Specialized have released the latest iteration of their do-it-all electric mountain bike, the Levo. The new Levo brings updated (and adjustable) frame geometry along with a new wheel size configuration of 29″ up front and 27.5″ in the rear – generally known as a “mullet bike”. A new control unit to improve the ride experience with a raft software improvements, a new digital display, over-the-air updates and more. These, along with all-round improvements are said to make for a more natural ride feel, better range and control, and improved reliability in any conditions.
More details in the press release from Specialized below.
Press Release
A forty-year obsession with creating the best riding mountain bikes possible takes a bionic leap forward with the new Levo. It sets the standard for full power ride quality with stable, natural trail manners born from an integrated full carbon chassis development approach; fusing together 150mm of rear suspension, progressive geometry, sophisticated motor assist and the advanced MasterMind Turbo Control Unit to bring you a ride like no other.
Harness this technology and amplify your experience. More speed. More distance. More freedom. More trails ridden, more pure stoke generated, more unforgettable experiences… experienced. This is where the impossible becomes possible and you are riding better, stronger, farther, and faster than ever before. The new Levo; merging unprecedented power and range with natural, confident handling for an unbelievable ride. At the end of the day, that’s what matters most. The ride. Your ride. Believe it.
Ride Quality: Stable & Natural Ride
A Ride Beyond Belief
The new Levo is the distillation, application and amplification of everything we know about mountain biking; a potent blend of chassis, suspension, geometry and motor assist that adds up to an incredible trail riding experience. It is the liveliest, most nimble, full-power eMTB ever.
Mixed Wheels, Nimble Ride
We opted for a dedicated “Mullet” design with 27.5” wheel in the back and 29” up front. It’s a challenge to design a full-power electric assist mountain bike with lively handling because the motor takes valuable real estate that usually necessitates longer chainstays. The Levo’s smaller rear wheel allows for short chainstays; delivering a much more playful and nimble ride that carves circles around other full-power eMTBs.
The Geometry Of Control
Levo’s geometry is totally revamped, with an emphasis on control and capability. The seat tube got steeper, which is great for climbing. The front end got longer, which centers you on the bike, optimizing traction and corner control. The headtube angle is more relaxed, and the fork offset is reduced to keep things stable in the rough and at speed. Additionally, the geometry is adjustable, so it can be tuned to match your style and the terrain you’re riding.
Personalized Handling
Levo has six geometry settings allowing easy adjustment to match your style and hone performance in any terrain, from mellow fire roads to technical single-track. Choose between three headtube angles from 63 to 65.5-degrees. Bottom bracket height can fine tuned up or down by 7mm, thanks to the flip-chip located on the Horst pivot. Check out the geo finder tool for more details.
Bottom bracket height adjustment
Head angle adjustment
Suspension
Levo’s 150mm rear travel/160mm (150 on S1 Size) front travel is dialed for anything; it’s supple on small bumps and devours square- edged hits without a twitch. It eats massive G-outs for breakfast, yet still offers amazing pedal response and delivers your power to the ground with total efficiency.
RxTune
Our trail obsessed team of engineers stay awake at night thinking of how to make suspension work better. For the Levo they developed specific suspension valving in consideration of the added power and speed that can be generated. They tailored every aspect of the suspension – kinematics, leverage curves, damping and spring rates – to work together in harmony, delivering a highly controlled, responsive and precise ride that handles bump forces like a bike with much more travel.
Leverage Rate
Levo’s full-analog sibling, the Stumpjumper EVO, won multiple Trail Bike Of The Year awards. We borrowed the Stumpy EVO’s progressive leverage rate, but tailored it to 2.9 Levo travel, torque and power. The result is a suspension package that delivers small bump sensitivity, mid-stroke support and compliant but controlled full travel when stomping the big hits. The tuned leverage rate is matched by our proprietary Rx Tune shock valving, allowing the suspension to do what it needs to do so you can do what you want to do: shred.
Leverage rate.
Axle path.
