They say attention spans are short these days, but I devoted over half an hour before giving up trying to unravel exactly what the ‘power’ (screen 5) on my Tero’s MasterMind TCD 2 colour display means from a single source. Nothing in the Tero manual at all, nor on the Specialized University YouTube channel, the Specialized website (result below) or anywhere in between. That said, by the time I finished writing this post, the geef suggested I should have used full AI, not what Google Search AI throws up. But I didn’t.
Most point to either the first version of TCD, monochrome LCD display which looks like a 1990s Psion, or this video where he’s impressed with the many features (some are over clever, imo) but skips explaining exactly what the power screen is showing. Until something better turns up (or you find one), this page may help you understand the MasterMind TCD 2’s ‘power’ screen a bit better.
Welcome to the TCD2 Power Screen
At rest and on STANDBY (above left; white subscript), the top left value is RIDER POWER and displays what is says: your pedalling input in watts. MOT PWR EL shows the motor’s power draw/input (I never know which) when in Assist. POWER RATIO is rider power divided by motor power where anything under 1.0 means your legs are providing the lion’s share of the effort, so keeping it close to zero or less is better for range and fitness but hard yakka any why we got an e-bike.
INF TUNE is I think something to do with the Mission Control phone app which I’ve not looked into, or the inbuilt F2 micro settings for each mode which I don’t get at all. Want more assist? Surely just press up a mode rather than faff about with the switches while looking at the display and crashing into the back of a cow.
Put it in ECO mode and INF TUNE shows 35/35 (above right; % of power assist available?), in TRAIL it shows 35/100 (the percentage range of power available in the micro adjust mode?), and in TURBO it shows 100/00 – all it’s got and battery range take the hindmost!
Bottom left is CALORIES burnt since reset; like gym machines I wonder how accurate that can be, but it’s something to measure and compare. Bottom right is the bike’s ODOMETER showing total mileage from new. (I’m on my second display but I note the bike carried over or stored the original’s total; the shop add it on).
On the move pedalling slowly (inefficiently) in 2nd gear on a nearby heath in STANDBY (motor off) you can see I’m putting in 105 watts at that second while MOT PWR EL, POWER RATIO and INF TUNE remain inactive. The CALORIES mount up, one bite of a Kit-Kat at a time, and so does the Odo.
Switching the Tero into ECO I was now putting in 33w and the motor 77w at that point which explains the 1.9 ratio (76 ÷ 33); the motor is supplying twice the effort. If I want to improve my range and get fit trying, I need to radically increase my slow cadence to something more normal to get the POWER RATIO closer to zero (see test below). Of course the easiest way to do this is just use the display’s main screen which shows your cadence which helps youi keep it the optimal green zone of 70-100 rpm.
STANDBY vs ECO calorie test
I did a 400m test lap on a nearby heath in 2nd gear, first in STANDBY and then in ECO. I used 21 calories pedalling with my RIDER POWER getting close to 300 a couple of times. With with ECO assistance I used only 12 calories and took half the time, but I was pedalling furiously in 2nd where normally I’d have have changed up with Assist on. I didn’t get a chance to clock the RIDER POWER or MOT PWR EL but my POWER RATIO flitted between 0 and 1 and by the end I had a bit of a glow on.
Now I know what this display screen means, will I use it much? I suppos I might try to amuse myself by checking how many watts my legs are putting in on STANDBY at that moment, or when powered up, verify my POWER RATIO is 1.0 or less, as well as see how many CALORIES I’ve burned to make me feel less bad about scoffing another KitKat. And of course the ODOMETER is an essential aid to evaluating component wear. Now we know.
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