Levo Expert 2019 Mud Collects and causes chain slippage

boytie

boytie

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It's winter in New Zealand and the trails are a little muddy. I have found that mud collects and builds and then overflows into the chain rings and guide and causes chain slippage. Believe the issue is down to the limited space between the wheel and the alloy rear triangle. (See picture posted below). I find it build right up to the top of suspension bracket. This can be serious issue in steeper hill climbs if the chain slips or jams. Does anyone else experience this? If so other than the obvious stop and clean it out and removing leaves and grass, (which is the main cause of malfunctions) has anyone got any remedies for this. I also note that it also causes a wear on the frame in the areas highlighted in yellow on the picture below.

Happy to take some photos of the mud packed up during my next ride which will be this weekend.

Also when I went to iRide in Wellington where I brought my bike I saw the new 2019 Expert on the shop floor and it had an additional plastic and rub protector. As it turns out these are available free to those who have first off the line production 2019 bikes and is designed to stop the ware and damage so guess I wasn't paranoid after all. I installed this last weekend and found this made a huge difference in protecting the bike from additional damage so it is well worth doing if you haven't already. Still keen to find a way to stop the mud packing into the rear tingle and need to stop regularly to clean out.


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My dealer installed the plastic protector and a new modified linkage at no cost to me.
Have a friend who purchased his bike from iride and they charged him $9.00 for the plastic piece and he had to fit it himself, plus he didn't get the new linkage.
 
iRide gave me the parts Free. Bag with three parts and instructions. Instructions includes some other stuff in context to the engine but iRide said that this had already been done on my bike. They gave me the option to install but would have had to wait so I installed them myself. Part didn't install was the foam which I saw was fitted already when I installed the parts. Not too hard to implement. I am interested to know what the new linkage is. Do you have any links to pictures of it
 
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I'll post a photo of it. I think it's got better clearances than the original.
I only found out Specialized were supplying it through a post I saw on this forum. My dealer (Cycle Science) didn't know about it until they checked with Specialized.
 
Primary protection for all those areas comes by fitting a rear mudguard. The sponge/ plastic kit just stops crap getting into the back of the motor housing but if anything makes the accumulation of mud etc between the tyre and chain stay cross member worse! A mudguard also protects all of the rear suspension linkages in that area and the seat tube/dropper. Look up a separate thread specifically dealing with the various rear mudguards people have fitted.
 
I find myself having to scrape off mud with twigs/sticks periodically when it gets bad. Even douse it with water at times. I haven't found a fender/mudguard that helped much
 
I made my own...made it so that it fitted the seat tube side of the cross member instead of between the cross member and tyre, so much more clearance. Also made it tall enough to protect most of the seat tube. I guess the type of tyre being used also makes a difference to how much gets clogged between the treads and then thrown off into the bike.
 
Mikerb said:
Primary protection for all those areas comes by fitting a rear mudguard. The sponge/ plastic kit just stops crap getting into the back of the motor housing but if anything makes the accumulation of mud etc between the tyre and chain stay cross member worse! A mudguard also protects all of the rear suspension linkages in that area and the seat tube/dropper. Look up a separate thread specifically dealing with the various rear mudguards people have fitted.
Click to expand...
Do you know the tag line for the tread. Cheers
 
What's the go to rear mudguard for the Levo? ………..is the thread title in the Specialized Forum.
 
Just bin reading your post about glaggin up drivetrain. We ride the boggy/peaty moors on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border virtually all year and we sussed a decent fix to help and it fitting a long front mudhugger to the rear triangle ( see my kenevo piccys )
 
Just bin reading your post about glaggin up drivetrain. We ride the boggy/peaty moors on the Lancashire/Yorkshire border virtually all year and we sussed a decent fix to help and it fitting a long front mudhugger to the rear triangle ( see my kenevo piccys

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I fitted one of these to my 19my levo.

SICOMTBPRODUCTS › ...
Specialized Levo 2019 Mud Guard – SICOMTBPRODUCTS

2 piece guard fits really well and keeps the motor and pivots free of debris.. i trued the mudhugger but found insufficient space to get it to fit inside the chainstays without buzzing the tyre all the time. Raising the fr mudhugger up just seemed to direct mud, water off the rear tyre into the motor area your trying to keep clean.
The sicom guard works really well ive found.
 
O yer!!! tyre clearance was be an issue when running 2.8 tyres ? but i and most of my other Ebikists found the best tyre for grip/wear and not puncturing is the Maxxis 27,5 x2.5 dhf dd ??and clearance is good
 
Sweet. Just ordered one now. :-)
The sicom guard works really well ive found.[/QUOTE]S
 
boytie said:
Sweet. Just ordered one now. :)
The sicom guard works really well ive found.
Click to expand...
S[/QUOTE]
Guards have arrived. Dry fit to bike shows Levo 2019 Expert rear linkage design must be different as they don't fit out of the box. I can see with a few alterations how they can fit but before I butcher them I am going to think about it for a bit and see if I can see what anyone else has done. The guards are in two peaces. They came with no install instructions so I will also go back to Sicom and see if they have some online instructions and check to see if anyone has a Youtub video of installing them.
 
