Here comes the next 650B Queen, even if not for gravel:
My wife was sometimes complaining that her Vado ST 4.0 is very "hard"/not very comfortable. I only knew the Creo and didn't really know what she was complaining about... I knew that it had futureshock, carbon frame and tubeless, but did not expect that that much. Until I bought a Vado SL 4.0 for allday use for myself a few weeks ok...
As one can see, this bike is for a small (and light) person used to an upright riding position. What brings some extra problems, we had to change the handle bar to one with more back sweep and even now the stem shouldn't be longer than 60mm. So a Redshift stem with at least 80mm could be a problem. Also the possible seat post length is quite short, you need to shorten most models.
I found some good cheap DT Swiss wheels in 27,5 (12x110+12x148) and changed to 47mm Panaracer Gravelking SK gravel tires and TL. I know them already from the Creo and like them. Good offroad but still fast and silent on tarmac.
1) Comfort: Is good now and much better.
2) My wife hates offroad and becomes very shaky there, even worse with the smooth Vado SL tires. With 47mm and more profile this is much better now, the Gravelking SK ist fine for her. Even if wider tires would fit, we don’t what much wider due to look and weight.
3) Height: As she isn't an experienced rider, she likes to be able to reach the ground with her feet. The whole bike is now about 15mm lowe, what makes the handling much better for her. Kickstand is still working fine. With her defensive riding there is no danger for BB or motor. But I’m not sure if she now may touch the ground with cranks/pedals, which she isn’t used to. Unfortunately even the smallest size of the Vado SL ST has 170mm cranks even if the bike is suited down to 1,45m. 160 or 165mm would be much better. So the pedals are about 10mm lower now compared to my Vado SL with 175mm cranks. But if the BB is still 8mm higher than on the Creo it’s at the end only 2mm lower than my Creo. So maybe no need to change here due to ground contact. But 160mm cranks would also be much better for her short legs. On paper/on the website of Praxiworks there are SL cranks in 160mm, but I didn’t find any (alloy ones) available in “real world”, at german dealers. Even not in 165mm. Any tips here where to find them in Germany, Europe or the UK?
3) Weight: The new wheels (Dt Swiss HG1800+M1900) even if wider&strong&cheap and with the 9mm wider tires and with more profile safe 400g of weight. Together with TL about 500g. Compared to the original 38mm about 600g.
5) The fenders look a little bit strange now because of the space to the tires and the width. I'm not sure if they will be of any use in really wet conditions. But we will try it, rain has become quite rare here :-( and she does not cycle much in bad weather.
6) We’re not sure if we stay with tubeless/how big the comfort extra really is. The (only) disadvantage for us is the faster loss of air. I’m used the check/refill my TL bikes before starting, my wife isn't. Tubes are quite comfortable here, normally they keep the air pressure for months.
7) Optic: Even if it’s not that important, it looks much better now for a small bike/a small person. Also she likes it much better now.
8) Seat post: We already tried a cheap (short) spring seat post, which was totally rubbish and just extra weight. Now I bought a Cane Creek Thudbuster ST 3 and the soft rubber (45-65kg). This model can also be shortened and it works much much better, you can see that it works/moves, while the cheap one did nothing.
Overall it’s almost a new bike in 27,5”, especially for a small person. It’s disappointing that Specialized doesn’t make the bike directly with 27,5” and shorter cranks for the smallest frame sizes as other manufacturers (at least for MTBs).do. Also they could spare the complicated future Shock system and save weight and money there.
Is there a chance the our LBS can&will change the wheel diameter in SL drive to reach again at least our permited 25km/h?
Here what it looked like before:
