Up next in 10
Ever since I tried my first eMTB over 6 years ago I’ve been waiting in anticipation of the time when I’d be able to lift one over my head. It’s been a long wait but now the Specialized Turbo Levo SL is here, that wait is now over.
I’m not kidding either – this is the first full suspension eMTB that I’ve been happy to mount in the Thule rack on the roof of my car. The Focus Jam2 has come pretty close in the past with it’s smaller battery capacity but even that’s too much for my sad cyclist arms to deal with.
Now, you will have read Hannah’s news piece on this bike and if you haven’t then you should as all the details and numbers are there, including prices. But I was the lucky one who was allocated an actual rideable version of this bike to test. It turned up on Friday at the office and I got my first taste of it on the trails at the weekend.
What we have here is a video of my very first ride on the Specialized Levo SL Carbon Comp. Rather than ride and then tell you about it I thought I’d take you along with me as I throw my leg over it for the very first time.
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[Music]
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hi guys this is Mark from singletrack
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magazine you join me on a blustery
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Sunday February morning I'm here with
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this bike behind me you can just about
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see it this is the brand new specialized
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turbo levo SL I've never ridden this
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bike before this is my very first ride I
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thought I'd bring you guys along too
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[Music]
0:30
[Applause]
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[Music]
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before a reckless thing is enough let
0:51
some air at least toast is typical of
0:56
test bikes it gets delivered to us as
0:57
they have all the air on the planet
1:00
pumped into their tires this is gonna be
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something right hot that's close to 40
1:04
psi
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it's tubeless on this on this bike so I
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can let it out past looking a little bit
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healthy
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[Music]
1:37
[Music]
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picked up today
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[Music]
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so what have you got here what is the
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turbo leave o SL well SL in this case
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stands for superlight
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what's special I've done is taken the
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leave o chassis and stuck a less
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powerful motor in there why would you
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want to do that what you get from a big
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powerful motor but you have on the
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standard believe o is you get a huge
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amount of weight we've got here with the
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turbo leaver SL this particular model
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which is the comp carbon comes in
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I'm absolutely staggering thirty nine
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and a half pounds which for all you
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acoustic bike riders out there still
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probably sounds ridiculously heavy but
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in the world of e-bikes that's
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positively lighter than air what's that
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for why have they made it so light well
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it clearly it's to try and have an
2:54
e-bike that feels like an ordinary bike
2:56
so however specialized managed to
3:00
perform this magic there are no special
3:05
ways other than making the battery
3:07
smaller making the motifs more and
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that's what we've got here this model
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has a motor on it it has the turbo
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leaver SLE 1.1 motor
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one of the differences between this and
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the standard turbo levo motor system
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well this battery is just 321 hours of
3:35
capacity and the motor is a 240 watt
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motor that can deliver a peak output of
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250 watts now you need to compare that
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with the standard levo motor which has a
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peak power output of over 500 watts but
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of course that does leave us with a bike
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that has less battery capacity and less
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power what about the power the standard
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lever can provide 400 percent more power
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than the rider puts in in turbo mode so
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that's the maximum power output that
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means if you put in 100 watts of energy
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through your legs the motors going to
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add another 400 watts of power to that
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in boost mode on the standard Tova lever
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but on this SL version that maximum
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power assist is half that it's 200
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percent another way they've saved weight
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is the motor on this is wrapped in a
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magnesium casing which further trims
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down the weight
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and of course this is the carbon version
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self carbon obviously health sauce that
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and there's the lighter componentry on
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this bike than there is on believer
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special I say that this bike is intended
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as a long all-day trail bike this bike
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isn't about uplift this bike is about
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going further and going faster and it's
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about the handling I mean it's not a
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cross-country bike there's 150
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millimeters of travel from the Fox 34
5:38
rhythm fork for the Fox RP to shock at
5:45
the back again giving a total of 150
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millimeters of travel it's a 29 this is
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the comp carbon how much does this one
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cost alright well this one this comp
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carbon that I'm riding now it's about
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midway in the range and this cost five
6:01
thousand nine hundred and ninety nine
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pounds there is an aluminium version
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that probably adds on an extra maybe
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half a pound or so and then you go up to
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the the s-works version and which
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understandably it's going to be much
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more expensive but that is not the
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top-of-the-line version the S works with
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specialized s works usually signifies
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the best that you can get but in this
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bike especially I've decided to go one
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further and they have produced a limited
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edition founders version the founders
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version is s-works plus it's limited
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there's all the 250 of them being made
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and get this for a price I don't have
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the UK price but I do have the u.s.
