Though I appeared in a promotional video for the Turbo Como, Specialized had nothing to do with this essay, and I received no compensation for writing it.
Who are e-bikes for? Until recently I thought they were only for a certain type of person: the software engineer with an internet connected helmet and bone conduction headphones; the environmentally conscious parent toting organic produce from the farmer’s market; and of course, that unsung hero of the pandemic, the food-delivery worker. I love bicycles, but I didn’t count myself among the e-bike class—that is until I rode one for the first time this summer. It changed my mind, not only about e-bikes, but about what it means to have fun on a bicycle, period.
I am what you might call a “serious cyclist.” I own five bicycles, each tuned to a specific discipline of cycling—road cycling, gravel riding, mountain biking. I’ve done centuries (100-mile rides analogous to the marathon in running), and double centuries, and one 370-mile ride that took me twenty six hours. I’ve biked from San Francisco to Los Angeles, twice, and seven years ago I quit my job and biked across the United States.
Like many serious cyclists, I once viewed e-bikes with ambivalence, even disdain. I thought they were for people who, for one reason or another, couldn’t make do with a regular bike. My thinking went: I’m young, I’m in good shape, I don’t need to haul around a kid or two, what do I need an e-bike for? The things that most attract me to cycling—physical exercise, pushing the limits of my body—are the things that e-bikers are trying to escape. I thought adding a motor to a bicycle would take away from the fun and the challenge of riding it. In short I thought I was too hardcore for e-bikes.
Then, over the summer, I was contacted by the bicycle brand Specialized and offered a spot in a film promoting one of their soon-to-be-released bicycles. I was stoked. I’ve watched enviously as friends have parlayed their love of bikes into sponsorship deals and side hustles. Here was my chance to do the same.
My excitement dimmed when I learned that the soon-to-be-released bicycle wasn’t a new gravel or off-road adventure bike, but an e-bike, and one that leaned toward the lifestyle, “urban” end of the range no less. This was the last bike I could see myself riding. Still, it was a paid gig, and I’d get a new bike out of it (a new Diverge, I hoped). I took the offer and booked my flight to San Francisco.
“Have you ever been on one of these before?” Erick the Specialized producer asked me. It was the morning of the first day of filming. Erick and I had just wrestled the e-bike I would be riding from the back of his van. The bike was painted a striking shade of off-white that glittered in the sunlight and looked better in real life than the photos I’d been sent. The frame, a step-through design, featured a massive down tube stamped with an incongruously tiny Specialized logo. Mounted on the elegant gull-wing handlebars was a small, square display and an array of unfamiliar buttons where the shifters would normally be. The bike looked sophisticated, with clean lines, a vaguely European aesthetic, and a name to match: the Turbo Como.
I told Erick, no, I’d never been on an e-bike. He grinned. It was the look you give a kid about to try cotton candy for the first time. “You’re gonna love it,” he told me.
My first ride on the Como was a five mile trip from the Tenderloin to the first location of the shoot, a cypress-lined stretch of road in the Presidio. I was immediately struck by how comfortable and easy to handle the Como was. Despite clocking in at over fifty pounds, the bike felt light and nimble. The Como I rode was outfitted with the latest bike tech: disc brakes, a suspension fork and seat post, carbon belt drive, internal geared hub. The geometry was upright and relaxed. The tires were wider than your average road-going bike and they, along with the front and rear suspension, gave the Como a smooth, plush ride that would dampen even the roughest city pavement.
The Como uses a form of e-bike propulsion known as pedal assist. The motor only engages when you pedal, amplifying the power you put into the drivetrain by as much as four times. It was an odd but thrilling sensation, to be moving so quickly with so little effort. The Como is full of surprises like this. When I turned a corner and started climbing a hill, I instinctively reached for the shift lever, only there wasn’t one. The Como shifted anyway, as if it had read my mind. A moment later, I heard an electronic beeping sound and looked down at the display. A trail of yellow dots moved up the side of the screen, the dots symbolizing the car that was just then passing me. Yep, the bike had radar.
A motor that does most of the work for you, automatic shifting, radar. This was by far the most advanced and futuristic bike I’d ever been on. My bikes at home were rotary phones or dial-up internet—the Como was a new MacBook Pro.
I spent three days filming with the Specialized crew. My job was to ride the bike while looking “optimistic” and to talk into the camera about the Como’s features and technology. We filmed all over San Francisco, a city I love but have recently moved away from. When it was time to switch locations, Erick would ask me if I preferred to ride over on the Como or get a lift in his van. I always opted to ride.
