Vado (Bado) with 27.5+ Wheels.

[lloydt]

I have a lot of chances to take dirt paths instead of roads when riding. I was also frustrated by the weight of the wheels that come with the Vado 6.0.

I swapped out the wheels for a pair of 27.5+ Ibis carbon wheels with 2.8" WTB Ranger tires (with sealant instead of tubes). I had these wheels on another bike I didn't like much.

Surprisingly, these wheels are lighter than the wheels that come with the Vado. The bike accelerates faster from a stop but seems to take a little more effort to hit top speed (I don't mind that). When pumped to 20 psi, the bike is really smooth off road. The 27.5" wheels are about 1/2 an inch shorter in diameter than the 29" but there is no problem with pedal strike.

The weird thing is that I needed to replace the front hub. The back wheel is a 'boost' wheel, the front wheel is a 'standard' wheel. I had my bike shop replace the hub on the front wheel.

 

[JRA]

The original intent of 27.5+ was to do just what you have accomplished here. Replace 700c/29" wheelsets with higher volume tires on 650b rims. It didn't work with all 29" type frames but obviously it does with the Vado. I like that you also used wider rims as personally I feel they have just as much effect on the ride quality of wider tires and their ability to run at lower psi which in turn creates a more comfortable ride quality as well as going tubeless. Enjoy!

 

[e-levity]

Nice looking ride Lloyd! I like the plus tires - good cushion and traction.

Mrs levity and I also converted our Vado 6 bikes from 29ers to 27.5 and are much happier with how the bike rides and handles. The stock tires and wheels were heavy and gave a harsh truck-like ride. We built new wheels using DT Swiss XM421 rims (25mm inner width) and use either 27.5x2.0 or 27.5x2.2 Schwalbe G-One tires. This combo is much lighter, and the ride is a lot smoother. The lower bottom bracket also improved handling. Mrs levity put 165mm crank arms from a Specialized Levo on her bike, and I replaced my 175mm cranks with her 170mm cranks to insure ground clearance.

We wanted to stick with boost hubs, so we also replaced the cheesy Suntour front fork with a nicer Manitou fork to accommodate boost axles.

The bike has too much unsuspended weight for adventuresome off-road riding, but does OK on smooth unpaved surfaces. A couple of pics from our rides in Death Valley Natl Park are below.

 

[Quadracer]

I have a lot of chances to take dirt paths instead of roads when riding. I was also frustrated by the weight of the wheels that come with the Vado 6.0.

I swapped out the wheels for a pair of 27.5+ Ibis carbon wheels with 2.8" WTB Ranger tires (with sealant instead of tubes). I had these wheels on another bike I didn't like much.

Surprisingly, these wheels are lighter than the wheels that come with the Vado. The bike accelerates faster from a stop but seems to take a little more effort to hit top speed (I don't mind that). When pumped to 20 psi, the bike is really smooth off road. The 27.5" wheels are about 1/2 an inch shorter in diameter than the 29" but there is no problem with pedal strike.

The weird thing is that I needed to replace the front hub. The back wheel is a 'boost' wheel, the front wheel is a 'standard' wheel. I had my bike shop replace the hub on the front wheel.

View attachment 30132

Thanks Lloyd. You inspired me to do the same to ride some of many trail rides here in New Zealand. I now have two set ups, one for commuting and one for offroad. This makes the Vado a very versatile bike.

 

[vincent]

specialized builds some beautiful bikes

very cool on changing the wheels out and losing some weight on the bikes etc

does anybody know how much weight you lose going to the 27.5 and carbon wheels? just curious

 

[Marci jo]

Lovin’ my Vado 6.0. I switched out the tires, not the other wheel changes others have done. Went with 46 mm slightly knobby tires. The bike sits almost an inch lower and dropped 2 lbs ?. Didn’t want to go too much narrower and risk a flat. I plan on doing some mild off road rides, maybe a little gravel grinding. So far so good.

 

[lloydt]

specialized builds some beautiful bikes

does anybody know how much weight you lose going to the 27.5 and carbon wheels? just curious

The wheels that come with the bike are really heavy. You can get a pair of carbon wheels that weight about 1500g.

With 27.5" wheels, I was having problems with fat tires rubbing on the rear stays. I put smaller tires and ended up trading pedal strike with the narrower tires. I ultimately bought a pair of 29" carbon wheels.

Word of warning, on the vado the axles are mis-matched. The rear is the 'boost' standard, the front is a normal wheel. You will have a hard time finding a wheel set like this. I ended up buying a boost set and having the front hub replaced.

