I picked a hell of a winter to start a bike website. Weather around Boulder, Colorado has been dicey at best, with weekly snowstorms shutting down even the south-facing trails we rely on for mid-winter shredding. When a Specialized Turbo Levo SL came my way, I knew I had to drop everything and get in some laps, nevermind the impending storm.
After spending a weekend with this lightweight e-MTB — the Comp trim, mind you — I was thoroughly impressed.
The Specialized SL 1.1 motor has ample power for a variety of scenarios plus good battery life. Yep, just good, not great. The bike stuff, such as geometry, parts spec, and fit were all spot-on. I’d expect nothing less from Specialized.
So let’s get into it …
The Rides: Catch While Catch Can
I won’t bore you with more bitching about the weather. I’ll just say that trail options were fairly limited in early March. Nonetheless, I found as much gnar as possible to give the Turbo Levo SL a proper test.
Ride 1: My backyard
I rode from home out to an old, blown-out Forest Service road that is one canyon north of me. This meant a bit of commuting on dirt roads, a very zesty snow-covered trail on the north aspect, and a chundery, blown-out trail that goes straight up for a couple miles. I just did an out-and-back.
Ride 2: The Infamous Lefthand OHV
Front Rangers know that Lefthand is the place for some of the most progressive enduro and downhill riding around. It’s a free-for-all of crazy, sketchy trails, and I love it. My buddy Pete and I did a ton of laps because this was the nicest day of the weekend. Some jump-and-berm trails, and a couple old-school tracks that are all chunky rocks and steep shralping.
Ride 3: Unscientific Battery Testing
Basically, I lapped the same trail at Lefthand four times to see how the different battery modes performed. Repetitive? A bit, but it’s actually kind of rad to dial in lines on the same trail with a few reps. Here’s that story, if you want to go deep.
Specialized Turbo Levo SL Motor Review
Before I get into the details (and the nitpicking), I have to say that Specialized did an amazing job with this motor. It is beautifully integrated into the frame. The power delivery is smooth and enough for nearly any climb or situation. It carries its weight well. I can’t say enough about the SL 1.1.
Other than my testing day, I toggled between power modes quite often. I’d always go back to Turbo mode for most climbing, because, first of all, it just felt great to have full power support and peak power. Also, I found that the motor drag was least noticeable in that mode, which could just be a perception thing, given that it’s throwing the full 35nm of torque and 240-watt maximum power.
That 35nm doesn’t sound like a lot, given that many full-power e-bike motors have twice that on offer. However, perhaps given the lighter chassis, it can hit pretty hard. So much so that, I preferred to tune down the motor to Trail or even Eco mode on downhills to avoid “whiskey throttle.” Even on the climbs, the motor felt a bit over-eager on pinchy switchbacks, if I didn’t take care to drive the front wheel through the turn.
the Levo SL feels very mountain bike-y when you get to the fun bits. In fact, I actually liked how the Levo SL carried its extra weight. The slightly heavier bike felt tremendously stable and planted as I careened into the berms.
Partly, I attribute this sensation to motor lag. While it is slight, after a little saddle time, it’s easy to perceive that the motor engages just after you initiate a pedal stroke, and similarly, it takes a second to switch off when to start coasting. I adapted my riding style to this quirk, but it does detract from the Levo SL’s otherwise natural feel.
On that second ride, Pete and I rode for about two hours, and we were quite liberal with the Turbo mode on climbs. I essentially drained the battery on that ride, and in doing so, ran up against a battery-conservation mode. On the final lap, my bike started feeling very sluggish and slow. It was just trying to make it back to the car with a little juice left! This is the point where I really sensed the motor drag that’s inherent in the system.
If I had a bit more time with the Levo SL. I would have played around with the Mission Control app, which has a “smart mode” setting. Basically, you can tell the bike how long you’re riding, and it will meter the battery appropriately. That said, you could also opt for the battery booster, which neatly fits into the bottle cage.
I did experiment a little with the tunes for the three motor modes using the Specialized app. I bumped up Trail mode by 10% for both Support and Peak Power, I didn’t perceive a huge difference, but I’d love to tune it some more.
Finally, while e-bikes continue to get quieter, the Specialized motor still has the characteristic e-bike whir. Not a big deal to me, but it isn’t a class-leader in this category.
How the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Rides
As I’ve alluded to, the Levo SL feels very mountain bike-y when you get to the fun bits. It carries about 10 pounds more than a comparable enduro bike, sans-motor. So, it’s perhaps not the easiest thing to whip around, but it is manageable. Plus, there’s an easy-to-reach walk mode on the handlebar controls if you find yourself pushing up a steep climb.
In fact, I actually liked how the Levo SL carried its extra weight. Some of the trails at Lefthand have terrible braking bumps, and the slightly heavier bike felt tremendously stable and planted as I careened into the berms. This is high praise for a bike that is merely relying on Performance-trim Fox suspension in the form of a 36 fork and a Float DPS shock. Wow, I’d like to see how this bike feels with Factory suspension or RockShox Ultimate boingers!
The stable, balanced geometry also played a part in the Levo SL’s well-mannered descending. Long-ish reach, slack-ish angles … It’s nothing extreme by today’s standards, but I think that’s why it works so well.
Cap it all off with some basic alloy wheels and an affordable SRAM Eagle drivetrain, and you’ve got yourself a stew. This bike is not flashy, but it performs excellently for the price.
The Weekend Recap
So I slogged through some snow, and my little fingies got cold one day, and it was sloppy and muddy on that one trail. Yeah, but it was a really great weekend of riding. I wouldn’t take much convincing to get a Levo SL of my own. If I did, here’s my to-do list:
1. Get the SL Range Extender battery for less range anxiety on longer rides (and more time in Turbo mode).
2. Mess with the motor tunes in the Mission Control app to find a setup that combines plenty of power with a little less torque for mellower pedaling trails.
3. Go a little bigger on tires — the stock Specialized rubber is okay, but I was at its limit on a few trails.
4. Upgrade to SRAM AXS. You can get it pretty cheap these days in GX trim. Compared to a conventional bike, I shift way more frequently on an e-MTB, so having electronic shifting would be a big improvement.
Other than that, the Turbo Levo SL is good to go out of the box, honestly. While I do have expensive taste, the Comp trim didn’t hold me back that much. The bike’s fundamentals — frame geometry, motor, integration, and fit — are all dialed.
P.S. We use affiliate links here at Direct Current. If you’re considering buying a Specialized e-bike, we’ll get a little kickback if you purchase using a link from this story. 😀