Did the Specialized Turbo Levo SL Change Our Minds About E-MTBs?

E-help mountain bikes have been and carry on to be a polarizing, contentious difficulty. We know. Even among our smaller crew at Bicycle, they are endlessly so. It’s aspect of why we just have not prepared much about them. We just simply cannot appear to be to agree on if, how or when to deal with e-bikes due to the multitude of challenges encompassing them. But, what we could all agree on, for the 1st time since these ‘cheater’ bikes commenced popping up, is that the Specialized Turbo Levo SL is an e-bicycle we ought to deal with. Or at minimum, would be keen to. It’s a bicycle that just may well have the prospective of shifting peoples’ minds, shifting the way they ride, where by, and who with. And allow us not forget, alter can be a very good thing.

But right before we go any additional, let us just go ahead and deal with the other elephant in the room. We’re not going to get absent with examining potentially the most costly bicycle we at any time have with out at minimum mentioning the price tag, regardless of it possessing a motor. It’s large. Better than a bunch of canceled-class Colorado college young children on COVID quarantine.

Is there adequate technologies in this thing to justify it costing $thirteen,five hundred? Possibly not. Inspite of what e-bicycle haters appreciate to assert, this is not a bike. The proprietary SL one.one motor in the Levo SL, the software package that controls it, as perfectly as the fantastic Mission Control mobile phone app no doubt took deep pockets to produce. But it isn’t a KTM five hundred EXC-F 6 Days, arguably a person of the most advanced filth bikes at any time made, priced at $12,four hundred. For the math-challenged among us, that is drastically fewer than this bicycle. Certainly, the S-Performs Levo SL is nonetheless just a bicycle. Or is it? As of the publish date of this evaluate, this is the lightest entire-suspension e-MTB on the industry.

And of training course, the S-Performs construct isn’t the only selection. The following move down from is the Specialist Carbon for the relative cut price price tag of $9,025. Does the S-Performs bicycle have $4,five hundred extra betterness? I’ll response that question with an additional a person: When has any S-Performs stage bicycle been justifiably worth the extra bread? Functionally, there’s truly no variation involving it and the Specialist, except bragging legal rights can make you more quickly (they can). Past that, there’s a Comp Carbon model for $seven,525 and a Comp aluminum-framed version for a grand fewer than that. Sixty-5 hundred bucks is nonetheless a hefty entry-stage value, but as I said earlier, this bicycle is spectacular. There’s no way to ride it with out obtaining a sh*t-consuming grin on your deal with. Try it, I dare you.

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This short article originally appeared on Bikemag.com and was republished with authorization.

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