Levo Gen 4 Lower battery range than I expected

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Idlefrog

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I recently bought a Levo 4 Comp. I am still playing with the motor modes and tuning but I seem to be using more battery than I expected for my regular rides. My old bike is a Cube Stereo Hybrid 140 with a Bosch gen 4 motor and a 750 battery. On a typical ride I will do about 30 miles and on the Cube I would use about 50% battery riding in eMTB mode. On the Levo I used about 65% and that has a bigger 840 battery. I tried to get it so the assist level felt about the same as the Cube.
The tyres on the Levo are Butcher T9s and they seem super sticky and it seems to roll slower on the road than the Cube which Has Schwalbe Magic Mary & Big Betty. Could it be the tyre resistance draining the battery more?
What motor modes are you guys using? What sort of range do you get. I am mainly riding bridleways & country lanes in the Cotswolds.
I would expect to be able to do a 50 mile cross country route easily on a 840 battery as I could do that on the Cube with 750 battery but at the moment I'm not sure I can.
 
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Softer compound tires will definitely chew more motor power. Likely your assist levels are just different with the two different motors. Your'l need to keep tweaking the assist levels until you match the old settings.
 
Idlefrog said:
I recently bought a Levo 4 Comp. I am still playing with the motor modes and tuning but I seem to be using more battery than I expected for my regular rides. My old bike is a Cube Stereo Hybrid 140 with a Bosch gen 4 motor and a 750 battery. On a typical ride I will do about 30 miles and on the Cube I would use about 50% battery riding in eMTB mode. On the Levo I used about 65% and that has a bigger 840 battery. I tried to get it so the assist level felt about the same as the Cube.
The tyres on the Levo are Butcher T9s and they seem super sticky and it seems to roll slower on the road than the Cube which Has Schwalbe Magic Mary & Big Betty. Could it be the tyre resistance draining the battery more?
What motor modes are you guys using? What sort of range do you get. I am mainly riding bridleways & country lanes in the Cotswolds.
I would expect to be able to do a 50 mile cross country route easily on a 840 battery as I could do that on the Cube with 750 battery but at the moment I'm not sure I can.
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Hi fellow cotswolds rider , I went from a cube stereo to a levo gen 3 back in 2022, and found then the levo always felt sluggish on the roads compared to the cube , but felt way quicker off road don’t ask me why , i ended up with a Mary on the back and a eddy current on the front , and the cube was running Mary’s back and front , but always felt faster on the flat , now got a gen 4 with continental tyres so time will tell how it goes , gonna bike to work tomorrow, a 10 miler each way with 50/50 road and off road
 
Hicksy 92 said:
Hi fellow cotswolds rider , I went from a cube stereo to a levo gen 3 back in 2022, and found then the levo always felt sluggish on the roads compared to the cube , but felt way quicker off road don’t ask me why , i ended up with a Mary on the back and a eddy current on the front , and the cube was running Mary’s back and front , but always felt faster on the flat , now got a gen 4 with continental tyres so time will tell how it goes , gonna bike to work tomorrow, a 10 miler each way with 50/50 road and off road
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As you say the Levo does seem faster off road. I think it is because the suspension does a better job of smoothing everything out. I definitely think it is a better bike, I just want to improve the range as occasionally I do longer rides.
 
Yea I’m hoping for more range to , or the ability to use trail a little more , I do big 32-36 mile rides in the Yorkshire dales with a lot of climbing and 99% of the time in eco just to get the range, nearly always Finnish with 10-14 % battery
 
Or you can just go into the app and set the eco to a custom setting like 25/40, this way you never can access 100% power and really saving power. I have an 11 mile loop with 1200ft of climbing and I can clean it with 20% battery, so I could go basically 50 miles near 6K climbing on one charge. The real quest is what is he currently riding at?
 
Power1tobe said:
Or you can just go into the app and set the eco to a custom setting like 25/40, this way you never can access 100% power and really saving power. I have an 11 mile loop with 1200ft of climbing and I can clean it with 20% battery, so I could go basically 50 miles near 6K climbing on one charge. The real quest is what is he currently riding at?
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On my last ride I had the bike setup with the battery saving settings in the app for eco, trail & turbo. I did most of the ride using auto but some was in eco. I did 20.69 miles, 1867ft climbing and used 50% battery which surprised me.
I have changed the auto setting to be auto - now. I'll be out again at the weekend so will see how it goes.
On the Cube I would leave it in eMTB mode and use about 50% for 30 miles.
I suspect the sticky tyres are adding resistance.
 
