Specialized Turbo Vado SL 4.0 EQ

[newfhouse]

I tested and perhaps impulsively pushed the button (haha) on one of these today, for delivery in July.

I need a sensible (as in I won’t be tempted to ruin my back still further by racing like an idiot) all weather commuter for a 23 mile round trip and this seems to fit the bill at the right price. I saw the BMC Alpenchallenge AMP AL Cross One and thought it was fugly in the flesh, although I admit the Spesh is no beauty.

Does anyone want to tell me that I’ve made a mistake? What should I have bought instead?

 

[CXRAndy]

/ For a 12 mile commute its perfectly suitable. 320Whr battery should be adequate. You will know once you've done a few rides.


Get a variable 80/90/100% 48V charger. This will allow you to extend the battery by not always fully charging every time.

Take the charger to work until you know the battery will last both trips per day.

The Bmc is more powerful, cheaper, bigger battery and readily removable battery. To up grade to lights(maybe you own currently) guards and rack will bring the price nearer to the Specialised

 

[newfhouse]

/ For a 12 mile commute its perfectly suitable. 320Whr battery should be adequate. You will know once you've done a few rides.


Get a variable 80/90/100% 48V charger. This will allow you to extend the battery by not always fully charging every time.

Take the charger to work until you know the battery will last both trips per day.

The Bmc is more powerful, cheaper, bigger battery and readily removable battery. To up grade to lights(maybe you own currently) guards and rack will bring the price nearer to the Specialised

Thanks. I‘m not too concerned by the lower motor power as I still want to have a bit of a workout on my commute, much of which will be faster than the cutoff speed. I don’t see this as a moped alternative, more a selectable tailwind for when I’m feeling weary or my back is sore. As I understand it, the modes can be customised to suit my own preferences, so there’s hours of fun to be had tweaking.

I’d be disappointed if the battery didn’t last for at least a couple of days, based on quoted figures, so hopefully won’t need to charge it at work. Time will tell.

Thanks for the tip about not charging fully, I’ll investigate the options. Is that a Specialized charger or an after market one?

 

[CXRAndy]

Thanks. I‘m not too concerned by the lower motor power as I still want to have a bit of a workout on my commute, much of which will be faster than the cutoff speed. I don’t see this as a moped alternative, more a selectable tailwind for when I’m feeling weary or my back is sore. As I understand it, the modes can be customised to suit my own preferences, so there’s hours of fun to be had tweaking.

I’d be disappointed if the battery didn’t last for at least a couple of days, based on quoted figures, so hopefully won’t need to charge it at work. Time will tell.

Thanks for the tip about not charging fully, I’ll investigate the options. Is that a Specialized charger or an after market one?

After market, You will need to either source the correct plug or cut off the existing charger connector to fit onto new charger.

Something like these https://www.eco-ebike.com/collections/chargers

Ive got the $75 version.

The extra the BMC is in torque, being able to maintain the speed up steeper climbs. Both are restricted to 15mph

Dont be too surprised if you get nowhere near the quoted range!

 

[Pale Rider]

I tested

The bike is a 'light assist' ebike which doesn't give enough grunt for every application.

That's where your handy test comes in, presumably, as you've bought the bike, the power will be sufficient for your purpose.

Which is good news because light assist also means lighter weight and, importantly, lighter battery consumption.

The motor is Specialized's version of the Mahle/Fazua crank drive.

Spesh has tinkered with the spec by fitting their own battery iteration which has a useful extra amount of capacity.

The downtube integration is also a little neater than some other Fazua bikes, and I bet yours won't suffer from the annoying Fazua battery catch problem.

I strongly suggest you do not buy an after market charger for two reasons.

You already have a smart charger from Spesh - that's one of the benefits of paying a bit more for the brand.

The charger does everything for you in terms of charging at a suitable rate but not over charging the battery.

It will come with brief instructions along the lines of 'don't leave it plugged in for a week', but it wouldn't matter that much if you did because it has plenty of overload protection.

Apart from barking when you already have a dog, the other reason for not plugging in an after market charger is doing so might brick the software.

Some of the bigger companies are very protective of their electronics and resist any attempts at anything other than specified use.

The system may be able to record lots of details of how it has been used - Bosch bikes can - so if it does conk out due to a dodgy charger it might be able to tell the dealer, which in turn will compromise the warranty claim.

On t'other hand, the big brother printout can be useful, my Bosch one runs to two pages and has some good stuff on it about battery health and the like.

The Fazua motor is known to be decent, and should be even better with the few factory tweaks.

The rest of the bike is Specialized, so you can be confident you're getting something decent there.

Overall, the job should be a good 'un.

 

[newfhouse]

light assist also means lighter weight

That was definitely part of the decision process. I haven’t looked at specs but it felt lighter than my CdF and even with the motor completely off it was quite sprightly. I’m gambling that my fitness won’t deteriorate too fast during the next few years such that I regret not buying something with more grunt.

