2019 Levo Carbon Comp demo thoughts (inc. range)

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
So I paid £60 to demo a 2019 Levo Carbon Comp recently and thought people might be interested in an Emtb newbie's thoughts.

I currently own a Carbon Strive and Carbon Sender both of which I really like except for the fact they don't have motors. I have been biking for 10 years, am 5'10", 100kg with gear and picked the Large Levo which fitted well with a similar reach and head angle to the Strive which it would replace. My fitness is somewhere between poor and awful. I really hate pedalling uphill so an Emtb has obvious appeal. To give an idea of my skill level I did the Strava section "Ho Chi Min EWS" which is pretty straight, fast and rough (0.61km , 71m, -12%) with zero pedalling for me. Some times for comparison - Greg Callaghan 58s, Cecile Ravanel 72s, Me 70s.

I've previously demo'ed a Pivot Shuttle with Shimano motor and a Mondo with a Bosch. I didn't like the Bosch as it's not very smooth and the whole 16t chainring with gearing thing seems inefficient and it was very draggy above 15mph. The Shimano motor was better but still somewhat 'steppy' in power delivery on mild climbs. It felt like the power changed from 40% to 60% with slightly varying gradients or torque inputs.

Specialized delivered the bike to Pedal Power in West Calder where I picked it up for a 48hr demo. After I got it home I found out the gears were not setup correctly so I fixed that and tweaked pressures and brake angle etc. I tested it on tarmac around my house and played with the mission control app. Turning down the trail mode from 30-100 to 25-100 made it a bit more natural feeling which was nice. In my opinion the Shuttle mode is not really a 'mode' and more of a tuning bias or sensitivity. At zero you need a bit a torque input to hit top spped in Turbo mode or to get above the base level in Trail mode. Dialing Shuttle up to 100 affects Trial and Turbo in the same way by reducing the required torque input from your legs to get the max power out of the motor. I think it's pretty similar to the Shimano sensitivity setting. I set it to 40%.

First day I tried a hillwalkers trail up Dumyat which is a mix of hardpack path, dirt, grass and rocks. There were several sections of rocks about 20ft high and 30% or more gradient that I had to push up. Pic from car park looking at Dumyat. The bikes upside down because I need to take the wheels off to get it in the car -
dumyat.jpg


First disappointment was the walk mode which is terrible. If you are on a gradient that makes you get off and push, say 30% plus then it doesn't provide enough power to move itself forward. Pushing the button (which is awkward to reach and quite stiff) has a barely noticeable effect. I would guess it needs double the power to be useful. On the dirt and hardpack surfaces it was excellent. I am sure it didn't have the "noisy motor" issue some people are reporting. It was very quiet in Trail/Eco mode and from memory it was slightly quieter than the Shimano in Turbo mode which is fine.
After I got to a large ledge I gave up climbing to the top and headed down. I made it 200m before a pinch flat stopped play. The bike was using skinny lightweight inner tubes which were garbage. I changed it for my Maxxis 27.5 Freeride tube (never had a 29 bike before) and upped the pressures to 23 Front / 26 Rear which worked ok. The rest of the downhill was pretty great, you feel really "in" the bike and the geometry is excellent. I got used to the weight for the most part however it did make bunny hopping roots and rocks harder than usual.

Second day I went to Glentress and did a route that was a mix of Black, Fire Roads and off-piste trails including some 2014 EWS sections.
gt strava1.jpg

Another nice day in Scotland -
gt.jpg

Again the geometry and handling of the bike is excellent. It was my first time on 29 wheels and I was worried they would be a bit unwieldy and cumbersome but they were fine and, of course, rolled very well. I mostly used Turbo mode on climbs with some Trail on flatter and downhill sections and no Eco at all. For uphill hairpins I felt the front end wanted to wash wide in Turbo mode so started dropping down to Trail for the corner then back into Turbo at the exit which was much better. I got back to the car with 3 bars still so I had a loop of Janet's Brae of 130m climbing which dropped it to one red bar. It seemed to go from 2 bars to one in about 200m. Total ride stats below -
gt strava2.jpg

I noticed Rob said about his range test "In total I covered approximately 3000 ft of elevation before the change to the second battery.". That equates to about 914m even though he was mostly in Eco mode. He looks thinner than me so I am reasonably impressed with the battery performance !

