Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ review | Urban Electric Bike of the Year winner

The Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ is a fully urban-equipped ebike, designed to provide an entertaining ride while remaining versatile enough for the demands of everyday life.

If, like me, you think the term SUV is a tag for a series of dreadful cars that are neither sporty nor useful, then reimagine that term for the Vado SL.

This is a sport electric bike that’s also practical and useful. It’s fast and fun, yet forgiving and practical.

Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ frame details

The standard Specialized Turbo Vado is a classic town-and-trail ebike, built around a sturdy frame with a large battery, mid-drive motor, big tyres and a suspension fork.

The Vado SL, however, is very different. Specialized has taken the template of its premium lightweight Turbo Creo all-road ebike and built the frame from aluminium rather than carbon to help keep the price down.

The geometry has been tweaked to match the flat riser-bar cockpit and produce a bike that’s tough enough for the daily commute, yet at just 16.68kg, sufficiently light enough to feel rapid on the road.

Importantly, this should mean it’s not too heavy to lift for apartment-dwelling commuters.

Instead of using a heavy suspension fork, Specialized has ported in the Future Shock 1.5 suspension system that debuted on the Roubaix road bike, and can now be found on the Turbo Creo electric road bike and Diverge gravel bike.

This offers 20mm of ride-smoothing travel via a unit in the head tube.

The frame is finished beautifully in brushed aluminium (or you can have it in a road-safety-conscious bright yellow) with reflective black details.

The huge down tube, which houses a 320Wh battery, flows smoothly into the mid-drive motor.

Specialized also offers the Vado SL in a step-through version.

The frame features triple bottle bosses so you can add more carrying capacity, or a piggyback battery range extender without having to give up bottle space.

Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ specifications

Specialized, unlike its rivals who opt for third-party systems, has developed its own electric bike motor.

Here, the 1.1 SL version is used, delivering up to 35Nm of torque. The motor’s three modes are Eco, Sport and Turbo.

The power band is wide, but in plain terms, I found the Eco mode more than ample for around-town riding, and Sport perfect for rolling rural roads. I only needed to use Turbo when hitting a hill with double-digit percentage gradients.

Specialized also offers a range-extending battery that fits into a bottle cage, which adds 160Wh of capacity to the main battery’s 320Wh. Specialized claims that’s good for an extra hour’s riding.

Charge time for the battery, from zero to 100 per cent, was just under four hours.

The drivetrain combines a custom Praxis crankset, designed specifically for the SL motor, with the shifter, rear derailleur and cassette coming from SRAM’s GX Eagle mountain bike range.

A single chainring is paired with a very wide-spread cassette (11-50t) at the rear.

Stopping duties are performed by Tektro’s HD-R510 hydraulic disc brakes.

The wheels are Specialized-own hubs built onto DT Swiss R500 alloy rims.

The Nimbus tyres are built tough to reduce the chances of punctures but are slender at 38mm wide.

Of course, this is big compared to a road bike, but narrower than most ebikes of this type, proving speedy on the road.

This being the EQ model (standing for ‘equipped’), the Vado SL has plenty of useful accessories as standard.

The bike features full mudguards along with a 20kg load-capacity pannier rack and a chainstay-mounted kickstand.

Front and rear StVZO-compliant lights are supplied by Lezyne and powered by the bike’s battery.

Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ ride impressions

Most ebikes aimed at commuters prioritise comfort and stable handling above all else. So, it’s refreshing that Specialized has brought some speed and nimble handling into the mix here.

That’s not to say the SL isn’t comfortable – the Future Shock suspension up front, combined with a great-shaped bar and grips, makes it easily a match for electric bikes with suspension forks.

The back end relies more heavily on the compliance of the tyres, although it’s ample – especially if you get on with the saddle, as I did.

The Vado SL is never going to be as plush and isolating as a bike equipped with a suspension seatpost (or a big bouncy saddle), but it offered enough give on the roughest of road surfaces and worked well on bumpy bike paths and light trails.

Where the Specialized excels, though, is in just how well it rides. The motor is unobtrusive when providing assistance, but generous when you need it.

The steering is quick and makes the bike feel agile without becoming twitchy or nervous. Navigating through slow traffic is easy, as is riding through fast corners on small roads.

Get out of the city and into rural lanes and hills, and the Vado SL is brilliant. On climbs, the relative lack of weight means your efforts are rewarded more fully than on heavier ebikes.

It’s also positive that the Vado SL rides almost like a non-assisted bike when you aren’t relying on the motor.

Descending is certainly fun – the combination of a commanding ride position, great road-buzz reduction and predictable yet quick steering all contribute to ride confidence.

The Tektro hydraulic brakes offer ample stopping power, but the action is a little odd – there’s quite a bit of lever travel before the braking kicks in. This can be adjusted and your local bike shop’s mechanic will likely be able to help you set it up how you like.

Once the pads are in contact with the rotors, you get a decent, if not outstanding, amount of modulation and control.

The motor is controlled by a neat remote mounted on the left-hand side of the bar, with a full-colour display screen built into the top tube. This provides plenty of information on your ride over multiple screens.

The bike can also work in conjunction with Specialized’s app, and if you’re the sort of rider who likes to log your rides, it will auto-upload to Strava.

Specialized claims a range of up to 115km when riding in the motor’s Eco mode, and while that’s probably achievable in the right conditions, my real-world figures were much lower.

My riding terrain is much hillier than most urban areas, and my testing was done in low single-figure centigrade temperatures, which will have affected battery efficiency.

Multiple rides provided similar figures, ranging between 52.37km / 32.54 miles with 727m / 2,385.17ft ascent and 68.4km / 42.5 miles with 606.2m / 1,988.8ft of ascent.

This is a respectable range from a 320Wh battery when most of the Vado SL’s hybrid electric bike rivals are using a 500Wh (or larger) capacity.

Specialized Turbo Vado SL 5.0 EQ bottom line

Specialized has done something very different with the Vado SL – instead of making a heavy cruiser, it has resurrected the template of the fast flat-barred road bike and infused it with an ebike motor.

This balances ample power and a good range for the battery size, yet doesn’t spoil the ride when the motor’s turned off.

It’s priced keenly and comes fully equipped for year-round riding. I wouldn’t change any of the bike’s fundamentals, even if the brakes aren’t the best examples of their kind.

The Vado SL almost perfectly marries practicality and speed. For that, it deserves plenty of accolades.