So, while you may be justified in taking the pros I find in the Turbo Vado with a grain of salt, you can take the cons (what few there are) to the bank. I have an emotional connection with the bikes and the brand, in other words. And, while I never really got up to speed on that bike (new wives and new kids will do that to you), the London-themed Langster was so beautiful that it retrained a place of honor in the garage until I gifted it to my neighbor’s teenager, who seemed to be even more in love with the bike than I was. This time it was a fixed gear Langster wearing the Union Jack. My next big bike purchase a few years later was also a Specialized. It was a time of new and happy beginnings for me – and my bike, a Specialized Roubaix roadie, quickly became my new best friend. Freshly out of the Air Force, freshly divorced, and freshly on the path to better mental health and better physical fitness. Real talk, I bought my first Specialized bicycle when I was in my early twenties. Specialized sent me a fresh new Turbo Vado 5.0 e-bike to put through its paces (as much as a middle-aged desk pilot can, anyway), and it’s an incredible machine – but before we get to the review proper, you should know something about me: I am a fan. I can get behind that idea – now to see how it works in traffic. I just focus on the road, the traffic, my coffee – I can focus on the ride, and not on the bike.” “With the IGH, I don’t have to worry about what gear I am in. “Every day, I ride to work on the same roads,” says Mattia. You need to trust it – and, once you do, it works. That integration and tech smart feel extends beyond the LCD display and smartphone app and into the more “bike-y” parts of the bike, the enviolo AUTOMATiQ Pro shifting interface internal gear hub (IGH) shifter, for example, feels a bit better on the Specialized than some of the critics in the dedicated bike rags would have you believe. Heck, the company even develops its own tires and tubes in a bit to ensure that their different bikes ride and handle precisely the way their product designers – and customers! – expect. That’s because Specialized, unlike almost every other e-bike brand out there, develops a lot of its own hardware. Speaking of themes, the second major theme of the Specialized Turbo Vado is one of a “tech smart” user experience – and, while connected features and apps that monitor different aspects of the bike are somewhat commonplace in the e-bike industry these days, they’re more at the heart of what Specialized is about than most e-bike brands. The motor here, rather than defining the experience of the bike, serves to make whatever you decide to throw at it that little bit easier.Įven the cable management is smart. The more upright geometry makes the new Vado a bit more comfortable for everyday riding, while the more “balloon-y” 2.3 Pathfinder tires give the bike a softer ride that’s good on pavement, gravel, and the type of dirt trails you’re likely to encounter during your urban weekend adventures. That’s partly why this new Vado, which replaces the previous, road-bike based Vado, has a geometry and feel that’s more MTB. The team looked at the most relevant use cases for everyday riders, and found that many of their target riders had already begun to transition away from road bike-based solutions to bikes that were more MTB-inspired. That focus on utility is one of the “themes” of the bike, and it’s that same type of balance of capabilities that SUVs offer that inspired a lot of the Specialized Turbo Vado product development. “The crossover SUV has become the primary segment, globally,” and that segment’s ability to serve many purposes by comfortably transporting people and things, carrying lots of cargo, and safely managing extreme weather and road conditions has helped drive that growth. “It is similar to the car industry,” he offers. Mattia explains that Turbo Vado customer aren’t just jumping on the bike and riding around – they’re riding with a purpose, or with many purposes, and Specialized designed the bike to have it fit into their life and serve those many purposes. “We say it is ‘for all life journeys,’ whether that is riding for health, or for recreation, or transportation.” “The Vado isn’t for only one kind of rider,” explains Mattia Berardi, one of the Specialized product experts I had a chance to connect with about the Vado.
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