Berkshire don't have a monopoly. According to Chris, Specialized has stock of motors and batteries. Shops who say there is a delay are passing the buck. They don't want to hold stock of what they consider items Spesh should supply. A few motors are a lot of capital for a LBS to hold and keep rolling with failures.
Yes, it's far from ideal having a failure, but every motor has reported issues. Spesh has more proportionately reported failures than other brands, as they sell more. I don't think the current situation is ideal and different customers are getting different experiences from their LBS. However, have you heard Spesh blame Brose or pass the buck? They didn't design a bike to break. They are standing by their product despite its having issues.
As for rolling Warranty, the 2.1 isn't 2 years old yet so no-one has had any experience of a 2-year-old motor warranty claim. One would assume if that motor was changed at 1.5 years they would honour a period for it, but they can't send a guarantee for that else people would just purposefully break a motor or abuse it up to 2 years and get a new one and get another year out of it or whatever.
As I've said before on a MOTOX bike you'll be
lucky to get 3-month warranty
max on everything on a brand new bike. As the Brose 2.1 motor ages, it will become cost-effective to have third parties service the motors. At present there is no need to as they are getting replaced under warranty so there's no market for it. If a sprag clutch fails in 4 years on that motor and Spesh won't warranty it, maybe third parties can deal with this cost-effectively.
I've dinged around 4 mechs, had two cassettes, 2 chains and two new rims over the last two years and it cost me more than £1200. The motor arguably shouldnt be another cost, and to date it hasn't been. Just time. Keeping an eBike is expensive and time-consuming, but balanced against the fun, I'll take it. How much does your car, out of warranty, cost..? Yes this is a known issue. But I believe you would never be paying full retail for a new motor. Spesh do trust their LBS' opinion.
On the 1.2 I haven't heard of anyone having to pay full whack for a motor replacement. Also, they have what's called 'Rider Assist'. Even if you are way out of warranty there is a sliding scale of subsidisation for a component replacement that's not a wearing part. Speaking to DA at the Livestream he said if you spanked your frame into a tree and it snapped, you would never pay full price for a new frame, unless say it was 10 years old. Don't quote me on that number, but you get the drift. It's all case by case through your LBS. Spesh are on
your side, trust me..Your LBS may pass the buck.
So, if you've had a motor replaced at 1.5 years and it fails on day 731, I am almost certain you won't be asked to pay for it. They are not looking to not deal with a warranty claim, unlike every single car warranty company I have dealt with in the past.
Is the situation ideal..? No. But are they honouring their agreement to you in so much as they can with a product? To me yes..I hate having a broken bike over a riding weekend but this a new sport and everyone is learning as they go a bit..
Don't worry about failure until it happens. If it does...Then rest assured Specialized is on your side and don't accept a LBS saying there's no stock (in the UK anyway). I get it they don't want to shell out for a motor they don't feel they should be invoiced for and claim back but apparently Spesh have a long invoice settlement on warranty items. Why buy in 3 motors when you feel you should be provided them, or order them as required so as not to assign capital to warranty claims and claim Spesh are out of stock, and the shop is too busy to deal with the £38 Spesh give you to change the motor as there's more lucrative workshop stuff to be done. As Chris, says it's all about the long game but some LBS' are about the short term..
I guess some LBS' are being lazy, money must be tight at the moment. But it's certainly not down to Specialized's warranty stock on the Levo (at the time of writing). It's too easy to blame Spesh if said LBS can't deliver the more lucrative workshop time or capital to hold stock.
Go buy a bike, enjoy it.. Happy riding