How a good day out ends -
gt2.jpg


Overall it's pretty great but I could use more battery endurance so I have ordered an Expert, due in Feb 2019.
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
Nice review.

Regarding Walk Mode, I find it pretty good. Did you try to shift to a higher gear when using it? I find you get a better performance that way.

I think I tried the 2nd biggest cassette cog and something in the middle, didn't notice much difference. I will try a small cog next time.
 

HeatproofGenie

Active member
Jul 23, 2018
97
73
CO, USA
Good review. I demoed one recently too from the new Specialized Experience center in Boulder, CO. Same model, Turbo Levo Carbon Comp.

I agree that the frame design, construction, kinematics and geometry are all very good. At 73 inches or 185.42 cm but a armspan of 75.5" or 191.77cm I chose the XL and it was spot on. The motor was good and I thought pretty comparable to the I think quite good Shimano unit. It's been awhile since I've ridden the Shimano system so a direct comparison is harder for me to make. I did like how the new 2.1 motor doesn't have much overrun at all. Very natural feeling. I didn't mess with Mission Control at all.

I didn't track my ride but I rode pretty much the most gnarly trails in the area and the new Levo did really great. Total climbing was 3910 ft or 1191 m and the battery was toast by the end of the ride. I climbed in trail or turbo but then the last climb nursed it in eco. Here is the same ride but on my non assist bike from earlier this year for reference 13.3 mi Ride Activity on May 5, 2018 by Todd M. on Strava

I ride hard dh, enduro type tracks as first preference and the Levo was great. The stock Fox 34 was outgunned though. I'd definitely change that. The big battery of the expert would be a huge asset, so if I get one it would be the expert. I think the gearing was a bit tall to be honest. I think you could get more range if you geared down a bit and gave the drivetrain more leverage, at least for my riding which has very steep sustained climbs, not rolling at all.
 

addxyz

Member
Sep 21, 2018
16
5
USA
Overall it's pretty great but I could use more battery endurance so I have ordered an Expert, due in Feb 2019.

Are any shops letting people buy a lower level bike and paying the difference for a 700wh battery?
 
Last edited:

R120

Moderator
Subscriber
Apr 13, 2018
7,819
9,185
Surrey
I don't think the big batteries are in stock yet - i think some shops may be offering a discount on them as part of a purchase deal, but you wont get the bigger battery with the bike right now
 

Rob Rides EMTB

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Staff member
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Jan 14, 2018
6,146
13,219
Surrey, UK
Are any shops letting people buy a lower level bike and paying the difference for a 700mah battery?
As @R120 mentioned, haven't seen any of the 700Wh batteries. When stock is good though I'm sure you'll have lots of options to play with.

Personally, even if I had the Expert, I'd want a 500Wh battery, I prefer the 750g weight saving on the frame.
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
As @R120 mentioned, haven't seen any of the 700Wh batteries. When stock is good though I'm sure you'll have lots of options to play with.

Personally, even if I had the Expert, I'd want a 500Wh battery, I prefer the 750g weight saving on the frame.

Before my test ride I had thought I migthwant to swap my 700 for someone's 500 for free to get the weight saving but now I think I will live with the extra weight for more Turbo action. If I ever improve my fitness I might swap to a 500. If I was loaded I would buy a 500 for shorter rides and keep the 700 for long ones. Perfect :)
 

Paul Mac

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Subscriber
Jul 9, 2018
986
1,041
Uk
So I paid £60 to demo a 2019 Levo Carbon Comp recently and thought people might be interested in an Emtb newbie's thoughts.

