Vado SL 5.0 downgraded to 10 speed

"Belt and Braces" is a Pennsylvania Dutch phrase that is rare outside of Pennsylvania , New York, and Ohio. Means extra careful. How do you know it from Poland? Hollanders?
that's interesting; i would have assumed (without knowing the penn version) that it was simply a variant on the common phrase "belt and suspenders" which is pretty ubiquitous!
 
I'm not crazy about carbon forks either.
Ahead of my 5.0 arriving I was a bit nervous about the carbon forks / Future Shock until I watched this video...
(I'd maybe skip to about 5 minutes in for the single-track section). 😮
I felt a lot happier after watching that. I frequently take my 5.0 offroad on tracks (some of the roads around here are worse than the tracks too!).
The Future Shock could certainly be softer, I am around 65kg and don't have any of the extra damping springs installed, I imagine the Redshift may be more adjustable.
 
Spoke with Kinekt, they will drill the hole in their Kinekt seat post for me and I'll use a rubber grommet in that hole to route the wire through to use the under seat-mounted light.
I went for a lightly used short travel Thudbuster I found on Ebay. Managed to get the previous generation of post which is lighter than the current model (and Kinekt). DIY hole drilled and rubber grommet fitted. For the grommet I found I had to trim the rear lip of the grommet, so it is more of a rubber plug with a hole in the middle. I'd bought a selection of grommet sizes, so tried a couple of sizes to get a tight fit in the drilled hole and it has stayed put okay.
 
Ahead of my 5.0 arriving I was a bit nervous about the carbon forks / Future Shock until I watched this video...
(I'd maybe skip to about 5 minutes in for the single-track section). 😮
I felt a lot happier after watching that. I frequently take my 5.0 offroad on tracks (some of the roads around here are worse than the tracks too!).
The Future Shock could certainly be softer, I am around 65kg and don't have any of the extra damping springs installed, I imagine the Redshift may be more adjustable.
That video is outrageous from my perspective - as an old guy.
 
Ahead of my 5.0 arriving I was a bit nervous about the carbon forks / Future Shock until I watched this video...
(I'd maybe skip to about 5 minutes in for the single-track section). 😮
I felt a lot happier after watching that. I frequently take my 5.0 offroad on tracks (some of the roads around here are worse than the tracks too!).
The Future Shock could certainly be softer, I am around 65kg and don't have any of the extra damping springs installed, I imagine the Redshift may be more adjustable.
That is in my backyard. Those are my home trails. So many videos of Dirt Mulholland and the Santa Monica Mountains gravel roads. Hard to believe it’s all in the middle of a place like Los Angeles. I’m very lucky.

Here’s another local trail on the other side of Sullivan Canyon from the first video. Take ‘em slow or take ‘em fast, it’s all good.
 
Maybe that’s why you’re now an old guy, while others, some of them like mr fire road here, won’t ever be. 🤣
Yes, I threw caution to the wind ages ago. Now, well, caution is my middle name. In a little over a month I will be closer to a century than a half century!!!
 
hi when you by changing the shifter, do you extend the entire line or to do it you had to lower the engine or the cable armor is routed along its entire length and there is no problem with replacing the line and shifter
 
I've had the Vado SL 5.0 non-EQ for a few months now, great bike, but I hadn't appreciated the high cost of 12 speed Shimano parts, so I have just downgraded to 10 speed.

Why do that when I have purchase such a high spec bike?! Well, I am used to buying 9 speed parts that are a fraction of the cost of 12 speed parts, even with the lower spec Deore range that has been released. Also, I found the small 10T cog was so small that I never used it, I guess I don't have the legs to push that gear!

The small matter of swapping the Micro Spline freehub body for a 9-11 speed Shimano body? The Bear Pawls website suggested their hub parts were interchangeable. Specialized Rider Care weren't 100% sure, but advised the freehub body would probably be Specialized part number: S202100004 / Bear Pawls part number: BMB-00412O1A. I ordered one from Certini (the only place I could find one in stock in the UK (Rider Care had advised that Specialized UK were out of stock at the time, probably at least for a couple of months, so no point in speaking to my local dealer)).

Swapping the freehub body was easy, pulled the Micro Spline one off by hand and pushed the new 9-11 speed one back on in it's place, simple. :)

What to replace the 12 speed with? As the plan was for economic replacement parts, it was a compromise between the number of gears versus cost. 11 speed would have cost more, but would have given a wider spread of gears. I still have a manual bike MTB running SRAM 9 speed, so I am used to having fewer gears. Yes, the 12 speed was very slick and I did notice a big difference switching between the two bikes. However I was often changing at least 2 gears at a time on the Vado for the level of gear change my legs were used to.

After a lot of deliberation, what I ended up going for is the new-ish Microshift Advent X groupset. 1x10 speed designed around a 11-48 cassette, with their specific rear derailleur and shifter. They don't make their own chains and say that any brand will work, but recommend KMC.

Before deciding to jump to the 10 speed I'd already purchased a 38T chainring to replace the 44T stock one, that was based on what a couple of others on this forum had done.

I've only done on 20 mile road ride so far with the new gearing, but found the new range of gears were working well and it is quite hilly where I live. I did not have any problems of running out of gears, I think I was doing around 25mph at 90rpm downhill, and now have a wider gear range for going up the steep hills. I am happy with the quality of the parts. Yes, the gear changes are a bit clunky compared to the slick Shimano 12 speed, but no worse than my other bike with the SRAM 9 spd.

If any SL 4.0 owners in the UK (with deeper pockets than me) fancy seeing if the Micro Spline freehub body fits their hub, or any 5.0 owners are needing a replacement / spare, then here is a cheeky link to my old freehub body that is on Ebay...
https://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/284393236932?hash=item42372869c4:g:8qwAAOSwYUJhBvAm :)
I'm doing something similar from a different angle. My BH/PW-SE gravel bike is 2x11, started as 48/36 10-28 which was OK but all of my rides from home involve long steep sections so I changed the front to 44/32 with 10-34 cassette. That gearing is good for what I ride around home but I'm hoping to ride Slick Rock trail in Moab soon, I rode it several years ago on a mountain bike with much lower available gearing and it wasn't particularly easy then. Should have a 10 speed 11-40 cassette and 10 speed chain delivered today and despite Shimano specs and based on other posts including videos the Shimano 105 shifter/derailleur has been used successfully with a 10 speed setup. My original 11 speed chain is still within spec but I'm happy to be going with a potentially more durable 10 speed chain. I never needed a 11 speed cassette anyway, especially with the double chainring.
 
Hello, the last question, have you changed the shifter, is there a problem with it or is the cabel on the entire length of the frame is in cover
 
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