Thanks for your thoughts about batteries etc. It looks like there’s a fair bit of built in intelligence. I was told that the battery has a two year warranty, which should give plenty of time to watch out for significant range shortening. I haven’t yet read the small print so don’t know how Spesh would assess a claim for deteriorated capacity.

Overall, the job should be a good 'un.

I hope so. I only have a couple of months to wait for delivery. I’ll be sure to report back.

 

[Pale Rider]

I was told that the battery has a two year warranty, which should give plenty of time to watch out for significant range shortening

I doubt battery life shortening will be a warranty problem because the range is unlikely to shorten in two years.

There's a few reasons for this.

Lithium cell technology creeps forward, meaning the latest quality Samsung cells have a slightly longer service life.

The supplied smart charger will prevent you from abusing the battery while charging it.

Your lower power motor will also help battery longevity.

One of the things that kills batteries is fast discharge, which happens with higher power motors.

Your motor is incapable of thrashing the battery, even if you use it on its full power.

Range will inevitably deteriorate, but all the above means in this case the battery is very likely to keep a high level of charge for a lot longer than two years.

You may know the basic care rules.

Batteries last longer if used from fully charged - your charger cannot over charge them - and are best not run flat very often, although once again the electronics will switch off the motor before any damage is done.

You will probably find the lights will still work even after the motor has switched off due to a 'flat' battery.

This is a safety feature so you can ride home unpowered but safely illuminated.

Overall, it's best to charge before every ride unless you are literally only going a few miles.

The caveat to that is batteries don't like to sit fully charged for a long time.

Irrelevant if the bike is in regular use, but worth thinking about if you need to lay the bike up for weeks or months.

 

[macp]

Spesh make nice bikes quality kit. Assumed this would have the super quiet Brose motor ?

 

[Pale Rider]

Spesh make nice bikes quality kit. Assumed this would have the super quiet Brose motor ?

It has a Specialized tweaked version of the Fazua light assist crank drive.

The Brose competes with the likes of Bosch and Yamaha motors.

There seems to have been more reliability problems with the Brose than the other two, so very few makers use it.

 

[newfhouse]

It’s arrived.

Not the colour or spec I originally chose but at least it was available. It’s missing the mudguards and rack of the EQ model but I have ordered the correct Spesh ones for delivery in September. I will make do with a clip on MTB guard in the meantime if I have a wet ride.

I hope to get a chance to take a spin tomorrow, otherwise it will be straight into commuting service on Monday.

 

[newfhouse]

I couldn’t resist… just a local ride to make sure everything works.

So, first impressions in case others find my thoughts useful. I spent a fair amount of the ride above the cutoff speed but it definitely flattened the hills quite nicely. The Mission Control app reports that I used 9% of the battery capacity gaining 160m elevation on a 10 km ride, including 400m at 20% gradient. It’s a short but sharp hill on an ordinary bike and it was still hard work on this one, but doable without standing up.

The transition from powered to unpowered is barely noticeable, the give away being the loss of motor whine. I’m quite impressed with how natural it feels tbh. I couldn’t detect any drag at all with the power off.

I normally ride a 56 cm frame or equivalent but this bike is a medium and feels just right.

So far, so good.

 

[gzoom]

@newfhouse You will love the new bike for commuting. I'm using my Fazua powered Boardman for roughly 2/3s of commute these days.

This was my commute into work today, I love the fact I'm essentially traveling at crazy Z7 power levels but actually doing barely out of breath heart rate levels of work .

If the bike essentially has the Fazua motor you should be able to set the assist level to over x3 times your own ouput! At max output I find even 20% hill require barely any effort to climb up - though ofcourse if you want to fly up a 20% hill at 15mph you still to pedal hard!

Overall my bike has really functioned as a car replacement, for commuting it really is fab .

 

[T4tomo]

It’s arrived.

View attachment 599251

Not the colour or spec I originally chose but at least it was available. It’s missing the mudguards and rack of the EQ model but I have ordered the correct Spesh ones for delivery in September. I will make do with a clip on MTB guard in the meantime if I have a wet ride.

I hope to get a chance to take a spin tomorrow, otherwise it will be straight into commuting service on Monday.

don't park it in the dark, you'll never find it .

These light assists are the way forward, decent range and help when you need it most, but look like a bike, not a 30kg frankenmoped.

 

[newfhouse]

This was my commute into work today, I love the fact I'm essentially traveling at crazy Z7 power levels but actually doing barely out of breath heart rate levels of work .

Thats the opposite of what I want. I still want and need a workout, which I can still get by riding at > 25 km. The motor is there for days when my slipped disc pain would otherwise keep me off the bike.

It's only a low torque (40 nm) motor, claimed by Specialized to boost my input by 80%, so more a stiff tailwind than a moped. That's pretty much how it feels so far.

 

[newfhouse]

don't park it in the dark, you'll never find it .

Better?