Riding the Como was a blast. The motor is impressively powerful—250 nominal watts and 70Nm of torque, if that means anything to you. What it meant to me was that I could cruise at 18–20 MPH without breaking a sweat. And if I set the motor to “turbo” mode and pushed hard, I could easily reach close to 30 MPH.
To really appreciate the Como’s brilliance, you need to climb a hill. On day two we filmed a few shots of me climbing Powell St, one of San Francisco’s iconically steep hills, complete with cable cars. Powell St has a maximum grade of over 17%. It’s the type of hill that all cyclists avoid, even the serious ones. It’s ridiculously steep.
On the Como, Powell St is a breeze. While I easily spun the pedals at 100 watts, the Como did all the heavy lifting, putting out over 400 watts. Those are pro cyclist levels of power for the effort of a leisurely spin down a boardwalk.
I put the Como through its paces that day, criss-crossing the city and going up and down hills on full power mode. We still made it to the end of the day with battery to spare. I did try riding with the motor turned off. I could just manage to keep the pedals turning when the road was flat, but on even a slight grade, the heavy e-bike became unrideable. You wouldn’t want to be stuck far from home with an empty battery.
There were some things I didn’t love about the Como. The automatic shifting was intuitive and smooth for the most part, but got a little clunky on the steeper hills. Specialized does offer a normal derailleur spec of the Como, and that’s probably the one I would have gone with personally. The radar turned out to be a bit of a gimmick. I often heard cars approaching before the radar picked them up. With that said I could see it being useful for somebody new to riding in traffic, and in any case the radar is easily turned off via the companion app. The price of a new Como starts at $3,200 which is a lot of money. Even with a stout lock and the Como’s built in motor-locking feature, I’d still hesitate to lock such a valuable bike in the open for long periods in a city like San Francisco, where thousands of bikes are stolen every year. Then again, that’s not a problem with the Como or e-bikes, but with the city of San Francisco.
Overall though the Como is a marvel of bicycle engineering. Many features, including some of the ones I quibble with above, will be perfect for newer or less confident riders. The step-through frame makes it easier to mount and dismount the bike, especially for smaller riders. The belt drive means you’ll never have to worry about accidentally rubbing a pant leg or skirt hem on a greasy chain. The built-in lights and mud guards mean you’ll be able to ride the Como in all conditions. This is a bike for the masses, a bike I didn’t expect to love, but found myself falling for nevertheless.
On the last day of shooting we had to move from Pacific Heights to the Ferry Building, opposite ends of town. Naturally I chose to bike there. I took the long way—I would have beat the van otherwise. Also, I wanted as much time with the Como as possible before I had to turn it back over to Erick.
When it comes to riding bikes, fast is fun. There are many ways to go fast on a bike: descending a twisting road, riding in a paceline, being in top form. Riding an e-bike is another way to go fast, another way to have fun.
The Como wasn’t as light or agile as my road bike, or as capable and aggressive as my mountain bike, but that wasn’t what it was designed for. It was designed to move a rider around town as efficiently, comfortably, and safely as possible — and it excels at that. In that same context, my road bike is skittish and uncomfortable, my mountain bike needlessly heavy and cumbersome.
I’ve come full circle on e-bikes, from skeptic to advocate. I think e-bikes are an important part of the future of transportation in this country, alongside electric vehicles and public transit. To convince more people to use bikes as transportation, bikes need to be more comfortable and easy to ride, and people need to feel safer while riding them. Better bike infrastructure is how we’ll make people feel safer. E-bikes like the Como are what will make riding easier and more comfortable, and will help convince people of all ages and levels of fitness and seriousness that biking is for them too.
My next bike will be an e-bike. Specialized gave me my pick of bikes as part of my compensation for the video. I chose a bright red Specialized Vado, the Como’s sportier cousin, an e-bike. The Diverge could wait. I’ll still ride and enjoy my other “analogue” bicycles. But for rides where efficiency and comfort matter most, it’ll be the Vado I roll out of the garage. I’ll use it for grocery runs and other errands, I’ll use it to get across town to visit friends or eat out at a restaurant. I’d use it for commuting, but I’m now a permanent remote worker and no longer have a commute, though part of me wishes I still did, so I could ride my e-bike. And every once in a while, I’ll take my Vado out on the weekends and ride it on my favorite backroads and trails, just for fun.
