You’ll enjoy the Specialized Turbo Vado SL 2 6.0 Carbon even without assist

Two things about the Specialized Turbo Vado SL 2 6.0 Carbon are hard to fathom: One is how light and lithe it feels as an e-bike, even with the battery off; the other is how hard it is to recite its full name when other riders ask you about the bike at stop lights and pit stops.

I’ve tested about a half-dozen e-bikes for Ars Technica. Each test period has included a ride with my regular group for about 30 miles. Nobody else in my group rides electric, so I try riding with no assist, at least part of the way. Usually I give up after a mile or two, realizing that most e-bikes are not designed for unpowered rides.

On the Carbon (as I’ll call it for the rest of this review), you can ride without power. At 35 pounds, it’s no gram-conscious road bike, but it feels lighter than that number implies. My daily ride is an aluminum-framed model with an internal geared hub that weighs about the same, so I might be a soft target. But it’s a remarkable thing to ride an e-bike that starts with a good unpowered ride and lets you build on that with power.

Once you actually crank up the juice, the Carbon is pretty great, too. Deciding whether this bike fits your riding goals is a lot tougher than using and enjoying it.

Specialized’s own system

It’s tough to compare this Carbon to other e-bikes, because it’s using hardly any of the same standard components as all the others.

The 320-watt mid-drive motor is unique to Specialized models, as is its control system, its handlebar display, its charge ports, and its software. On every other e-bike I’ve ridden, you can usually futz around with the controls or app or do some Internet searching to figure out a way to, say, turn off an always-on headlamp. On this Carbon, there is not. You are riding with the lights on, because that’s how it was designed (likely with European regulations in mind).