[Closed] Specialized Turbo Levo - Long term reliability ?

Bike shop serviced 4 times a year, on just regular maintenance? Rubbish. They really don’t cost any more, per mile ridden, than a regular bike to run, save for the charging.

Well if you’re not blasting it round at top speed in turbo mode then what’s the point

Your car produces peak power just before the red line. What would happen to it if you spent most of your time driving it so high up in the Rev range?

It’s designed as an assist, so you can go further, more often. Not always at 10/10.

So what power mode should you use then when climbing massive hills ?

For example: A 1000 ft climb with an average gradient of 8%.

Turbo mode on that sort of thing is FUN.

Trail mode - Better than a regular Bike but not really enough to make such a climb that fun.

Eco mode - Just slightly quicker than a regular bike, would never buy an EBike if I had to run it in Eco mode up that sort of climb.

Turbo mode ALL DAY grannyjone.

Leather it round the trails like a Boss - lads mincing round in eco mode or on a clockwork bike (lol) are just stuck in the past. That's probably the reason their motors keep breaking - you wouldn't drive a car around at 10 mph all the time, would you? Bad for the engine.

The clue is in the name - Turbo Levo

I tend to alternate between eco and trail, and still bump into the speed limiter in trail. I’m not saying don’t use turbo, just don’t use it all the time. Have a little mechanical sympathy, and use your legs as well.

I’d be surprised if the Levo hasn’t been designed to be run on full turbo, max output, for a whole battery. It’s not exactly a lot of power, they’re only allowed to average 250W.

Apparently the Levo can empty the 500Whr battery in an hour on full power. That’s quite interesting because on my road commute I can do a whole week of turbo before it needs a charge, which equates to two hours of riding. So although I’m on turbo mode 100% of the time and usually pedalling hard when I’m pedalling, half the riding time I must be pedalling faster than the cut-off or coasting downhill.

I’ll take it the long way via the woods tomorrow and try to remember to use that app thing to get some more numbers about turbo mode for singletrack.

On road sitting on the speed limiter it doesn’t matter what mode it’s in, it will use the same amount of power regardless of mode.
Off road, or hilly terrain, the mode will make more of a difference.
If you do a lot of stop start riding, the mode will make a significant difference.
Sitting at 15mph on road doesn’t take much power.
I did a ride from work to home, turbo all the way, i flattened the first (400wh) battery in 14 (really hilly) miles. The remaining 17.5miles (which are virtually flat) i used less than half a battery.
I have also done the same route in eco mode, using only 60% of one battery, but i did walk up 1 mile of extremely steep hill.
Hills/acceleration are bad for battery life, flat riding considerably less so.

Edited to add: im really heavy, which also shortens battery life.

Apparently the Levo can empty the 500Whr battery in an hour on full power.

Surely it would need to average 500w output to do that?

Perhaps ... with an indy rebuild at £250 then secondhand actually might be an ok idea..?

Not looked but they must essentially be worthless out of warranty.

Assume many are sold on 0% credit; so is it 24 warrantied months @ £200pm, then throw it away and sign again?

“Surely it would need to average 500w output to do that?“

And to think I have an engineering degree!?!

Doesn’t add up does it? Unless the battery and motor efficiency drops massively under constant heavy load?

From my demo tests I would always empty a 500 Wh battery in 2 hours, and a 700 Wh battery in 3 hours.

That 700 Wh is a game changer.

22 miles and 3000 ft of climbing was the norm on the 500 Wh Kenevo before it went into the red.
35 miles and 4700 ft was the norm on the 700 Wh Levo which is actually a decent ride, more than I can usually be bothered doing on a normal MTB.
What is really good is I can do all that and still have a relaxing ride, then not go to work afterwards feeling really sore and hungry.