Levo SL Gen 1 Cost effective upgrade for new SL 1.2 motor?

[Rob Rides EMTB]

Spesh have the SL Kids for £1750. Half price.

Turbo Levo SL Kids

Mindfully designed for young athletes, the new Turbo Levo SL Kids electric bike combines the best of both worlds for enthusiastic guardians and budding ...

www.specialized.com

Transplant the old 1.1 motor and you have a bike with the new motor / battery etc...

 

[Lightme]

Not half price in Australia unfortunately

 

[Streddaz]

Spesh have the SL Kids for £1750. Half price.

Turbo Levo SL Kids

Mindfully designed for young athletes, the new Turbo Levo SL Kids electric bike combines the best of both worlds for enthusiastic guardians and budding ...

www.specialized.com

Transplant the old 1.1 motor and you have a bike with the new motor / battery etc...

Unfortunately, from what I have heard, it's not quite that easy. You need to source full sized cranks (different cranks to the old 1.1 motor and not interchangeable) and get the TCU remapped for the bigger wheels (hopefully you have a good relationship with your local dealer). You will have to do this for both bikes.
You also then have a kids bike that your either have to have a use for with the old motor, and you won't get much for it as you have voided the warranty and modified it.
Would probably be worth it if you had a child that you were going to buy the bike for anyway, but I wouldn't do it just for myself.

 

[Dax]

Unfortunately, from what I have heard, it's not quite that easy. You need to source full sized cranks (different cranks to the old 1.1 motor and not interchangeable) and get the TCU remapped for the bigger wheels (hopefully you have a good relationship with your local dealer). You will have to do this for both bikes.
You also then have a kids bike that your either have to have a use for with the old motor, and you won't get much for it as you have voided the warranty and modified it.
Would probably be worth it if you had a child that you were going to buy the bike for anyway, but I wouldn't do it just for myself.

Wouldn’t you just swap the tcu’s as well? I guess you’d need to get the wheel size recalibrated?

Sourcing full size cranks for the SL2 seems easier than kids sized cranks for the SL1…

Seems like the cheapest way for a KSL owner to get the SL2 motor, versus selling their KSL and buying a KSL2, even with the discount available on the KSL2 like Specialized S-Works Turbo Kenevo SL 2 Full Suspension Electric Mountain Bike 2024 in Black Liquid Metal/Chrome

 

[Streddaz]

Wouldn’t you just swap the tcu’s as well? I guess you’d need to get the wheel size recalibrated?

Sourcing full size cranks for the SL2 seems easier than kids sized cranks for the SL1…

Seems like the cheapest way for a KSL owner to get the SL2 motor, versus selling their KSL and buying a KSL2, even with the discount available on the KSL2 like Specialized S-Works Turbo Kenevo SL 2 Full Suspension Electric Mountain Bike 2024 in Black Liquid Metal/Chrome

Yes, you would swap TCUs as well, but you need a Specialized dealer to recalibrate them for the different wheel size. It may work out cheaper depending on what you sold your KSL1 for, but you do then end up with two bikes that you have voided the warranty on, and a kid's bike that you may not need and won't get much for it because you have fitted an old motor into it. You would also need a Specialized dealer that was cool with doing it and to look the other way.
For all the hassle, I wouldn't think it was worth it.
It's a shame Specialized just don't sell the motors and TCUs separately. I'm sure there's a market for people wanting to upgrade their motors.

 

[brigcampbell]

Here are all the Spesh bikes in the UK on sale.

Some have been on sale in the US already.

Sale

Saving money is like saving time—if you can do it, you'd be a fool not to. And lucky for you, this collection of past-season goods will save you both. T...

go.redirectingat.com

 

[Streddaz]

Here are all the Spesh bikes in the UK on sale.

Some have been on sale in the US already.

Sale

Saving money is like saving time—if you can do it, you'd be a fool not to. And lucky for you, this collection of past-season goods will save you both. T...

go.redirectingat.com

Specialized must be in a bit of hurt at the moment.

I bought a new Stumpjumper a couple of months ago and got $3000 AU off the marked price and now it's $1000 less than that.

 

[brigcampbell]

Specialized must be in a bit of hurt at the moment.

I bought a new Stumpjumper a couple of months ago and got $3000 AU off the marked price and now it's $1000 less than that.

Every bike manufacturer is in world of hurt.

 

[G-Sport]

It's a shame Specialized just don't sell the motors and TCUs separately. I'm sure there's a market for people wanting to upgrade their motors.

Yes, this baffles me.
I would really like to upgrade my gen 1 SL to the new TCU particularly but the part is a stupid price and I don't think they will flash it for me. Motor would be good too.
In theory, these parts (motor, TCU, battery and loom) are about £2k to buy on their own (IF you can find them). So doing the kids bike swap is tempting. But not having any warranty or support is worrying.
Not worried about the speed though. 15.5mph on a 24" wheel would be 17.75 and 18.75 on 27.5" and 29" wheels respectively. So higher than the EU limit!

