For this edition of Readers’ Reviewers’ Rides, Benji shares his technicolour Specialized Turbo Levo SL Comp Alloy which is not very stock anymore!
Bike brand and model
2024 Specialized Turbo Levo SL Comp Alloy, size S5.
Why this bike?
It’s turned out to be an ideal testbed bike. No odd standards but everything modern fits (SRAM Transmission for example). A mid-power (50Nm), small battery (320Wh) e-trail-bike that weighs 20.4kg as stock (S5 size) and still has impressive range. First off, if you’re not a fan of the colour, don’t worry. The 2025 versions of this bike are metallic grey or metallic dark blue. The other things that have changed is that the front rotor is now 220mm and the rear shock is a Specialized Genie. The Genie being essentially Fox Float X with two positive air chambers. I’ve ridden one on the Stumpjumper 15 and was very, very impressed with it. Anyway, all of these spec changes pretty much deal with all of the niggles I’ve had with this 2024 model.
As you can see though, the bike is now very much not OEM spec. It’s a classic example of the hotchpotch of test product that most bikes under my custodianship drift into.
Fork
Fox 36 Float Rhythm 150mm. Which has been a brilliant fork and am in no rush to replace it with anything ‘better’. The right stanchion bears a couple of scrapes from a crash but no signs of any undue leakage yet!
Shock
Fox Float X. It’s pretty good. Just feels a bit vague/missing in the midstroke support. I would really like to try one Specialized’s new Genie rear shocks on it. Which reminds me to remind them about it.
Wheels
A set of Industry Nine Hydra2 Enduro Alloy mixed-wheelsize wheels with silver Hydra2 hubs and pink spokes and tubeless valves.
Tyres
Front: Kenda Hellkat Pro ATC 29×2.4in. Rear: Schwalbe Big Betty Addix Soft Super Trail 27.5×2.4in. No inserts currently.
Pedals
SQlab 50X flats. Early days with these flatties. So far, so good. I like the wider stance and SQlab’s penguin-toes-out offset design.
Drivetrain
SRAM Eagle 90 Mechanical Transmission.
Brakes
A pair of teal-tastic SRAM Motive Ultimate Expert with 180mm new style floating Centerline rear rotor and 220mm old style Centerline rotor up front while I wait for bigger versions of the new style. Which reminds me to remind them about it. And yes, I’ve routed the rear brake externally via zipties (didn’t want introduce my brake bleeding skills into the brake review just yet) but I intend to go internal (amd shorten the hose etc) at some point.
Bars & Stem
OEM Specialized alloy bars. Industry Nine A35 32mm stem. Long reach and short-as-pos stems are very much my jam.
Grips
Sensus EmJ push-on grips. I’m really liking these rubbers.
Seatpost
PNW Loam dropper 200mm, 30.9 (shimmed to 34.9mm). With an Aenomaly SwitchGrade II saddle-angle-aduster on top. If there’s any bike that benefits from a SwitchGrade it’s a Specialized; short chainstays and not-steep actual seat angle make front wheel pinning-down on steep climbs difficult. With the SwitchGrade tilted nose-down, it’s amazing the difference in capability and control.
Saddle
Secret. I think. Although I’ve seen it on a few MY2025 bikes already so it can’t be that secret…
Accessories
Specialized SWAT Conceal Carry tool in the steerer tube. Totally brilliant. Possiblty my favourite thing on the whole bike(!). Specialized Zee bottle cage, again excellent (and is designed to work with range extender battery and connector cable, which is nice). Crankbrothers Guardian QR hand guards – early days with these but I’m a fan of hand guards on my local ‘wild’ trails. On a lavender coloured buike with pink wheels, teal brakes, marbled grips and an Aenomaly SwitchGrade, a set of hand guards top the whole thing off nicely! I’ve also tweaked the top tube display to show a custom-designed combo of stats on the third screen. Because.
Size and Weight
S5. Current guise weight: 19.4kg.
Additional Comments
All in all it’s been a pretty excellent bike. A proviso is that taller riders (like me) may have to do some geometry tweaking. To cut a long story short, after trying all of the configurations (including 29in rear wheel) I ended up with: -1.0° headset cup, high BB setting and long/29in chainstay setting. Yep, 29in chainstay setting but running a 27.5in rear wheel. The short/27.5in setting was just too short for my tastes. Very hard to keep my balance between the two tyre contact patches. I can live with the low slung BB and slacker seat/head angles, mainly by running minimal (25%) sag, which improved the otherwise ‘over eager’ rear suspension feel as well.
By my reckoning the geometry as it stands with all my tweakings: 63° head angle, 74.8° effective seat angle and 340mm BB height.
The SL 1.2 motor is arguably the best all-round mid-weight motor. More genuine power and range than the TQ HPR50. More reliable than the Fazua Ride 60 system. Better pedal feel and range than the Bosch SX. For £1,000 more you could get the carbon version that also comes with wireless SRAM SX AXS drivetrain but personally I don’t think it’s worth it. You’d be far better advised to spend £1000 (over time) on upgrading some bits on this Alloy model (wheels, tyres and longer dropper I’d suggest). It’s a great handling mountain bike with decent spec and a sorted motor.
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Replies (4)
Comments Closed
How do you like the Kenda?
It’s my favourite all-year tyre but they are becoming increasingly hard to find in the enduro casing and I’m not sure what I’d replace it with if I can’t get another. A Magic Mary is the obvious choice, but also thinking something more like an Argotal / High Roller 3 as its soft / muddy here more than anything else.
Love this, a similar journey to me so far. Mine is a carbon comp, its now got
29″ wheels Hope/DT, (I just think 29 is better everywhere)
Oneup 180mm dropper
Fox factory fork
SQ lab bar, saddle, pedals, grips (Thanks STW Megasack! The saddle is *chefs kiss* )
Hope Tech 4 brakes
I’m 5ft 10 on an S4 and settled on long chainstay, high bb, slack headangle too. I have found the power and range to be far better than expected, I ride with friends on ‘full power’ eebs all the time and never have an issue. Mine just ducks under 19kg too.
The colour is alos absolutely awful too (matte brown).
Funny that you love the SWAT tool, I had one on my Kenevo SL and it jammed up within weeks so it was almost impossible to pop out of its mount, and no amount for fettling an lubing could get it to work properly for a sustained period of time (chatting to another Kenevo SL owner last week, he had exactly the same experience), it’s been replaced with a standard start nut and headset cap, meanwhile my OneUp pump and tool are still going strong.
Yep, the swat tool has been removed on mine too, didnt find it well designed or put together at all. Carry a lezyne multi tool with me on every ride.