Fitted the top part of the guard on issues. Clearance is minimal. I tried to put cable ties in the bottom part of the guard but can't get it to pull in tight enough. When put rear wheel back on can't peddle as the tire is hard up against that part of the guard. I have the rubber lower bracket protection fitted and my guess is to get this to allow enough clearance for the wheel I would need to cut that back or out and also cut and slightly heat and reform the contour of that bottom peace to get it to hold hard against the frame to allow the wheel to run and the chain in high to not hit the guard. I am going to go for a ride with just the top part fitted and see what difference that makes before working out path to take with bottom part. I should have taken some pictures of my original fitting and some video of the wheel space issue. I will do that when I re-fitted bottom part before I do the modifications that will be necessary and then add some more when I have worked out best modification path.
 
If all of that fails check out my diy mudguard in the thread titled...best rear mudguard for Levo. It cost me about £3 and has worked brilliantly on my Comp for 200 miles so far. The big difference with my design compared to all of the alternatives is that it fits on the seat tube side of the cross member not between the cross member and tyre. With the motor protector mod fitted (or in my case just a kitchen sponge stuffed into the gap) there is no need for the second lower piece of that mudguard.
 
Mikerb said:
If all of that fails check out my diy mudguard in the thread titled...best rear mudguard for Levo. It cost me about £3 and has worked brilliantly on my Comp for 200 miles so far. The big difference with my design compared to all of the alternatives is that it fits on the seat tube side of the cross member not between the cross member and tyre. With the motor protector mod fitted (or in my case just a kitchen sponge stuffed into the gap) there is no need for the second lower piece of that mudguard.
Click to expand...
Just Checked out. Very nice. Wish I had read that before buying new guard. See others have done what I did and realised it kind of works but not as good as your design. Reading through the threads I agree 100% that the clearance of the bottom peace to the bottom cross member is more than tight. My tire rubbed on it and couldn't penal the rear tire or even move the rear wheel free hand. I can push it tighter to the lower cross member but no way of keeping it there. Even then the gap is 2mm which just won't work. If I remove the after market rubber lower cross member and chain rubber wrap that goes round to the cross member I believe it would fit more snug but still wouldn't have good gap. Even as is no guard fitted the gap of the bottom cross member and the tire is ridiculous. If the upper part of the Sicom guard doesn't work I will go back and do what you did. Ouch to the 55 pounds (NZ 150). My ride this avo with the top peace fitted definitely felt stone between tire and guard rub. You can feel it in the peddling as brief resistance. Definitely need to fit a guard on the other side of that upper cross member which you can't do with the Sicom guard due to how it has been formed to confirm to the top cross member. Thanks very much for your post. That is exactly why I joined this forum.
 
AdamDuckworth said:
SiCo guard works perfectly on my 2019 Levo Expert. No rubbing, once you get it fitted right.
Click to expand...
Can you take photo and post. Did you remove the existing rubber protection before fitting the lower part of the guard. Won't conform to bike my with them on. Trying to hold them tight to the frame with cable ties didn't work. Tire is hard up against the guard when fitted? Top fits but the clearance in tight.
 
I firstly fully protected the cross member with frame guard because with the diy mudguard fitted on the seat tube side it gets no protection. The mudguard is cut so that it fixes to the seat tube side of the cross member but the "ears" still fix to the inside of the upper chain stays as normal. The length of the guard matches the top of the wheel cicumference so the seat tube and dropper are protected. The bottom section of the mudguard below the cross member is unsupported, quite wide and flat (not thermoformed like the top section). So it works a bit like a car mud flap...stiff enough to deflect water mud and stone but can deform if needed. Altogether the guard protects most of the frame and pivot bearings at the back of the bike. I still have the original pivot arm fitted and dont have the rubber filler piece either. I see no need to change the pivot arm...nothing gets to it. Instead of the rubber filler I have a kitchen sponge/scourer pad stuffed right down into the gap. It works fine
 
boytie said:
Can you take photo and post. Did you remove the existing rubber protection before fitting the lower part of the guard. Won't conform to bike my with them on. Trying to hold them tight to the frame with cable ties didn't work. Tire is hard up against the guard when fitted? Top fits but the clearance in tight.
Click to expand...
I'll take a pic and post it later. There are fitting instructions on the SiCom site I remember. I had to trim the side of the guard for chain clearance. Did it with a Stanley knife in 30 seconds.
Tyres don't rub at all, and I've ridden in plenty of UK mud!
 
I have fitted the free upgrade plastic guard extends the existing chain protection. I showed in my pic above where it was installed. I guess I need to pull this back off and see if that makes a difference. Also the picture attached is the same guard only the one I got has two cable ties in the middle of the orange second part I am having trouble with not the one slot seen in the picture so I hope I got the correct guard.
2019-04-08_11-04-31.jpg
 
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