This is interesting because I went riding with a buddy, he on his brand new Levo Gen 4 with the bigger (940?) battery and me on my Ibis Oso w/750 battery. I weigh 155# he weighs 185#. We did 32 miles and 4500 feet of climbing. My buddy on his Levo 4 RAN OUT and I had to tow him the last two miles back to the car. I finished with 34%??! Not sure how to cross calculate battery mileage but with his bigger battery I did not expect this at all! He is a newbie on an eBike, so I am sure he was not managing his battery as well as he could, but still? For me I rode in trail mode nearly the whole time. It will be interesting to hear what others say mileage wise for the new Gen 4.
 
Cactus Jack Slade said:
This is interesting because I went riding with a buddy, he on his brand new Levo Gen 4 with the bigger (940?) battery and me on my Ibis Oso w/750 battery. I weigh 155# he weighs 185#. We did 32 miles and 4500 feet of climbing. My buddy on his Levo 4 RAN OUT and I had to tow him the last two miles back to the car. I finished with 34%??! Not sure how to cross calculate battery mileage but with his bigger battery I did not expect this at all! He is a newbie on an eBike, so I am sure he was not managing his battery as well as he could, but still? For me I rode in trail mode nearly the whole time. It will be interesting to hear what others say mileage wise for the new Gen 4.
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Today I rode 21 miles and 2760ft and used up 50% of the battery. I started out in Auto minus mode but fairly quickly set it to 10/100 in micro-tune mode.
I have ordered some Scwalbe Tacky Chans to try out as reviews suggest they roll fast.
 
timo2824 said:
More powerful motor equals more battery used. Everyone wants 1500 watts and 250nm, but batteries will be 30lbs to get you 20 miles...
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True, but the Levo 4 is only 10% more powerful than Bosch gen 4, 666W vs 600W and the Levo has a 12% bigger battery 840 vs 750, so I would expect the Levo to have slightly greater range, but I am getting back from rides with about 20% of battery left on the Levo where the Bosch bike would have about 45% left.
The Levo rolls noticeably slower freewheeling downhill which I think must be the tyres. I am going to fit some faster rolling ones to see if it helps with range.
 
I am curious to hear the difference the tires make. Running sw Levo in trail mode with heavier new gen 2.6 Butcher front and 2.4 Eliminator rear. I took out my Rail today with 750 w cx g4 in Turbo with 2.5 Assegai front and 2.5 Aggressor rear exo+ and rode the exact same 16 mile loop with 1600 ft vert. Levo uses 41% and Rail uses 39%. Same tire pressures and Rail is 2 mph faster on big downhills and rolls better.
 
Check if the chainguide rubs or if there is some other drag in the system. Tires and air pressure can make a big difference, especially on tarmac uphills.
 
I wanted to buy a bike from a company that gives a good warranty and customer service. Recently a friend had the motor go on his Levo 3 on a Saturday morning and had a new motor fitted the next Wednesday. That impressed me. My Cube has been reliable, but many Cube owners have had a hard time with warranty claims.
Also I loved the look of the Levo and the reviews I have seen were favourable.
I am enjoying the bike and it rides better than the Cube, I just find the range poor currently.
 
Idlefrog said:
I wanted to buy a bike from a company that gives a good warranty and customer service. Recently a friend had the motor go on his Levo 3 on a Saturday morning and had a new motor fitted the next Wednesday. That impressed me. My Cube has been reliable, but many Cube owners have had a hard time with warranty claims.
Also I loved the look of the Levo and the reviews I have seen were favourable.
I am enjoying the bike and it rides better than the Cube, I just find the range poor currently.
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I think you should find that with most eBike brands now. They realize people are new to this and need a good experience. I am on my 3rd Fazua motor with no delays. Bosch is also known for good support through their dealers.
 
timo2824 said:
More powerful motor equals more battery used. Everyone wants 1500 watts and 250nm, but batteries will be 30lbs to get you 20 miles...
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Well, not everyone wants that. Personally I feel 85nm is plenty. over 100 is getting excess. Also, just because they have the extra power does not necessarily mean they use it all the time. I rarely use "turbo" and usually in trail mode 85% of the time. I suppose the temptation is there to go all out, but newbies will learn quickly about battery management!
 
