# Specialized Turbo Vado SL 4.0 EQ



## newfhouse (15 May 2021)

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?


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## CXRAndy (15 May 2021)

/ 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


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## newfhouse (15 May 2021)

CXRAndy said:


> / 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.
> ...


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?


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## CXRAndy (15 May 2021)

newfhouse said:


> 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!


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## Pale Rider (15 May 2021)

newfhouse said:


> 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.


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## newfhouse (15 May 2021)

Pale Rider said:


> 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.



Pale Rider said:


> 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.


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## Pale Rider (16 May 2021)

newfhouse said:


> 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.


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## macp (18 May 2021)

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


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## Pale Rider (19 May 2021)

macp said:


> 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.


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## newfhouse (15 Jul 2021)

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.


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## newfhouse (15 Jul 2021)

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.


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## gzoom (16 Jul 2021)

@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 .


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## T4tomo (16 Jul 2021)

newfhouse said:


> It’s arrived.
> 
> View attachment 599251
> 
> ...


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.


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## newfhouse (16 Jul 2021)

gzoom said:


> 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.


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## newfhouse (16 Jul 2021)

T4tomo said:


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


Better?


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## Pale Rider (16 Jul 2021)

newfhouse said:


> so more a stiff tailwind than a moped. That's pretty much how it feels so far.



That's what I'd expect.

Which is what you wanted.

So looks to me to be a case of 'happy days'.

It also seems everything is working as it should, which is not always the case whatever ebike you buy.

Even more happy days.


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## gzoom (17 Jul 2021)

newfhouse said:


> 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.



That's the great thing about eBikes you can adjust the assist to suite. But if the motor on your bike is the same as the Fazua one it can provide much more than 80% extra support.

This is the difference the motor makes on the steepest climb around me - 17% max gradient. On max support the Fauza powered bike pretty much doubles my speed compared to trying to get up the same hill on my road bike.

Even if you don't want the extra assistance its worth just giving it a go, it really is an odd experience, to be going up hill so easily .


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## newfhouse (31 Jul 2021)

I thought I’d report back after having done a few commutes on the bike. It has covered 240 km (150 miles) on two and a half charges. The Mission Control app reports that my 18 km (11 mile) ride to work uses 15 to 20 Wh and the return journey with a bit more uphill and headwind is between 60 and 80 Wh. The battery is quoted as having a 305 Wh capacity so the numbers do seem about right. I haven’t let it discharge to less than 20% indicated charge level.

I have a few observations about things that are less than perfect, Only one is a minor fault, the others to be expected.

The app is capable of recording rides and automatically uploading to Strava. Unfortunately it doesn’t flag them as E-bike rides so I have to edit them manually to avoid my segment history on a real bike being polluted. On a couple of rides the route recording has completely failed, but I still use my Garmin as a backup, so no great loss.

The flat bars are wider than the drops and bull horns on my other commuting bikes so I’m a bit slower filtering through stationary traffic queues. No big deal now I’m used to it and know what’s possible.

It has 1 x 11 gearing and for my preferred cruising cadence the gaps between gears at the small end of the cassette are a bit annoying. This is to be expected and is balanced out by the simplicity of a single trigger shifter.

Comfort-wise everything is good. The 38 mm tyres are grippy and smooth out the lumps and bumps well. The saddle suits me fine too so I don’t feel any urgent need to change it.

I’m very pleased so far.


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## newfhouse (12 Sep 2021)

I’ve clocked up my first 1000 commuting kilometres and the bike continues to do its job without much fuss.

I have settled into a routine of charging it every four days (140 km / 88 miles) which usually leaves me with less than 10% battery remaining if I only use medium 60% assistance. My fitness is gradually returning such that I don’t need to run it in full power mode at all, and this obviously helps eke out the power.

My mudguards and rack order is still incomplete so I have been using a bar bag for taking lunch and spare clothes to work. Sadly, as a result, I have snapped the custom mount for the supplied Lezyne front light. Internet searches reveal this as a known weakness. I’m still waiting for my bike shop to give me price and delivery on a replacement. I could hack something using a GoPro mount but it wouldn’t be as elegant as the original.


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## newfhouse (23 Nov 2021)

Four months in, 2000 km ridden, two punctures. My longest ride so far is 80 km to Brighton which used a little over two thirds of my battery. That range may even make touring viable. Watch this space next Spring, plague permitting.

On the commute I have noticed this week that I only expect to get three days on a charge instead of my usual four. Two days in I have 40% left. That’s actually three and a half days but because I only have one charger it’s effectively three. The recorded Wh per ride hasn’t changed much. I think it’s probably a temperature effect causing the decrease rather than a decline in battery capacity but I will keep a close eye on it. It has been a bit chilly in my garage overnight this week. The bike is stored indoors at work. I might start charging it in the warm and see what effect that has.

In other news my rack and mudguards arrived a few weeks ago so I’m now using a pannier for the commute instead of a bar bag. My replacement front light bracket remains outstanding, not expected for another few weeks. Annoying but not a huge problem.


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## Rob81 (25 Mar 2022)

Hi. Apologies for dredging up an old topic but I wonder if you can give an update. I'm hoping to buy the same model for my long commute (35 mike's each way, once a week). I do it occasionally on my road bike but want a bit of assistance. The Vado seems to be a good compromise between being light enough to feel like a normal hybrid, give a reasonable work out but also get me to work without being a sweaty mess. Charging at work might not be always possible so I may need to explore the range extender option. 
Thanks
Rob


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## newfhouse (25 Mar 2022)

Rob81 said:


> Hi. Apologies for dredging up an old topic but I wonder if you can give an update. I'm hoping to buy the same model for my long commute (35 mike's each way, once a week). I do it occasionally on my road bike but want a bit of assistance. The Vado seems to be a good compromise between being light enough to feel like a normal hybrid, give a reasonable work out but also get me to work without being a sweaty mess. Charging at work might not be always possible so I may need to explore the range extender option.
> Thanks
> Rob


Hello Rob, welcome to CC.

