Levo SL Gen 1 Levo SL 2023 Megathread

Ace Freely

Active member
Jul 31, 2019
137
190
Wenatchee, Wa
I think that the Pivot and Trek caught Spesh by surprise, and they scraped the release of the "updated" SL, because the drive system wasn't as refined as the Fazua or TQ systems.

I don't see them releasing anything until their drive system is 50+ NM, and in the sub 35lb range.

Ace
 

Suns_PSD

Active member
Jul 12, 2022
425
325
Austin
It's not going to be sub 35#s, a 400 kwh battery pack alone weighs 5#s on top of a 30# bike. That's before you get to the motor.

Even 40#s with proper tires and ready to ride seems like a stretch.
 

G-Sport

Active member
Oct 7, 2022
234
179
Yorkshire
I think that the Pivot and Trek caught Spesh by surprise, and they scraped the release of the "updated" SL, because the drive system wasn't as refined as the Fazua or TQ systems.

I don't see them releasing anything until their drive system is 50+ NM, and in the sub 35lb range.

Ace
I doubt that they can react that fast. Bikes for Delivery this spring (or last autumn which is when we were expecting this to drop) will have been "booked" at least 2 years ago and designs and tooling would almost certainly have had to be finalised well before last winter/spring if not earlier.
More likely is that they have a bunch of unsold inventory they need/want to shift first, as soon as they announce a new model they will need to reduce the unsold stock even more, and THEN they have the danger of not selling the new stock because the old ones are such an attractive deal.
My guess is that they will have negotiated a "delay" with their vendors and will stagger price drops on the existing inventory to try to time selling it out with an almost simultaneous announcement AND availability of the new bike. So there may only be a week or two between the big reveal and being able to pick one up off a shop floor.
Having delayed from late-summer/early-autumn, we are now in the traditional winter dip of very low sales anyway, so not a good time to announce.
My guess is that they will do something in early or mid spring when interest starts to pick up again in the northern hemisphere.
 

Chicane

Active member
Nov 11, 2020
342
290
SoCal
It's not going to be sub 35#s, a 400 kwh battery pack alone weighs 5#s on top of a 30# bike. That's before you get to the motor.

Even 40#s with proper tires and ready to ride seems like a stretch.
Logic usually prevails in the end!
 

Suns_PSD

Active member
Jul 12, 2022
425
325
Austin
I have super secret info on the Relay that a tester I bumped into at the trailhead told me, well actually Transition just emailed me their newsletter.

I'm most likely going with the Relay.

Screenshot_20230112-134330_Gmail.jpg
 

Suns_PSD

Active member
Jul 12, 2022
425
325
Austin
Haven't heard about them. What's the situation exactly?

It's just an electric motor and a battery for gosh sakes.
 

Chicane

Active member
Nov 11, 2020
342
290
SoCal
Controller sticking, breaking. Motor casing ring coming lose, motor creaking. Selling of these bikes being stopped due to the various issues, whatever they are exactly.
 

Mcharza

E*POWAH BOSS
Aug 10, 2018
2,498
4,722
Helsinki, Finland
The first information is closer than you think
 

Zimmerframe

MUPPET
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Jun 12, 2019
13,770
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Brittany, France
Seems like the most reliable mid-power ebike motor is the Bafang in the Forestal.

If you're thinking of going that way, there are other options with more power/torque and where many of the reliability issues have been addressed.


 

Ou812

Active member
Jun 26, 2022
588
391
Fort William
I have super secret info on the Relay that a tester I bumped into at the trailhead told me, well actually Transition just emailed me their newsletter.

I'm most likely going with the Relay.

View attachment 104508
I’d hold off on anything with a Fazua motor/battery for a good while. A friend of mine back in the US just had his Shuttle SL replaced with a Shuttle LT because Fazua has no motors in stock for warranty replacements and no ETA on when they would. His had the retaining ring pop out that seems to be happening to a ton of them.
 

Suns_PSD

Active member
Jul 12, 2022
425
325
Austin
Interesting. And they had problems with the display.
The display is stupid imo and Forestal is releasing an economy version that's going to cost less without that display replacing it with just a state of charge indicator, and weigh 1/2# less to boot.

