Vado Stem/Handlebars for Slacker/Lower Position

[RJS5689]

I've had my Vado for a few days now, and while I really enjoy it, the riding position is far too tall/high for my preferences. I'd love to be a little lower/slacker. What stem and/or handlebar adjustments have people made for this/is recommended?

Upon closer inspection (in regards to a lower/slacker riding position) is it possible to remove these spacers from the stem on my Turbo Vado? Would I follow the standard procedure or is there something special about this setup? It looks different than what I'm used to seeing.

 

[mschwett]

those definitely look like spacers; most specialized bikes come with a few, looks like two 10mm and a 5mm on yours. unfortunately the online manual for the ‘22 Vado doesn’t explain how they work. you may or may not need to cut the steerer tube to remove them.

typically you’d unscrew the top hex and then the two on the stem, lift it off, remove spacers, and so on… but specialized certainly has been known to “specialize“ these things. check your manuals, the paper manuals for my specialized bikes illustrate how the stem works.

 

[RJS5689]

those definitely look like spacers; most specialized bikes come with a few, looks like two 10mm and a 5mm on yours. unfortunately the online manual for the ‘22 Vado doesn’t explain how they work. you may or may not need to cut the steerer tube to remove them.

typically you’d unscrew the top hex and then the two on the stem, lift it off, remove spacers, and so on… but specialized certainly has been known to “specialize“ these things. check your manuals, the paper manuals for my specialized bikes illustrate how the stem works.

Thanks for the info! That's the first place a looked and, unfortunately, didn't find anything about them in there.

 

[kahn]

I'd talk with a shop. Enjoy the bike

 

[Tim C]

I've had my Vado for a few days now, and while I really enjoy it, the riding position is far too tall/high for my preferences. I'd love to be a little lower/slacker. What stem and/or handlebar adjustments have people made for this/is recommended?

Upon closer inspection (in regards to a lower/slacker riding position) is it possible to remove these spacers from the stem on my Turbo Vado? Would I follow the standard procedure or is there something special about this setup? It looks different than what I'm used to seeing.

Hi RJ - You can access the user manual from the Specialized website - https://media.specialized.com/support/collateral/Specialized_Owners_Manual_World.pdf
- page 15 talks about adjusting the height of the handlebar. If you have spacers it sounds like you can move a spacer from below to above the bar to drop it down a bit. Hope that helps?

 

[WIVado]

RJ- Other than the one-piece design of the Specialized stem, it bears all the marks of a ‘traditional’ stem…meaning the two pinch bolts and the small bolt on top with would normally hold a stem cap in place (as well as adjust preload on the headset)

Because of its one-piece design, I suspect you would have to replace the Specialized stem with a traditional two-piece stem in order to relocate spacers.

I was looking into this myself, but ended up replacing the bars (for now) because I didn’t like the swept-back design of the OEM bars on longer rides.