My bike has just over 3000 km on the odometer now and I’m still pretty pleased with it. Depending on how much assistance you want or need you may find your round trip is doable on a single charge. My longest ride on the internal 300 Wh battery was just shy of 60 miles so you may be just about OK for your round trip.

One thing I have noticed is that the range dropped significantly through the winter. In the coldest weather I had to charge every 50 miles or so. The bike is stored and charged in an unheated garage at home but kept indoors at work. Now the weather is improving the range is increasing again, so it does seem to be a battery chemistry effect rather than a deterioration.

I tend to ride it a little beyond the cut off speed so the battery is only working hard when I accelerate away from a stop or ride uphill. You can hear a slight whine when the motor is doing its stuff but you don’t feel much of a change as you pass through the transition. With the power off (or battery depleted) it just feels like a moderately heavy hybrid. 

I’m using it for a smaller number of my commutes at the moment as my back condition has improved a little and my lighter bikes are a much more entertaining ride. The Vado SL gets the job done without fuss, definitely flattens hills and poor road surfaces, but isn’t exciting. Maybe commuting doesn’t need to be.

In summary, it’s almost exactly what I expected and I don’t regret buying it.

Feel free to ask if there’s something in particular you’d like to know.


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## Rob81 (26 Mar 2022)

Thanks for that really useful answer - just what I wanted to know. The Vado really appeals because it sounds much more of a "natural" riding experience. On my road bike or Croix de Fer, I average 18-19 mph to work (although I arrive in a bit of a state) so it's reassuring to hear that the Vado doesn't hit a wall at 15.5 mph. I need to find out a bit more about the attitude to charging at work. It it does sound like the bike for me. Re the impact of temperature, my wife and I have come to an agreement about one bike living in the house so it could charge and be kept in the warm, maybe mitigating some of the range issues. 
Thanks again


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## BoldonLad (6 May 2022)

Pleased to hear you are pleased with your choice, after approximately a year.

I was intending to purchase the Ribble Ale, but, have been looking at the Vado 4.0 SL EQ (actually, two, one for myself, one for Mrs @BoldonLad), and, despite the not inconsiderable price difference, we are tending toward the Vado.

May I ask @newfhouse, (or, anyone else watching this thread) did you consider any other makes/models, before making your choice


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## newfhouse (6 May 2022)

BoldonLad said:


> May I ask @newfhouse, (or, anyone else watching this thread) did you consider any other makes/models, before making your choice



I did but my choice was limited for several reasons. I bought it through a Cycle to Work scheme which meant that if I wanted to buy locally rather than online I could only use a couple of shops. Stock was in short supply last year too. And I decided I wanted a mid motor based on a few helpful posts here and elsewhere on the web.

I didn't want a full on electric bike either. The idea was to help me recover from a slipped disc but still get a sweat on. I've been back on a non e-bike for the last month so I guess that was a success. I will still use it on nasty wet and especially windy days as it does make enough of a difference to keep me away from other commuting options . I'm also mindful that my back could deteriorate again.

I looked at a broadly similar spec BMC, referenced in my original post, but didn't like it as much in the flesh, either in looks or fit. Sorry, that was the limit of my research. I hope it helps with your deliberations anyway.


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## BoldonLad (7 May 2022)

newfhouse said:


> I did but my choice was limited for several reasons. I bought it through a Cycle to Work scheme which meant that if I wanted to buy locally rather than online I could only use a couple of shops. Stock was in short supply last year too. And I decided I wanted a mid motor based on a few helpful posts here and elsewhere on the web.
> 
> I didn't want a full on electric bike either. The idea was to help me recover from a slipped disc but still get a sweat on. I've been back on a non e-bike for the last month so I guess that was a success. I will still use it on nasty wet and especially windy days as it does make enough of a difference to keep me away from other commuting options . I'm also mindful that my back could deteriorate again.
> 
> I looked at a broadly similar spec BMC, referenced in my original post, but didn't like it as much in the flesh, either in looks or fit. Sorry, that was the limit of my research. I hope it helps with your deliberations anyway.



OK, thanks for that. I appreciate that what suits one person, doesn't necessarily suit another. I suspect our situation is rather different to yours. We are two 75 year olds, no slipped discs, but, we are rather past our "best before date"  Having said that, like you, we don't want 25kg full on e-bikes, we just want a little "tail wind" to help us along, plus, we take the bikes in our Motorhome, and, lifting 25kg+ of e-bike into the storage area is probably not wise at my age, not to mention the impact of 50kg+ of bikes, on our van's payload. Hence the looking at "light" e-bikes. 

I can understand your "liking" the Vado. We haven't actually ridden one yet, but, we have "tried them for size", and, even Mrs @BoldonLad (who I think largely goes along to humour me, rather than out of any deep seated love of bicycles) has said, she feels it is "just right", and, looks very attractive (she liked the pale green colour  ).


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## newfhouse (7 May 2022)

BoldonLad said:


> we just want a little "tail wind" to help us along


That’s what it’s like. It’s a more natural feeling than a colleague’s front hub motor that I tried and the transition from assisted to non-assisted as you ride beyond the cut off is very smooth.


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