I currently own a Carbon Strive and Carbon Sender both of which I really like except for the fact they don't have motors. I have been biking for 10 years, am 5'10", 100kg with gear and picked the Large Levo which fitted well with a similar reach and head angle to the Strive which it would replace. My fitness is somewhere between poor and awful. I really hate pedalling uphill so an Emtb has obvious appeal. To give an idea of my skill level I did the Strava section "Ho Chi Min EWS" which is pretty straight, fast and rough (0.61km , 71m, -12%) with zero pedalling for me. Some times for comparison - Greg Callaghan 58s, Cecile Ravanel 72s, Me 70s.

I've previously demo'ed a Pivot Shuttle with Shimano motor and a Mondo with a Bosch. I didn't like the Bosch as it's not very smooth and the whole 16t chainring with gearing thing seems inefficient and it was very draggy above 15mph. The Shimano motor was better but still somewhat 'steppy' in power delivery on mild climbs. It felt like the power changed from 40% to 60% with slightly varying gradients or torque inputs.

Specialized delivered the bike to Pedal Power in West Calder where I picked it up for a 48hr demo. After I got it home I found out the gears were not setup correctly so I fixed that and tweaked pressures and brake angle etc. I tested it on tarmac around my house and played with the mission control app. Turning down the trail mode from 30-100 to 25-100 made it a bit more natural feeling which was nice. In my opinion the Shuttle mode is not really a 'mode' and more of a tuning bias or sensitivity. At zero you need a bit a torque input to hit top spped in Turbo mode or to get above the base level in Trail mode. Dialing Shuttle up to 100 affects Trial and Turbo in the same way by reducing the required torque input from your legs to get the max power out of the motor. I think it's pretty similar to the Shimano sensitivity setting. I set it to 40%.

First day I tried a hillwalkers trail up Dumyat which is a mix of hardpack path, dirt, grass and rocks. There were several sections of rocks about 20ft high and 30% or more gradient that I had to push up. Pic from car park looking at Dumyat. The bikes upside down because I need to take the wheels off to get it in the car -
View attachment 6154

First disappointment was the walk mode which is terrible. If you are on a gradient that makes you get off and push, say 30% plus then it doesn't provide enough power to move itself forward. Pushing the button (which is awkward to reach and quite stiff) has a barely noticeable effect. I would guess it needs double the power to be useful. On the dirt and hardpack surfaces it was excellent. I am sure it didn't have the "noisy motor" issue some people are reporting. It was very quiet in Trail/Eco mode and from memory it was slightly quieter than the Shimano in Turbo mode which is fine.
After I got to a large ledge I gave up climbing to the top and headed down. I made it 200m before a pinch flat stopped play. The bike was using skinny lightweight inner tubes which were garbage. I changed it for my Maxxis 27.5 Freeride tube (never had a 29 bike before) and upped the pressures to 23 Front / 26 Rear which worked ok. The rest of the downhill was pretty great, you feel really "in" the bike and the geometry is excellent. I got used to the weight for the most part however it did make bunny hopping roots and rocks harder than usual.

Second day I went to Glentress and did a route that was a mix of Black, Fire Roads and off-piste trails including some 2014 EWS sections.
View attachment 6155
Another nice day in Scotland -
View attachment 6156
Again the geometry and handling of the bike is excellent. It was my first time on 29 wheels and I was worried they would be a bit unwieldy and cumbersome but they were fine and, of course, rolled very well. I mostly used Turbo mode on climbs with some Trail on flatter and downhill sections and no Eco at all. For uphill hairpins I felt the front end wanted to wash wide in Turbo mode so started dropping down to Trail for the corner then back into Turbo at the exit which was much better. I got back to the car with 3 bars still so I had a loop of Janet's Brae of 130m climbing which dropped it to one red bar. It seemed to go from 2 bars to one in about 200m. Total ride stats below -
View attachment 6157
I noticed Rob said about his range test "In total I covered approximately 3000 ft of elevation before the change to the second battery.". That equates to about 914m even though he was mostly in Eco mode. He looks thinner than me so I am reasonably impressed with the battery performance !

