Specialized Turbo Levo 2020 in a good condition - good buy?

[ohadbenita]

Hi everyone,

Looking to get back into the MTB world with a 2nd hand 2020 Specialized Turbo Levo Alloy.

It's offered for about 40% the price of a 2022 model.
The motor has been replaced due to the known issue with the Specialized Levo/Kenevo motors of 2019-2020.
I'd be happy for any knowledgeable input regarding reliability of these motor replacements and any other advice or input about the specific model.

Thanks,
Ohad

 

[Zimmerframe]

The motor is pretty much the same now as it was then. If the bike has a new motor then it probably has the latest version of the motor anyway. Even though the naming changed from 2.1 to 2.2, it was just marketing to coincide with the release of the gen3 levo.

Being a 2020 bike, it will have the extended motor warranty due to a firmware issue which could have caused premature motor failure:

Levo Gen 2 - Warranty extension & Firmware Update for all 2019/20 Levo/Kenevo with 2.1 motors

To all owners of 2019/20 Turbo Levo & 2020 Kenevo featuring the Specialized 2.1 motor, here's a letter to you from Mike Sinyard - our founder and CEO. Thanks for all of your support & feedback on this forum. We'll keep a close eye on this thread and do our best to answer any questions.

www.emtbforums.com

So whilst the bike is second hand, the motor at least will still have about 2 years of warranty left on it - the same as thenew bike.

It's generally a good bike. The Gen3 offers some improvements like adjustable geometry out of the box, but similar can be achieved with the older bike if you really wanted to.

Some countries had some promo's on the base aluminium version of the new bike, so you could check the price of that bike too - though the component spec is low and I think it comes with the 500wh battery and not the 700wh.

A lot will depend on the spec of the bike you're looking at and if that fits with what you need, of if you're going to be swapping lots of parts out - then the new bike might suddenly start seeming more reasonable price wise.

 

[ohadbenita]

The motor is pretty much the same now as it was then. If the bike has a new motor then it probably has the latest version of the motor anyway. Even though the naming changed from 2.1 to 2.2, it was just marketing to coincide with the release of the gen3 levo.

Being a 2020 bike, it will have the extended motor warranty due to a firmware issue which could have caused premature motor failure:

Levo Gen 2 - Warranty extension & Firmware Update for all 2019/20 Levo/Kenevo with 2.1 motors

To all owners of 2019/20 Turbo Levo & 2020 Kenevo featuring the Specialized 2.1 motor, here's a letter to you from Mike Sinyard - our founder and CEO. Thanks for all of your support & feedback on this forum. We'll keep a close eye on this thread and do our best to answer any questions.

www.emtbforums.com

So whilst the bike is second hand, the motor at least will still have about 2 years of warranty left on it - the same as thenew bike.

It's generally a good bike. The Gen3 offers some improvements like adjustable geometry out of the box, but similar can be achieved with the older bike if you really wanted to.

Some countries had some promo's on the base aluminium version of the new bike, so you could check the price of that bike too - though the component spec is low and I think it comes with the 500wh battery and not the 700wh.

A lot will depend on the spec of the bike you're looking at and if that fits with what you need, of if you're going to be swapping lots of parts out - then the new bike might suddenly start seeming more reasonable price wise.

Thanks for the very detailed reply, highly appreciated.

All in all, as a first pair of ebike, would you recommend it?
Not sure about the battery spec yet (will know more and report back here tomorrow).
As for the extended warranty, this is something I'm taking into account, need to check with local dealer that it will be honored here in Israel.

I guess the question here right now is whether you would recommend this pair of bike reliability-wise?

 

[Zimmerframe]

It's fair to say that the Brose motor doesn't have the best reputation for reliability. However, that doesn't mean that yours will break. Some break more than others, this seems to depend a lot on the rider and how/where they ride also. Water getting in/jet washing generally won't help either. I have a bike with a Brose and it's always been fine, despite being abused lots and submerged.

A lot will depend on your bike shop. How professional/reliable they are. If you trust them to do the work and do it correctly. With an ebike this is even more important than with a normal bike as you have the additional controllers/sensors/cables/batteries/motors which can fail and it's often much harder to just buy replacement items than it is for other bike parts.

 

[ohadbenita]

Understood.

So what you're basically saying they're known to have had some issues but you could be lucky to not have issues with the motor for a long time. I'm guessing my next question would be around what should I pay attention to in terms of battery health (Any minimum battery health percentage I should aim for?) How many kilometers is something I can live with for a 2020 bike?