Originally Posted by
Jsosborn
I've been riding at about 60 for a cadence since Nixon's first term, and I don't see any reason to change now. I use the lowest setting for pedal assist on the Specialized SL's I own, which already are only 250-watt motors, and I use Mission Command to set them to run 60 miles and 2,000 feet of elevation gain, so there is not a lot of assisting going on for this 250 lb 6'2" old guy. My issue is that at 60 strokes a minute in the highest gear, I get to about 21 miles an hour, and I would prefer to go faster than that, without thrashing around at higher cadences which play hell with my knees and balance. At 27 mph, I'm thrashing at somewhere near 80 strokes a minute, and I just don't like it.
Does this help? In the meantime, I got an answer back from Specialized that the Vado 5.0 SL will take a 48 tooth chain ring, so I'll be trying one of those when I get home.
Thanks for all the input. I always learn something here.
something is definitely awry with your wear. I have a creo SL, same motor as your Vado SL. I also initially rode it with similarly light motor usage. 5,000 miles and I changed the chain once and upgraded the cassette once, but the original was not worn out. i’m 6’2, not a small guy, and do pretty hard rides with 5,000+ feet of climbing.
if you want to go faster at the same cadence, obviously a bigger ring or smaller small cog would allow it if you have the leg power. which drivetrain does your Vado have? the current one is 12 speed sram, previous one was 12 speed shimano, both with 10t small cogs, other trim levels and years have generally been 11 speed with 11-xx cassettes.
highly recommend the wolf tooth drop stop B chainring for these bikes. available up to 52t.