but let's use 150 lbs as the rider's body weight, 35 lbs as the Vado SL weight, and let it be 58 lbs for Vado 4.0 (specialized.com quotes 49 lbs, which must be bullshit).

The rider + Vado SL is 185 lbs. The rider + Vado is 208 lbs. The combo for the big Vado is 100*208/(208-185) = 23% heavier than Vado SL with the rider. Not that much really? If the rider is 200 lb or heavier, the difference becomes smaller and smaller.

Now, where will exactly the weight difference manifest itself?

• Rolling resistance: the weight effect is negligible here
• Acceleration: a heavy e-bike requires more power to accelerate quicker. Deceleration: The heavy e-bike will coast longer than the lightweight one.
• Climbing. Here, the weight difference will play a significant role but it is 23% difference or less!
• Descending: the heavy combo will descend much faster than the lightweight one.

The powerful motor is tuned the way it gives a lot of boost at low speed. That makes the acceleration easy for Vado 4.0.

In the practical terms, you will notice the Vado 4.0 will be more lively at 35% assistance than the Vado SL is at 70%. Now, if we can go the full power, Vado SL will stop accelerating at some 21 mph while it is easy to accelerate the big Vado to 25 mph.

Mark my words: You will experience that soon!

 

[mschwett]

i’m actually thinking of getting one of these and doing a vado “medium light” conversion for utility purposes - replace the crazy heavy suspension fork with a rigid lightweight one, replace the heavy wheels and tires with something lighter, pull the front fender and replace the drivetrain with a lighter di2 group, maybe even some decent carbon bars, seatpost, and a mirror saddle. i reckon it’s possible to get it to 48lb or so, at which point it might be usable for my purposes. i’d keep the fairly high capacity rear rack for a child seat!

ideally i’d also switch to the smaller battery from the 3.0 - zero need for a huge battery - but that may not be worth the cost to save a few lb.

 

[Stefan Mikes]

i’m actually thinking of getting one of these and doing a vado “medium light” conversion for utility purposes - replace the crazy heavy suspension fork with a rigid lightweight one, replace the heavy wheels and tires with something lighter, pull the front fender and replace the drivetrain with a lighter di2 group, maybe even some decent carbon bars, seatpost, and a mirror saddle. i reckon it’s possible to get it to 48lb or so, at which point it might be usable for my purposes. i’d keep the fairly high capacity rear rack for a child seat!

ideally i’d also switch to the smaller battery from the 3.0 - zero need for a huge battery - but that may not be worth the cost to save a few lb.

Just to save 15% weight on the 470 W motor e-bike itself ?

 

[mschwett]

Just to save 15% weight on the 470 W motor e-bike itself ?

i actually think it could be quite a bit more than that, given that the fork itself weighs almost 5lb! there aren’t published weights for all the components but a 10-12lb reduction from 58 to 46lb would make the bike usable for me. all of my bikes get carried up and down stairs, hung up in garages and bikes rooms and trains, multiple times a ride. there is a big difference between 58 and 46lb, and motor power has nothing to do with it…

 

[Sefutau2020]

Understandable. I have a few of those hills in my neighborhood too....but generally speaking....even the steepest climbs in my area can be handled with relative ease on my SL via a bump up into Turbo mode should I choose to do so.

The thing that I really like about the SL....is my ability to decide whether to tackle those hills with relative ease....or whether I prefer to buckle down and (with mild assist) enjoy the pain and grunt it out.

If I am able to do the same +/- on the full power version that would be a surprise to me. On my SL I easily and often am up out of my saddle on the hills grunting through the hills on purpose....and I like it. The full power Vado seating position alone does not lend itself to an out-of-the-saddle type of workout bike.

Agreed .

 

[Stefan Mikes]

i actually think it could be quite a bit more than that, given that the fork itself weighs almost 5lb! there aren’t published weights for all the components but a 10-12lb reduction from 58 to 46lb would make the bike usable for me. all of my bikes get carried up and down stairs, hung up in garages and bikes rooms and trains, multiple times a ride. there is a big difference between 58 and 46lb, and motor power has nothing to do with it…

Oh well, I fully appreciate the matter of carrying the e-bike (ever wondered why I bought a Vado SL even if I am physically weak to pedal a low power e-bike?)

Do not ignore the role of the suspension fork, though. 2017 Vados came with a rigid fork, making them weigh less than 53 lbs. The stresses the unsuspended frame was undergoing were the direct reason for the frame cracking in the motor area, and my MY 2017 45 km/h Vado 5.0 was met by exactly that fate!

Yes, the oil dampened coil fork of later Vados is indeed heavy but it plays a great role not only for the increased ride comfort but also for the structural integrity of the frame.

 

[gpburdell]

Thanks Stefan. You see this is the part that I cannot understand due to my lack of experience on 'full power' ebikes.
I understand that my SL has a 35nM motor while the incoming full power Vado 4.0 will have a 70nM motor (yes I hear you....75nM lol).

Now all of this said....running the Vado 4.0 at 50% power cannot be the 'same' as running 100% Turbo on my SL because of the massive weight difference between these bikes. Right? Your simple math makes sense to me only if all things are equal....but the SL is nearly 1/2 the weight of the Vado 4.0.

