Levo SL Gen 1 Specialized Levo SL - Is the motor tough enough?

nobbyq

Active member
Feb 17, 2019
189
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jersey
hi , great reviews Rob , would you say the sl is a bit nervous now the chain stays shorter ? am so tempted by this bike
 

Rob Rides EMTB

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Jan 14, 2018
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hi , great reviews Rob , would you say the sl is a bit nervous now the chain stays shorter ? am so tempted by this bike
On the climbs yes. On the descents the short chain stay means it feels like a whippet.

I struggled with uphill switchbacks.
 

Paceman

Member
Jul 8, 2019
92
59
Brighton
Really interesting insight, thank you. It would be great if they could develop a similar waterproof sealed motor that would drop into the Levo and replace the Brose.
...I’m not expecting it though :sneaky:
 

JonasH

Active member
Founding Member
Jan 23, 2018
169
104
Norway
@Rob Hancill did you say 19,4kg for the Alu Comp version of the SL on the video stream/chat? That’s only like or less than 2kg lighter than carbon versions of normal Levos...? With less than half the power?
 

dobbyhasfriends

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Subscriber
Sep 19, 2019
3,199
4,554
Llandovery, Wales
I would love to give that motor the 'Wales treatment' - there are some trails I do that have 9 or so river crossings, some of them are 2 - 3 feet deep.. right now I have to carry around but on that thing, I would blast through I reckon
 

All Mountain Coaching

E*POWAH Elite
Oct 3, 2018
1,332
980
GB
hi , great reviews Rob , would you say the sl is a bit nervous now the chain stays shorter ? am so tempted by this bike
On the climbs yes. On the descents the short chain stay means it feels like a whippet.

I struggled with uphill switchbacks.
Agh, never got to test that part and we have plenty here. I think it'll just be body language adjustment... And the softly heavier 36
 

MattyB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 11, 2018
1,266
1,279
Herts, UK
Rob, do you believe Specialized will develop its own motor for turbo Levo and Kenevo based on Levo SL motor?
They didn’t really develop their own motor; it was created by Mahle to Specs specification. Putting that aside it will have cost them a lot to spin up this new partnership; they would only have done that if they weren’t confident Brose could deliver what they needed. I suspect all those warranty motor swaps have cost Spec way too much and they want something with much lower return rates.
 

wepn

The Barking Owl ?
Jul 18, 2019
1,006
1,145
AU
I'll just leave this here. This is Mahle's microsite.

X35 – Light & Smart eBike System – MAHLE ebikemotion®

Looks like the SL battery is just an off the shelf unit looking at that one there. And the range extender is a smaller version of hte one listed there.

Their system is 36v not 42v like spesh, but you can see what they have done for it.
Interesting that's Mahle's hub motor package that's listed while the mid-drive is nowhere to be seen. Seems like Spesh have made it 48V, integrated their app platform & stitched up an exclusive OEM & brand agreement with Mahle for the drive.
 

jemen

E*POWAH Master
Jun 1, 2018
317
379
Austria
I ordered my LEVO SL Expert Carbon and will get on end of February. I´m really looking forward to it. Unfortunately the Levociraptor does not work yet for the CREO or the Levo SL, so my rides wil definitely last longer than in the last four years with my unrestricted LEVOs;-)
 

etoni

E*POWAH Elite
Sep 3, 2018
380
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Thun Switzerland
They didn’t really develop their own motor; it was created by Mahle to Specs specification. Putting that aside it will have cost them a lot to spin up this new partnership; they would only have done that if they weren’t confident Brose could deliver what they needed. I suspect all those warranty motor swaps have cost Spec way too much and they want something with much lower return rates.
a speci guy from cham switzerland tel me that speci will work with brose for the levo and mahle for the SL, but NO levo wit stronger Mahle motor like the brose. i ride the creo for short, but i am not happy with the sugar wather motor..
 
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MattyB

E*POWAH Elite World Champion
Jul 11, 2018
1,266
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Herts, UK
a speci guy from cham switzerland tell me that speci will work with brose for the levo and mahle for the SL, but NO levo with stronger Mahle motor like the brose.
Of course any Spec representative will say that at this stage - they have a contract with Brose that is not yet complete and plenty of Brose bikes out in the shop floor whose value they do not want to undermine. You might be right and they may stick, but I severely doubt it - very few manufacturers use two brands of motor, and Spec have invested a lot with Mahle to be able to have a unique product for them.

If they are going to move away they will play a very straight bat until the Brose contract is formally over, at which point they will no doubt release the new bikes in a blaze of “here comes the new best thing since sliced bread, everything else is obsolete, time to pony up £10k” style publicity ;). I suspect that will happen in MY 2021 for the Levo and a year later for the Kenevo.
 

Fivetones

E*POWAH Master
Patreon
Feb 11, 2019
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Cheshire
If they are going to move away they will play a very straight bat until the Brose contract is formally over, at which point they will no doubt release the new bikes in a blaze of “here comes the new best thing since sliced bread, everything else is obsolete, time to pony up £10k” style publicity ;). I suspect that will happen in MY 2021 for the Levo and a year later for the Kenevo.

But Matt, Specialized have changed eMTB for ever according to the press I’ve read! ;)
 

beutelfuchs

Member
Aug 11, 2019
174
99
Barcelona
They will just let Mahle and Brose compete with each other, like other brands are doing it with Shimano vs. Bosch. Would be plain stupid of them to select one definite supplier.
They are probably smart enough to even build prototypes of both versions to show to each supplier how easy it could be to phase them out for the next generation an case they don´t match price etc.
 

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