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price
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the founders version is 16 and a half
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thousand dollars let me just run you
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through some other features of this bike
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because the motor isn't everything well
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this is the medium this is a reach of
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five hundred and twenty five millimeters
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as a change state lengths down there at
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the back which is four hundred and
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thirty seven which is pretty short for a
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UH e bike because you see normally that
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motor down there that's the sort of a
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limiting factor when it comes to
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chainstay lengths now they managed to do
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that obviously because the motor down
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there is a lot smaller than the full fat
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lever motor what else we got angles yes
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angles right we have 66 degrees at the
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head angle and we have 75 and the c2
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endure I guess my first opinion so far
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having done three laps and I'll remind
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you again this is the first time I've
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actually ridden this bike it does feel
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very agile at sluggishness that you get
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with a full fight a bike is noticeably
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absent
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now I'll specialized being revolutionary
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here are they the first to do this not
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really because ebike fans out there will
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probably join some parallels with a
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couple more bikes they're out there on
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the market at the moment the concept of
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this does sound familiar to anybody
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who's written a fazool system the
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facility is actually less powerful than
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this and actually specialized flame will
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go walker on this bike but excuse me
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thank you this is a dedicated bike path
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I'll just point that out yeah the fazool
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system comparisons are obviously going
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to be made with the physio system Mizzou
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a 250 watt battery 250 watt hour battery
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let's get these things correct
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specialized plano motor is actually
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lighter than the pazoozas them but let's
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not forget with the fazool system you
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can actually remove not just the battery
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you can actually remove the motor from
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the bike on this bike the battery is
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integrated into the down tube and you
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cannot take it out charging has to be
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done with the battery in situ and the
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motor similarly like most e-bikes you
9:33
can't remove it
9:35
so I guess making comparisons with the
9:38
positions a little unfair in that regard
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because they are kind of suited for
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different purposes okay we're moving
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away from my short test loop in the
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forest there we're gonna go out a bit
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further and explore this is a much more
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technical bit of trail rocky few jumps
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steep chutes and drops and we'll see how
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well this blight performs
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I've got everything open let's give it a
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go what you might be able to pick up
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from this audio is in fact that I'm kind
10:14
of out of breath now there's two
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possibilities here one could be my
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fitness the other could be that the
10:21
ebike is not the only power source here
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that I am actually putting some effort
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in and I am of course gonna go with the
10:32
latter excuse this bike is noticeably in
10:41
need of your input that motor is very
10:47
much an assist rather than a cheat
11:00
yeah
11:09
ah Oh a little bit of off piece there
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but humbling I think I've still got a
11:19
little bit too much pressure in these
11:23
tires oh it's so muddy
11:30
oh when you put this thing in the air
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big shoot it really does have that
11:40
feeling of a most lighter bike you
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forget totally forgot that this was an
11:47
e-bike coming down there oh sorry for
11:53
the mud splatters it's a very muddy day
11:56
oh we're just closing in on me now what
12:03
I've done don't know four laps this
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trail
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been out across the technical trail at
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the top
12:19
now its power we go in this thing they
12:21
spelled you made a dent and I could see
12:23
if I lean forward you can see the power
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dialer now the one thing I haven't told
12:29
you about is the fact that there is an
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accessory option with this bike you can
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actually get an add-on battery pack in a
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similar way that you can with the focus
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system that battery pack just sits in
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the bottom cage that you can see down
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there and it adds another 160 watt hours
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of battery capacity to the system giving
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you a potential total of 480 watt hours
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which is very close to the standard
13:06
battery capacity of 500 525 while so you
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can get in the full fat leave oh how
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much does this extra cost it costs 300
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pounds and I would say that's an
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absolute bargain and if you're going to
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buy one of these you should definitely
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opt for that extra capacity battery and
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it weighs pretty much not much more than
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what a full water bottle weighs and of
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course with a high-tech bite like this
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you do have an app to fine-tune it and
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actually running this bike it's got
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three modes you've got eco trial and
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boost pretty standard and the
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specialized Mission Control app allows
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you to tinker with the amount of power
14:02
maximum power and capacity that the
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system puts into each of those modes so
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do I have any early opinions after this
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first ride well
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I was a big fan of the focus gems word
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system that decided to use a smaller
14:26
battery to try and maintain better
14:31
handling so this bike is very exciting
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for me
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seep my experience of full-fat ebikes is
14:45
that it's so tempting to knock it into
14:49
boost but the trouble with a 400% boost
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of power is that that becomes difficult
15:00
to control and just simply taking that
15:08
power down actually increases your
15:11
control and if that's in the lightest
15:14
chassis and a bike that feels like an an
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ordinary bike and surely that's better
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this isn't a bike designed for people
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who are old or infirm or who are lazy or
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unfit this is a bike for ordinary
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mountain bikers who just want to do more
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and it feels so normal
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so I wrap this up now that ladies and
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gentlemen is the brand-new specialized
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sir believer SLE carbon comp more
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details as ever on our website all the
16:16
weights hold prices all the angles we're
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going to keep hold of this bike for a
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lot
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hopefully hot longer and just see how
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how it performs once I've got everything
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tuned and I just it so that's all from
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me guys if you've got any comments any
16:39
questions sit them down below and I will
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be around to answer them for you as best
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as I can
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thanks guys
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[Music]
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