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https://www.barrons.com/articles/good-company-specializeds-e-bikes-take-aim-at-urban-commuters-01653588258

Thirteen years ago, before most people had ever heard of an “e-bike,” a few designers in the Swiss offices of the mammoth bicycle company Specialized convinced their bosses to let them embark on an experiment. The Turbo S wasn’t the first pedal-assisted bicycle on the market, but it was a bold entry by a company that was doing just fine selling a lineup of road and mountain bikes that ranged from entry level to race-worthy. 

The Turbo S had a powerful rear hub motor that was capable enough to lure early adopters away from cars as a primary means of commuting to and from work. And it was only the beginning. 

At the time, the company’s founder and CEO, Mike Sinyard, was skeptical of e-bikes. While passionate about all things cycling, it just didn’t feel right at first, he told his team. But the designers convinced him to let them tinker on a platform for mountain bikes that could be built in-house, with integrated batteries and motors developed by Specialized, so that the experience could be tailored specifically to its frames and components. 

“There are big companies like Bosch and Shimano that develop plug-and-play motors and batteries that any bike maker can take, design everything else about the bike and then just plug in the battery and motor,” says Mattia Berardi, the Switzerland-based product manager for Specialized Turbo Active. “That’s great because it increases adoption, but it also means as a bike brand who knows your own ride, you can’t tailor the experience.” 

In 2015 came the Levo, an agile rig that lured newcomers in search of a little extra power on steep singletrack climbs to the booming sport of mountain biking. Then, the team took the platform they’d developed and applied it back to road biking, eyeing passenger cars as competitors. 

“The intuition was, if we could make a bike that’s electronically assisted, the most common use for it will be commuting, and it can replace cars,” Berardi says. E-bikes have been around in one format or another since the 1990s. But for a major company like Specialized to develop its own platform, and its own line, “It was a total gamble.” 

Specialized Turbo Levo mountain bikes are in their third generation now, but its latest line of e-road bikes took a big leap forward last fall. Some e-bikes deliver a forceful kick the moment a rider’s foot hits the pedal. Specialized’s motors are designed to feel more fluid, “to assist you, make you feel like you’re stronger,” Berardi says. “The motor should give the right amount of assistance at the right moments.” 

Today, Specialized’s customers are as likely to buy a bike with pedal assist as they are one that’s entirely human-powered. Sales of e-bikes have in the past few years doubled, year-over-year. And the company makes some of the most cutting edge e-bikes in the market, both for mountain biking and commuting. The more appealing the experience, says Berardi, the more people can be convinced that bicycling is a better way to get to work than cars. “We’re already working on the next generation,” he says.  

The Specialized Turbo Vado 5.0 IGH is now delivering to those who ordered them after a fall 2021 release. It features a fully powered motor with high torque to amplify a rider’s effort by four times, and a 710-watt hour battery with a range of up to 90 miles that’s removable but locked with a key, so that owners can charge the battery without having to move the bike. 

The IGH stands for Internal Gear Hub, as the bike features a stepless shifting technology that automatically changes gears based on the rider’s pedal pace. There’s also a “cadence coach” that lets riders know when they’re at an optimal cadence. The display features useful information like speed and battery level and it can be customized to show other important data points. 

The Turbo Vado 5.0 IGH retails for US$5,500. 

Most e-bike owners also have cars, but the more people buy bicycles and the easier they are to wield, the more likely they are to choose a bike for a quick trip to the grocery store or to get to and from work. E-bikes are less popular in very dense markets that have good public transportation and walkable neighborhoods, more so in cities and towns that are a bit more spread out, requiring more travel to get from this place to the next. 

The global transportation sector produces more than 7.3 billion metric tons of carbon dioxide emissions, with passenger cars accounting for 41% of that. So every choice that means leaving the gas guzzlers in the driveway adds up, in favor of a greener planet. 

“E-bikes mean you can go up hills, reach destinations faster, and do it without sweating too much, which is important for people going to work,” Berardi says. “If you don’t need to carry that much stuff—a computer, a lunch box—you can carry them.” 

Sustainability is woven throughout the company’s fabric, as well. Specialized partners with several organizations to bolster those efforts, including People4Bikes, an organization that advocates for better programs and policies to expand access and safety for bicycles, and Call2Recycle, a pioneer in safe and responsible battery collection and recycling. 

The company’s focus for the future is to continually examine what keeps people from riding, Berardi says. Beyond disabling the bike via an app, Specialized is researching more methods aimed at making e-bikes useless to anyone but the owner. 

Reducing maintenance is another goal. The latest line of Specialized bikes keeps an internal gear hub in the back and employs a belt instead of a chain, which keeps components inside the frame and protected from the elements. 

And future iterations of the company’s bikes will be faster, so that they can more seamlessly navigate environments where it’s helpful to move as quickly as cars. 

Thirteen years ago, before most people had ever heard of an “e-bike,” a few designers in the Swiss offices of the mammoth bicycle company Specialized convinced their bosses to let them embark on an experiment.

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