I was curious as to the "factory" experience as I'd been hearing the range problem but had never run into it. I did the attached ride in the "Battery Management" setting and spent the day in Eco and Auto-. Other than lowering shuttle to 0% and putting the other charateristic setting to minimum I used the factory settings. I did finish the day on the fireroad (mostly flat and about 3 miles) at 10% microtune. I finished at 4%. You can squeeze huge range out of these (way more than my gen 2 and gen 3, but you have to manage your power well (riding at right cadence, etc) and remember how powerful they are. I did a "shuttle" ride the other evening that was 2700' of climbing and just over 10 miles and ran the battery from 80%-30% in under an hour.

1000012840.jpg
 
The best you will get is some sort of low resistance dual sport tire, fully inflated . Suspension locked out in climb mode if available. Power settings to eco. Cadence 75-85 rpm. Seems fast but motor hums along way happier.

Also a new battery takes a few full empty~full cycles to reach optimum power and capacity.
Then……..the 100000$ range extender.
Thats it really it.
Best I’ve done is (Levo 4 expert ) 30miles with 28% left… only 500ft of climb, could’ve tried a bit harder in eco. I was goofing of a lot.
In the mountains …….25-30miles tops.
 
This was my ride yesterday in the Yorkshire dales with a bloody head wind that seemed to get us always , I love the bike but am a little disappointed with the range , my friend who I ride with is on a gen 3 pro used his trail more than I used auto - , and I had shuttle and the respsponsive turned right down , I had 9 % left with range remain between 0 and 2 miles left , he had 14 % left , and obviously his battery is smaller and I worked just as hard as he did .i will say the magic Mary’s radials do definitely such a bit of power out of it but they do ride so nice .

IMG_1657.png IMG_1658.png
 
At its most basic level you can't compare the 2 bikes as the motors and batteries are different, and your bike on the exact same settings as the Gen3 would still consume more juice. That said what was your ECO setting (default?), that would give more insight. If Gen4 was in the Eco default and (35% Support and 35% Peak Power) or 233 watts vs. the Gen4 197.75 watts. If that was the case he was working harder... either way you can't compare the 2 as the Gen 4 can destroy the Gen3. If you want more range then you need to micro tune to bring down the consumption.
 
Power1tobe said:
At its most basic level you can't compare the 2 bikes as the motors and batteries are different, and your bike on the exact same settings as the Gen3 would still consume more juice. That said what was your ECO setting (default?), that would give more insight. If Gen4 was in the Eco default and (35% Support and 35% Peak Power) or 233 watts vs. the Gen4 197.75 watts. If that was the case he was working harder... either way you can't compare the 2 as the Gen 4 can destroy the Gen3. If you want more range then you need to micro tune to bring down the consumption.
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My eco was set at 20%-30%, it does feel like I have to manage the battery way more than my old gen 3, if I planned a 30-36 mile ride , I always knew I would make it but there is always some range anxiety with my new bike , always trying different settings as with the old bike I was always in the factory settings no worries, really hope I don’t have to get a range extender as I hate the look of the things , but it looking more like it if I want some extra juice .
 
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Idlefrog said:
True, but the Levo 4 is only 10% more powerful than Bosch gen 4, 666W vs 600W and the Levo has a 12% bigger battery 840 vs 750, so I would expect the Levo to have slightly greater range, but I am getting back from rides with about 20% of battery left on the Levo where the Bosch bike would have about 45% left.
The Levo rolls noticeably slower freewheeling downhill which I think must be the tyres. I am going to fit some faster rolling ones to see if it helps with range.
Click to expand...
Reduce the torque also to 85Nm on the Levo. There is your 15% discrepancy vs the Bosch.
 
To Help you can also change 4 default setting;
Shuttle > Off
Responsiveness > Slow
Overrun > Min
Auto Mode Profile > Auto -


Cheers
Paul
Specialized UK
Ambassador
 
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