I'm running Schwalbe G-One Speed 2.35 tubless. Super fast light tires (500g). The bike flies.

https://www.schwalbetires.com/bike_tires/racing_tires/G-ONE_Speed

 

[lloydt]

Thanks Lloyd. You inspired me to do the same to ride some of many trail rides here in New Zealand. I now have two set ups, one for commuting and one for offroad. This makes the Vado a very versatile bike.

I'm glad I can help. I've been having so much ebike fun, I bought a Levo.

My friends keep asking me about my e-bike (I'm a long time avid cyclist) so wrote up a blog post about my recent experiences.

Is an E-Bike in your future? (https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/e-bike-your-future-lloyd-tabb/)

 

[Ken M]

Am I just missing something. Why on a street / commute ebike would the weight of the wheel set and tires be an issue? The extra weight typically makes for a more stable ride at higher speeds and I can absolutely say from experience here in Colorado that riding paper thin light tires just leads to a lot more flats from goathead thorns. I would rather have 6-10mm thick tires that are close to 2000 grams that I know will not get punctures and of coarse tubeless with sealant will virtually insure that I'm not having to deal with flats.

If anyone has ever riding the new Stromer ST5 with the Pirelli Cycl-e tires .... to me that is more the future of urban ebike tires (hopefully those are released to retail soon as I want them on my ebike). More like motorcycle DOT quality tires that corner like you are on a motorcycle so they are safer and the ride quality from the 2.4" width is pretty good as well without wasting money (and weight) on suspensions on road bikes.

I currently run the Schwalbe Moto X tires and they are really good. Kenda release a lot of widths on the 27.5 and 29 Kwicks that are really good but they allowed the bean counters to have too much say and they made the tread depth so shallow they will be lucky to go 5000 km before bald in the middle. I think an ebike tire should go 10,000 km minimum but I'm not a bean counter that doesn't ride a bike and just wants their company to sell more tires. They should focus on customer value a bit more and add a 2mm to the tread depth before Pirelli hammers them with the Cycl-e tire.

 

[PaD]

Word of warning, on the vado the axles are mis-matched. The rear is the 'boost' standard, the front is a normal wheel. You will have a hard time finding a wheel set like this. I ended up buying a boost set and having the front hub replaced.

This may be a stupid question but I ask any way.
Front wheel, boost vs standard. Is it the fork width that is the limiting factor?

 

[lloydt]

This may be a stupid question but I ask any way.
Front wheel, boost vs standard. Is it the fork width that is the limiting factor?

There are a bunch of different standards for axle widths. Usually, front and back wheels follow the same standard. In the Vado case, they chose a narrower standard for the front and a wider (boost) standard for the back. This means you can't go and buy a pair of 'off the shelf' wheels and get it to work.

Make sense?

https://www.modernbike.com/how-to-measure-bicycle-thru-axles

 

[lloydt]

Why on a street / commute ebike would the weight of the wheel set and tires be an issue?

I like lighter wheels because I can accelerate faster and the bike feels more nimble. To me, it is just more fun to have a faster bike.

 

[PaD]

There are a bunch of different standards for axle widths. Usually, front and back wheels follow the same standard. In the Vado case, they chose a narrower standard for the front and a wider (boost) standard for the back. This means you can't go and buy a pair of 'off the shelf' wheels and get it to work.

Make sense?

https://www.modernbike.com/how-to-measure-bicycle-thru-axles

Thanks for your answer and the link to ModernBIKE. I guess it shows I was on the right track.

 

[Ken M]

I like lighter wheels because I can accelerate faster and the bike feels more nimble. To me, it is just more fun to have a faster bike.

On full suspension ebikes and traditional bikes the lighter wheels make sense because the lower unsprung weight improves suspension performance - the wheels stay on the ground better as it's not really a comfort factor. But I question that even very skilled riders could feel a difference in performance of dropping a 1000 grams or so from the rims and tires on an ebike being ridden as a commuter. Obviously a hard tail bike will not have any suspension benefits from the lighter rims.

Don't get me wrong, I like carbon rims but I don't think there is appreciable benefits on an urban ebike. In fact some extra wheel weight may be beneficial for stability.

I'm glad they seem to be figuring out the casting technology to make 27.5 and 29 size cast wheels so urban ebikes can benefit from getting rid of spokes and all the BS maintenance they require over time. Sadly, I like hub motors on urban mobility ebikes which kinds of leaves you with spokes on the rear wheel regardless, but 12 gage spokes are pretty strong and rarely need any tweaking. Would love to see someone integrate something like a 2000W (35mm wide magnets and stator) 200-300mm DD hub motor into a really nice 27.5 x 34mm internal width die cast rim. That would be a great urban mobility solution.