Axle Path
Levo’s axle path moves rearward in the first third of travel, and then vertically in the mid-travel before arcing to a forward trajectory toward bottom out. To break this down, the rearward path in the first portion of travel allows the 110 wheel to “swing” back with the bump force, decreasing hangup and thereby helping to carry speed. As the bike moves deeper into its travel, where pedaling isn’t typical, the forward axle path disconnects chain forces from pedaling forces, yielding stellar big hit performance.
Power: 4X You Power
The Power To Bend Space And Time
Levo empowers you to choose where to ride, and when you want to do it. Only got an hour? No problem, you can still bust out your favourite long loop and get back with time to spare. Want to find out what’s beyond that ridge on the horizon of your biggest ride? Go for it. Levo fuels your newfound superpower. The integrated controller responds to your pedal inputs resulting in intuitive amplification of your efforts – as much as quadrupling the power you put into the pedals – with an incredibly natural feel. It’s our most powerful system, capable of supplying up to 565 Watts power and 90Nm torque. You control the power, feeding in as much or as little as you need to flatten the steepest climbs and cover previously inconceivable distances.
Specialized Turbo Levo SWORKS Carbon
Specialized Turbo Levo Pro Carbon
The Power Of Trust
Levo’s Turbo Full Power motor delivers extremely quiet and reliable power. This is Full Power that can be trusted to take you deep into the wild and back, ride after ride.
- Custom tuned motor for optimal power and torque
- Updated belt ensures long-term reliable power delivery
- MasterMind firmware smoothly delivers power and reduces drivetrain wear
- Triple seals at the plug and new hatch boosts weather resistance
Range: Go Big 5-Hour Range
Ride Anywhere Range
Levo shatters limitations when it comes to range, supporting you for up to five hours of trail time. Now you can ride farther and explore more than ever before. Smart Control ensures that you won’t run out of juice; it enables you to input the duration or distance of your ride and then manages support level to complete it with available battery charge.
Range like this is only possible by fully integrating our highest capacity Turbo Technology battery (700 Wh) with our Mastermind Turbo Control Unit to ensure maximum efficiency.
MasterMind TCU
MasterMind Turbo Control Unit (TCU) is essentially Levo’s “brain”. It is the hardware and software that controls how the motor, battery, bike and you interact. It allows real-time support tuning while riding and displays all relevant data about your bike and ride. MasterMind TCU also enables over-the-air updates so that your bike gets better over time. Finally, MasterMind seamlessly integrates with the Mission Control app for advanced tuning, on-trail diagnostics and more.
The following is a rundown of the out-of- the-box functionality:
- Over-the-air updates ensure Levo gets better over time
- MasterMind TCU displays remaining charge as an easy to read percentage
- MicroTune feature allows on-the-fly adjustment of peak power and support levels in 10% increments, enabling easy equalization of effort to riding partners, increasing range by using only the power needed, conserving battery life and stretching out available ride time
- Personalization of display arrangement (4 choices) and 30 possible data values
- Clock
- “Live Consumption” teaches you how to pedal efficiently by displaying real time miles (or kilometers) per watt-hour
- Rider Power Value display allows you to see the power you’re putting into the bike
- Heart rate pairing capability to take your training to the next level
- Precision elevation tracking
The Dynamic Of Fit: S-Sizing
S-Sizing is based on what matters; rider size and style, not inseam. Six sizes, all with similar headtube lengths and standover, allow you to choose the size that best suits your individual style. Smaller S-Size numbers are going to be nimble, thanks to their shorter reach and front-centre measurement, while bigger S-Sizes deliver more stability and a roomier ride.
Find Your S-Size
Determining your S-Size is easy. If you rode a Medium before, then S-3 will be your equivalent size. But… if you want a more flickable ride, you’d drop down to an S2. Want a bike that’s more stable at speed? Bump up to an S4. Following are examples of three riders, all 5’8” (1.73m), who chose three different sizes.