The version of Siryon like that is still on my short list. Of course there is no hiding that it is an ebike with the Siryon, which is a factor for me.

The geo is really ideal on the L Siryon imo, and the non-removable battery is a big plus since every removable battery causes problems.

Bafang is the world's largest e-bike motor manufacturer, likely many times over, and as a result they seem to have the reliability bugs worked out.
 

Zimmerframe

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The display is stupid imo and Forestal is releasing an economy
When the Forestal was announced with it's display, it was pretty ground breaking and impressive. It's basically just a small android phone though and for whatever reason has been plagued with issues from day 1, from supply, development, electrical interference, reliability. The syrion's also a stunning bike and I've ordered it twice and then given up. There have been countless issues with the motor over time - hopefully, at some point, maybe we are there now - it's finally coming together as a package. At the start we discussed that - as a bit of a niche bike, owners would expect some issues and be more forgiving of them, it's only natural.

Bafang is the world's largest e-bike motor manufacturer, likely many times over, and as a result they seem to have the reliability bugs worked out.
That maybe true and we'll all see things as we want to justify our choices ! :)

The M820 hopefully will be a great motor, they've had all the failure experience from the Syrion to work with - it doesn't mean that changes haven't introduced new problems though.

Bafang may produce more motors than anyone else. Keep in mind though that the majority of those will be hub motors so, for now, completely irrelevant for our needs.

Most of their mid mounts are "hobby" users. For instance, people modifying bikes or making their own. In terms of quantity you're far off some of the other main stream suppliers and you have to keep in mind that the majority (not all) of those motors will be used on bikes which are having a relatively easy life compared to many off the shelf EMTB's (more suitable geometry) which people buy to hammer the crap out of going as fast as possible down hills and testing the pressures required to squish water and mud through bearings. You have motors having a relatively far easier life being used by people who will accept failures as part of what they're doing, possibly with a bit of excitement as it's something to repair and tinker with ! Read through the bafang threads enough and you'll see they're just as failure prone as everything else.

As an example, Brose. They make shit loads of motors (many will read that as shit motors). The majority are used in cargo bikes, town bikes, trail bikes and have a fairly easy life - they're even fairly reliable ! However put them on mountain bikes and use them in a more agressive environment and they fail considerably more often. This is exactly the same for Bosch, Shimano and so on.. Plod on the roads and light trails and even something like an E8000 can last 20,000 - 30,000 km's. Commute on your Bosch and you should get 50,000 km's.

I'm also quite tempted to order the M820 - so I'll be telling myself it will be reliable ....
 

Zimmerframe

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And spent millions on acquiring a new R&D facility.
Was that a technology R&D facility or a Profits R&D facility ?

We've asked customers and they'd like things to be on average 8% lighter ... PRD facility - ok, make the workforce 8% less.

People like the value that a DTC supplier gives them. PRD facility - Ok, we'll sell direct, but sell at the same price so they get the feeling of a premium product.

Now that we're competing with ourselves ... we need to be more efficient .. PRD facility - No problem, We'll cut the dealer margins.
 

CJaMTB

Well-known member
May 9, 2020
401
377
Dartmoor
Was that a technology R&D facility or a Profits R&D facility ?

We've asked customers and they'd like things to be on average 8% lighter ... PRD facility - ok, make the workforce 8% less.

People like the value that a DTC supplier gives them. PRD facility - Ok, we'll sell direct, but sell at the same price so they get the feeling of a premium product.

Now that we're competing with ourselves ... we need to be more efficient .. PRD facility - No problem, We'll cut the dealer margins.
No idea, but you could always ask them...

 

Zimmerframe

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It feels a bit like something else was going on behind the scenes ???

Pearl Izumi was bought from Shimano by USB. They were only at about half occupancy anyway. The building was built semi eco which was quite cool, though seemed a bit optimistic so maybe there were other plans at the time from Shimano's end.

The land was about 500k, so you wouldn't imagine with the amount of interested buyers they had (none) that it would have been overly expensive .. so presumably there was something else going on at the same time ???? Or I'm just being overly imaginative ...
 

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