How a good day out ends -
View attachment 6158

Overall it's pretty great but I could use more battery endurance so I have ordered an Expert, due in Feb 2019.
Great write up.
What size Strive did you have?
I'm 5 09 and have a medium strive, I was going to opt for a medium Levo also.
I want to make sure I don't nerd a large.
Cheers
 

Eckythump

Well-known member
Founding Member
Jan 16, 2018
832
680
North Yorkshire
Before my test ride I had thought I migthwant to swap my 700 for someone's 500 for free to get the weight saving but now I think I will live with the extra weight for more Turbo action. If I ever improve my fitness I might swap to a 500. If I was loaded I would buy a 500 for shorter rides and keep the 700 for long ones. Perfect :)
Think you may be surprised how quickly your fitness will improve with an ebike.
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
Great write up.
What size Strive did you have?
I'm 5 09 and have a medium strive, I was going to opt for a medium Levo also.
I want to make sure I don't nerd a large.
Cheers

I have a medium Strive Race. I made a small spreadsheet with the geo numbers from the bikes and the large Levo is very close on paper and on the trail. The longer chainstay and wheelbase with 29 wheels was the most noticable difference. Also the levo large comes with a 50mm stem so there is scope to shorten that to 40mm if I feel its a little big after I get it.
 

Kernow

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Patreon
Founding Member
Jan 18, 2018
1,436
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Cornwall uk
Interesting to hear a comparison with shimano but you didn’t mention what settings you had selected on the shimano motor but you spent time setting the spesh
I think if you had selected max power and using boost it would be a little abrupt in its power delivery
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
Interesting to hear a comparison with shimano but you didn’t mention what settings you had selected on the shimano motor but you spent time setting the spesh
I think if you had selected max power and using boost it would be a little abrupt in its power delivery

When I said " It felt like the power changed from 40% to 60% with slightly varying gradients or torque inputs." I was in trail mode with medium sensitivity setting. This was on a climb that was not very steep, with some near flat sections and didn't need turbo mode. I was as if while riding along and the gradient changed a tiny bit steeper, instead of upper the assitance from 40% to 45% it could only jump up to what felt like 60% then back down to 40% again if the trail got mellower. Basically it seemed to have poor 'granularity' in the delivery. The Brose 2.1 in the Levo seemed to be a lot smoother at varying powers.

When the Shimano was in Turbo mode it always delivered a consistant power, similar to the Levo. It was only abrupt when moving off from stopped which is ok. From zero the Levo responds immediately but takes a pedal stroke or 2 to get up to full power, again somewhat smooother than Shimano. Overall the Shimano is good, the Brose 2.1 is just a bit smoother and more natural.
 

Harmialized

Member
Oct 15, 2018
69
49
Netherlands
Hi There,

Concerning the Walk-assist mode power/support delivery, your Specialized dealer can update your Levo and the walk-assit will be much more power full.

gr
Harm
 

Kernow

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
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Jan 18, 2018
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Cornwall uk
When I said " It felt like the power changed from 40% to 60% with slightly varying gradients or torque inputs." I was in trail mode with medium sensitivity setting. This was on a climb that was not very steep, with some near flat sections and didn't need turbo mode. I was as if while riding along and the gradient changed a tiny bit steeper, instead of upper the assitance from 40% to 45% it could only jump up to what felt like 60% then back down to 40% again if the trail got mellower. Basically it seemed to have poor 'granularity' in the delivery. The Brose 2.1 in the Levo seemed to be a lot smoother at varying powers.