 

[Streddaz]

Yes, this baffles me.
I would really like to upgrade my gen 1 SL to the new TCU particularly but the part is a stupid price and I don't think they will flash it for me. Motor would be good too.
In theory, these parts (motor, TCU, battery and loom) are about £2k to buy on their own (IF you can find them). So doing the kids bike swap is tempting. But not having any warranty or support is worrying.
Not worried about the speed though. 15.5mph on a 24" wheel would be 17.75 and 18.75 on 27.5" and 29" wheels respectively. So higher than the EU limit!

Things might change with the way the bike industry is going and seeing that Specialized is struggling to shift product. They may see a market for motor upgrades, as I assume when demand was really high there were no motors spare to sell separately.

 

[G-Sport]

Things might change with the way the bike industry is going and seeing that Specialized is struggling to shift product. They may see a market for motor upgrades, as I assume when demand was really high there were no motors spare to sell separately.

I would love for this to be true, but specialized have always had this very strange approach to spares.
Tried to buy new axles for their Boomslang pedals in the past and they wouldn't sell them, only warranty. It's a wear part, it should be for sale.
The steerer SWAT tool is really good but hard to find and expensive.
The concept store doesn't carry a lot of their spare parts too.
Just seems like a missed opportunity all round.

 

[Dax]

Specilized need to sell bikes. If I could spend £1k putting a sl2 motor in my KSL, what reason would I have to spend £7k on a KSL2?

 

[Streddaz]

Specilized need to sell bikes. If I could spend £1k putting a sl2 motor in my KSL, what reason would I have to spend £7k on a KSL2?

You are probably right there, but if it comes down to selling a motor or nothing at all, that might change things.

 

[G-Sport]

Specilized need to sell bikes. If I could spend £1k putting a sl2 motor in my KSL, what reason would I have to spend £7k on a KSL2?

Very little, but that's largely because the ksl changed so little. For the levo the geometry changes make it much more worthwhile.
But then if only the motor has changed then why buy the new bike anyway?
Better to sell you a new motor for $1000 (probably with a very healthy margin) than have you buy another brand's bike.

 

[crazyknowledge]

I was speaking to someone in the industry about doing this swap, they were saying on the Specialized dealer software there is only the possibility to change the wheel circumference by 25% so it seems as though it would not be possible to get either bike set up properly, the kids Levo would cut out very early at about 10mph, the KSL would cut out later which seems a bonus but then that would effect the data readings such as mileage / mileage left related to battery percentage, possibly some other readings I cant think of ?

Does anyone know if there is any way round this issue, I'm tempted to do the swap but seems a real gamble as to how it would turn out.

I guess you could put a de-restrictor on the kids bike but that is then possibly bringing it's own problems.

 

[johnnystorm]

I was speaking to someone in the industry about doing this swap, they were saying on the Specialized dealer software there is only the possibility to change the wheel circumference by 25% so it seems as though it would not be possible to get either bike set up properly, the kids Levo would cut out very early at about 10mph, the KSL would cut out later which seems a bonus but then that would effect the data readings such as mileage / mileage left related to battery percentage, possibly some other readings I cant think of ?

Does anyone know if there is any way round this issue, I'm tempted to do the swap but seems a real gamble as to how it would turn out.

I guess you could put a de-restrictor on the kids bike but that is then possibly bringing it's own problems.

Wouldn't smaller wheels on the kids bike mean a higher top speed? At a given rpm a full 29er will be faster than a 24". Won't the system just be counting wheel rpm?

 

[G-Sport]

Wouldn't smaller wheels on the kids bike mean a higher top speed? At a given rpm a full 29er will be faster than a 24". Won't the system just be counting wheel rpm?

yes. As mentioned already above.
But I think Crazyknowledge was talking about the resultant kids bike with a 1.1 motor in it. The 1.1 motor moved from a 29" wheel to a 24" will cut out at 83% of the expected speed. So for a 16mph tail off on the 29" it will become 13.3mph. (for us UK/EU people). But the gen1 tcu could certainly be flashed to 27.5" wheels (maybe less), which would get it up to about 14mph which is probably plenty for a kids bike.

I can't imagine them having developed an entirely different TCU for the kids bike so I don't see why it wouldn't be flashable for the mastermind to have the "adult" tune, the question is whether any dealer will do it for you.
Specialized rider care have previously told me that the 1.2 motor will not work with the gen1 TCU so there probably isn't a "kids" tune for the gen 1. but they have been pretty terrible in my experience (including lying about this kind of thing) so I would take anything from that source with a bucket of salt.

 

[johnnystorm]

yes. As mentioned already above.
But I think Crazyknowledge was talking about the resultant kids bike with a 1.1 motor in it. The 1.1 motor moved from a 29" wheel to a 24" will cut out at 83% of the expected speed. So for a 16mph tail off on the 29" it will become 13.3mph. (for us UK/EU people). But the gen1 tcu could certainly be flashed to 27.5" wheels (maybe less), which would get it up to about 14mph which is probably plenty for a kids bike.

I can't imagine them having developed an entirely different TCU for the kids bike so I don't see why it wouldn't be flashable for the mastermind to have the "adult" tune, the question is whether any dealer will do it for you.
Specialized rider care have previously told me that the 1.2 motor will not work with the gen1 TCU but they have been pretty terrible in my experience (including lying about this kind of thing) so I would take anything from that source with a bucket of salt.

Ah yeah, gotcha. Didn't think of the kids bike being scuppered!