One might even argue that because the SL is half the weight..... And because the SL has half the motor power..... The SL versus the full power bike share an equivalent motor power. I understand that it cannot work this way.... No more than could it work in the way that you imply. At least not precisely.

Sure - if there's no rider.

Add a 200lb rider and you have an SL with a total system weight of ~233lb and a Vado 4.0 total system weight of ~258lb. So around a 10% weight difference overall.

Note also that the total system weight really only matters relative to motor power when accelerating or climbing. Maintaining speed is far more a function of drag - air & mechanical.

SL 1.1 motor peaks at 240W output, Specialized 2.0 motor (which Vado 4.0 has) peaks at 470W output. So the SL power (relative to total system weight) is about 56% of the Vado 4.0) -- pretty close to the 50% estimate.

Also note that SL 1.1 has maximum assist of 1.8x rider input power, and Vado 4.0 has max assist of 3.2x rider input power. So to get the same 240W assist out of each bike the SL rider must provide 133W while the Vado rider need only provide 75W.

We can overanalyze this all week long, but if you'd just go ride a Vado 4.0 that should settle matters quickly.

See:

Motors

support.specialized.com

SL Motor

support.specialized.com

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Also note that SL 1.1 has maximum assist of 1.8x rider input power, and Vado 4.0 has max assist of 3.2x rider input power. So to get the same 240W assist out of each bike the SL rider must provide 133W while the Vado rider need only provide 75W.

Just to be precise: That is relevant at 100/100% Turbo for either e-bike.

We can overanalyze this all week long, but if you'd just go ride a Vado 4.0 that should settle matters quickly.

How true!

Let me demonstrate a good comparison of my Summer rides to the same destination over a similar route. Necessary to mention my Vado 6.0 1.2s motor is very similar to the 2.0 used on Vado 4.0.

• Vado 6.0, assistance 20/80% (I call it Super Saving ECO mode), a single battery. 112.7 km (70.0 mi) and 387 m (1270 ft) elevation gain at avg speed of 23.2 km/h (14.4 mph).
• Vado SL 4.0, assistance 35/100%, main battery + Range Extender. 120.0 km (74.6 mi) and 395 m (1296 ft) elevation gain at avg speed of 21.6 km/h (13.4 mph).

The settings with the low Assist but a high Max Motor Power reward the rider for the increased pedalling effort, which is especially important in a hilly area I rode. And now the best comes!

• Strava driven by the Vado 6.0 power meter and a Wahoo estimated my effort to 100% intensity
• Strava driven by Vado SL and the Wahoo said my effort was 105%.

Not a big difference, eh? But I rode faster on the big Vado!

 

[Kilowatt]

I bought two Vado 4.0s in 2023 at the full $4k price, about 6 weeks before they started dropping the price. Now I know how Tesla model Y buyers feel

 

[mfgrep]

I bought two Vado 4.0s in 2023 at the full $4k price, about 6 weeks before they started dropping the price. Now I know how Tesla model Y buyers feel

No kidding! We had a Subaru catastrophe right after Thanksgiving and I was faced with either replacing the engine or buying a new car. Our Subie was 11 years old and I was able to get some decent money out of it as-is and move on.
I had considered buying the Model 3 which could be had after tax credit for a great bargain. At that time I knew that this was likely the best new car deal available....perhaps even the best Model 3 price ever to be had....but I just couldn't pull the trigger (I'll spare you my reasoning). The Honda CRV that I did purchase cost more than the Model 3 would have. I have no regrets and I hope that you have no regrets either. Without the benefit of hindsight we win some and I lose some.
The Vado 4.0 price will rise back up soon enough don't you worry lol.

 

[thixie]

Hi everyone - I've been reading along for a while but it's my first time posting. Does anyone know if there will be a good deal on the Vado 4.0 in Europe soon? Is it common that the Specialized website for Europe follows the US, or is that not necessarily the case?

 

[Stefan Mikes]

Hi everyone - I've been reading along for a while but it's my first time posting. Does anyone know if there will be a good deal on the Vado 4.0 in Europe soon? Is it common that the Specialized website for Europe follows the US, or is that not necessarily the case?

If Specialized ever offers a bargain in Europe, it usually happens in the Autumn on less popular sizes and the models less often bought. I don't think this is the case for the Vado.

 

[Te. S]

Oh, I sweat plenty on my Vado 4, but I ride fast, and only in ECO...even on hills. That is the beauty of the Vado 4 and Mission Control...you can tune it like you want. For me, 35/35 (ECO) easily gets me 60 miles per ride, and arriving home with 32 to 34% battery left. Plenty of exercise and breaking a sweat .

I ride my SL 5 and set my Eco to 20/25 and love it , hardly ever use turbo once in a while use sport set at 35/50 for massive inclines,

 

[Stefan Mikes]

I ride my SL 5 and set my Eco to 20/25 and love it , hardly ever use turbo once in a while use sport set at 35/50 for massive inclines,

I'm jealous how good your legs are! (My ECO is 55/55% -- or sometimes I ride unassisted).