Derestricting Levo Gen4

[ruppia]

Hi guys,
this post to help people wants to derestrict this great bike.
Also, it seems that in some region you can choose from Class1 to Class3, really interesting
Please, try to update this thread with usefull news about deresticting

Thanks for your help, have a great ride

 

[WatermanJim]

The software at your LBS allows for a rear wheel circumference adjustment.
set to lowest number possible. this gives you an extra 2-3 mph which is all you need for the transition to be unnoticible on the trail and doesnt void the warranty.

 

[Alex @ PLANET3.bike]

Hi all,

I've been waiting until I got my personal bike (Gen4 Comp Carbon) to test and make a post regarding the PLANET3 and Levo Gen4. After testing this weekend here are some findings in order of importance..

• Specialized has finally gone the route of Giant/Shimano/Bosch and the new system is paying attention to gear ratios i.e. cadence vs. speed "map". This means that the days of derestricting it fully via a mechanical planetary gearset with a 3:1 ratio are basically gone. It's not that it doesn't work at all and for some use cases it's perfectly fine, but with a 3:1 ratio you'll get an error in anything lower than 8th or 9th gear.
• With a dual planet set the ratio of PLANET3 is halved to ~1.5:1 but even with this config the Gen4 Levo will cut your power in the first 3 gears (largest cogs on the cassette). The rest works fine and the speed limit is raised 50% (for EU/UK this is from 26-27 km/h to ~40 km/h while for the US it's from 20 mph to 30 mph. Yes, some of you will say that this is unnecessary as the US spec bikes come with the selectable option to go from Class 1 to Class 3 (28 mph), BUT what most people forget is that this option also halves the power output of the bike from 666W to Levo SL levels of power and good luck reaching 28 mph on flat asphalt with that power. I don't know about you but I've personally never used the lowest gears (even on a Gen2 Levo with a lot smaller cassette), but I might not be a good "population sample" since I mostly use my bike as a personal shuttle for relatively low-inclination fire roads climbs because of my hip flexion problems (I can't really bend forward and put pressure on the pedals without pain). Still, even when I chose a really steep incline and put the bike in down-tuned Eco mode, it's not really necessary to use the first 2 gears and it's my opinion that they're mostly there for situations when you're in OFF mode or you're climbing with some "acoustic" bike people. However, potential users should be aware of this limitation.
• The way that Specialized is currently checking this cadence vs. speed map is that they need a sample of ~25 seconds of CONTINOUS pedaling and then the bike cuts your power if you're in an "impossible gear" for a given combination of cadence and speed. If you stop pedaling for 1 second every 20 seconds, everything works but it's really a stupid way to ride. However, for a scenario when you're doing bike park downhill runs and you don't need to pedal for more than 20 seconds at a time i.e. you're just throwing in some pedal strokes here and there before jumps and you want to be sure you've got the power there - a single planet config works wonderfully and the speed limit goes to 3x the regional speed limit.
• What currently happens when it cuts your power is basically nothing. Bike cuts your power, no error messages appear on the screen, no error messages appear in the Specialized app. I will have a result if anything is visible in Specialized Turbo Studio (dealer app) in a few days, but for now - it seems that the power cut is the only thing that happens and it goes away as soon as you restart your bike. This doesn't mean that in the future they might not "upgrade" this to a more severe action that might void your warranty BUT the error that was present for this event in previous Specialized firmware was just aimed at "it looks like you've got a smaller or larger front chainring than is mechanically allowed in our system, please visit the bikeshop for a list of allowed ratios and change it back". Of course, if you're using a 3:1 ratio device that basically adds 300% to the cassette and if you're in 1st gear (51T on the cassette) the bike expects to be moving at say 6 km/h at a given cadence but the speed sensor is reading 2 km/h - then they can use that and say "hey.. there's no 150T cog on ANY cassette out there, so you're being a naughty boy and you need to cut that shit out!" but in my experience with more than 10k units out there on Specialized e-bikes - this hasn't happened yet.
• I've been delivering devices with a dual planet config by default for more than 2 years because I was expecting this moment to come even for Levo Gen1/Gen2/Gen3 i.e. Gen2 Brose S-Mag, but this never happened and the previous Gen bikes can still be fully derestricted with a PLANET3. For these bikes and motors we're safe anyway because when I found out about the potential error in the firmware that reports "Gear ratios outside the allowed range" I didn't just start delivering the mechanical devices with dual planets, I wasted a lot of time and effort to develop the PLANET3-E chip version which takes care of this problem in a much better and future-proof way.
  
• Next thing I'm doing is cutting apart my Gen4 Levo connectors because just like previous generations of Brose, they're not available in the connector industry (Gen1-Gen3 were Brose connectors, Gen4 uses a combination of Higo and Chogori but even though these are usually available through Alibaba, these exact variants are OEM specific and they won't sell them to anyone), and I'm proceeding with making the tooling to injection mold these just like I've done with the previous gen Brose connectors. This will take some time and the development of PLANET3-E for Gen4 is not something that will be done in a matter of weeks but a matter of months.

TL;DR version is this: Gen4 Levo can be derestricted to ~40 km/h or 30 mph for US with a dual planet PLANET3 config IF you're OK with not using the first 3 gears. If you need it for high speed runs in bike parks then even a single planet (3:1 ratio) device works so long as you won't be doing continuous pedaling for more than 25 seconds in gears lower than 8th or 9th.
In terms of compatibility, all the Gen4 bikes are covered and you can check them out here: Levo (Gen4) family - PLANET3

1. For the Comp Carbon model (and all the lower models that are yet to come out), it's necessary to replace the hub end cap and axle assemblies because it features an incompatible concave profile by default. All of this arrives in the kit and it's installed in less than 1 minute by simply pulling the old end cap and axle (by hand) and inserting the replacements. The rest of the installation is pretty routine and the same as all the previous generations of the Levo PLANET3 devices.
   
   
2. For the S-Works model, it's also necessary to replace the hub end cap on the DT Swiss 240 DEG hub because it features a conical end cap profile which we can't grab a hold of via press fit. Thus, I've machined sexy replacement end caps that are basically identical to new DT Swiss 350S hubs with the little tool-free removal groove at the top, but the rest of the profile is straight 19mm diameter which plays nicely with PLANET3.
   
   
3. For the Pro and the Expert models they come with hubs that are natively compatible and you just fit a PLANET3 as if to any other straight 19mm diameter profile hub.
   
   

If I remember anything else I'll edit this post, and if you've got any questions - fire away.

Regards,
Alex

 

[Eduardinior]

And how do you wear yours for gen 4 for the total delimitation of the bike?

 

[woodyj007]

The new firmware is out. Just curious if a VPN connected to USA or NZ will install that firmware like it does for the DGI?

 

[Drocko85]

The new firmware is out. Just curious if a VPN connected to USA or NZ will install that firmware like it does for the DGI?

I want to know this too

 

[woodyj007]

I want to know this too

FYI, No it doesn't. Used a VPN and faked my GPS to be in NZ. Appears to be serial number linked.