Questions and Answers
CAN YOU CHANGE THE REAR WHEEL TO 29”?
No, the Levo is designed around the 27.5” rear wheel. That’s a good thing, because the smaller wheel is key in shortening Levo’s chainstays, which in turn delivers a much more nimble ride.
HOW MUCH SUSPENSION TRAVEL DOES LEVO HAVE?
Levo has 150mm of rear suspension travel and 160mm of front travel (150mm up front on the smallest, S1 size); just right for a wide range of off road conditions.
HOW MUCH POWER DOES LEVO HAVE?
Levo’s new Turbo Full Power motor delivers up to 565 watts of power and 90 Nm of peak torque. These are impressive power and torque values, but what’s really important is the way that all this power and torque is delivered. The integrated functionality of Levo’s Turbo Full Power Motor and the software that controls it results in an extremely smooth and natural quadrupling of your power. The ride experience feels like a natural extension of your own power, only that you are much, much stronger, and fully in control.
WHAT ARE THE UPDATES TO THE MOTOR USED IN THE NEW LEVO?
The Levo Turbo Full Power System 2.2 motor has a more robust belt for long-term reliable power delivery, revised firmware that eliminates power “spikes” to decrease drivetrain wear. This 2.2 motor is being used on all new Levos.
WHAT MAKES THE ELECTRONICS OF THE MOTOR WATER RESISTANT?
A new door or “hatch” hatch boosts weather resistance. In addition, the plug on the Range Extender batter has double seals at the to keep moisture out for added reliability in wet conditions.
WHAT IS THE WATT HOUR (WH) CAPACITY OF LEVO’S BATTERY?
All carbon Levo models have the category leading Turbo 700 Wh capacity battery for all day riding.
HOW DOES MASTERMIND MEASURE ELEVATION?
Altitude and elevation gain is measured through a built-in pressure sensor; air pressure changes require calibration before riding via remote/display for accurate data.
DO YOU HAVE AN APP I CAN USE TO GET MORE OUT OF THE LEVO?
Yes, all Specialized Turbo e-bikes connect to your phone via our Mission Control App. Using Mission Control empowers you to get the most out of your bike. Mission Control gives you the ability to customize motor characteristics, control range, tune modes, monitor your heart rate, run system diagnosis, assist with on-trail rider care support, record rides and see real-time ride data, and more. Pretty mind blowing right?
WHAT IS THE RANGE OF LEVO?
There are many factors that affect how far, how long, and how much climbing a full charge will take you: terrain, rider weight, power assist level, even pedaling cadence all impact range. The following table states the most common range spectrums for elevation gain (M), distance (KM) and ride time (H) for each default mode.
MY BATTERY IS DEAD! HOW LONG WILL IT TAKE TO CHARGE?
You can fully charge the 700Wh battery in 5 hours and 15 minutes, and the 500Wh battery in 3 hours and 50 minutes.
WHAT IS THE WARRANTY AND LIFE EXPECTANCY OF A TURBO E-BIKE?
If looked after correctly and regularly serviced, you and your bike will enjoy a very long and happy relationship, and will no doubt be the talk of the town. Specialized frames come with a lifetime warranty. All MY22 Levo Turbo e-Bike batteries and motors come with a 2yr/15,000km warranty, and an assisted purchasing program post-warranty period. Faults due to manufacture and material defects are covered during this period and handled by your local Specialized Retailer.
HOW MANY TIMES CAN I CHARGE MY LEVO’S BATTERY?
The lithium ion batteries used on the Levo can be charged more than 1,000 times with little to no degradation.
CAN YOU GIVE ME AN OVERVIEW OF COMPONENT COMPATIBILITY AND STANDARD DIMENSIONS FOR MY LEVO?
That is specialized marketing.
We are super excited to present to you the bike we always wanted to build. We started with a blank slate and didn't rest until we found perfection.
3 years later
That rubbish we sold you last year, forget about it, you'll be lucky to make it safely round the local park run course the geometry is so outdated.