NED: New eBike Day – short travel, full power, modular battery options. The new Levo R unveiled.
We hope to be getting one in soon so we can Rally in the Valley…
Levo R quick overview
- Full-power Turbo 3.1 system (up to 850 W / 111 Nm)
- 140/130mm chassis with “Rally-tuned” geometry
- Fox Float GENIE shock
- Fox 36 SL fork
- Adjustable geometry
- Dedicated 29-inch wheels and a “tailored, lightweight spec”
- Claimed build weights from 18.6 kg
- Modular battery options (840Wh, 600Wh & 280Wh range extender)
- LEVO R COMP £6,799
- LEVO R EXPERT £8,499
- LEVO R S-WORKS £12,499
Specialized: “Levo R isn’t just another version of Levo. It’s a new category that will bring new riders into the sport that built on the same SuperNatural power platform, engineered for a different kind of rider and a different way of riding.
“Where Levo 4 is our full-power Electric Trail benchmark, Levo R creates a new category – Electric Rally – for riders who favor a downcountry-style ride. It’s lighter, sharper, and more instinctive, without giving up the muscle and range riders expect from Levo.”
“For riders who love speed, flow, and efficiency—or who don’t ride aggressive terrain but still want full-power support—this is the best full-power e-MTB they’ve ever ridden […] Riders coming from XC, Trail, or analog bikes. Riders who want full power without big-bike feel. Riders who prioritize agility, precision, and distance over rowdy terrain.”
20 miles on the. Quantocks today on this 👌not sure if I was " rallying" though 🤔🙄
It is one serious marketing pill they’re trying to get you to swallow, that is for sure…
Don’t get me wrong, they’ll sell a few… It says “Specialized" on the downtube after all… But it’s a very weird way of coming at an eBike right now, in a maturing market, where everyone is settling on the 150-170mm travel E-Enduro type bike with full fat motor and 800ish Wh battery (which Spesh’s Levo already occupies that market and sells well), or they’re going for the “mid power" setups with sub 20kg real world weights (builds people can afford, even if only just!) with motors the likes of Bosch SX and TQ HPR60 and 400-500Wh batteries along with 130-150mm of suspension… The longer travel, full fat market is overwhelmingly the larger section of the market, probably 90% of eMTB’s sold I’d say, with the lower power, lighter market barely counting for 10% I believe…
Of course, you then get bikes like the AmFlow PL Carbon that confuse the market, coming in around 21kg with full power motor, 800Wh battery and 150-160mm of travel… But all the criticisms of that stem from it not being beefy enough, that a kilo or so extra weight in the frame and beefier components along with a bit more travel, would be the ideal recipe, rather than for it to be shorter travel and with even lighter components…
It just seems a VERY odd move… Especially when Spesh’s main rival, Trek, already have the Trek Powerfly, which is a very similar “full fat, short travel" bike (Spesh seem to have ignored this of course!) and it really doesn’t sell well at all… Anyway…
Expect to see them at 50% discount in your local Spesh concept store in 18 months time, much like Levo SL’s and Kenevo SL’s were during COVID…
But “Electric Rally"… Seriously… There’s a marketing man out there that needs a hit round the back of the head, with a shovel, and this is coming from someone who’s spent more than 2 decades working in the industry themselves!
It’s being slaughtered in the Pinkbike comments! Not an e-biker and unlikely to be for some time yet, but I don’t really get it. Despite the terrible marketing slogans, Spesh do typically know what they are doing and it will probably sell well, but I can’t see why you’d buy it over the competition or even their normal Levo. I’d personally rather they updated the Enduro / Kenevo – ideally at the same time with a similar long travel design.
Full torque motor paired with a choice of batteries and shorter travel absolutely is an (existing and already well served) category that people want. Just like (normal) bikes there is plenty of riding, and plenty of riders, who don’t need/want big travel. Many of those rides/riders will still benefit from full torque for steep proper off road crunch climbing moves. The popularity of both the low power and big travel options doesn’t mean there isn’t a place for plenty of bikes inbetween.
Also, remember this isn’t necessarily aimed at the UK market, which itself seems increasingly polarised into “XC” or “winch and plummet”, at least amongst people who most like to talk about bikes on the internet. Some of that is down to the UK’s geographical divide.
This bike looks like a great option. But having to pay extra for the smaller/lighter battery rather than being able to spec a bike with it fitted, and the headline weight in the marketing spin missing the real world bike weights by so much, seem like odd decisions.
Yes there are. On certain terrain they’re dull, sluggish, too easy and boring. Though I guess we’re talking about eebs here and perhaps those are a given anyway…
What’s “down country"?
Fully prepared to be proven wrong, but I don’t really see it much myself, at least not in UK shops… Mostly I see people given the choice, but still go for the biggest capacity batteries they can get and mostly on long(er) travel bikes. Too much choice can cause severe choice anxiety, and certainly peer pressure often has a significant influence on people’s buying decisions too… There is always some level of disconnect with what the manufacturers are pushing and what the end users are actually buying too, that always means some bikes are in high demand and sell at or near full RRP (even if only for a short time), whilst other bikes spend much longer on the shop floor and end up only actually selling when heavily discounted.
It’s worth noting that manufacturers often make the mistake of only measuring the sales from themselves to the shops, not from the shops to the end user… It’s something I would argue causes a lot of disconnect between market hype and market reality, and often has very little to do with buying the right type of bike for the use it will get…
On a purely personal level, I would always rather be slightly underbiked than overbiked, I prefer a lighter more responsive bike than one that feels more glued to the trails in general… But the motor and battery system come into that consideration for me too, forming part of the overall package, to me everything is intrinsically linked… In much the way a Mazda MX5 has a 2L engine, and it feels like an incredibly well balanced package, a Porsche 911 GT3 with its 4L engine feels like one too, but they are roughly 600kg apart and the Porsche engine in the MX5 would feel overkill and though it would be very quick it would prove a handful to all but the most skilful of drivers, and the 911 would feel really dull and uninteresting with the 2L MX5 engine in… I’m a big fan of the Bosch SX motor myself, I find the high cadence pedalling style that it warrants more involving and subjectively more fun to ride than a higher torque, lower cadence, motor system… But I accept that whilst it feels great on a sub 20kg 140mm travel full 29er trail bike, it wouldn’t feel as appropriate on a 160mm travel 25kg Enduro bike.
Fair point… Specialized are designing for a global market, and we do have quite a unique dichotomy of what actually constitutes a Mountain Bike to the end users these days in the UK…
If you watch Dario’s video on PB he does comment that it doesn’t make a lot of sense on paper, but does when you ride it.
Well, that’s rare for an eBike! I must rush out and buy one immediately!
How many different ebikes have you tested to come to the conclusion that fun is rare with them?
Whoosh!
As others have commented above, it seems a bit odd to not spec or offer the bike with a 600Wh battery from new – especially when they bang on about the weight! Personally, I get the feeling it’s a rushed response to the Amflow and forthcoming Avinox equipped eebs.
If I was spending ~£10k on a ebike, I’d want it to be as versatile as possible and therefore 160/150 ish travel. If you’re lucky and wealthy enough to have more than one ebike then maybe this bike makes sense.
This bike is heavier, less power, smaller battery, less travel and more expensive than the Amflow, so feels like an own goal to me. I know a bike rides differently to the vital statistics, but those are some pretty significant differences.