When the Shimano was in Turbo mode it always delivered a consistant power, similar to the Levo. It was only abrupt when moving off from stopped which is ok. From zero the Levo responds immediately but takes a pedal stroke or 2 to get up to full power, again somewhat smooother than Shimano. Overall the Shimano is good, the Brose 2.1 is just a bit smoother and more natural.
The shimano in trail is supposed to have a varying or adaptive power output , a bit like Bosch does . If you give more effort so does the motor , Its a feature of trail mode .
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
The shimano in trail is supposed to have a varying or adaptive power output , a bit like Bosch does . If you give more effort so does the motor , Its a feature of trail mode .

Yes, and it does do that, basically. Its just that if I upped my leg power 2% it either does nothing or it steps up 20% ish. It wasn't a smooth direct proportional relationship between leg power and motor power, the motor seemed like it could only pick power outputs in increments of 20% or so which I felt as flat spots or surging.
 

R120

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Apr 13, 2018
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Wonder if the bike had the latests software updates - big difference to trail mode on the shimano with the software from early part of this year to the recent updates
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
Wonder if the bike had the latests software updates - big difference to trail mode on the shimano with the software from early part of this year to the recent updates

Possibly, it was the middle of June on a demo Pivot Shuttle.
 

Kernow

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Yes, and it does do that, basically. Its just that if I upped my leg power 2% it either does nothing or it steps up 20% ish. It wasn't a smooth direct proportional relationship between leg power and motor power, the motor seemed like it could only pick power outputs in increments of 20% or so which I felt as flat spots or surging.

I’ve not felt that with mine ,or any of the others I know of , if you go into the app and turn the modes to max they can seem a bit full on in boost . Trail gives lots of control , making picking your way up rocky climbs very controllable and easy . Doesn’t sound like your demmo bike was a good example to me
 

Harmialized

Member
Oct 15, 2018
69
49
Netherlands
Wonder if the bike had the latests software updates - big difference to trail mode on the shimano with the software from early part of this year to the recent updates
This shouldn't be the case since the walk-assist power support was very poor. This indicates that the system isn't updated before the handover to the rider is done. My bike had the same and after updating, the walk-assist is as twice as powerfull.
 

Harmialized

Member
Oct 15, 2018
69
49
Netherlands
Yes, and it does do that, basically. Its just that if I upped my leg power 2% it either does nothing or it steps up 20% ish. It wasn't a smooth direct proportional relationship between leg power and motor power, the motor seemed like it could only pick power outputs in increments of 20% or so which I felt as flat spots or surging.

Did you noticed this during riding or was this after a stop and go again?
Noticed a couple of times that the position of the speed sensor magnet is playing a big role, sometimes the magnet is 3/4 of a rotation away from the sensor and it takes longer to receive the max output. When magnet is close to sensor it gives instant power.

Also the RPM's pedalling is making a huge difference, when you stay between 80-100 the power delivery is the best and smooth.
 

Scoobaru

Active member
Sep 6, 2018
82
61
Scotland
Did you noticed this during riding or was this after a stop and go again?
Noticed a couple of times that the position of the speed sensor magnet is playing a big role, sometimes the magnet is 3/4 of a rotation away from the sensor and it takes longer to receive the max output. When magnet is close to sensor it gives instant power.

Also the RPM's pedalling is making a huge difference, when you stay between 80-100 the power delivery is the best and smooth.

My last few comments including this one were about the Shimano motor in a Pivot Shuttle that I was using as a comparison to the Levo. Hopefully when I try walk mode on the Levo again in the future it will be improved.
 

Schbeemb

Member
Nov 26, 2018
18
3
London
I too am a Strive and Sender owner. They're rammed into a small airing cupboard in a London pad and I can't stop thinking of an ebike as a replacement for both. Something like the Kenevo that excels downhill but can crawl to the top but also enable me to ride Lakeland epics.

I do a lot of trips to the likes of Revvo etc and am not sure what type of reception Id get turning up with an ebike. Using the uplift or not..

But i keep watching the vids.. the big days out there.. And i want.. want .. want ..

Travelling abroad appears to be an issue though... flying... no batteries.. eek.
 

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